NEGRO RACE IN AMERICA. 171
cheered by that certain hope of political elevation
which victory would secure to the white man. The
tall granite shaft which a grateful State has reared
above its sons who fell in defending Fort Griswold
against the attack of Benedict Arnold, bears the
name of John Freeman and others of the African
race, who there cemented with their blood the corner¬
stone of your Republic. In the State which I have
had the honor in part to represent, the rifle of the
black man rang out against the troops of the British
crown in the darkest days of the American Revolu¬
tion. I meet him (Stephens) only as an ad¬
versary, nor shall age or any other consideration
restrain me from saying that he now offers this
Government, which he has done his utmost to de¬
stroy, a very poor return for its magnanimous treat¬
ment, to come here to seek to continue, by the as¬
sertion of doctrines obnoxious to the true principles
of our Government, the burdens and oppressions,
which rest upon five millions of his countrymen who
never failed to lift their earnest prayers for the suc¬
cess of this Government, when the gentleman was
asking to break up the Union of the States, and to
blot the American Republic from the galaxy of na¬
tions." . . He related to Mr. Beck the story of
the fleeing of the Kentucky soldiers at a most urgent
time during the second war with Great Britain,
and then proceeded to say : " In quoting this indis-
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