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CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



being counted as valid States, until the Constitution 

 shall have been so amended as to make it what its 

 framers intended ; and so as to secure perpetual as- 

 cendency to the party of the Union. 



. "That is the phrase of these times by which 

 men undertake to describe their own party, 

 1 the party of the Union.' A party that to-day 

 says, this Union shall not be restored, a party 

 that to-day says that eleven States shall stay 

 out of Congress, arrogates to itself the name of 

 ' the Union party.' Describing his party by 

 that term, he says that the Constitution must 

 be so amended as to secure the perpetual as- 

 cendency of the Union party : 



If they should grant the right of suffrage to per- 

 sons of color, I think there would always bo Union 

 white men enough in the South, aided by the blacks, 

 to divide the representation, and thus continue the 

 Republican ascendency. 



" That is a little more distinct. Dropping the 

 phrase, 'the Union party,' the head of this 

 committee, the chieftain in the House, comes 

 squarely out in the House of Representatives 

 and says that the Constitution must be so 

 amended as to secure the perpetual ascendency 

 of the Republican party. Mr. President, have 

 we come to that in the Senate of the United 

 States, that we abandon principle, that we seek 

 no longer to base representation upon popula- 

 tion, that we do not seek to base representation 

 upon voters, but that we mingle the basis of 

 representation so as to secure a party life ? I 

 hope that I shall never come to the considera- 

 tion of a question of so grave importance with 

 a partisan feeling." 



Mr. Hendricks further insisted that it was a 

 proposition the tendency of which was to place 

 agriculture under the control and power of 

 manufactures and commerce forever ; and also 

 was designed as a punishment on the Southern 

 States. 



Mr. Buckalew, of Pennsylvania, in opposition, 

 said : " The amendment presents an alternative 

 to each State in which persons of an inferior 

 race or color may be found, whether Asiatics or 

 Africans. In the Pacific States it may relate 

 to the former, while in the Southern and Cen- 

 tral States it will apply to the latter ; and the 

 alternative is that suffrage shall be extended to 

 such race generally upon the same conditions 

 and to the same extent that it is extended to 

 the white race, otherwise the whole of such in- 

 ferior race shall be deducted from the popula- 

 tion of the State in assigning it Representatives 

 in Congress. Every State in which Africans 

 or Asiatics are found is to be subjected to a 

 constitutional pressure in favor of indiscrimina- 

 ting suffrage to all races and colors of mankind 

 found within its borders. If it refuse or neglect 

 to establish such indiscriminating suffrage, it 

 is to pay the penalty in a loss of power in the 

 Federal Government. And it is to be observed 

 that even where the disfranchisement is but 

 partial, the whole race, and not merely the part 

 disfranchised, is to be deducted from the popula- 

 tion of the State in assigning it Representatives. 



" Now, one of two things must happen in s. 

 State in case this amendment be adopted. 

 Negro or Asiatic suffrage must be accepted, or 

 the State will be stripped of a portion of the 

 power which she now holds under the Consti- 

 tution. This is, therefore, a penal amendment. 

 While it assumes to leave the State free to reg- 

 ulate suffrage for itself, it imposes a penalty 

 upon it if it decide in a particular way. No 

 matter how strong, or even imperative, may 

 be the reasons against lowering the standard of 

 suffrage in a State to the capacity of the negro 

 or Chinaman, the State must do it or be strip- 

 ped of the constitutional right to full represen- 

 tation which she now holds. It is virtually a 

 decision by Congress that to withhold negro 

 suffrage to any extent, or for any cause, is 

 criminal and justly obnoxious to punishment, 

 and that that punishment shall be imposed by 

 three-fourths of the States upon the remainder 

 by means of a constitutional amendment." 



He then urged as general objections to the 

 measure that eleven States were unrepresented in 

 the Senate and House ; the probability that any 

 amendment made at that time would be a par- 

 tisan one ; that members of Congress were not 

 chosen with reference to the subject of con- 

 stitutional amendment ; that whatever amend- 

 ments were now proposed by Congress were to 

 be submitted to Legislatures, and not to popular 

 conventions in the States, and most of those 

 Legislatures were to be the ones then in ses- 

 sion ; and that in thus substituting amendments 

 a dispute was invited on the question of legisla- 

 tive assent necessary to their adoption. 



Mr. Sumner, of Massachusetts, again took the 

 floor, and thus alluded to the general subject of 

 reconstruction, which had been largely dis- 

 cussed by previous speakers : 



" The question before us, even in its simplest 

 form, is of incalculable importance ; but it has 

 an added interest, inasmuch as it opens the 

 whole vast subject of reconstruction. Into this 

 field I shall not be tempted at this time, except 

 to express a short opinion on the general prin- 

 ciples we should seek to establish. Treason 

 must be made odious, and to this end power 

 must be secured to loyal fellow-citizens. In 

 doing this, two indispensable conditions cannot 

 be forgotten : first, all who have been untrue to 

 the Republic must for a certain time, constitu- 

 ting the transition period, be excluded from the 

 partnership of government; and, secondly, all 

 who have been true to the Republic must be 

 admitted into the partnership of government, 

 according to the sovereign rule of the Consti- 

 tution, which knows no distinction of color. 

 Following these two simple commandments, 

 there will be safety and peace, together with 

 power and renown. Neglecting these two 

 simple commandments, there must be peril 

 and distraction, together with imbecility and 

 dishonor. In the one way, reconstruction will 

 be easy ; in the other way, it will in any just 

 sense be impossible. It may seem for the mo- 

 ment to succeed; but it must fail in the end- 



