150 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



" so as to secure that essential condition of a 

 republican Government, the equal rights of all." 

 He said : "Mr. President, such is the testimony 

 of history, authority, and the Constitution, 

 which binds the judgment on this occasion, 

 leaving no alternative. Thus far, I have done 

 little but bring the diversified testimony to- 

 gether and weave it into one body. It is not I 

 who speak. I am nothing. It is the cause, whose 

 voice I am, which speaks to you. Bub there 

 are. yet other things which, even at this late 

 hour, crave to be said. And here, after this 

 long .review, I am brought back to more general 

 considerations, and end as I began, by showing 

 the necessity of enfranchisement for the sake of 

 public security and public faith. I plead now 

 for the ballot, as the great guaranty ; the only 

 sufficient guaranty being in itself peacema- 

 ker, reconciler, schoolmaster, and protector to 

 which we are bound by every necessity and 

 every reason ; and I speak also for the good of 

 the States lately in rebellion, as well as for the 

 glory and safety of the Republic, that it may be 

 an example to mankind. 



" Let me be understood. "What I especially 

 ask is impartial suffrage, which is, of course, 

 embraced in universal suffrage. What is .uni- 

 versal is necessarily impartial. For the pres- 

 ent, I simply insist that all shall be equal 

 before the law, so that, in the enjoyment of 

 this right, there shall be no restriction which 

 is not equally applicable to all. Any further 

 question, in the nature of 'qualification,' be- 

 longs to another stage of tbe debate. And 

 yet I have no hesitation in saying that unl 

 versal suffrage is a universal right, subject only 

 to such regulations as the safety of society 

 may require. These may concern (1) age, (2) 

 character, (3) registration, (4) residence. No- 

 body doubts that minors may be excluded, and 

 eo, also, persons of infamous life. Registra- 

 tion and residence are both prudential require- 

 ments for the safeguard of the ballot-box 

 against the nomads and Bohemians of politics, 

 and to compel the exercise of this franchise 

 where a person is known among his neighbors 

 and friends. Education also, may, under cer- 

 tain circumstances, be a requirement of pru- 

 dence, especially valuable in a Kepublic, where 

 so much depends on the intelligence of the peo- 

 ple. These temporary restrictions do not in any 

 way interfere with the right of suffrage, for they 

 leave it absolutely accessible to all. Even if im- 

 pediments, they are such as may be easily over- 

 come. At all events, they are not in any sense 

 insurmountable, and this is the essential re- 

 quirement of republican institutions. No mat- 

 ter under what depression of poverty, in what 

 depth of obscurity, or with what diversity of 

 complexion you may have been born, you are, 

 nevertheless, a citizen the peer of every other 

 citizen, and the ballot is your inalienable right. 



"Having pleaded for the freedman, I now 

 plead for the Republic; for to each alike the 

 ballot is a necessity. It is idle to expect any 

 true peace while the freedman is robbed of this 



transcendent light and left a prey to that ven 

 geance which is ready to wreak upon him the 

 disappointment of defeat. The country, sym- 

 pathetic with him, will be in a condition of per- 

 petual unrest. "With him it will suffer and with 

 him- alone can it cease to suffer. Only through 

 him can you redress the balance of our politi- 

 cal ystern and assure the safety of patriot citi- 

 zens. Only through him can you save the 

 national debt from the inevitable repudiation 

 which awaits it when recent rebels in conjunc- 

 tion with Northern allies once more bear sway. 

 He is our best guaranty. Use him. He was 

 once your fellow-soldier; he has always been 

 your fellow-man. If he was willing to die for 

 the Republic, he is surely good enough to vote. 

 And now that he is ready to uphold the Repub- 

 lic, it will be madness to reject Mm. Had he 

 voted originally, the acts of secession must have 

 failed. Treason would have been voted down. 

 You owe this tragical war and the debt now 

 fastened upon the country to the denial of tbis 

 right. Vacant chairs in once happy homes, in- 

 numerable graves, saddened hearts, mothers, 

 fathers, wives, sisters, brothers, all mourning 

 lost ones, the poor now ground by a taxation 

 they had never known before, all testify against 

 that injustice by which the present freedman 

 was not allowed to vote. Had he voted, there 

 would have been peace. If he votes now, there 

 will be peace. Without this you must have a 

 standing army, which is a sorry substitute for 

 justice. Before you is the plain alternative of 

 the ballot-box or the cartridge-box ; choose ye 

 between them." 



Mr. Henderson, of Missouri, proposed to 

 strike out all after the word " that " in the reso- 

 lution, and insert the following : 



The following article be proposed to the Legisla- 

 tures of the several States as an amendment to the 

 Constitution of the United States, which, when rati- 

 fied by three-fourths of said Legislatures, shall be 

 valid to all intents and purposes as a part of the said 

 Constitution, namely : 



ARTICLE 14. No State, in prescribing the qualifica- 

 tions requisite for electors therein, shall discriminate 

 against any person on account of color or race. 



Mr. Fessenden, of Maine, followed, and pro- 

 ceeded to state the views of the committee in 

 recommending this joint resolution. The result 

 of leaving the Constitution as it was, without 

 amendment, would be that, so far as the power 

 exists in the States, it would still be exercised 

 to deny all political rights to those who have, 

 heretofore, been considered unfit and not in a 

 condition to exercise them. That is, we should 

 have, in a portion of the States, all the people 

 represented and all the people acting, and in 

 another portion of the States, all the people rep- 

 resented and but a portion of the people only 

 exercising political rights and retaining them in 

 their own hands. Is it not our duty to guard 

 in some way against this ? At this time no one 

 contends that the mass of the population of the 

 recent slave States is fit to be admitted to 

 the exercise of the right of suffrage. The argu- 

 ment addressed to the committee wa? What 



