CONGKESS, UNITED STATES. 



177 



mission of these States, a great object has been 

 gained. Some gentlemen on the other side 

 were fearful that some of the Senators from 

 those States would be admitted before we had 

 ousted the first military despot of that region. 

 There is not much danger now ; and those gen- 

 tlemen might afford to let these States come in. 

 They know, I suppose, whether that gentleman 

 is to remain longer in the White House ; I do 

 not. But, at any rate, we can admit no Sen- 

 ators in time to operate upon that question. 



" The gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Bingham) 

 has moved an amendment against which I most 

 earnestly protest. He proposes, against the 

 recommendation of the committee, to leave 

 each of these States free, after its admission, 

 to amend the provisions with reference to the 

 elective franchise, as it may deem proper, with 

 regard to its own citizens. All of those States 

 have now adopted the principle of universal 

 suffrage. This country has adopted that prin- 

 ciple so far as it has spoken of late. What we 

 desire is, to secure in these States the main- 

 tenance of this principle which they have 

 adopted, so that every person of requisite age 

 within those States shall be entitled to vote. 

 The very amendment which the gentleman from 

 Ohio proposes is what the protestants from 

 South Carolina, who appeared before us, asked 

 should be inserted in the bill. And they did 

 not hesitate to give as their reason, that, if they 

 should be allowed to amend their constitution 

 in this respect, after the State had been admit- 

 ted they could adopt a property qualification 

 which would exclude from the elective fran- 

 chise all the poor men; and when I asked them 

 distinctly whether such a provision would not 

 be intended to reach the negroes, they had too 

 much manliness to deny it. If the amend- 

 ment proposed by the gentleman from Ohio 

 should be adopted, they could adopt a property 

 qualification, applicable to all classes alike, 

 which would reach down to just about the 

 black line, depriving the negroes of the priv- 

 ilege of voting and again subjecting them to 

 oppression. It would not be long before, by 

 means of vagrant laws and other laws of simi- 

 lar character, the colored race would be again 

 reduced to bondage even worse than the 

 patriarchal. 



" The amendment of the gentleman from Ohio 

 would be taken advantage of to inflict wrong 

 upon the colored race, just as the constitutional 

 amendment abolishing slavery has been evaded 

 by taking advantage of the clause, ' except as 

 a punishment for crime whereof the party shall 

 have been duly convicted.' In Florida, as I 

 learn from two gentlemen connected with the 

 Freedmen's Bureau, a law has been enacted 

 providing that persons convicted of assault and 

 battery may be sold for twenty years into bond- 

 age. If a white man runs against a negro on 

 the pavement, it is called an assault and battery, 

 and the white man takes the negro into the 

 court-house and in fifteen minutes has him 

 convicted and sentenced to bondage for twenty 

 VOL. vm. 12 A 



years. These two gentlemen told me that they 

 had witnessed the sentence of six negroes under 

 just such circumstances. The negroes were 

 sold into slavery for twenty years because white 

 men had jostled them, or, as was said there, 

 they had jostled white men. So, if we leave 

 the door open, these colored people may all be 

 made slaves again. I do not propose to leave 

 any such door open." 



The question recurred first on the amend- 

 ment of Mr. Stevens, of Pennsylvania, as fol- 

 lows: 



Add to the end of the first section as follows : 

 That so much of the seventeenth section of the 

 fifth article of the constitution of the State of Georgia 

 as gives authority to the Legislature or courts to re- 

 pudiate debts contracted prior to the 1st day of June, 

 1865, and similar provisions in the other constitu- 

 tions mentioned in this hill, shall be null und void 

 as against all men who were loyal during the whole 

 time of the rebellion, and who, during that time, 

 supported the Union, and they shall have the same 

 rights in the courts and elsewhere as if no rebellion 

 had existed. 



The question was taken ; and it was decided 

 as follows : 



YEAS Messrs. Adams, Ames, Anderson, Arnell, 

 James M. Ashley, Beaman, Beatty, Benjamin, Ben- 

 ton, Blair, Bromwell, Broomall, Buckland, Eeader 

 W. Clarke. Sidney Clarke, Cohb, Coburn, Donnelly, 

 Driggs, EckleVj Eggleston, Farnsworth, Fields,Grave- 

 ly, Harding, Higby, Hill, Holman, Hooper, Hopkins, 

 Chester D. Hubbard, Hunter, Julian, Kelley, Kel- 

 sey, Kitchen, Koontz, George V. Lawrence, W illiam 

 Lawrence, Loan, Loughridge, Marvin, McCarthy, 

 McClurg, Miller, Morrell, Myers, Newcomb, Nunn, 

 O'Neill, Orth, Perham, Peters, Plants, Polsley, Price, 

 Eaum, Eobertson, Sawyer, Shanks, Smith, Thaddeus 

 Stevens, Stewart, Stokes, Taffe, Thomas, John Trim- 

 ble, Trowbridge, Twichell, Upson, Van Wyck, Ward, 

 Welker, William Williams, Stephen F. Wilson, Win- 

 dom, Woodbridge, and Woodward 78. 



NATS Messrs. Allison, Delos E. Ashley, Bailey, 

 Baker, Banks, Bingham, Boutwell, Boyer, Cullom, 

 Ela, Eldridge, Eliot. Ferriss, Ferry, Garfield, Getz, 

 Glossbrenner Golladay, Grover, Ingersoll, Johnson,, 

 Judd, Kerr, Ketcham, Knott, Laflin, Lincoln, Logan, 

 Mallory, McCormick, Moore, Morgan, Mungen, Nib- 

 lack, Nicholson, Paine, Pile, Pruyn, Eandall, Boss, 

 Schenck, Sitgreaves, Aaron F. Stevens, Taylor, Van 

 Auken, Burt Van Horn. Van Trump, ElihuB. Wash- 

 burne, Henry D. Washburn, and William B. Wash- 

 burn 50. 



NOT VOTING Messrs. Archer, Axtell, Baldwin, 

 Barnes, Barnum, Beck, Blaine, Brooks, Burr, But- 

 ler, Cake, Gary, Chanler, Churchill, Cook, Cornell, 

 Covode, Dawes, Dixon, Dodge, Finney, Fox, Gris- 

 wold, Haight, Halsey, Hawkins, Hotchkiss, Asahel 

 W. Hubbard, Eichard D. Hubbard, Hulburd, Hum- 

 phrey, Jenckes, Jones, Lynch, Marshall, Maynard, 

 McCullough, Mercur, Moorhead, Morrissey, Mul- 

 lins, Phelps, Pike, Poland, Porneroy, Eobinson, Sco- 

 field, Selye, Shellabarger, Spalding, Starkweather, 

 Stone, Taber, Lawrence S. Trimble, Van Aernam, 

 Eobert T. Van Horn, Cadwalader C. Washhurn, 

 Thomas Williams, James F. Wilson, John T. Wil- 

 son, and Wood 61. 



So the amendment was adopted. 



The question next recurred on Mr. Bing- 

 ham's amendment as modified by Mr. Benja- 

 min, as follows : 



Strike out the following : 



That the constitutions of said States shall never 

 be so amended or changed as to deprive any citizen or 



