Mr. COWAN. They all vote; but is there any of them? In Pennsylvania, where we have 100,000 of them, we could extend this privilege to them perhaps, and the effect it oproduce would hardly be appreciable there. There would be no danger of the tribal contest I havementioned there. You could not have a black party and a white party there, because the blacks would not be enough anywhere to make anything like a party; they would hardly be enough in . any in the State to hold even the balance of power. It is a very different thing when you speak about introducing this principle where there are but few negroes, and where they form element of the population, say 1/3rd of it. Mr. President, where was the necessity for this? My honorable friendfrom Maine is chairman of the ComDistCol. He has had these people under his charge and control for the last fo or 5 years. He knows all about them; and I am here ready to say, I think in all truth, that he has put them in every respect upon a footing with the whites, except in this political aspect. Does not the negro in the District enjoy his personal liberty, his personal property? Has he not a right to go into court and sue? It is likely that he is oftener sued, but still he has the right to sue if he can get anybody in debt to him. He has a right to testify, which was thought to be a most valuable right. He has all the rights that the white man has except one, and what is that? What is this invaluable right that is now to be vested in the negro by this bill, when you come to examine it? I will tell you, Mr. President, what it is. He is to have the right now under this bill to vote for a mayor and council. What have that mayor and that council got to do? Can they tyrannnize over him if they want to do so? My honorable friend has fixed all that. They have no power to affect him in any way. They cannot affect any of his personal rights or liberties in any respect. Well, what have this mayor and council to do? So far as I recollect, they have charge of the streets, the sewers, the pavements, gutters, the side walks, and all that kind of thing. I believe these powers are delegated to on specially by Congress. They have them within their jurisdiction. If the negro has been imposed upon in any way by their administration of this branch of the city government, my honorable friend should have withdrawn the delegation of this power from the mayor and common council and made a general law which would have corrected the evil. That I would have agreed to do. But has anybody ever heard a negro complain of the exercise of the power of the city government in these respects? Has he been heard ever to complain that the tax he contributes for municipal purposes, which I suppose is not the 1,000th part of the whole amount had been misapplied; that the side walks had been neglected; that the gutters had not been cleaned; that the gas and the water companies had not been well arranged? That is about the extent of it. He is now to have a right to vote for mayor and council, a right to interfere with the distribution of the taxes of the city. How much does he pay of them? Suppose the negroes were here today numbering 100,000, equal to the whites, how much of the taxes jathey pay? And yet, when they pay no taxes and the whites pay them all, when the whites own all or nearly all of the you talk about its being fair that the negro should be permitted to intermeddle in this matter and correct the malversation and, the mal government of the city officials. I have never heard even the most earnest advocates of the measure allege these as reasons why this new thing should be introduced here. I have never heard my learned and eloquent friendfrom Maine even hint at such a thing; and why? Because if there was such a thing, it would be susceptible of another and entirely different remedy. There is nothing to prevent Congress from withdrawing all the power delegated to this mayor and common council iresuming it F. themselves for the of correcting any difficulty that may have occurred on these points. But instead of that, this extraordinary remedy is resorted to.