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It merely granted citizenship to all persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power (though excluding Indians who lived in tribes), and it allowed these people, as citizens, to make contracts, to testify in court, and to move, to marry, or to own property. No punishment meted out to a black man or woman could differ from that inflicted on a white person for the same offense.
Washburne told his colleague Thaddeus Stevens that General Stoneman admitted, with some remorse, that “it was no negro riot, for the negroes had nothing to do but to be butchered.” “The civil-rights bill,” Washburne added, “is treated as a dead letter.”
“I will take all I can get in the cause of humanity and leave it to be perfected by better men in better times.” —THADDEUS STEVENS
“I would not for a moment inculcate the idea of surrendering a principle vital to justice,” Stevens explained with passion. “But if full justice could not be obtained at once, I would not refuse to do what is possible.”
“Men in pursuit of justice,” Stevens concluded, “must never despair.”
“Mutual concession,” Thaddeus Stevens added, “is our only resort, or mutual hostilities.”
“I BELIEVE THE Prince of Darkness could start a branch of hell in the District of Columbia (if he has not already done it),” Mark Twain tartly observed.
“There has been more point-blank lying done in Washington during the past week, than ever before in the same space of time, and that is saying a great deal.” —The New York Times
White men had overwhelmingly voted for Seymour. It was the 500,000 votes of black men in the South that carried the election for Grant—the votes of black men, that is, who had not been prevented, at gunpoint, from voting.
