Mr. HOGAN. Mr. Speaker. as the House has resolved to devote this da for the purpose of debate is the reason why seek to occupy its attention with some remarks. I would not wish to disturb its regular business, or to protract discussion, if legitimate legislation could be enacted; but, sir as this day has been devoted to debate and nothing else, I deem it proper to present to the House, and through it to the country, some views as to what has transpired and what is transpiring and in which the people of the country are vitally interested. Tiiis Congress, Mr. Speaker, called into existence at a time and under circumstances which have deprived one party of that vote to which it is entitled by its numerical numbers, while giving a very large majority to another, the Republican rty. has been wasted, wholly wasted in the isenssion of questions mainly irrelevant to the great subjects in reference to which we have been elected. Very many speeches have been made. In deed, sir, without any disrespect at all to the House, or to Congress, I might, perhaps, characterize this session as a session of essays. We have had magazine articles prepared and spoken. We have had various presentations of general ideas. We have had 4 months occupied in the discussion of this question, and scarcely has a single not been passed at. this Congress in which the people have very much or very general interest. I do not hesi into to so that there has never been, in the history of this Republic, as much time use lessly consumed in discussion as during this session. I do not hesitate to say that at no period in its history has its public Journal, devoted to the production of the debates in Congress, been as much.occupied with these debates as in this present session. The Globe of this session embraces matter to an extent probably of 3 or 400 pages more than the correspending period of the session of the 38 h Congress. The previous Congress was eld in a period of war, when the life of the nation was at stake, when great public interests were under discussion, when new measures of public policy for the maintenance of the integrity of the lie public were to be presented and argued; an yet during that quadrennial period, in which discussions in Congress are generally recognized as properand right, during that period in which a residential election was to be held, and in which the war was in progress, the records of the Globe show a less quantity of debate, by some 486 pages during the 1st 4 months of the session than the present session and yet, I say, scarcely a public act, or one in which the Generalpublic are interested, has been passed during all this period. his, sir, to me is quite an anomaly. Nor does it seem to me that during the 4 months that have passed the country has had much enlightenment from the speeches of their Representatives in Congress. I know we have had numerous essays read, read from manu script and read from printed sheets. Those essays might do very well in the Atlantic Monthly, or some other periodical of analogous character. But what have they contributed to any beneficial purpose in this country? I do not want to be disrespectful to this House or to this Congress, but I maybe permitted to say that, with the exception of 4 or 5 of these numerous, almost innumerable speeches, there has not been a solitary new idea presented to this House or to this country. 3 or 4, or possibly a dozen, have presented certain facts an arguments and illustrations which were new, striking, or starth ng, but the mass has been a mere repetition of what has been said by others. The verbiage has been changed, the ideas are the same, gathered from those who receded, and brought into the form of lpeec es. I hope I shall not be considered as disrespectful when I say that, having listened to a few of these speeches and to parts of others of them, I have felt that I could attend to other things, to reading or writing, while they were in progress of delivery, without any particular disrespect to the speakers, inasmuch as I had heard them all be ore. It was to me a thrice told tale, which had.lost its power to attract my attention, and I think had lost its powerto attract the attention of the country. Many of these speeches might have been declared to be law, or they had their 1st and 2nd reading, their engrossment, and their 3rd reading. All they wanted was the usual enacting clause. Indeed, most of them that were deIivered in the early part of the session, have been carried into the law. In reference to these speeches generally, I will remark that they had 3 main points, possibly more, but I can only call to mind now 3 general points to which they all tended. The 1stis the great, absorbing, Americanized idea. of this day, the idea that seems to possess everybody, that seems to absorb everything else the American citizen of African dese ent. That has been the great substratum of the whole. This question, Mr. Speaker, in regard to the dese endants of Africa in this country has been its disturbing element almost from the origin of the existence of this country. The cupidity of the people of old England, aided very mate rially by the oupidity of the people of NewEng land, brought for in this disturbing element into this fair languof promise and of hope. They brought it here against the wishes and against the remonstrances of the people who then inhabited the land, and Who desired not a participation in this disturbing element. But it was forced upon an unwilling people, and being forced upon them, it has ever since been a means of their disturbance, a means