144 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



Reader W. Clark, Sidney Clarke, Cobb, Conkling, 

 Cullom, Dawes, Defrees, Delano, Deming, Dixon, 

 Dodge, Donnelly, Driggs, Eckley, Eggleston, Eliot, 

 Farnsworth, Ferry, Garfield, Grinnell, Griswold, 

 Hale, Abner C. Harding, - Hart, Hawkins, Hay_es, 

 Henderson, Higby, Hill, Holmes, Hooper, Hotchkiss, 

 Demas Hubbard, John H. Hubbard, James R. Hub- 

 bell, Hulburd, Iflgersoll, Jenckes, Julian, Kasson, 

 Kelley, Kelso, Ketcham, Koontz, Laflin, George 

 V. Lawrence, William Lawrence, Loan, Longyear, 

 Marston, Marvin, Maynard, Mclndoe, McRuer, Mer- 

 cur, Miller, Moorhead, Morris, Moulton, Newell, 

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

 roy, Price, Raymond, Alexander H. Rice, Rollins, 

 Sawyer, Schenck, Schofield, Shellabarger, Sloan, 

 Spalding, Starr, Stevens, Stokes, Thayer, Francis 

 Thomas, Trowbridge, Upson, Van Aernam, Burt 

 Van Horn, Robert T. Van Horn, Hamilton Ward, 

 Warner, Elihu B. Washburne, William B. Washburn, 

 Welker, Wentworth, Williams, James F. Wilson, 

 Stephen F. Wilson, Windom, Woodbridge, and the 

 Speaker 118. 



NATS Messrs. Ancona, Bergen, Bover, Campbell, 

 Chanler, Cooper, Dawson, Denison, Eldridge, Finck, 

 Glossbrenner, Goodyear, Aaron Harding, Harris, 

 Hise, Hogan, Chester D. Hubbard, Edwin N. Hub- 

 bell, Hunter, Kerr, Kuykendall, Latham, Le Blond, 

 Leftwich, Marshall, McKee, Niblack, Nicholson, 

 Noell, Phelps, Samuel J. Randall, William H. Ran- 

 dall, Ritter, Rogers, Ross, Rousseau, Shanklin, Sit- 

 greaves, Stilwell, Strouse, Taber, Nathaniel G. Tay- 

 lor, Nelson Taylor, Thornton, Andrew H. Ward, 

 and Whaley 46. 



NOT VOTING Messrs. Banks, Beaman, Benjamin, 

 Bidwell, Bromwell, Cook, Culver, Darling, Davis, 

 Dumont, Farquhar, Asahel W. Hubbard, Humphrey, 

 Johnson, Jones, Lynch, McClurg, McCullough, Mor- 

 rill, Myers, Plants, Radford, John H. Rice, John L. 

 Thomas, Trimble, Henry D. Washburn, Winfield, 

 and Wright 28. 



On January 7th, the President returned the 

 bill to the Senate with his objections (see PUB- 

 LIC DOCUMENTS). The question was on the 

 passage of the bill, the President's objections to 

 the contrary notwithstanding. 



Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, said: "The first 

 objection made by the President is that the 

 people of this District are opposed to this 

 measure. If this were a question whether one 

 mill or two mills or ten mills on the dollar 

 should be levied on their property, I would say 

 that we ought to defer to the wishes of the 

 people of the District. If it were a question 

 whether a new court-house should be built, or 

 any question affecting alone the people of this 

 District, the people of the District ought to be 

 consulted. 



" But that is not the question here. This is 

 a question as to who shall vote! This is pecu- 

 liarly a question for Congress to determine. 

 Even in a State it is not left to the local Legis- 

 lature to determine who shall vote. The Legis- 

 lature of Ohio does not prescribe the qualifi- 

 cations of a voter in that State. I believe in no 

 State of the Union can the Legislature prescribe 

 the qualifications of a voter. The prescription 

 of who shall vote is the highest act of power in 

 any government. It is an act of the people. 

 After it is once fixed, it is only by a change 

 of the Constitution that the subject can be 

 reached. The people themselves, through a 

 convention duly elected, prescribe who shall 

 vote ; and even if legislative power should be 



conferred upon the people of this District, no 

 authority would be given to them to say who 

 should vote. That must be fixed by the supreme 

 legislative authority, and in the District it is ad- 

 mitted to be in Congress. 



" Now, that the white people of this District 

 should meet together and say that other people, 

 equally interested with them, shall not vote, is 

 an assumption of authority not justified by rea- 

 son. "What right have the white people of this 

 District to say that the negroes shall not vote, 

 any more than the negroes have to say that the 

 whites shall not vote, except that they are the 

 more numerous? The result was, when they 

 called an election, not in pursuance of a law, 

 not in accordance with law, but without law, 

 to determine who should vote, as a matter of 

 course, a great many people remained away, and 

 only those voted who were in favor of exclud- 

 ing the negroes from voting. I do not pay the 

 slightest attention to this vote of the people of 

 the District. We are bound to legislate for 

 them ourselves. "We prescribe who shall vote 

 in this District. It is a power clearly conferred 

 upon us; and in the exercise of that power I 

 felt bound to take the broadest democratic rule 

 to give to every one affected by the legislative 

 authority of this District a right to vote directly 

 or indirectly. So far as the families, the wo- 

 men and children are concerned, we know 

 that they are represented by their husbands, 

 by their parents, by their brothers, by those 

 who are connected with them by domestic ties; 

 but so far as the black people of this District 

 are concerned, we know that the white people 

 generally were hostile to them ; jealous of them ; 

 generally had a feeling of strong prejudice 

 against them. Now, to say that the white peo- 

 ple of this District should vote for the black 

 people was simply saying that the black people 

 had no rights whatever which the white people 

 were bound to respect. 



" The next objection which is urged by the 

 President is, that it is dangerous to the rights 

 of the whites to extend the suffrage to the 

 negroes. That is an argument which, I think, 

 answers itself. He admits in this message 

 that the colored population is less than one- 

 third of the people of this District. The white 

 people have nearly all the property ; they have 

 the control of every organ of public opinipn ; 

 they have the control of every newspaper ; they 

 have control of nearly all the churches ; they 

 are intelligent; they are white; and yet it is 

 said that one hundred thousand of them cannot 

 enter into a competition with thirty thousand 

 negroes ! It is simply absurd. 



" But it is said that these negroes are igno- 

 rant. So they are. And if I could draw 

 any line of distinction between those who are 

 intelligent and those who are not intelligent, I 

 would do so. I listened with great interest to 

 the argument of the presiding officer of this 

 body on this subject. I should have been 

 willing, for the present at least, to apply an 

 intelligence qualification to the negro voters; 



