IN SENATE.
TUESDAY, March 3, 1863.Mr. Corbin's bill, [S. 147] to re-organize the Benevolent Institutions of the State, was read the third time and finally passed; by yeas 20, nays 18.
Mr. Lowmy's bill. [S. 164] appointing an auditing committee to audit, claims for the expenses of the Indiana Legion, and for the payment of troops called out to defend the Ohio River border, passed; by yeas 42, nays 0.
ARMING OF NEGROES.
Mr. COBB called up his joint resolution. (10) in relation to the enlistment and arming of negroes in the service of the United States.
Mr. MARCH said that since the bill had been introduced the Senate of the United States had disposed of the question by reporting against the bill. He therefore thought the best way was to quietly dispose of this resolution.
Mr. COBB did not desire to speak upon the joint resolution. He wished it quietly disposed of by passing it.
Mr. BROWNE, of Randolph. In order that the colored individual may no more trouble us, I move to lay the joint resolution quietly on he table.
The motion was rejected; yeas 17, nays 27.
Mr. BEARSS moved to indefinitely post pone, and Mr. COBB moved to table that motion, which latter motion was agreed to; yeas 26, nays 17.
Mr. DAVIS, of Cass, demanded the previous question, which was seconded-- yeas 27, nays 17--and under its operation the resolution passed; by yeas 28, nays 15.
Mr. MARCH moved to amend the preamble by adding "provided that there is any bill pending before the Senate as indicated herein."
Messrs. WOLFE and RAY contended that the preamble could not be amended after its passage, although the title of it could.
Before the decision of the President was given the hour for the special order arrived.
NEGRO EXCLUSION.
The question being on the amendment, (Mr. Wolfe's) offered yesterday afternoon, to the bill [S. 140] to enforce the 13th article of the Constitution.--
Mr. MANSFIELD assured gentlemen that a law of this kind would be received by every noble spirit in the South with contempt--they will look upon it as a piece of vandalism. The severity of the punishment is unjust, and he hoped this thing would be altered; and the bill will look more fair in the eyes of every Southern gentleman.
Mr. LANDERS was well aware that the Senator and his party friends will not vote for any measure that will damage what they conceive to be the rights of the negro.
Mr. MURRAY undertook to say that whenever a law is passed against the conviction and conscientious scruples of a vast majority of the people of this State, it can never be enforced; and what is the use of encumbering the statute books with such laws? This bill strikes at the fundamental principles of the Christian religion, and the duties of every Christian man growing out of that religion which we all profess. It is punishing a, man because God has made him of a different, color, and for what ? Why, for traveling in or through our State, or for getting his honest living by his own industry. He wanted to see a law passed by which negroes will be kept out of the State of Indiana; but he was not willing to violate his own conscience by voting for such a bill as this. If that part which makes these acts a felony was stricken out, he would vote for the bill.
Mr. FERGUSON was anxious that this bill should be got in such a position that he could vote for it and that it might be passed. This morning and last night he examined it carefully, and he should vote to recommit it that he might go before the committee and point out some matters he would like incorporated in it. There were some circumstances connected with his county that did not exist in other counties.
Mr. CLAYPOOL opposed the bill because it would render more difficult a reunion of the States. Senators have already voted that the negro shall not go into the army and be killed, and he was in favor of their living somewhere; and coming into the States upon terms of perfect equality. He agreed with the Justice the Peace in Randolph county, who decided that the negro was a citizen; at any rate if he had a right to live in the South, he ought to have a right to be here. He was willing to go upon terms of perfect equality with our Southern brethren upon this subject, and if the negro does demoralize society, we ought to take from our Southern brethren some of that odium. It was an ancient tenet of the Democracy that a Southern gentleman, could pass through the free States with his slaves, and this bill might interfere with that right, and thus irritate the public mind He wanted the bill recommitted to the Judiciary Committee, and that they report upon that point. He desired to stand by the Constitution.
Mr. LANDERS. Would you stand by the fugitive slave law?
Mr. CLAYPOOL. Yes, and all the compromises of the Constitution. He would stand by the Constitution as it 18 and the Union as it was, longer than ths Senator from Morgan.
