CONGRESS, UNITED STATF.s. 



<! or nttomptocl to bo defined ; but these 

 i questions are loft ns unsettled as during 

 ull the course of oar history, when they have 

 occupied the attention nnd taxed the learning 

 (if the departments of Government. But this 

 -tain, that the section will add many mil- 

 to the class of persons who are citizens. 

 Wo hav.- l.eeii justly pro uil of the rank and 

 title of our citi/t-n^hip, for wo understood it to 

 belong to the inhabitants of the United States 

 who were descended from the great races of 

 people who inhabit the countries of Enrope, 

 and such emigrants from those countries as 

 have been admitted under our laws. The rank 

 and title conferred honor at homo and secured 

 kindness, respect, and safety everywhere abroad ; 

 but if this amendment be adopted, wo will then 

 carry the title and enjoy its advantages in com- 

 mon witli the negroes, the coolies, and the In- 

 dians. When the Senator from Wisconsin pro- 

 posed an amendment excluding the savage In- 

 dians of the forest, I believe every Senator who 

 had been in the caucus voted against it. No 

 one was authorized to change a word that the 

 caucus had used, but I am not quite sure that 

 the people of Minnesota will regard the obli- 

 gation to a caucus as a sufficient reason why 

 the Senator from that State (Mr. Ramsey) 

 should seek to confer the rank, privileges, and 

 immunities of citizenship upon the cruel sav- 

 ages who destroyed their peaceful settlements 

 and massacred the people with circumstances 

 of atrocity too horrible to relate. How our citi- 

 zenship will bo esteemed at home and abroad, 

 should this amendment be adopted, we may 

 judge by consulting the sentiments with which 

 we regard Mexican citizenship. Wo feel that 

 it defines a mixed population, made up of races 

 that ought not to mingle whites, negroes, and 

 Indians of whom twenty thousand could not 

 cope with four thousand soldiers of the United 

 States of pure white blood on the field of Bnena 

 Vista. It was the work of many generations 

 to place the name and fame of our citizenship 

 so high that it ranked with the proudest titles 

 on earth ; but the mad fanaticism and partisan 

 fury of a single year may so degrade it as there 

 shall bo 



' None so poor to do it reverence.' 

 u The second section now demands our at- 

 tention. The intent and effect of that section 

 is to take away representation in Congress in 

 all the States in which the right of voting is 

 not given to the negroes. The purpose is to 

 constrain every State to confer the right of 

 voting upon the negroes ; and in case of refusal, 

 the penalty is loss of representation. The sec- 

 tion does not rest 'upon the proposition that 

 those whom the States treat as unfit to vote 

 shall not be represented, for it is so framed as 

 to continue to the Northern and Eastern States 

 their twenty Representatives that are based 

 upon a non-voting population. It is so framed, 

 also, as to continue to the States of Maryland, 

 Tennessee, West Virginia, and Missouri, their 

 full representation, although during the war 

 VOL. vi. 18 A 



the military power was so used in those State* 

 as to place the political power in the hands of 

 a few, who so exercised it as to exclude the 

 ri M'hio of the people from the ballot-bor. You 

 eay that if the States treat the negroes as unfit 

 to vote, then they shall not be voted for; that 

 no representation shall be allowed for them ; 

 then, I ask, if in some of the Northern States 

 the foreigner is denied a vote for flre years, 

 why shall ho bo voted for? If in Maryland, 

 West Virginia, Tennessee, and Missouri, the 

 majority arc treated as unfit to vote, why shall 

 the minority vote for them and be represented 

 for them ? Come, now, let candor and truth 

 have full sway, and answer me, is it not be- 

 cause you believe that the few in these States 

 now aflowcd to vote will send radicals to Con- 

 gress, and therefore you allow them to send full 

 delegations that it may add to your political 

 party power ? And I now submit to your pa- 

 triotism, to your love of our country, if we 

 have not come upon most dangerous times, 

 when our Constitution is to be torn up and re- 

 modelled that a political party may make its 

 power more secure, that it may hold on to the 

 offices, and shape and control sectional policies. 



" Mr. President, I now venture the predic- 

 tion that this thing cannot succeed ; that in 

 this land of intelligence and love of liberty and 

 right, permanent power cannot be built upon 

 inequality, injustice, and wrong. If the princi- 

 ple be right that none but voters ought to be 

 represented, why do you not say so ? If you 

 think the negro ought to have the right of 

 voting ; if you are in favor of it, and intend it 

 shall be given, why do you not in plain words 

 confer it upon them ? It is much fairer than 

 to seek it by indirection, and the people will 

 distinctly understand you when you propose 

 such a change of the Constitution. I am not 

 for it directly, nor will I coerce the States to 

 its allowance. If conferred by the free action 

 of the States, I am content. Within the limits 

 of constitutional right and power I will support 

 all measures necessary and proper for the pro- 

 tection and elevation of the colored raee ; meas- 

 ures safe and just to both races ; but I do not 

 believe that it is for the good of either race that 

 they should be brought into close social and 

 political relations. 



" The third section provides that no person 

 shall ever hold any office under the United 

 States, or under any State, who, having at any 

 time taken the oath prescribed by the Consti- 

 tution as an officer of the United States or of 

 any State, shall engage in rebellion or give aid 

 and comfort to the public enemies. The prop- 

 osition to exempt from the operations of the 

 section those who against their will were com- 

 pelled to participate in the rebellion, was voted 

 down ; and the section now stands excluding 

 from all offices every person of the described 

 class who either voluntarily or involuntarily 

 became connected with the rebellion ; and that, 

 too, notwithstanding the party may be under 

 the shield of the President's pardon. This 



