Mr. DONNELLY. Mr. Speaker, the bill to which I offer this as an amendment is one of those great and necessary measures growing inevitably out of the rebellion. Having made the slave a freedman, the nation needs some instrumentality which shall reach to every portion of the South and stand between the freedman and oppression. I have proposed the amendment which has been rea at the Clerks desk to increase the powers thus granted; so that this bureau, while it protects and directs the negro, may educate him, and fit him to protect and direct himself in that not distant ay when the bureau must necessarily be withdrawn. In this connection I propose to submit to the House a few general remarks, touching, however, the bill under consideration. It is a subject of conratulation that we have passed beyond those 0dand bitter days when revenge and intolerance were the guiding principles of Governments. As victors in the mighty struggle which has but lately terminated, and as tesu eriors of the South in enlightenment and hristianity, we can afford to be may nanimous to the greatest degree compatible with public safety. That alone should c the limit of our generosit, and beyond that we should not go a hairs rendth. We must cultivate an enlarged national spirit. We are and must always be one people. We cannot advance the nation by despoiling any part of it. We cannot strengthen liberty here by inaugurating oppression elsewhere. We must hasten that day when we will be in mutual regard, as we are in name, one people. We must do all things necessary for the welfare of the South, as well those things which she desires as those which she does not desire. But we must be the judges of that which is for her welfare. We age no right to assume that she was wrong in her rebellion, and right in all the causes that led to it, and all the consequences that flowed from it. “he southern insurrection was but the armed expression of certain popular convictions, which in their turn arose from peculiar social conditions. The disease was radical and the remedy must be not less so. We must lay the ax to the root of the tree. We must legislate against the cause, not the consequences; otherwise we become the mere repressers of disturbances, not a wise and provident Government; we lay the part of the executioner, not the lawmalier. Having pprohibited slavery, we must not pause for an instant until the spirit of slavery 13 extinct, and every trace left by it in our laws is obliterated. The spirit of humanity cannot be illiberal. Reform cannot work injustice. The right wrongs no man. In all this we shall bless and bone t the South and lift her up to a higher plane of prosperitv and greatness. It willbe a work of mercy. o do otherwise would be to leaveher a prey to that misgovernment which has already blasted her fair fields and filled her habitations with mourning. Mr. Speaker, it appears to me that in the solution of this (question we approach the great test, I may say the crucial test, of our institutions and of the popular judgment. This is our time of opportunity. The whole South overthrown, disrupted, dis organized, lies at our feet" it is for us asvictors to prescribe the terms. If we fail to take advantage of the occasion which an unexampled war and unexampled success have given us, it is impossible to estimate the evils that will follow. We mayalmost repeat the melancholy prophecy of Henry Winter Davis: “a failure now will be final for our generation.” Our great danger is in iiference. In the exultation of success many ima ne that our conntr has swept past all peril. this not given us to know the dangers that await us. Who could have foreseen the terrible war in which we have been enga d? Who can anticipate the quarter from which the next blow will descend? It should never be forgotten that nearly all the nations of the world are arrayed against us; and that the enemies of liberal principles are numerous and active everywhere. hile we may not fall upon that universal war of opinion” foretold by Mr. Seward, neverthe less we must expect many open and not a few insidious attacks upon our li e. Be assured of this. that if by neglect we leave the avenues that lead to the national heart unguarded they will swarm with our enemies. Indifference calls to its aid all the specious arments of hope. We are told that time and change of circumstances will cure all the evils of the South. Sir, Igrant you thatif the mind of the North asserts its majestic sway in the South, and if this measure and kindred measures demanded by the majority in Congress are passed and enforced, we have much to hope for. But if we permitted the re enslavement of the freedman or his reduction to a condition of peonage, the case would be fnrdifferent. The indignation of the world would once more isolate the South; and they would meet that indignation as they met it in the old days of slave, with dark and defiant brows. Instead of being absorbed in the conquering population, like the Scotch or the Wels, they would remain, like the Irish or the Poles, a distinct people. They would possess a public sentiment, a history, a literature of their own. Their re Representative form of government would intensify that public sentiment. The