Mr. LANDERS. Then the gentleman will live longer.
page: 198[View Page 198]Mr. CLAYPOOL wanted the bill recommitted to the Judiciary Committee that it might there sleep the sleep of death.
Mr. RAY said the gentleman had exposed the secret of the opposition. They wanted the bill re committed that it might sleep the sleep of death. If the majority want a bill on this subject they had better take this one, for at this late hour they would get no other. We were not legislating now for citizens. We were legislating to keep off a certain class of population--to prevent, them from becoming citizens. In the bill the language objected to was the language lined in the Constitution, and the Courts must decide on it as they would on any other.
Mr. MARCH It is not necessary to trample upon every right and every feeling of humanity in order to carry out that Constitution. If the records of this Legislature shall ever be preserved, and this bill becomes a law, history will pronounce that it renders the State infamous, for it is the most heartless and cruel enactment ever attempted to be placed upon a statute book. It creates a police officer in every county, and though a fellow-being be pursued by the hounds of slavery, he cannot drink a cup of cold water, nor can a white man give it to him, without being liable to be prosecuted, and the officer fined if he don't do it; the decision of the Clerk of the Court to be final and further, every negro upon the soil of Indiana is presumed to be illegally upon its soil; revering every principle of evidence ever established in a civilized court. If there be necessity for passing a law to protect the soil of Indiana from the colored population, he was willing to vote for any respectable proposition of that kind.
Mr MELLET. If this bill was for punishing any party likely to be guilty of any crime. I would not oppose it. Since the adoption of the Constitution negroes and mulattoes have been coming into State and going out of it, and the people have not clamored for a more stringent law. I have not heard a single demand in Eastern Indiana that there should be any more stringent law passed upon this subject.
Mr. RAY, (in his seat.) The gentleman has not been a reader of Democratic newspapers.
Mr. MELLETT. There is but one printed in Eastern Indiana, and I seldom get hold of it. The Senator from Shelby (Mr. Hay) has stealthily set a trap, which he induced men to run into, and by which they are seat to the Penitentiary.
Mr. RAY, (soto voce.) The bill follows the Constitution in this.
Mr. MELLETT. But the Constitution does not send them to the Penitentiary.
Mr. RAY. (in his seat). The bill enforces the constitutional provision by penalties; that is all.
Mr. DOWNEY. I am not satisfied with the provisions of this bill. I intend to vote for a bill on this subject which will be reasonable in its provisions, if I can get an opportunity to do so, but I do not wish to vote for or against this bill in its present shape under the operations of the previous question. This bill can be recommitted to the committee, amended, reported back to the Senate this afternoon, and then passed, and I don't sea any reason why Senators should insist upon bringing the Senate to a vote upon it when it is so far from being satisfactory. I think the arguments of some Senators ought to bo addressed to an amendment of the Constitution instead of to this bill.
Mr. DUNNING (Mr. Williams in the Chair). I would be glad for this bill to be re-committed, and I am sorry there is as much feeling as there is about it. I have not as much hope that some Senators will vote for this bill as I ought to have. I am as much opposed to the immigration of negroes as any Senator, and desire to see them excluded from this State. This is a measure of great importance to the people of the State. It is proper that we should exclude them. The war is calculated to cause an increased colored emigration to the Northern States, and I do not want to be troubled with slavery, nor with any more negroes. At the same time there are some provisions in this bill I would like to see amended. I think the evidence of the colored man should be received in the absence of the white man, for if we were to exclude his testimony altogether, it might be out of his power to prove certain things, when in truth and fact he ought not to be punished. The people in my section demand such a measure, and I believe a majority of the people are in favor of preventing free negroes from emigrating and settling amongst us. The Senator from Fayette (Mr. Claypool) hit me exactly this morning. I am wiling that a slaveholder should pass through this State with his slaves to a State where slavery is recognized, for I do not feel that we have any right to interfere with him in his passage through our State. And if we had a watering place in Indiana, I am willing to see the master come to that resort with a sufficient number of servants to-wait upon him; so they don't come with the intention of residing. It is not necessary to say anything upon that subject, but, in a word, I am willing where slavery lawfully exists that a man shall enjoy it temporarily in a free State.
