CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



comes right so far as Government is concerned : 

 but, until that is done, no submission will be 

 altogether satisfactory. So that I know of no 

 mode by which we can secure the voice and 

 judgment of the people except that suggested 

 by the Senator from Connecticut ; and what I 

 wish to say now to the Senate is in favor of 

 that proposition. 



" I submit to honorable Senators on all sides 

 that none of us to-day politically stand in a 

 position to deny this proposition. It is pro- 

 posed by the Senator from Connecticut that 

 the people, in the selection of delegates to the 

 State Convention, shall have a voice upon this 

 matter. It is their matter. It is ours no fur- 

 ther than we constitute a part of the body of 

 the people. The Senator from Connecticut 

 proposes that the people shall speak upon the 

 great question of changing the Constitution of 

 the United States in regard to the exercise of 

 political power. Is that unreasonable ? Is it 

 not right? Did not this Government come 

 from the people through State conventions? 

 Is it not right that when we change it we shall 

 come as near to the people- as is possible ? 



" Who says that a member of a Legislature 

 elected last summer or fall ought to act upon 

 a question that was not considered by the 

 people when they elected him ? Did I under- 

 stand some Senator to say that this question 

 was considered in the election ? I think some 

 Senator interrupted the distinguished Senator 

 from Kentucky and called his attention to the 

 election of last fall. I call your attention to the 

 election of last fall, honorable Senators, and I 

 ask you now to stand upon the pledge of honor 

 that your party made to the people in the elec- 

 tion last fall. 



" The position of the Democratic party last 

 summer, I presume, is not a question of doubt 

 or of uncertainty. That the Democratic party, 

 in casting its vote for Seymour and Blair, did 

 not vote for negro suffrage, is plain enough. 

 That the Republican party last fall, in voting 

 for Grant and Colfax, cast a vote against uni- 

 versal suffrage is as plain. You took the ques- 

 tion away from the people. You said that 

 they need not consider it. You said that they 

 should not consider it last summer ; and now 

 I understand it to be proposed to submit it to 

 Legislatures that are not again responsible to 

 the people, but that were elected before this 

 question is submitted. The second section of 

 the Chicago platform, not yet a year old, de- 

 clared the doctrine of the Republican party, 

 and I simply ask honorable Senators now to 

 make the pledged and plighted faith of their 

 party to the country good and true, and not 

 in the face of the nation and humanity to give 

 it the lie : 



The guarantee by Congress of equal suffrage to all 

 loyal men at the South was demanded by every con- 

 sideration of public safety, of gratitude, and of jus- 

 tice, and must be maintained. 



" That ia plain enough. In that you say that 

 the guarantee of suffrage to all the loyal men 



135 



in^the South was called for by high consider- 

 ations and must be maintained. Your party 

 took plain ground upon that question ; but in 

 the Northern States, in the State that I have 

 the honor to represent in this body, what po- 

 sition did you take ? You go on to say : 



While the question of suffrage in all the loyal 

 States properly belongs to the people of those States. 



" Not yet a year old is this political faith, 

 declared by the grand council of your party, 

 upon which Grant and Colfax stood before the 

 people ; and now you propose, without giving 

 the people a voice or a hearing upon the ques- 

 tion, to say that the right to control suffrage 

 in the Northern States does not belong to the 

 people of those States. 



"I ask honorable Senators, upon this ques- 

 tion of submission for ratification, what that 

 plighted faith of a great party to the people 

 did mean ? Was it an evasion ? If so, your 

 party is unworthy of a nation's support. Was 

 it a trick and a fraud ? Then you are not only 

 unworthy of a nation's support, but worthy 

 only of the condemnation of virtuous manhood 

 everywhere and in all ages. To the people 

 you submitted the question last fall, did you? 

 You interrupt the Senator from Kentucky and 

 say that the election last fall meant something ! 

 If so, what did it mean ? You said to the party 

 when they cast ballots for Grant and Colfax : 

 ' Your ballot, if it means any thing on this 

 subject, means just two propositions: first, 

 that in the Southern States Congress shall 

 maintain equal suffrage to loyal men ; but in 

 the other States, in the Northern States, the 

 right to control suffrage belongs to the people 

 of those States.' Did it belong to them? 

 Then give them a voice upon it and make this 

 declaration of your party true, and not stand 

 before the nation and before the world as de- 

 claring a falsehood in a national platform." 



Mr. Davis: "With permission, I will with- 

 draw the amendment which I proposed." 



The President pro tempore: "The amend- 

 ment is withdrawn." 



Mr. Dixon, of Connecticut, said: "What 

 is the question ? It is not merely a question 

 of suffrage. That of itself is a subject of vast 

 importance, and is now agitating the public 

 mind of this country to a very great extent. 

 The question whether the female sex should 

 be permitted to participate in the privilege 

 of suffrage, whether other restrictions should 

 be removed, the question of age, the question 

 of property, a multitude of questions are or 

 may be raised which are vastly important and 

 interesting in connection with the right of 

 suffrage. But, sir, we are not now dealing 

 merely with the qualification of voters. The 

 question is not what shall be the qualifications 

 of the voter, but who shall create, establish, 

 and prescribe those qualifications ; not who 

 shall be the voter, but who shall make the 

 voter. 



"In considering that question, we ought to 



