168 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



citizens against extending the right of suffrage 

 to negroes, especially down in the far South, 

 where the great body of the slaves were in ab- 

 ject ignorance. 



"But that is not all, Mr. President. The 

 President of the United States was of the opin- 

 ion that he had no power to extend the elective 

 franchise to them, and, therefore, in judging of 

 his plan of reconstruction, we must give him 

 at least a reasonable credit for honesty of pur- 

 pose. 



" "We complain here that the President has 

 not exercised his power to extend to freedmen 

 the right of suffrage when Congress never has 

 done it. We have absolute authority over this 

 District, and until this session the proposition 

 was not seriously mooted to extend the suffrage 

 to the colored population. Here, better than 

 anywhere else in the Union, they are fitted and 

 entitled to suffrage, and yet we never, in our 

 legislative power for this District, where we 

 have absolute power, complied with that con- 

 dition which has been asked of the President 

 of the United States. It is complained that he 

 did not extend the franchise to four millions in 

 the Southern States, who are admitted to be 

 ignorant, having been slaves for life, who are 

 not prepared for liberty in its broadest and 

 fullest sense, who have yet to be educated for 

 the enjoyment of all the rights of freemen, 

 when we ourselves never have been willing to 

 this moment to confer the elective franchise 

 upon the intelligent colored population of this 

 District. 



"So I think we have never conferred the 

 right to vote upon negroes in the Territories. 

 My colleague will know whether we have or 

 not. We never have. Here we have Terri- 

 tories where we have the power to mould the 

 incipient form and ideas, and where our power 

 is absolute, and yet Congress has never pre- 

 scribed as a condition to their organization as 

 Territories and to their admission as States the 

 right of negroes to vote. 



" And this is not all. In the only plan Con- 

 gress has ever proposed for the reconstruction 

 of the Southern States, the Wade and Davis 

 bill to which I have referred so often, Con- 

 gress did not and would not make negro suf- 

 frage a part of their plan. The effort was made 

 to do so, and it was abandoned. By that bill 

 the suffrage was conferred only upon WHITE 

 male loyal citizens. And in the plan adopted 

 by the President he adopted in this respect 

 the very same conditions for suffrage pre- 

 scribed by Congress. 



" Now, have we, as candid and honorable 

 men, the right to complain of the President 

 because he declined to extend suffrage to this 

 most ignorant freed population, when we have 

 refused or neglected to extend it to them or 

 to the negroes of this District, and to the 

 colored men who may go into the Territories ? 

 No, sir ; whatever may be our opinion of the 

 theory or right of every man to vote and I do 

 not dispute or contest with honorable Senators 



upon that point I say with the President, 

 that to ask of him to extend to four millions 

 of these people the right of suffrage when we 

 have not the courage to extend it to those 

 within our control, when our States, repre- 

 sented by us here on this floor have refused to 

 do it, is to make of him an unreasonable de- 

 mand, in which the people of the United 

 States will not sustain Congress." 



Mr. Dixon, of Connecticut, said: "Mr. Presi- 

 dent, what now are the two great systems of 

 policy with regard to reconstruction and re- 

 union on which the minds of the people of this 

 country are to-day divided ? One of these sys- 

 tems, known, by way of distinction, as that of 

 the President, is indicated in the words which 

 I have cited from his veto message. It contem- 

 plates a careful, cautious, discriminating admis- 

 sion of a loyal representation from loyal States 

 and districts in the appropriate House of Con- 

 gress, by the separate action of each, every case 

 to be considered by itself and decided on its own 

 merits. It recognizes the right of every loyal 

 State and district to be represented by loyal 

 men in Congress. It draws the true line of dis- 

 tinction between traitors and true men. It fur- 

 nishes to the States lately in rebellion the strong- 

 est possible inducement to loyalty and fidelity 

 to the Government. It ' makes treason odious,' 

 by showing that while the traitor and the rebel 

 are excluded from Congress, the loyal and the 

 faithful are cordially received. It recognizes 

 and rewards loyalty wherever it is found, and 

 distinguishes, as it ought, between a Horace 

 Maynard and a Jefferson Davis. 



" What is the other policy ? It contemplates 

 the entire exclusion of representation in either 

 House of Congress from any State lately in re- 

 bellion, irrespective of its present loyalty or 

 the character of its people, until the adoption 

 of certain measures not definitely stated, whose 

 advocates agree neither as to the measures pro- 

 posed nor in the reasons given for their sup- 

 port this exclusion to continue for an indefi- 

 nite and unlimited period of time, declared by 

 some to be for five years, by some thirty years, 

 and by some in a certain contingency forever ; 

 the entire region comprised within the thirteen 

 seceding States, including Tennessee, to be held 

 meanwhile as conquered territory, and to be 

 governed as subject provinces by the central 

 power, and the people thereof to be ruled as 

 vassals, liable and subject necessarily at all times 

 to taxation, while thus wholly deprived of rep- 

 resentation and of every right of self-govern- 

 ment. 



" And now, to render certain this policy or 

 at least in view of it it is proposed by the res- 

 olution now under consideration to' enact, so 

 far as such a resolution can enact, that neither 

 House of Congress shall admit a member from 

 any one of the States lately in rebellion, what- 

 ever may be his own past or present character 

 and conduct, and however true and loyal may 

 be the people by whom he is elected, until con- 

 sent, by an act of Congress, passed by both 



