CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



151 



want to insist on any thing which may interfere 

 with the passage of the bill. I withdraw the 

 third section." 



Mr. Farns worth, of Illinois, said: "The ob- 

 ject of this bill is to facilitate reconstruction 

 and restoration. The first section, as the gen- 

 tleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Stevens) has 

 already told the House, restores the principle 

 of majorities in elections, which should never 

 have been departed from in the original legis- 

 lation of Congress upon this subject. 



" Now, I will say this much to the House, 

 that in all probability, unless the first section 

 of this bill is enacted into law, the constitu- 

 tions adopted by the several States in the 

 South will not be ratified by the people, if 

 there is required to vote for their ratification 

 a majority of all the voters registered. It is 

 undoubtedly known to the members of this 

 House that a great many of the voters in these 

 unreconstructed States have changed their 

 residences since they were registered. Poor 

 men are constantly being hired to go here or 

 there to work upon plantations or in other 

 places, thus losing their residences. 



" Then, too, as will be readily seen, every 

 vote that is not polled upon the ratification of 

 the constitution counts against it. It there- 

 fore seems to me to be not at all likely that a 

 majority of all the voters registered will be 

 polled in favor of these constitutions. 



"The second section provides that, at the 

 same time the people in the States lately in 

 insurrection vote upon the question of the 

 ratification or rejection of their constitutions, 

 they shall also vote for Representatives in Con- 

 gress. The object of that section is to facilitate 

 the representation of those States in Congress, 

 so that they may not be kept out after these 

 States shall have been reconstructed, and their 

 constitutions duly ratified and adopted, until 

 another election is held for members of Con- 

 gress, but that, as soon as any one of these 

 States shall have been declared by Congress to 

 be entitled to representation, their members, 

 who may be standing at the doors of the House 

 of Representatives, may take their seats as 

 such Representatives." 



Mr. Stevens, of Pennsylvania, demanded the 

 previous question, which was seconded, and the 

 substitute agreed to. He then demanded the 

 previous question on the passage of the bill, 

 and it was passed by the following vote : 



YEAS Messrs. Allison, Ames, Anderson, Arnell, 

 Delos E. Ashley, James M. Ashley, Bailey, Baker, 

 Baldwin, Banks, Beaman, Benjamin, Bmgham, 

 Broomall, Buckland, Gary, Churchill, Eeader W. 

 Clarke, Sidney Clarke, Cobb, Coburn, Cook, Covode, 

 Cullom, Dawes, Dixon, Donnelly, Driggs, Eckley, 

 Eliot, Farnsworth, Ferriss, Fields, Garfield, Gris- 

 wold, Halsey, Harding, Hawkins, Higby, Hooper, 

 Hopkins, Chester D. Hubbard, Hulburd, Hunter, 

 Ingersoll, Jenckes, Judd, Julian, Kelley, Ketcham, 

 KoontZj Laflin, William Lawrence, Loan, Logan, 

 Loughridge, Lynch, Mallory, Maynard, McCarthy, 

 McClurg, Mercur, Moore, Moorhead, Morrell, Mul- 

 lins, Myers, Nunn, O'Neill, Orth, Paine, Perham, 

 Peters, Pike, Pile, Poland, Price, Eobertson, Saw- 



yer, Schenck, Scofield, Shanks, Smith, Spalding, 

 Starkweather, Aaron F. Stevens, Thaddeus Stevens, 

 Stewart, Stokes, Taylor, Thomas, Upson, Van Aer- 

 nam, Burt Van Horn, Eobert T. Van Horn, Ward, 

 Cadwalader C. Washburn, Elihu B. Washburne, 

 "William B. "Washburn, Welker, William Williams, 

 John T. Wilson, Stephen F. Wilson, and Windom 

 104. 



NATS Messrs. Adams, Archer, Axtell, Barnes, 

 Barnum, Beck, Boyer, Brooks, Burr, Eldridge, Fox, 

 Getts, Glossbrenner, Golladay, Grover, Holman, 

 Hotchkiss, Eichard D. Hubbard, Johnson, Jones, 



Woodward 37. 



NOT VOTING Messrs. Benton, Blaine, Blair, Bout- 

 well, Bromwell, Butler, Cake, Chanler, Cornell, 

 Dodge, Eggleston, Ela, Ferry.Finney, Gravely, 

 HaightjHamilton, Hill, Asahel W. Hubbard, Hum- 

 phrey, feelsey, Kitchen, George V. Lawrence, Lin- 

 coln, Marvin, McCullough, Miller, Morrissey, New- 

 comb, Plants, Polsley, Pomeroy, Eaum, Eobinson, 

 Selye, Shellabarger, Sitgreaves, Stone, Taife, Trimble, 

 Trowbridge, Twichell, Van Wyck, Henry D. Wash- 

 burn, Thomas Williams, James F. Wilson, and 

 Woodbridge 47. 



In the Senate, on January 22d, the bill of 

 the House was considered: 



Mr. Doolittle, of Wisconsin, moved to refer 

 the bill to the Committee on the Judiciary, with 

 the following instructions : 



That, the said committee be instructed in said bill, 

 or in any other bill which may be reported by them 

 having reference to the question of reconstruction, 

 so called, in any of the States not represented in the 

 present Congress, to insert the following proviso : 



Provided, nevertheless, That upon an election for the 

 ratification of any constitution, or of officers under 

 the same, previous to its adoption in any State, no 

 persons not haying the qualifications of an elector 

 under the constitution^ and laws of such State previ- 

 ous to the late rebellion shall be allowed to vote, 

 unless he shall possess one of the following qualifi- 

 cations, namely : 



1. He shall have served as a soldier in the Federal 

 Army for one year or more. 



2. He shall have sufficient education to read the 

 Constitution of the United States, and to subscribe 

 his name to an oath to support the same ; or, 



3. He shall be seized, in his own right or in the 

 right of his wife, of a freehold to the value of $250. 



Mr. Doolittle said : " Mr. President, the ques- 

 tioa presented in the instructions proposed by 

 me is, whether Congress is still resolved to sub- 

 ject the white people of the Southern States 

 to the dominion of the negro race at the point 

 of the bayonet, or whether Congress, in def- 

 erence to the recently expressed will of the 

 American people, will now so far modify their 

 policy as to leave the governments in those 

 States in the hands of the white race and of the 

 more civilized portion of the blacks? That is 

 the naked question. Strip it of all useless ver- 

 biage and specious arguments about sustaining 

 loyal men and punishing rebels, it is nothing 

 more nor less than this : shall the General of the 

 Army put the negro in power over the white 

 race in all the States of the South and keep 

 him there ? That purpose is boldly avowed by 

 some", and that will be the effect of this Radi- 

 cal reconstruction now as it stands, or as it 

 will stand if this bill shall become a law. On 



