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CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



it seems to me, ought to be discussed more care- 

 fully at a future time; but as it is pertinent to 

 the discussion of the nature of this enabling act 

 I may be justified in saying a word upon it. 

 We made a proposition to the Southern States 

 at the last session of Congress. It was made 

 after the gravest and fullest consideration prob- 

 ably that any measure ever received from any 

 Congress of the United States. No legislative 

 act of Congress since the foundation of this 

 Government was surrounded with more difficult 

 questions than the one we acted upon at the 

 last session. 



" I hope yet that that offer made by the peo- 

 ple of the United States will be accepted by the 

 Southern States ; they will have an opportunity 

 this winter to do it, their State Legislatures are 

 convening and acting upon it ; but if they do 

 not accept it, then what is left for us? We 

 have either got to be ruled by those people, or 

 we have got to rule them ; and when that choice 

 comes, I prefer to rule them. I say that sooner 

 than allow the States recently in rebellion to 

 come into these halls with increased political 

 power, arrogant and domineering, banishing 

 loyal people from among them, overriding even 

 the Constitution and laws of the United States, 

 denying protection to the people who were true 

 and loyal during the war, I will keep them out. 

 If they come in that spirit I will not admit 

 them. They shall never enter here until they 

 have entirely changed their tone and manner. 

 They will drive the people of the Northern 

 States, unwilling as they are, to organize new 

 governments there, and they will have to sub- 

 mit to those governments, whether they are 

 organized upon the black basis or the white 

 basis or the loyal basis. We have made them 

 a liberal offer ; if they reject it, it is their own 

 fault, not ours. We have made them an offer 

 which, in the judgment of foreign nations and 

 in the judgment of our own people, is moderate, 

 reasonable, and fair. 



" And allow me to say that when we made 

 our appeal to the people of the United States 

 in the recent elections nothing gave us such 

 strength as the moderation of the constitutional 

 amendment. I never heard a man, either on 

 the stump or in the forum, successfully deny 

 that it was fair in all its parts and reasonable 

 in all its terms. We were divided here some- 

 what upon the terms and conditions, the lan- 

 guage and phraseology of the amendment, but 

 the result of our deliberations was a proposi- 

 tion which, by the judgment of the American 

 people, was such a one as we ought to have 

 made to our brothers who had been in error. 

 I never heard a Democrat or anybody else who 

 could controvert it. 



Mr. Brown, of Missouri, said : " The Senator 

 from Ohio has pleaded very strongly for what 

 he calls justice to these people. I say, sir, that 

 I will do justice to them when they do justice 

 to others. He claims for them the right of rep- 

 resentation and self-government. I say that I 

 will give them that right of representation and 



self-government when they give it to others 

 who are equally entitled to it, and not a mo- 

 ment before. 



"I have not, so far as my feeling goes, any 

 especial desire to exclude this new State of 

 Nebraska from coming and taking its place in 

 our Union. On the contrary, all of my predi- 

 lections, all of my sympathies, would carry me 

 forward to extend the hand to that infant 

 State ; all of the interests that tie together those 

 Western commonwealths would inducfe me to 

 go far, very far, to do all in my power to aid 

 that State in accomplishing its admission into 

 the Union. But, sir, I am not prepared here 

 to-day, in order to accomplish that result, to 

 do what would destroy my own self-respect, 

 and to do what I should always feel would be 

 a violation of my duty as an American Senator, 

 commissioned to protect the rights of freedom 

 in this country. Therefore, not for any pur- 

 pose of delay, not as militating against this 

 State entering into the Union, but in order that 

 my action may be consistent with my faith, in 

 order that I may stand clear on this record of 

 freedom and not vote to-day for what I voted 

 against yesterday, I have introduced this amend- 

 ment, which, so far from defeating the admis- 

 sion of this State, will, I believe, contribute 

 more to bring it in and to render it perma- 

 nently a free republic than any other action 

 that we- could take. 



" Now, sir, what else do I propose here to-day 

 except to say that this State of Nebraska, when 

 she does come in, shall come in upon the ex- 

 plicit ground that there shall be no denial of 

 the rights of citizenship on the ground of color ? 

 Is that any unfair requisition upon this infant 

 State, that it shall do justice to its own citizens, 

 that it shall not rob them of rights that are just 

 as dear as your rights or mine ? And, sir, after 

 having passed yesterday an act which was predi- 

 cated directly on the right of all men to this 

 suffrage, with what propriety can we come in 

 here this Friday morning and sanction by our 

 vote that which declares that those of a cer- 

 tain color shall be excluded from the suffrage? 

 I ask you, furthermore, after having cast this 

 vote for the admission of Nebraska, with what 

 propriety could I go back to the State of Mis- 

 souri and engage there in a canvass to strike 

 out the same clause, perhaps, from the consti- 

 tution of my own State ? Would I not be met 

 on every stump in that State with the asser- 

 tion, ' Why, here, when you had the power, 

 when Congress was legislating for the Terri- 

 tories over which it has exclusive jurisdiction, 

 you refused to strike this clause out.' The 

 argument would be unanswerable, and I would 

 not dare face the people of Missouri on any 

 such issue." 



Mr. Hendricks, of Indiana, said : "When this 

 bill was before the Senate on Friday, I expressed 

 the regret which I felt at making any opposition 

 to the immediate admission of Nebraska as a 

 State, because I said that my sympathies were 

 with the border settlers, and if indeed it were 



