the leading partisans of the negro race in the State. I was present for two hours in this convention; during that time no speeches were made; I was therefore unable to judge in this manner of the intelligence and _animus_ of the black members. I did not, however, leave the convention without a short conversation with one of them. He was a man of unmixed African blood, and, seeing me conversing with the white whom he regarded as the head of his party, he left his place in the house, and came up to me and held out his hand. I extended mine in return. On taking hold of it, he accosted me with the words, ‘Sir, you then believe that the franchise is a God-given right.’ I said ‘that was not my belief.’ ‘Why?’ he asked, rather astonished. ‘Because,’ I said, ‘it was given to you by Mr. Lincoln and the North.’ ‘No, sir,’ he replied, ‘it is a God-given right.’ [Sidenote: _The Southern Conventions._] ‘If it is a God-given right,’ I rejoined, ‘how does it come to pass that so few of mankind have ever possessed it?’ He then inquired what limitation I would put to the ‘right.’ I told him that I did not think it wise or just that those who had no property should possess the power of imposing taxes on those who had property, and deciding how the proceeds of the taxes were to be disposed of; and that the argument would be strengthened, if these persons without property were also without the knowledge requisite for enabling them to read the constitution of their State. Instead of replying to this, he returned to his seat. I give the above dialogue as a specimen of what are a negro’s ideas on the great subject of the day in that part of the world. I afterwards heard that the gentleman who had been speaking to me was the most prominent negro in the State.