164 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



wrong done to a class of black native citizens ; 

 to give them the same privileges that other 

 citizens of the United States possess. The 

 Constitution gives to the United States the 

 right to establish a uniform system of natural- 

 ization ; so that Europeans and Asiatics com- 

 ing to our coast may be naturalized upon the 

 same conditions in California and in New 

 York. So by the passage of this proposition 

 we shall relieve these black citizens, native to 

 the soil, from the wrong which is done them, 

 without doing any wrong to the Asiatics who 

 may flow in upon our Western shores. I pre- 

 fer, for one, to leave that question open^so that, 

 if a war springs up in Asia and these increas- 

 ing tides of immigration from Asia pour upon 

 our Pacific coast in such numbers as to en- 

 danger the welfare of those States, they may 

 have it in their power to guard themselves 

 against the threatened evils, and then, if any 

 evil should result, it will be in our power to 

 remedy it. ' Sufficient unto the day is the evil 

 thereof. 1 Let us meet this evil, and not, in 

 attempting to meet it, provide others that we 

 know not of." 



The President pro tempore : " The question 

 is on the amendment of the Senator from 

 Michigan to the amendment of the Senator 

 from Nevada." 



The question being taken by yeas and nays, 

 resulted yeas 16, nays 35 ; as follows: 



YEAS Messrs. Anthony, Chandler, Cole, Corbett, 

 Cragin, Ferry, Harlan, Howard, Norton, Patterson 

 of New Hampshire, Sumner, Thayer, Tipton, Wade, 

 Welch, and Williams 16. 



NATS Messrs. Abbott, Bayard, Buckalew, Cam- 

 eron, Cattell, Doolittle, Drake, Edmunds. Freling- 

 huysen, Harris, Hendricks, Howe, Kellogg, McCreery, 

 McDonald, Morgan, Morrill of Maine, Morrill of Ver- 

 mont. Nye, Patterson of Tennessee, Eamsey, Eice, 

 Saulsbury, Sawyer, Sherman, Spencer, Stewart, 

 TrumbulL Van Winkle, Vickers, Warner, Whyte, 

 Willey, Wilson, and Yates 35. 



ABSENT Messrs. Conklin, Conness, Davis, Dix on, 

 Fessenden, Fowler, Grimes, Henderson, Morton, 

 Osborn, Pomeroy, Pool, Eobertson, Eoss, and Sprague 

 ~l5. 



So the amendment to the amendment was 

 rejected. 



The President pro tempore: "The question 

 is now on the amendment of the Senator from 

 Nevada." 



Mr. Warner : "I wish to move a substitute 

 for the whole proposition." 



The Chief Clerk : "The proposed amend- 

 ment is to strike out all after ' section one ' 

 and to insert the following : 



The right of citizens of tlie United States to hold 



ce shall not be denied or abridged by the United 

 States or any State on account of property, race 

 color, or previous condition of servitude ; and every 

 male citizen of the United States of the age of twenty- 

 one years, or over, and who is of sound mind, shall 

 have an equal vote at all elections in the State in 

 which he shall have actually resided for a period of 

 ne year next preceding such election, except such as 

 may hereafter engage in insurrection or rebellion 

 against the United States, and such as shall be duly 

 convicted of treason, felony, or other infamous 



Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, said : " Mr. President, 

 I thought nothing would tempt me to say one 

 word in this debate on the constitutional 

 amendment, but Senators have already per- 

 ceived the difficulty we are approaching, and 

 we might as well at once face the issue. There 

 are five different causes of exclusion from the 

 right to vote in this and other countries. The 

 first is race. This cause of exclusion has ex- 

 isted in this country in nearly all the States 

 until recently. The second is property, and 

 that has existed in England since the founda- 

 tion of their government. The third is reli- 

 gion, which exists in almost all countries ex- 

 cept our own. The fourth is nativity, and that 

 exists in nearly all countries. The fifth is edu- 

 .cation, and that is an experiment of ours, I be- 

 lieve, in Massachusetts. 



" Now, Mr. President, if we are endeavoring 

 to settle this question once for all, I think it 

 would be wiser and better to declare that every 

 male citizen of the United States, native or 

 naturalized, above the age of twenty-one years, 

 shall have the right to vote, unless he is ex- 

 cluded for crime ; and that no State shall ex- 

 clude any one from the right to vote because 

 of his race, because of his property or want of 

 property, because of his religion, because of 

 his birthplace, or because of the misfortune of 

 want of education. As this amendment makes 

 the nearest approach to that, I have made up 

 my mind to vote for it, or I shall vote for the 

 amendment of the Senator from Massachusetts 

 (Mr. Wilson). I do not like to apply a rule so 

 narrow and limited as to guarantee rights to 

 the African race which we refuse to the Asi- 

 atic race or to other races. I do not wish to 

 include the ignorant masses of our Southern 

 population and exclude the partially-intelligent 

 classes of the State of Massachusetts. I do not 

 want to include the negroes and exclude or al- 

 low a State to exclude foreigners who are de- 

 clared to be citizens of the United States under 

 the laws of the United States. 



" Therefore, it does seem to me that, if we 

 intend to now prescribe a rule for suffrage in 

 this country, we ought to make it operate uni- 

 versally and withdraw from the States all 

 power to exclude any portion of the male citi- 

 zens of the United States, leaving them, if they 

 choose, to regulate the length of residence, 

 whether females shall participate . in the elec- 

 tive franchise, at what age males shall vote, 

 etc. ; but to exclude from them all power to 

 deprive any portion of our male citizens above 

 the age of twenty-one years of the right to 

 vote, unless where the right has been forfeited 

 by crime. If the amendment of the Senator 

 from Massachusetts is voted down and this 

 amendment is voted down, then the next best 

 proposition, I think, is that report of the Com- 

 mittee on the Judiciary, which I shall then 

 vote for." 



Mr. Howard : " I have two objections to 

 this amendment. The first is that it proposes 

 to change the existing Constitution in refer- 



