126 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



same Constitution it is declared that the privi- 

 leges and immunities of citizens of the United 

 States shall not be abridged by any State of 

 this Union. 



44 1 say again, therefore, that that provision 

 of the Constitution is for all the people or it is 

 for none of them. Under that Constitution 

 we cannot select and say that a man born in 

 this country shall be entitled to certain privi- 

 leges as a citizen to which a man born else- 

 where and naturalized shall not be entitled. 

 We cannot say that a white citizen shall enjoy 

 privileges which are denied to a black citizen 

 or to a naturalized citizen, white or black. 



"I come now to the second section, upon 

 which I know reliance will be placed by the 

 opponents of the bill. It is there provided : 



Sec. 2. Eepresentatives shall be apportioned among 

 the several States according to their respective num- 

 bers, counting the whole number of persons in each 

 State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the 

 right to vote at any election for the choice of elec- 

 tors for President and Vice-President of the United 

 States, Eepresentatives in Congress, the executive 

 and judicial officers of a State, or the members of the 

 Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male in- 

 habitants of such State, being twenty-one years of 

 age and citizens of the United States, or in any way 

 abridged, except for participation in rebellion or 

 other crime, the basis of representation therein shall 

 be reduced in the proportion which the number of 

 such male citizens sliall bear to the whole number of 

 male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State. 

 "If gentlemen will consider these two sec- 

 tions together, they will see how entirely in 

 harmony they are with each other, and how 

 wholly unsupported is the doctrine that there 

 is in this second section any concession to a 

 State to abridge or deny to a citizen the right 

 to vote. By the second section there is a po- 

 litical penalty for doing that which in the first 

 section it is declared the State has no right to 

 do. I read the first section : 



Sec. 1. All persons born or naturalized in the Uni- 

 ted States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are 

 citizens of the United States and of the State wherein 

 they reside. No State shall make or enforce anv law 



"WlllOn Rnnll onri/lrr/i -fV/i v\*nTrl A A , -.. t 



citizens of the United States ; 



they should suffer in representation for so do- 

 ing. Power was given to Congress to remedy 

 this evil, and that power Congress is now 

 called upon to exercise. 



" But, sir, consider the anomalous feature in 

 our Government, if the doctrine be successfully 

 maintained that we cannot legislate on this 

 subject. There are citizens in Kentucky and 

 Maryland who, if the doctrine set forth by the 

 opponents of this bill be a sound constitutional 

 doctrine, are eligible to the office ot President 

 or Vice-President of the United States, and yet 

 who cannot vote for Eepresentatives in Con- 

 gress or even for a State, county, or town offi- 

 cial. What is the qualification for the office 

 of President ? He must be a native citizen of 

 the United States and thirty-five years of age. 

 Nothing more. These are the only qualifica- 

 tions for the office of President. By the four- 

 teenth amendment to the Constitution we have 

 declared that all the black men in Maryland 

 and other States shall be citizens of the United 

 States. Certain State governments have for 

 the present denied those people the right to 

 vote, and yet one of them may be elected 

 President ^ of the United States and another 

 Vice-President. Is there such an anomaly in 

 pur Government ? Are we prepared to admit 

 its existence unless the Constitution impera- 

 tively requires it? The Constitution provides 

 one twenty-five years of age, who 

 a citizen for seven years, may be 

 a Eepresentative upon this floor, and 

 colored men,, although denied the right of suf- 

 frage in their own States, may be elected to 

 legislate for the whole country. Thus is the 

 General Government put in an anomalous and 

 inconsistent position. 



" This bill, then, is defensible, first on the 

 original text of the Constitution, in which the 

 subject of suffrage is considered ; it is defensi- 

 ble upon the guarantee clause of the Constitu- 

 tion ; it is defensible upon the fourteenth arti- 

 cle of amendment to the Constitution ; and it 

 is defensible as the exercise of a necessary 



, vj AA^vyj. cj j VA j^ivuciuy. wiLiiullu 



~ue process of law, nor deny to any person within 

 its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. 



"It is here provided that there shall be no 

 abridgment of the privileges and immunities 

 of citizens; and in the second section there is 

 a penalty provided for a State that disregards 

 the inhibition. We were then acting in the 

 presence of the fact that many States of the 

 Union were doing that which the first section 

 declared they had no right to do. It was un- 

 certain when Congress would exercise the 

 power conferred by the fifth section of the 

 fourteenth amendment, and, in order that the 

 States should not take advantage of their own 

 wrong during the period 



and preservation of the 



Government itself, and was so regarded by the 

 men who framed the Constitution of 1787." 



Mr. Eldridge, of Wisconsin, said: "I shall 

 not attempt to analyze this bill, or to examine 

 its provisions in detail. The main feature and 

 purpose of the bill are to take from the States 

 the right to determine the qualification of 

 voters. It provides : 



That no State shall abridge or deny the right of 

 any citizen of the United States to vote for electors 

 of President and Vice-President of the United States 

 or for Eepresentatives in Congress, or for members 

 ot the Legislature of the State in which he may re- 

 side, by reason of race, color, or previous condition 

 of slavery ; and any provisions in the laws or consti- 



was v ^ liV/TT 



.-- ^land, and Delaware, were 



doing what they were inhibited from doing by 

 the first section of the article, and we said that 





