THE NEGRO AGAIN.
Mr. JOHNSTON of Montgomery, moved to take from the table the bill, [S. 163] excluding colored persons from paying tax for building school purposes, and from the township libraries.
Mr. CRAVENS said, that if this Senate had done any one meritorious thing, it was to lay that bill on the table. He thought it should remain there, and that we should not get after the little negros with a club and keep them from reading the books in the township libraries.
Mr. GRAY. I am not in favor of taxing the property of negroes unless they have the benefit of it, because I do not believe it is right to do so. I do not believe the white people of this country are clothed with the constitutional authority to lock the temples of learning from the humblest of God's creatures. I move to lay the motion on the table.
This motion was agreed to--yeas 29, nays 11--as follows:
YEAS--Messrs. Andrews, Beardsley, Bellamy, Bird, Case, Caven, Church, Cravens, Eliott, Fisher, Fosdick, Gray, Green, Hadley, Hamilton, Hess, Hooper, Howk, Hughes, Jaquess, Johnson of Spencer, Kinley, Lasselle, Morgan, Rice, Robinson of Madison, Robinson of Decatur, Scott and Stein--29.
NAYS--Messrs. Bradley, Denbo, Gifford, Hanna, Henderson, Huey, Huffman, Johnston of Montgomery, Lee, Montgomery and Sherrod--11.
So the motion was laid on the table.