battles of the rebellion would be fought. over and over again upon this floor; crimination and recrimlnation would be the burden of every debate; and the bitter feelings of both sections would be maintained at white heat by the appeals of passionate leaders. Nor would this be all. The children of these people would be educated to reverence the leaers of the rebellion and to place Lee beside Washin on in the niches of their hearts. Time will a 0rd us no relief. A new generation is not a new eo ple. The Irishman of toda hates England with as intense a hatred as teIrishman who fought against Elizabeth. lie must indeed be of a sanguine temperwho can see in such a future anything but violence and disaster. But we are told immigration will cure all this. Immi ration moves only in the direction of prosperity. The amount of immigration to a country is a fair indication of the number of advantages it enjoys. If you hand the South over to themselves; if you permit the oppression of the freedman; if on permit the recs tablishment of slavery on or a new name, you will shut of? immigration as effectually as it was shut 011in the old days of slavery. The northern man would not be welcome there. The European would not of there to labor in cometition with a wretche and degraded race. Ifqu wise laws you make the South prosperous and happy, then you may expect immigration to pour in from every quarter. If by neg lect you leave her misgoverned and miserable, she will hold out no more temptation to the emigrant than Mexico now does. But we are told we must not pass such laws as this; we must not intrude u n the South; we must “trust the South.” A that she asks, we are told, is that we will leave the negro to her to manage.” Mr. Speaker, we have trusted the South since the formation of the GOvernment. The framers of the constitution trusted that slavery would speedil perish from the land. To this end they interdicted the slave trade and the extension of slavery to the nerthwestern Territories. What has been the result? From a quarter of a million the slaves increased to 4 millions; from a weak and helpless evil, slavery grew into a powerful, warlike, and a gressive system. The life of the nation wel ni h paid the forfeit for this 1st great error. at. still we trusted her. We trusted she would never seek to possess herself of the whole of our Territories. The Dred Scott decision was her answer. We trusted on. We believed she would never attempt to destroy the life of the nation. The confederacy was the rel. Even then we truste her. We believed it was but a feint, an electioneering trick, and that she could not mean to destroy the life of the nation. The guns that thundered against Fort Sumter dispelled that delusion. But even et the sublime faith of many did not desert them. They hoped against hope. For 2 long years the war was conducted under the belief that the South would yet return willingly to the Union. Who can count the heaps of slain the piles of treasure, the lost, opportunities that terrible error cost us? at, sir, faith was not even yet dead. In the year 1864 a great party met in convention in Chicago and resolved to “trust the South.” Our armies were to be recalled and disbanded, all violent measures were to be given up, and we were to throw ourselves upon the compassionating bosom of the South and trust to her to ree stablish the Union. It were time this fantasy were dead. “The timeshave been, That when the brains were out the man would die; and there an end; but now they rise again, With 20 mortal murderson theircrowns and push us from our stools.” But it is not dead. aThe war has triumphed; the South is rostrate; the safety of the country, the pubic faith, the plainest dictates of common sense and common humanity all demand that we shall inaugurate sweeping measures of reform, and regenerate and rejuvenate the South; but in the very moment when we are moving on to the performance of our grand duty we are again met in the face by the same clamor “We must trust the South.” Sir, f am ready to trust the South when we have reformed the South, and not till then. The South that made the rebellion, in the same tem perin which she made Iit, never will trust. We did not trust the suppression of the rebellion to the operations o time or immigration. We cannot trust the eradication of the causes of the rebellion to any such agencies. As we relied in the one case upon the strong arms and sharp weapons of our soldiery, so in vthe other we must rely upon the clear perception and the resolute determination of our statesmen. Away with all such false and delusive hopes! They are the snare of the weak and the argument of the crafly. T nny has no more formidable won one in a its armory. Are we to believe that posterity will possess more courage, more judgment, more virtuethan Ourselves atier we have embarrassed them with the results of our own cowardice and imbecility? Is it to be believed that the pure, sweet waters of good government can flow from the impure fountains of legislative neglect? This is our o ortunity. We must avail our selves ef it. We cannot shuflie 08 this coil npon the shoulders of posterity. The world Wlll judge us by the completenes and ther oughness of our work. Shall