Southern Senators were overwhelmed with all manner of conflicting and confusing petitions, and as a result about one half of them favoured the bill for one reason or another, while the other half more or less bitterly opposed it. The discussion, when the bill finally came out of committee, took the widest range,—from the constitutional objections raised by the Texas Senator (whose State, having a large school-fund income, did not need the appropriation) and the savage attacks upon the negro race generally by Senator Killam, to the purely pro-educational reasoning of most of the supporting Senators from the South—among whom was Senator Ruffin—and the pro-negro speech of the young Senator Rutledge. The adjective _pro-negro_ may give an erroneous impression of Senator Rutledge’s ideas. The term is the Senator’s own. From his speech in full in the _Congressional Record_ the reader may determine for himself whether the term is apt. *CHAPTER XVII* Senator Rutledge gave notice that on February 23d he would address the Senate on the Hare Bill. On that day the galleries were crowded to hear him, his State’s delegation in the House was present in a body, accompanied by many other representatives from North and South. No one knew how he would vote, for he had listened much and talked little. He said: "Mr. President: There have been many terms used on this floor and in the public prints since this bill was introduced, by which to distinguish and define and lay open to public view the motives which are supposed to lie behind the votes that will be cast for and against it. "We have heard ’unconstitutional,’ ’anti-negro,’ ’pro-educational,’ ’watch-dog of the treasury,’ and others equally descriptive if less parliamentary. I have not heard ’pro-negro.’ "So, to save my friends—and enemies, if I have any—the trouble of search and imaginings, I adopt that term, ’_pro-negro_,’ as descriptive of my attitude toward the matters affected by this bill. "It is an open secret, Mr. President, that this measure, which bears the non-committal title of ’an act to promote education’ is a White House production designed and introduced for the single purpose of defeating what is known as the Wordyfellow school-fund movement in the South generally, more specifically now in the State of Mississippi. Because I think it will accomplish that purpose, both general and special,—because I am ’for the negro,’—for him on his own account,—for his elevation as a race to the highest level which his essential nature in the purposes of God will permit him to attain,—because I believe the success of the Wordyfellow movement would mean his degradation, his hopeless continuance in his present low estate,—because, in a word, I am _pro-negro_; I shall vote for this bill.