of their derangement, and has brought upon us the destruction of our Republic, and has deprived us of a portion of that country and of those States which we have heretofore had among us. I am not, sir, either the advocate or the apologist of slavery. I am notnow, and I have not been. But when the last congress passed a.constitutional amendment by which slavery was abolished in this country, and when the States of the republic acquiesced in its abolition, I supposedjthat this distressing element was to be removed from among us, and that henceforth we would be one peeple, seeking one prosperity, and advancing as a unit to greatness and to glory. Slavery for over 30 years was the agitating element, and when shiver y ceased to be, the agitation apparently butjust commenced. Now, sir, I would not apologize for a moment for the great wrong that was done to Af rica by stealing from her soil her children to enslave them elsewhere. Enslaved at home, they always have been enslaved abroad. They have been ever sincemen were 1ststolen from Africa to be enslavedin other lands. Yet, Mr. Speaker, there seems to be in all this matter some providential interference. Divine Provi dence has permitted this wrong, and it is not to be forgotten thatthe African race in this country are more elevated, are more civilized, are more advanced in manhood, and have attained to greater elevation than in apy other country on earth, theirown home not excluded. They have been brought here and brought into contact with the civilization of the white race on this continent, and such civilization has imparted to them an elevation and benefits which they have derived nowhere else and although slavery was doubtless a great wrong, a very great wrong, to those who were the possessorsof slaves, it cannot be said with truth to have been detrimental to those who have been brought to this country, and under its power have been made to expe rience the benefits they have. It is not the fact, Mr. Speaker, that the African race in the South has been overwhelmed with ruin and destruction by reason of slavery. The owners of those slaves had for many years been using every effort in their powerto ele vate them, to advance them socially, civilly, and religiously, and in every respect except, probably, pecuniarily. They have held them as slaves and have derived advantage from their labor, and yct, sir, many, very many, of the slaves in the South were in their social relations greatly advanced from what they had ever been before. Nor is it true that the masters have in all cases been the terrible mon sters that they have been represented to be. I have traveled extensively through the southern States; I have had opportunities of examining the social relations there, and in many instances I have found those held in servitude enjoying immunities which those of the same race in freedom in the northern States had never attained unto. I have gone through the southern States and I have seen the manner in which many of these people held in servitude have been treated by their masters, and I will new state what my own eyes beheld and which could not probably be beheld outside of the region about which I am speaking. 12 or 16 years ago, I had occasion about this period of the year to journey into the center of the South. M time was not necessarily hurried and I ha opportunity of leisurely examining all that was going on.I visited a very pleasant and interesting town in the center of the South. I had occasion to spend several days there. One of its hos itable sons found myself and the friend who was journeyimg with me domiciled in a hotel in the town. He had a beautiful home close by and he invited us to take up our residence with him during our stay. As a matter of course we accepted his kind invitation. The nobility ofhis hospitality could not be exceeded anywhere. In his house we found a pleasant and delightful home, and ay after day, in converse with a refined family, I had an opportunity of examining the operations of his plantation and the condition of those who were under him as servants. Sabbath after Sabbath passed. We attended church in the village an had an opportunity of returning again to the home of our friend. One beautiful Sabbath morning, when the balm southern air ervaded everything, when the powers were a ready looking forth from their winter quarters, when the grass was green and beautiful, and the woods were already beginnin to leaf, we proposed to go to town to atten church. The gentleman suggested that we take a walk through the woods, for by doing so we would shorten our walk. The way around by the road was 2 or 3, or probably 4 miles, whereas by the path through the forest we could reac the town ver readily by walking only about a mile. Ye all started together, pleased with the prospect of such a walk through such a country and in such a balmy atmosphere. After having whiled away our time examining the flowers and forests, we finall came to the road which from the house mean ered around in its way to the village. Just as we got into the road, immediately behind us came a carriage loaded with colored gentlemen and ladies. The master stopped, as we were in the path, to get out of “the way of the carriage that was coming down the hill. Looking up at the driver, he saw it was his own carriage, filled with his own servants. He said: “Hey, Tom where now 3” “Oh, massa, ” said he, “ I knew the gentlemen was going walk you over the fields to church; and I thought as there was no further use for the carriage today, I would take my ladies and we would ride to church.”