Mr. CLAYPOOL, (interrupting). I would ask the Senator if, under the provisions of this bill, a slaveholder should come into our State and bring his darkey, whether the darkey would not be liable to the provisions of this bill?
Mr. DUNNING. I would not pretend to say. I know I would be glad to see some page: 199[View Page 199] of my old Carolina friends and acquaintances. I would give their negro to sleep and eat as good as I have, but he should never sit down and eat with me at the same table, so help me God; and yet I would walk up to a negro and give him as a hearty a shake of the hand as I could Governor of a State. But this is a mere personal matter, sir.
On motion by Mr. BRADLEY, the bill and pending amendment were referred to a select committee, consisting of Messrs. Ray, March, Ferguson, White and Downey.
BILLS ON THE THIRD READING.
Mr. COBB called up a bill [S. 106] appropriating $2,000,000 for advance pay to Indiana soldiers, and it was passed; by yeas 42, nays 0.
Mr. Hord's bill [S. 121] providing for paying parties out of the Swamp Land Fund the amounts paid by them for lands when they have failed to receive titles for the same, was passed; by yeas 43, nays 0.
The bill S. 108 (see page 128) was ordered engrossed; S 176 introduced yesterday was read the second time and referred, and joint resolution S. 8 (p. 113) was laid on the table.
Mr. Douglass' bill [S. 137] giving additional powers to County Surveyors, was passed; by yeas 41, nays 0.
NEW PROPOSITIONS.
Mr. WOLFE introduced a bill. [177] to divide the State into eleven Congressional Districts.
Mr. DICKINSON introduced a bill [17] to repeal the 2d, 3d, 4th, 5th, and 7th clauses mentioned in the 7th section of an act regulating the granting of divorces, approved May 13, 1852, and to provide or the separation of married persons and their holding property.
These bills were read the first time.
AFTERNOON SESSION.
Reports from committees recommending that Senate bills 17 (see page 60) and 95 (p. 122) be laid on the table, were concurred in.
BILLS ON THE THIRD READING.
Mr. WILLIAMS called up the bill [H. R. 66] to amend the act incorporating the Walsh Navigation Company, which was read the third time and passed; by yeas 38, nays 0.
Mr. DOUGLASS called up the bill [S. 150] to amend section 19 of the act fixing the time of holding Common Pleas Courts and it was passed; by yeas 36, nays 0.
Mr. CORBIN called up his bill, [S 170] to repeal sections 1,7,9 and 12 of the act for the government of the State Prison North &c., and it was passed; by yeas 36 nays.
Mr. FERGUSON called up his bill. [146], granting the use of the Jeffersonville Prison to the United States for the confinement of prisoners, and forbidding the Prison North to receive such prisoners and it was passed; by yeas 36, nays 2.
Mr. LANDERS called up his bill [S. 141] to amend the election laws, and it was passed: by yeas 36, nays 4. Mr. Dickinson's bill [S. 48] to create the 14th Judicial Circuit, was passed; by yeas 32, nays 12.
Mr. WRIGHT called up the bill, [H. R. 117] in relation to the school lands in the county of Newton, which was passed; by yeas 45, nays 0.
NEGRO EXCLUSION.
Mr. RAY, from the select committee thereon made a report recommending the passage of his bill [140] with amendment.
Mr. CLAYPOOL moved to amend so that negroes can stay six months in the State before being liable to prosecution under this act.
On motion by Mr. MANSFIELD, the amendment was laid on the table; yeas 33, nays 13.
Mr. RAY demanded the previous question, which the Senate seconded, and under its operation the amendments were adopted as recommended by the committee.
Mr. WOLFE asked what had become of his amendment.
Mr. RAY considered it was included in the report of the Committee.
After a discussion on matters of fact in relation to the action in the committee room, and the condition of the bill and amendments. Mr. Wolfe's amendment was adopted yeas 31, nays 17 and the bill was ordered to be engrossed.