nothing be born of this mighty convulsion, mightier by for than the old evolution, mightier thanal the revolutions of the world? Will the tiniidity of men halt far behind the prodigious strides of events? Shall the earth e shaken to its very center and not a single idol in the old temple be thrown to the ground? Sir, this is a new birth of the nation. The l constitution will hereafter be read by the light, of the rebellion; by the light of the emancipation; by the light of that tremendous uprising of the intellect of the world oing on ekry where around us. He is indeed earfully cramped by the old technicalities who can see in this enor mous struggle only the suppression of a riot and the dispersion of a mob. This struggle has been as organic in its great meanings as the constitution itself. It will leave its traces upon our Government and laws so long as the nation continues to exist. There are certain measures 11 on which the dominant party seem agreed. hey are: 1. The amendment to the constitution prohibiting the payment of any debt contracted in furtherance of the rebellion. 2. The amendment to confine the basis of representation to those actually represented in Congress. 8. The passage of the bill now under consideration, enlarging the powers of the freedmens Bureau. The 1st 2 practically amount to little. The rebellion having failed, it followed that those who furnished means to it should lose them. Slavery havin perished, it became a necessary consequence that any ine iiality of representstion originating out of s very should perish with it. Are we to stop here? Are the labors of the mountain to produce only this? Certainly not. There is an amendment offered by the distinguished Gentfrom Ohio [Mr. BXNGHAML Which provides in effect that Congress shall have Ipower to enforce by appropriate legislation a the guarantees of the constitution. l Wh should this not pass? Are the from ises of the constitution mere verbiage? re its sacred ledges of life, liberty and property to fall to the ground through lack of powerto enforce them I Shall the o d reign of terror revive in the South, when no northern mans life was worth an hours purchase? Or shall that great constitution be what its founders meant it to be, a shield and a protection over the head of the lowliest and poorest citizen in the remotest reion of the nation? o argument can resist such a measure. If youwill not enforce your uarantces strike them out. Let them not stand upon the front of the temple empty lies and deceitful cheats. Let it be at once understood that there is no national protection in our land for life, liberty, or property, and let the law of “the good right and " at once prevail. The 3rd measure, that under consideration should not awaken opposition. It is right and necessary. So long as oppression continues the Government must intervene in behalf of justice and liberty, and through what machinery can it better intervene than through this bureau? But, sir, even more than all this is needed. What, let me ask, is the condition of the mind of the South? A distinguished gentleman on this floor has said that in the last analysis the sovereignty of the country is the ballot. This it is that makes Congresses, Presidents, laws, and politics. But there is something behind even this. There is the judgment of the citizen to direct the ballot. Hence the ballot itself, laws, olieies, congresses, and Presidents are but the formal expressions of that judgment; and as thatjudgment is, so will be the nation. The best laws will not save an unworthy people from ruin, as is seen in the case of the South American republics. The worst forms of government will not prevent a clearheaded race from struggling u to prosperity, as is seen in the history of Elii land. on may have as many constitution s, an as perfect as the fertile Sieyes kept in the pigeon oles of his desk, but they will prove pof no avail if the people are not fit to receive them. Gentlemen demand that the ballot shall be Universal. They mustgo further; they must insist that capacity to pfierly direct the ballot shall be likewise univer “Said Washington: In proportion as the structure of government givm force to public opinion it is essential that public opinion sho d be enlightened.” Said Jefferson, in the famous Ordinance of 1787: Religion. morality and knowledge bein; neeema togood governmentand the happiness o mankiu. schools and the means of education shall be forever established.” “SIafys Horace Mann: republican institutions do woken up nn exampled energies in the whole massof the people and give them implementsof unoxamgllod powor where with to work out their will, than these sumo institurtions ought also to confer upon that people unexampled wisdom and rectitudo. Now we are often admenished that without intelligence and virtue u s achart and a compass to direct us in our untried political voyage we shall perish in the 1st storm: but I venture to d. that without those qualitim we shall not wait or a ator 10 cannot weather a calm. If the sea is as smoot as glass. we shall founder. for we are in a stone bout.” Let us inquire, what is education? It is a means to an end the intelligent action of the human faculties. He who is opposed to