John Sherman

I commend to the wise care and thoughtful attention of Congress the needs, the welfare, and the aspirations of an intelligent and generous nation.

We should also deal with the subject in such manner as to protect the interests of American labor, which is the capital of our workingmen; its stability and proper remuneration furnish the most justifiable pretext for a protective policy.

Justice and fairness dictate that, in any modification of our present laws relating to revenue, the industries and interests which have been encouraged by such laws, and in which our citizens have large investments, should not be…

The fact that our revenues are in excess of the actual needs of an economical administration of the government justifies a reduction in the amount exacted from the people in its support.

I can only say, Senators, that while I hold this position I will endeavor, to the utmost of my ability, to be just and impartial, and I invoke from each of you assistance and forbearance.

My aim will be to secure the ready and kindly obedience and enforcement of them, so that in an orderly way the sense of the majority may be ascertained and the rights of the minority may be protected.

It is an impressive lesson of the uncertain tenure by which we all hold office and life.

In common with all the people of the United States I share in profound sorrow for the death of the Vice President, especially designated by the constitution to act as president of the Senate.

I appeal to you, of whatever party, or color, or race, or country, to give us in Virginia at this election an honest vote and an honest count, and if Lee is elected, well and good; if Wise is elected, better yet.

There is no crime that is meaner, there is no crime that is so destructive to society, there is no crime so prejudicial to the man who commits it as the crime of preventing a citizen from participating in the government.

I say there is no man who can be deprived of his right to vote without injuring you, from the wealthiest in the city of Richmond down to the humblest man among you, white or black.

My countrymen, there is no duty so sacred resting upon any man among you, I don't care what his politics are.

If the criminal classes can deprive a colored man or a white Republican of his right to vote, as soon as they have accomplished it, then these rascals--because every man who resorts to this policy is a rascal --then these rascals will soon…

There is the ground I stood on in Ohio, and the ground I stand on now.

I said also, that by constitutional amendment agreed to by Virginia, every man of proper age in this country was armed for his protection with the right to cast one honest vote, and no more, and have that vote counted, and you, as well as…

Again, although I was a Union man from my heart and every pulsation, just as my friend Wise was a Confederate soldier, yet I never heard in Ohio a man call in question either the courage or purity of motive of any Confederate soldier who…

I have always respected and loved the State of Virginia, its memories, its history, its record, and its achievements.

Here, I felt, were two antagonistic races widely differing in every respect, the old relations of master and slave broken, with new conditions undeveloped, the master impoverished and the slave free without the knowledge to direct him, and…

I charge, among other things, that these constitutional rights and privileges have been disregarded by the Democratic party, especially in the southern states.

I felt, and so declared, that these mean crimes were infinitely more despicable than the violence in the south, which sprang from a fear of the southern people that their institutions would be impaired by the votes of men debased by…

I had denounced fraud and violence in elections in the south, and at Washington I had to confess recent frauds attempted or practiced in Cincinnati.

It will not be submitted to, and Governor Hoadley, from his former position, ought to be one of the first to demand and insist upon a remedy, and not seek to avoid or belittle it by cant phrases.

An injustice so gross and palpable will not be submitted to by the colored people of the south, nor by fair-minded white men in the south who hate wrong and injustice; nor by the great northern people, by whose sacrifices in the Union…

The colored people have, practically, no voice in Congress and no voice in the electoral college.

I said this was not only unjust to the colored man but unjust to the white men of the north.