citizens, there she is; look at her never disgraced but twice in the history of the world; once by Judas Iscariot, the other time by the Republican party." (Laughter.)

That speech would have to be amended now, and it would have to be said that silver had been disgraced three times first by Judas Iscariot, next by the Republican party, and last by Josiah Patterson. (Laughter.) Now, understand that I am not asking to have this case decided on the financial issue. I did not get up to make a silver speech. I do not think this case ought to go off on the issue between gold and silver, for if it did it could be decided either way as to the contestant, for he has been on every side.

He is largely responsible for the strong silver and anti-Republican sentiment in Tennessee, for they are Christian people in Tennessee, and they have strong prejudices against Judas Iscariot; and since Colonel Patterson mixed the Republican party up with Judas Iscariot in the disgrace of silver, it has created some prejudice among those Christian people against the Republican party, and you can see why these good people, thus taught, should be shy of voting the Republican ticket. Understand, I am not putting you in company with Judas; only telling where your new-found friend put you. (Laughter.)

Mr. Speaker, before I went into politics, I gave some attention to law. I was pretty well up on the law of estoppel. The gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Linney), who, I am sorry to see, is not in his seat to-day, said here, some time ago, that Lord Coke said that an estoppel against an estoppel puts the matter at large. (Great laughter and applause.) But I propose to put a number of estoppels against the gentleman to whom we have just listened, Colonel Patterson, and to put him at large.

I propose to show that, if the law of estoppel is applied to him, he has no right to a seat on this floor. His contention is that some negroes who wanted to vote for him were defrauded of their right to do so, and that others who did vote for him had their votes counted for the contestee. While we deny these charges, I propose to show that, if they were true, it does not lie in the mouth of contestant to object, and that he is estopped from doing so.

I will show that, of all the men in the United States, he is the last man who has the right to claim an election to any position by negro votes; that he has always contended that the negro was unfit to vote, had no right to vote; that, though such right might be conferred on him by law, it ought not to be counted; that he has been the Napoleon of the doctrine of white supremacy; or, in other words, that he is to this question what Bob Fitzsimmons is to the prize ring, and that he is to the negro as a voter what General Weyler was to a Cuban

reconcentrado; that he has preached the right of the white man to dominate the negro in politics, in season and out of season, and has been the greatest living apostle of the doctrine that there was a law higher than the Constitution, when the Constitution sought to make the negro the political equal of the white man. When first elected to Congress, he was elected as the great champion of the free and unlimited coinage of silver, and the great bellwether of the doctrine that the white man must dominate the ballot-box. I remember very well his first great effort on the floor. It was in the Fifty-second Congress, and, as I remember, the House was in Committee of the Whole on some appropriation bill. The contestant in this case got the floor and delivered one of his great orations. I think I am the only man that listened to him. (Laughter.)

I wish you could have heard him that day. He stood right over there; he seemed to think that speech would revolutionize public sentiment throughout the North on the question of the negro in politics. He met the question boldly, and there was about him a sort of air that said his Southern Democratic colleagues had not fully understood the question, and were too timid in its presentation. I have the speech here. Let me see if I can pick out some of the mild compliments he paid the negro as a political factor:

"The negro himself realizes his impotency and unfitness for government." After speaking of the political revolution throughout the South, which put the negro politically in the background, he said:

"And, without question, he peacefully recognized his white neighbor as the proper governing agency. The movement throughout the South resulted in a better feeling between the races, and kindly relations were restored."

*

*

"Midnight meetings, accompanied with fife and drum, were things of the past. The negro could no longer lean on the Freedman's Bureau, draw rations, and spend his days in idleness. He began to learn the lesson of self-reliance, and to realize that he was confronted with the responsibilities which freedom and independence of action bring to all men. The result was that he at once became a more peaceful, industrious, and useful citizen."

Again he says:

"The attitude of the Republican party to the races in the South is heartless and exasperating to the last degree. No other motive seems to actuate it except the lust of power and the greed of men who have been fattened and enriched by the means of prostitution of the powers of government for their benefit."

That is you, gentlemen of the Republican party, he is talking about. (Laughter.) Hear him again:

"All over the South the negro's thriftlessness, ignorance, and indisposition or inaptitude to take care of his own affairs is heard. In such cases, the white man will assert his superior intelligence, courage, and manhood at every hazard, and hold the reins of government. I protest against the further governmental interference or tinkering with it. I protest against the efforts of the Republican party to make it subservient to political and partisan ends."