education is opposed to the enlightenment of the people, and must necessarily be their enemy, since he seeks to himself some advantage out of their ignorance, and strives to obscure their judgment that he may the better mislead them. It is not necessary to demonstrate the importance of education. The common sense of man kind approves it; the success of our nation at tests it; a million happy homes in our midst proclaim it. Education has here fused all nations into one; it has obliterated prejudices; it has dissolved falsehoods; it has announced eat truths; it has flung open all doors: and t ank God, it has at last broken all the shackles in the landl The rebellion sprang from popular ignorance; its suppression came from popular education. When the Englishman described the North as a land “where every man had a newspaper in his pocket, ” he touched at once the vita point of our greatness and the true secret of our success. Let the great work go on. Its tasks are but half completed. Let itgo on until ignorance is driven beyond our remotest borders. This is the noblest of all human labors. build dee and wide and imperishable the foundations of our Government; this will raise up a structure that shall withstand the slow canker of time and the open assaults of violence. The freedom of the people resting upon the intelligence of the people! Who shall destroya nation founded on this rock? The one great error of our country has been that education was not from the very 1st made a matter of the State, and as essential to the citizen as liberty itself. Education means the intelligent exercise of liberty, and surely without this liberty is a calamity, since it means simplythe unlimited right to err. Who can don t that if a man is to govern himself he should have the means to now what is best for himself, what is injurious to himself, what agencies work against him and what for him? and the avenue to all this is simply education. Suffrage without education is an edged tool in the hands of a child dangerous to others and destructive to himself. Now, what is the condition of the South in reference to all this? I assert that it is such as would bring disgrace upon any despotism in Christendom. The great bulk of the people are rude, illit crate, semicivilized; hence the rebellion; hence all the atrociousbarbarities thataccompaiiied it. The number of ignorant is indicated by the proportion unable to read and write; indicated, say, but not fully shown, because, of the prac tically ignorant, of those who read neither hooks nor newspapers, and are thus cut off from acquiring information through its ordinary channels; the proportion who have never learned their letters or to write their names may be small indeed. I repeat, the condition of the South in this respect would be shameful to any semicivilized people, and is such as to render a republican government, restingon the intelligent judgment of the people, an impossibility. This will appeal to the revelations of the census. My statistics do not include the former slaves, but the white people of the Southl and the few freed negroes found among them in 1860. In the 1st place I would quote the following Illl very complete table, furnished me by the Gensus Bureau, and giving the total results upon this subject for the whole U.S.: Persons over 20 years of age unable to read and write, 8th census, 1860. White. Free Colored. PerSTATES. Native. Foreign. Total. contagm Male. lemale. Total Male. Female. Total. Alabama Arkansas. It appears from this table that the adult male l white and free negro population of the U.S. l States, in 1860, over 20 years of age, who could not read and write was but little short of half a million. In other words, that in the last presidential election, if the entire population of the U.S. had voted, halfa million votes would have been cast by men who could not read and write. When we recollect that upon our presidential elections depend the great interests and the life of the country, and remote] the cause of all mankind, we may well stan this vast force of half a million ignorant men deciding the destinies of the world. But if we look exclusively, at the southern States we find still greater cause for surprise and alarm. The following table shows the number of illit erate male whites in 7 southern States; also the total vote of those States in 1860, and the vote given in each State in the same year for Breckmridge: appalled before; we examine this table, we find that in the 7 States named the number of illiterate is about one 5th the total number of voters, and nearly 1/2 the total vote for Breck inridge, the representative of disnnion and secession. If, however, we add to each man entirely illiterate one other who, while able to read and write his name, derives no practical advantage from these mere rudiments ofeducation in forminghis opinions, wewill find the total to be more than 1/3rd of the total vote and 5/6ths of the vote for Breckinridge. The total number of illiterate in the southern States in 1860, over 20 years of age, exclusive of the then slaves, was 545, 177. In, these, with the comparatively ignorant assoncipatd with them, we see the up elders of the rebellion at the ballotbox and in the field. Without these it could never have been in au rated, or if inaugurated could never have maintained itself for 6 months against the mighty levies of the Union. But, it may be said, these evils will correct; themselves. The testimony is all the other way: From 1840 to 1860, a period of 20 years, g the number of illiterate OVer 20 years rose;, from 549,693 to 1,218,311; in other words, an i increase of considerably more than 100%. 