186 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



President would not be unjustly affected by the 

 third section of the amendment. To which 

 Mr. Stevens replied : " None of those who have 

 been fully pardoned are affected by this pro- 

 vision." 



Mr. Finck, of Ohio, thought it an inauspicious 

 time to propose or make changes in the Con- 

 stitution. He condemned the course which had 

 been pursued by the majority in Congress; and 

 Baid that, stripped of all disguises, the proposed 

 measure was a mere scheme to deny represen- 

 tation to eleven States ; to prevent indefinitely, 

 a complete restoration of the Union, and per- 

 petuate the power of a sectional and dangerous 

 party. He further said : 



" "What is the theory on which these propo- 

 sitions are based ? 



" This Union is composed of thirty-six States ; 

 and by law, in full force, but the provisions of 

 which are defied and utterly disregarded, this 

 House is legally and constitutionally to be com- 

 posed of two hundred and forty-one members ; 

 but we have Representatives here from only 

 twenty-five States, and only one hundred and 

 eighty-four members. 



" The constitutional number of Senators is 

 two for each State, and when full that body 

 would now consist of seventy-two, while it is 

 in fact composed of but fifty. So that eleven 

 States are denied all representation in both 

 branches of Congress, although the Constitu- 

 tion provides 'that no State, without its con- 

 sent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in 

 the Senate ; ' and the right to representation 

 in the House is equally clear. 



"But this House by the mere exertion and 

 combination of numbers excludes from its de- 

 liberations fifty-seven members ; and the Sen- 

 ate by the same power excludes twenty-two 

 members from a voice and vote in that cham- 

 ber. And it is, sir, in this strange and extraor- 

 dinary condition of our affairs that we are 

 gravely invited to proceed to change the Con- 

 stitution in such a manner as to deeply and 

 materially affect every State whose representa- 

 tives are excluded from Congress ; and we are 

 further asked to say to these States thus ex- 

 cluded, that if they refuse to debase themselves 

 as equal States in the Union and decline to rat- 

 ify and approve by affirmative action these 

 changes, their exclusion shall be perpetual. 



" I ask gentlemen to pause and reflect before 

 they commit themselves to so monstrous and 

 revolutionary a scheme as this." 



Mr. Garfield, of Ohio, followed, and said : 

 " First let me say I regret more than I shall be 

 able to tell this House that we have not found 

 the situation of affairs in this country such and 

 the public virtue such that we might come out 

 on the plain, unanswerable proposition that 

 every adult intelligent citizen of the United 

 States, unconvicted of crime, shall enjoy the 

 right of suffrage." He expressed his entire 

 approbation of the amendments, except the 

 third, which was liable to a double construction 

 relative to its effect upon those who had been 



pardoned, and the whole section would have 

 been far more defensible if the disfranchise- 

 ment had been made perpetual. 



The joint resolution was fully debated in the 

 House until the 10th, when Mr. Stevens with- 

 drew his motion to recommit and moved the 

 previous question, which was seconded, and the 

 main question ordered, when the joint resolu- 

 tion was passed by the following vote : 



YEAS Messrs. Alley, Allison, Ames, Anderson, 

 Delos R. Ashley, James M. Ashley, Baker, Baldwin, 

 Banks, Barker, Baxter, Beaman, Benjamin, Bid- 

 well, Bingham, Blaine, Blow, Boutwell, Bromwell, 

 Broomall, Buckland, Bundy, Eeader W. Clark, Sid- 

 ney Clarke, Cobb, Conkling, Cook, Cullom, Darling, 

 Davis, Dawes, Defrees, Delano, Doming, Dixon, 

 Dodge, Donnelly, Driggs, Dumont, Eckley, Eggles- 

 ton, Eliot, Farnsworth, Ferry, Garfield, Grinnell, 

 Griswold, Abner C. Harding, Hart, Hayes, Hender- 

 son, Higby, Holmes, Hooper, Hotchkiss, Asahel W. 

 Hubbard, Chester D. Hubbard, Demas Hubbard, 

 James R. Hubbell, Hulburd, James Humphrey, In- 

 gersoll, Jenckes, Julian, Kasson, Keller, Kelso, 

 Ketcham, Kuykendall, Laflin, George V. Lawrence, 

 William Lawrence, Loan, Longyear, Lynch, Marston, 

 McClurg, Mclndoe, McKee, McRuer, Mercur, Miller, 

 Moorhead, Morrill, Morris, Moulton, Myers, Newell, 

 O'Neill, Orth, Paine, Patterson, Perham, Pike, 

 Plants, Price, William H. Randall, Raymond, Alex- 

 ander H. Rice, John H. Rice, Rollins, Sawyer, 

 Schenck, Schofield, Shellabarger, Spalding, Stevens, 

 Stillwell, Thayer, Francis Thomas, John L. Thomas, 

 Trowbridse, Ijpson, Van Aernam, Burt Van Horn, 

 Robert T.'Van Horn, Ward, Warner, Elihu B. Wash- 

 burne, Henry D. Washburn, William B. Washburn, 

 Welker, Williams, James F. Wilson, Stephen F. Wil- 

 son, Windom, Woodbridge, and the Speaker 128. 



NATS Messrs. Ancona, Bergen, Boyer, Chanler, 

 Coffroth, Dawson, Eldridge, Finck, Glossbrenner, 

 Goodyear, Grider, Aaron Harding, Harris, Kerr, 

 Latham, Le Blond, Marshall, McCullough, Niblack, 

 Phelps, Radford, Samuel J. Randall, Ritter, Rogers, 

 Ross, Rousseau, Shanklin, Sitgreaves, Smith, 

 Strouse, Tabor, Taylor, Thornton, Trimble, Wha- 

 ley, Winfield, and Wright 37. 



NOT VOTING Messrs. Brandagee, Culver, Denison, 

 Farquhar, Hale, Hill, Hogan, John H. Hubbard, 

 Edwin N. Hubbell, James M. Humphrey, Johnson, 

 Jones, Marvin, Nicholson, Noell, Pomeroy, Sloan, 

 Starr, and Wentworth 19. 



. In the Senate the debate on the joint resolu- 

 tion commenced on May 23d, by Mr. Howard, 

 of Michigan, who endeavored to present the 

 views and motives which influenced the com- 

 mittee in presenting the report. A great num- 

 ber of witnesses, he said, had been examined 

 as to the political and social condition of the 

 Southern States, and the result of their inves- 

 tigations was the joint resolution presented. 

 He then stated the privileges and rights already 

 secured under the Constitution to the citizens, 

 and said : " Now, sir, there is no power given 

 in the Constitution to enforce and to carry out 

 any of these guaranties. They are not powers 

 granted by the Constitution to Congress, and 

 of course do not come within the sweeping 

 clause of the Constitution authorizing Congress 

 to pass all laws necessary and proper for carry- 

 ing out the foregoing or granted powers, but 

 they stand simply as a bill of rights in the Con- 

 stitution, without power on the part of Con- 

 gress to give them full effect ; while at the same 