You see, after denouncing the negro and complimenting the white man, he boldly asserted on this floor that the white man would assert his superior intelligence and courage and manhood, and hold the reins of government at every hazard. When the bill to repeal the Federal Election Law came up in this House on September 30, 1893, you should have heard him thunder then. He spoke with a " mighty power and a great ambition." I will now give you a few extracts from that speech:

"As soon expect Irishmen to forget the 'curse of Cromwell' as for my people to forget 'carpet-bag' governments in the South. I say, and we might as well talk plainly about this thing, the history of that period absolutely demonstrates that the negro race, at this stage of its development, is incapable of selfgovernment, and that universal negro suffrage is impracticable.”

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*

There is much more of this sort of talk in the Record, but I will not take the time to read it. These were his conservative utterances on the floor, but were nothing to compare with his bold declarations in the cloakroom. (Laughter.)

The law, Mr. Speaker, recognizes two kinds of estoppels, estoppel by the Record and estoppel in pais. Now, I have given some of the Record estoppels. These extracts I have just read are from the Record. Here you see Record marked on the book. (Great laughter.)

Now, let us see about the estoppel in pais. In Fayette county, in which most of these frauds are alleged to have taken place, at a Confederate reunion, September 11, 1889, the contestant made a speech, in which he said:

"The fact is, he (the negro) prefers to live with the people of the South than with any other; would rather work for them and would sooner look to them than anyone else for favors and kindness. Invariably, he is manipulated in his political movements by white men who have generally forfeited the respect of their neighbors, and who care nothing for the negro but to advance their own interests or ambition.

"This necessarily brings attrition, and the danger line is sometimes reached. The truth is, that everywhere throughout the South the white man asserts his 'intelligence and capacity for self-government, and the negro never questions his

right to the ascendancy, if let alone. Go into any county in the South, no matter how large the negro majority, and unless you find about the county seat a coterie of white men who lead, direct, or inspire the negro to actively participate in politics, they are altogether indifferent, and leave it to the white people to manage the affairs of the Government. Even the educated negro will remain quiet unless he is backed up by the leadership of white men." **

*

"When asked by what legal or constitutional right the white man asserts his supremacy, we answer, 'There is a higher law,' and appeal to that unwritten law of civilization which is recorded in Heaven and registered in the heart of every brave man, and which has been observed in all ages, in every land, and on every sea, and it is that intelligence, virtue, and manhood should rule the world."

So much for the reunion speech. In his speech on the repeal of the Federal Election Laws, the contestant volunteered the information that he had volunteered his services to defend such parties in the district as were charged in the Federal court with violation of the election laws, and the record shows that Judge Jackson, in trying these cases, had to reprove contestant and warn the jury against contestant's appeal to a "law higher than the Constitution " in making the defense of men charged with defrauding the negroes of their right

to vote.

Furthermore, most of the witnesses produced by contestant in this case have sworn that they had stuffed ballot-boxes in the interest of contestant in the previous elections, and that many of them had been defended by him in the Federal court for so doing. Now, these are some of the estoppels in pais that I set up against contestant.

(From a speech delivered in the House of Representatives, Friday, April 22, 1898.)

The Race Problem.

By HENRY WATTERSON, of Kentucky.

(Born 1840.)

WO dangers seem to me at this time to threaten the integrity of the Union and the prosperity of the people. One of these is the gospel of force, and the other is the doctrine of protection. The first is expected to hold the country while its fellow skins it, and to both the Republican party has committed itself.

I wish that it were otherwise. I wish that I could see in the Republicanism of to-day some reflection of the spirit which animated a Garrison and inspired a Whittier, and brought forth in the authors of the anti-slavery movement a modern and a native race of Paladins for a thousand years of song and story. I wish that the men who have succeeded Lincoln and Seward, Chase and Sumner, Fessenden, Trumbull and Greeley in command possessed a little of their moderation and patriotism. When I seek for them I encounter in their places another and a different set of leaders; I am chilled by the implacable hostility of a Sherman and a Hoar; I am amazed by the vindictive and sensational outcries of an Ingalls and a Chandler; I stand aghast before the shameless intrepidity of a Quay, and I find all progress toward the light and warmth of truth completely blocked by the adventurous and unfeeling obesity of a Reed. In my despair I am almost tempted to exclaim

But here again, saddest of all, when I look for independent thinking and the faithful discharge of early promise, I see the aspiring young man of letters turned into the ambitious politician, forgetting in the selfish aims of to-day the disinterested beliefs of yesterday.

The advocates of extreme measures for the South make a very strong and plausible case; indeed, the chief defect about it is that, as was the constitutional