1 At the same ratio of growth it would be 2, 674, 472 in 1880; 5,823,700 in, 1900; and in 1920 it would amount to the enormous total of 12,690,688. In other words, in 50 ears from the taking of the next cknsns, the ilfiterate in the U.S. over 20 years, exclusive of the freedmen, will be 12, 600,000, 4 times the number. with which the nation commenced its career, I nearly 1/2 the total white population in l 1860, and representing a voting force 1/3rd greater than the total vote at the presidential electionin 1860; that is to say, over 6,000,000 votersl Who will pretend that with such a mass of ignorance the Government could survive? It would be buried in the most disgraceful anarchy the world has ever seen. But, Mr. Speaker eventhese appalling figures do not tell towhole story. These figures do not include the then slaves, nowfreedmen. We must add to the ignorant population of the South the 4,000,000 blacks Just released from slavery. The figures would stand as follows: suxnsn or murmur. Your. White. DIM Total. So that in filty (years from the next census, a very short one in the life of a nation, when, it is suppose that the total poulation will be 1120,000,000, the illiterate will be one 5th of the entire number and nearly 1/3rd of the entire vote. I trust, then. that no gentleman will doubt the proriety of the amendment I have submit ted. 17e are interfering in behalf of the negro; let us interfere to educate him. We thus strike out at one blow a large proportion of the ignorance of the South; we shame the whites into an effort to educate themselves, and we prorethus both classes for the proper exercise of the right of suffrage. Nor shall it be said that the ignorance revealed by these statistics is an exotic, that it results from foreign immigration. } bile it 13 true that in the North alarlge Eroportion of the illiterate are from foreign an s, in the South the reverse is the case. In NCarolina, in 1860, the illiterate persons of native birth were 74,877, while those of foreign birth were but 100. In Alabama the illiterate of native birth were 37,302, while those of foreign birth were 2 663. The total number of illiterate foreigners in tIhe U.S. in 1860 was 342,017; while, am sorry to say, those born under our institutions, and unable at the age of 20 years to read and write, were 834, 106. Let us however, set aside the foreign infusion altogether, and divide the illiterate aceord in to the natural divisions of the country. The results are as follows: No. qfilliterote Yblnl of nalive birth. population. are? 3. 13am Section. NewEngland St t Middle States. 7, 571, 101 Southern State , 12, 128, 078 Western Stato8. i0h10. Indiana, Illinois and Ransas) Northwestern States. (Michignn. Iowa. Minnesota, and Wisconsin. 24, 791 2, 371, 930 Pacific States. A comparison of these figures leads to some Bur rising results. If, for instance, the ratio of the NewEngland States held good, we should have less than 80,000 nativeborn illiterate persons in the U.S. instead of the 834,000 we now have. In other words, the il literate native voters of the country would be less than 40,000, instead of being over 400,000! On the other hand, we find that the southern States have a population aboutequal to the middle and western States combine, while the number of illiterate in the former is 645, 177, as against 241, 854 in the latter; and this not in c uding the vast number of illiterate freedmen in the South, who would make the disproportion still greater. So that the South outnumbers in illiterate the most unfavorable portions of the North more than 2 to one. As compared with the NewEngland States the disproportion is still more striking. at the ratio of newEngland the southern States should. have but 84.000 illiterate persons; as it is the number is 545, 177. The whole U.S., with a population of 27,000,000, contains 834, 106 illiterate persons, and of these 546, 177 are found in the southern States with apopulation of 12,000,000. In other words, the entire populous North contains but 288, 923, while the sparsely settled South contains 545, 177. Who can fail to see in this vast disproportion the come of the rebellion? In the language of Henry Ward Beecher: “As upon the coast you can trace the line between the dark and treacherous sea on the one hand, and the firm and trusty land on the other, by the row of lighthouses so you can mark between the dwindlin nablo wickc pass of treason and the supernal luster of patriotism by the line of schoolhouses.” Now, Mr. Speaker, I put it to this. House, and through it to the whole people of the country, North and South, whether this state of things is to continue. This is not a political question. It rises above the level of polities and directly affects the welfare of all the people and the life of the nation itself.