232 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



Mr Sumner, of Massachusetts, in opposition 

 to the bill, said : " It seems to me that there 

 are three distinct objections at this moment to 

 the admission of Colorado as a State, and I will 

 speak of them in their order ; first, the irregu- 

 larity of the proceedings which have ended in 

 the seeming adoption of the constitution pre- 

 sented to us ; second, the small number of peo- 

 ple constituting the population of that Terri- 

 tory, not being sufficient, as I submit, to justify 

 us in investing it with all the great prerogatives 

 of a State ; and in the third place, it does not 

 come before us now according to the require- 

 ments of the enabling act, with a constitution 

 republican in form and consistent with the 

 Declaration of Independence." 



Relative to the third objection, he further 

 said : " The requirement of this very enabling 

 act under which they have pretended to pro- 

 ceed, but which, as I have shown, was already 

 exhausted before they entered upon these pro- 

 ceedings, is as follows : 



That the constitution, when formed, shall be re- 

 publican, and not repugnant to the Constitution of 

 the United States and the principles of the Declara- 

 tion of Independence. 



" Now, what is the constitution ? Article 

 three, entitled ' Suffrage and Elections,' begins 

 as follows : 



Sec. 1. Every white male citizen of the age of 

 twenty-one years and upward, who is by birth, or 

 has become by naturalization or by treaty, or shall 

 have declared his intention to become a citizen of the 

 United States according to the laws thereof, and 

 who shall have resided in the State of Colorado for 

 BIX months preceding any election, and shall have 

 been a resident for ten days of the precinct or elec- 

 tion district where he offers to vote, shall be deemed 

 a qualified elector and entitled to vote at the same. 



" There you have the requirement, ' every 

 white male citizen ; ' in other words, nobody 

 who is not ' white ' under this constitution is 

 recognized as entitled to the elective franchise. 

 Now, sir, I insist, and on that head I challenge 

 a reply from any Senator on this floor, that 

 such a constitution does not comply with tbe 

 requirement, that it is not republican, and that 

 it is repugnant to the principles of the Decla- 

 ration of Independence. 



'" Again, sir, I submit that at this moment, 

 when the whole country is agitated by the great 

 question, what shall be done for the protection 

 of the colored race, to what extent we shall ex- 

 ercise the high powers of Congress in order to 

 carry that protection into the rebel States, it 

 will hardly be decent for us in reviewing the 

 constitution of a new State not to apply to it 

 the highest possible test. It Avill not do for us 

 now to recognize this con a *it"ation of Colorado 

 as republican in form, ""^e owe it to ourselves 

 to set an example and to require that in a State 

 now organized under our influence a good ex- 

 ample shall prevail. How many of us heard 

 with regret the result last autumn in Connecti- 

 cut, and again in Wisconsin, by which suffrage 

 to the colored race was denied ! We felt that 

 by those two votes liberty had suffered, that an 



enfranchised race was placed in jeopardy, that 

 its rights were dishonored by those who ought 

 to have upheld them ; and now, sir, you have 

 cast upon you in this chamber that same iden- 

 tical responsibility." 



Mr. Sumner then offered the following amend- 

 ment: 



Insert at the end of the second section the follow- 

 ing proviso : 



Provided, That this act shall not take effect except 

 upon the fundamental condition that within the State 

 there shall be no denial of the elective franchise or 

 of any other rights, on account of color or race, but 

 all persons shall be equal before the law ; and the 

 people of the Territory shall by a majority of the 

 voters, at public meetings'to be convened by the Gov- 

 ernor of the Territory, declare their assent to this 

 fundamental condition, and the Governor shall trans- 

 mit to the President of the United States an authen- 

 tic statement of such assent, whenever the same 

 shall be given, upon receipt whereof he shall by 

 proclamation announce the fact, whereupon without 

 any other proceedings on the part of Congress this 

 act shall take effect. 



Mr. Stewart, of Nevada, in reply, said : 

 " The construction of the Constitution from the 

 earliest time down has left that matter to the 

 States. Whether they allow negroes to vote or 

 not, is a matter for themselves, and their action 

 either way is not in conflict with the Constitu- 

 tion of the United States. We have no right 

 to make a constitution for a State. If their 

 constitution has in it any thing in conflict with 

 the Constitution of the United States, we can 

 say to them, ' you must agree not to enforce it ;' 

 but we are not here to make a constitution for 

 the State of Colorado. We are here with power 

 to restrain her from violating the Constitution 

 of the United States, and that is all. If you 

 can make this part of the constitution of Col- 

 orado, you can make an entire constitution for 

 her. If you can say she shall come into the 

 Union on an equal footing with the other States, 

 provided she shall not have the power to regu- 

 late the question of suffrage as the other States 

 have, you can say she shall come in on an equal 

 footing, provided she would pass some other 

 favorite law of yours, and you could carry it 

 through and make her come in with a constitu- 

 tion made for her by you. I think this would 

 be a very dangerous precedent for the Congress 

 of the United States to set. It would be mak- 

 ing constitutions for the States by the Congress 

 of the United States." 



Mr. Pomeroy, of Kansas, said : " In reference 

 to their want of population, all I can say is, 

 .that they proximate toward and are in the 

 neighborhood, at any rate, of that number of 

 population that we have always required. No 

 specific number has ever been required. These 

 people are now regularly organized. All par- 

 ties in the Territory acquiesce in the State gov- 

 ernment. There is no party there, as far as I 

 can learn, hostile to it. I know I have just re- 

 ceived a letter from Judge Wilcox, a distin- 

 guished citizen who went there from my own 

 State, in which he says there is not a public 

 man there, unless he holds an office under ths 



