CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



133 



I 



w, 



In <>nly one of the States was the negro 

 hided from the e xervise of the right on ac- 

 mnt <>f his nil-.- or color. South Carolina ex- 

 ; tin- negro; in the other States the ex- 

 iii was routined to condition, and the col- 

 iii u:n mi elector. In most of the 

 > is now excluded ; in some of 

 them ho is admitted npon exceptional terms ; 

 in others upon terms of Impartiality with the 

 whites. The proposition of the bill is to restore 

 uericnn rule of suffrage at the national 

 ipital, to place it upon the republican prin- 

 ciple, to make <mr legislation conform to the 

 constitutions, laws, usages, sentiments, and 

 opinions of the people of the States at the revo- 

 lutionary era of the republic, when universal 

 liherty was an aspiration alike of statesmen and 



people.' 1 



Mr. Willey, of West Virginia, offered an 

 amendment that all persons who were actual 

 residents of the District, and qualified to vote 

 therein in the elections held in the year 1865, 

 under the status then in force, might vote. 



It was further moved to strike out the first 

 section of the amendment reported by the com- 

 mittee, and in lieu of it to insert: 



That in all elections to be held hereafter in the 

 District of Columbia, the following described per- 

 sons, and those only, shall have the right to vote, to 

 wit: 



All persons, residents of said District, who have 

 been duly mustered into the military or naval service 

 of the United States during the late rebellion, and 

 have been, or shall hereafter be, honorably dis- 

 charged therefrom. 



Mule citizens of the United States who shall have 

 attained the age of twenty-one years (excepting 

 paupers, persons non compos mentis, or convicted of 

 an infamous offence), and who, being residents of the 

 ward or district in which they shall offer to vote, 

 shall have resided in said District for the period of 

 one year next preceding any election, and who shall 

 have paid the taxes assessed against them, and who 

 can read and who can write their names. But no 

 person shall have the right to vote who, in any way, 

 voluntarily gave aid and comfort to the rebels during 

 the late rebellion. 



Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts, said: "I am 

 againsl this qualification of reading and writ- 

 ing. I never did believe in it. I do not believe 

 in it now. I voted against it in my own State, 

 and I intend to vote against it here. There was 

 a time when I would have taken it because I 

 did not know that wo could get any thing more 

 in this contest ; but I think the great victory 

 if manhood suffrage is about achieved in this 



iuntry. I think we are in a position where 

 we can command it. and I am for commanding 

 it ; and I am for beginning now in this District, 

 where we have the absolute control and power. 

 For that reason I am opposed to this amend- 

 ment. 



" I would at one time have agreed to settle 

 the question on the basis early promulgated by 

 the New York Herald, of giving suffrage in the 

 rebel States to those who served in the army, 

 those who held a certain amount of property, 

 those who could read and write, those who 

 were members of Christian churches. These 



qualifications suggested early by that journal, I 

 assented to then as a beginning; I believe we 

 have gone beyond all beginnings now. During 

 the last few months the country has gone an 

 immeasurable distance in the right direction, 

 and I believe to-day that the nation is prepared 

 to demand manhood suffrage, and I am against 

 any final adjustment or settlement of this ques- 

 tion that does not demand it now. I think 

 there are hundreds of thousands of men in the 

 land who have been educated ap to this great 

 truth, that the poor men and the ignorant men 

 of this country need the ballot for their protec- 

 tion, the protection of their property, their 

 liberties, and their lives. I believe that thSre 

 are hundreds of thousands of men who hold 

 that opinion to-day who did not hold it six 

 months ago. I think we are moving in the 

 right direction. Time and circumstance are 

 working in behalf of that great cause. 



" Now, we have before us a bill to extend the 

 suffrage in the District of Columbia. There 

 has been a great deal said about it, but the fact 

 was, and we cannot deny it, that when the 

 House bill was. passed we had not the power to 

 pass it and make it a law until the closing days 

 of the last session. I speak, of course, on the 

 assumption that its final passage would have re- 

 quired for it a two-thirds vote in this body. 

 We have the power now to pass a clean bill, 

 and the country demands it." 



Mr. Willey, of West Virginia, followed, say- 

 ing : " Mr. President, this phrase ' manhood 

 suffrage ' sounds very well, and I am sure I 

 have no objection to it ; but I am particularly 

 desirous that my amendment shall prevail so 

 as to incorporate in this bill the qualification 

 of intelligence. Sir, what is manhood suffrage ? 

 Does ' manhood, 1 considered in its political ac- 

 ceptation, consist simply in physical power, in 

 arms and feet and hands and face ? Does not 

 the manhood that should be demanded as the 

 basis of the right of suffrage mean something 

 more than this ? Does it not mean intelligence 

 sufficient to appreciate the duty to be perform- 

 ed? Does it not mean some degree of moral 

 character and standing ? The pauper is a man, 

 and yet you exclude him. The convict is a man, 

 and yet you exclude him. Our sons under 

 twenty-one years of age are a portion of the 

 common brotherhood and manhood of the 

 country, and yet you exclude them. Our wives 

 and our daughters are in the same category, 

 and yet they are excluded. So, then, the ques- 

 tion involves some principle by which it shall 

 be regulated ; and it does seem to me that the 

 true interests of a free government and the 

 wise establishment of a free government re- 

 quire the great and fundamental qualification 

 of intelligence, when we propose to extend the 

 fundamental right of suffrage to any of our 

 citizens. 



" I know how hard it is to provide any rule 

 that shall operate equally. We have provided 

 a rule as regards age, and how unequally does 

 that operate! Yet it was necessary. Thou- 



