CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



161 



it wipes away every regulation of the exercise 

 of rights in the States because it gives those 

 rights, is purely imaginary. Every lawyer 

 knows, every statesman knows, every intelli- 

 gent man in the country knows that it is one 

 thing to have a right which is absolute and 

 inalienable, and it is another thing for the body 

 of the community to regulate equally and fairly 

 the exercise of that right." 



Mr. Drake : "I wish to inquire of the Sena- 

 tor whether, when he votes at the polls in the 

 State of Vermont, he votes there as a citizen 

 of the United States or as a citizen of Ver- 

 mont ? " 



Mr. Edmunds: "Both." 



Mr. Drake: "Then both being done, one 

 would not suffice. The citizenship of the Uni- 

 ted States would not suffice." 



Mr. Edmunds: "The Constitution answers 

 that question. It declares that because I am 

 a citizen of the United States I am a citizen, 

 for that reason, of the State of Vermont, if I 

 reside there. That is the very language of 

 it." 



Mr. Howard : "I wish to say but one word 

 on this subject. I feel it a duty to make a 

 single remark. As many of the Senators well 

 know, I served on the joint Committee on Re- 

 construction, who reported the fourteenth 

 amendment to the Constitution to the Senate 

 and to the House of Representatives ; and I am 

 not unfamiliar with the object of that amend- 

 ment. It was discussed at great length before 

 the committee, and by the committee, as well as 

 in the Senate ; and I feel constrained to say here 

 now that this is the first time it ever occurred 

 to me that the right to vote was to be derived 

 from the fourteenth article. I think such a 

 construction cannot be maintained. No such 

 thing was contemplated on the part of the 

 committee which reported the amendment; 

 and, if I recollect rightly, nothing to that effect 

 was said in debate in the Senate when it was 

 on its passage. 



" One word further. The construction which 

 is now sought to be put upon the first sec- 

 tion of this fourteenth article, it seems to me, 

 is plainly and flatly contradicted by what fol- 

 lows in the second section of the same article. 

 After declaring in the first section that 



All persons born or naturalized in the United 

 States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are cit- 

 izens of the -United States and of the State wherein 

 they reside ; 



" And after declaring that 



No State shall make or enforce any law which shall 

 abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the 

 United States ; 



" The second section goes on to say : 

 But when the right to vote at any election for the 

 choice of electors for President and Vice-President 

 of the United States, Kepresentatives in Congress, 

 the executive and judicial officers of a State, or the 

 members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any 

 of the male inhabitants of such State, etc. 



Plainly and in the clearest possible terms rec- 

 ognizing the right of each State to regulate the 

 VOL. ix. 11. A 



suffrage and to impart or to declare the neces- 

 sary qualifications of voters for members of the 

 House of Representatives, electors of President 

 and Vice-President, and members of the State 

 Legislature. Sir, can any thing be clearer? " 



Mr. Sumner: "The Senator is aware that 

 that was denied at that time, and it would 

 not have passed the Senate had anybody at- 

 tributed to it that meaning. That I am 

 able to say. It could not have passed the 

 Senate. The Senator knows very well that 

 there was an amendment, as it came from the 

 House of Representatives, that was suscep- 

 tible of such an interpretation ; and I felt 

 it my duty to oppose it, which I did at great 

 length and most elaborately, precisely on the 

 ground that it did abandon to the States the 

 power to discriminate against colored persons ; 

 I refused to support that amendment, and I 

 associated myself with others in that refusal. 

 The Senator from Illinois (Mr. Yates) took part 

 in that discussion, and he was associated with 

 me in consultation to defeat the amendment. 

 We did defeat it, and on that ground, that it 

 conceded to the States the power to discrimi- 

 nate against colored persons. We said we 

 would have nothing to do with any such prop- 

 osition. Then this article was brought for- 

 ward, and it was sustained on that avowed 

 ground, that it did no such thing." *, 



Mr. Howard : " I have but another word to 

 say. The occasion of introducing the first sec- 

 tion of the fourteenth article of amendment 

 into that amendment grew out of the fact that 

 there was nothing in the whole Constitution 

 to secure absolutely the citizens of the United 

 States in the various States against an infringe- 

 ment of their rights and privileges under the 

 second section of the fourth article of the old 

 Constitution. That section declares that 



The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all 

 privileges and immunities of citizens of the several 

 States. 



" There it was plainly written down. Now, 

 sir, it seems to me, that, unless the Senator 

 from Vermont and the Senator from Massa- 

 chusetts can derive the right of voting from 

 this ancient second section of the fourth article 

 upon the ground that the citizens of each State 

 are entitled to all the privileges and immunities 

 of citizens of the several States, they must give 

 up the argument ; and I assert here with con- 

 fidence that no such construction was ever 

 given to the second section of the fourth arti- 

 cle of the Constitution. 



" Now, sir, the first section of the fourteenth 

 article, in the first place, makes the declaration 

 that- 

 All persons born or naturalized in the United 

 States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are 

 citizens of the United States and of the State wherein 

 they reside. 



"That had not previously been enacted. 

 Then follows the inhibitory clause, which was 

 deemed so important by the committee, that 



No State shall make or enforce any law which shall 



