My fellow colleagues, a bill has been put before us to vote on. The bill I speak of is one that introduces the idea of confiscating plantation land owned by confederates and redistributing that land to the former slaves that had once worked on it.
Due to this bill that has been put before us to vote on, I present to you my speech and more importantly, my true feelings on this controversial issue of the reconstruction of the confederate’s land being given to former slaves that once worked on it.
I have made my decision concerning the bill, and at the end of this speech, I hope all of you will support me in my decision. I have voted in favor of redistributing the confederate’s land to the former slaves that had once worked on it. I support this bill and I believe the rest of you should support my decision also.
The former slaves had been working the land for the past century for free and sometimes, under cruel punishment. It is only fair that they be given the land that they have worked on for so many years. It is they who have nourished the land, and produced the items that we cherish today. They have earned to be given the land that they have worked on and wanted. With all of the hardship that the former slaves have had to deal with, it is only fair that they be given something in return.
We should begin to redistribute the land to the former slaves in all occupied territories by the confederates, just as the great General William T. Sherman allocated land to the freed slaves in the former inhabited areas by the Confederates, such as the confiscation in New Orleans, and in the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia. This bold move is greatly respected and appreciated by myself and by the former slaves inhabiting the land presently. They are happy and without question this is a step in the right direction for equality.
The former slaves have earned their land, not only by working on it for free for so many years, but also have given their lives to fight for what was right in the Civil War. Did they not fight along side the Union soldiers during the terrible Civil War and fight for their rights? The former slaves have been crucial in the success of the Union defeating the Confederacy in the Civil War, and you my fellow colleagues, each and every one of you know it. The simplest action we can take in paying our gratitude to the former slaves for what they have done for our country is giving them what they earned and wanted for so long.
It is not only morally an obligation towards us to redistribute the land to the former slaves, but a legal obligation also. Are they not citizens of the United States? Was the 14th Amendment not passed for that very reason? Does the Declaration of Independence not state “that all men are created equal?” Does it not say that? My friends, if we do not uphold our own amendments and the Declaration of Independence, then the point of us fighting for our own freedom against England will have no reason, and we will be seen as nothing more than hypocrites.
Now some of you may ask yourselves, what shall we do with the confederate’s that once lived on the land? I simply say this; there is a vast amount of land west of the Mississippi River that still has not been settled on. They may go and settle on land out west. This is their punishment for fighting against the Union in the gruesome war, and for supporting the immoral act of slavery. You see my senators, if we do not force the confederates out of their land now and force them to work the land themselves, they will continue to see themselves as a superior race to the freed black men, and will continue to treat the blacks as an inferior race. My senators I give you a perfect example of what will occur if we do not force the confederates to leave the land for the former slaves that once worked it. In 1865, the state of Mississippi passed the ‘Black Codes’, a way for the confederates to keep the former slaves inferior to themselves socially, economically, and politically. Therefore it is necessary to make the confederates leave the land, and to redistribute the same land to the former slaves that had once worked on it.
As George Clemenceau, a journalist from France states, “there cannot be real emancipation for men who do not possess at least a small portion of the soil.”1 So I speak to you my fellow senators and I urge you to make the correct and moral decision of redistributing the confederates land to the former slaves that had once worked on it.
1“Reconstruction-the Documents.” George Clemenceau. 2003: 1. On-line. Internet. 12 Mar. 2003. Available: WWW: