CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



165 



ence to qualifications of President of the Uni- 

 ted States. If this amendment shall be adopted, 

 then that clause of the Constitution which re- 

 quires that the President of the United States 

 shall be a native-born citizen of the United 

 States is repealed, and any person who has 

 been naturalized and then become a citizen of 

 the United States will be eligible to the office 

 of President ; and so of the members of the 

 Senate." 



Mr. Bayard, of Delaware, said : " Mr. Presi- 

 dent, I do not propose to prolong this debate 

 or discuss the merits of the particular amend- 

 ment now pending. I am satisfied that no 

 argument will avail in this body to prevent the 

 passage of this amendment in some form, or as 

 to effect its particular object, the grant of the 

 franchise of suffrage to the negro race. 



" The fiat has gone forth, and the fell spirit 

 of party, the bane of republics, has decreed its 

 passage. I have yet the hope, however, that 

 many of even Republican members of the State 

 Legislatures will have sufficient sense of duty 

 to regard the confidence and good faith which 

 in all free governments should always be main- 

 tained between the representative and his con- 

 stituents, and that they will decline in many 

 of the States to act upon the proposed amend- 

 ment without first ascertaining the will of 

 their constituents, and if that will is ascer- 

 tained I have no fears as to the decision of the 

 people. 



" Sir, the mode and time at which this 

 amendment has been introduced and the pres- 

 sure for its passage in the last month of an ex- 

 piring Congress show conclusively that it is in- 

 tended to fetter the people to throw a chain 

 around the limbs of the giant while he slum- 

 bers. "Whether you succeed or fail in your 

 object, you may yet find that the people have 

 more than the single eye of Polyphemus, and 

 when the giant awakens many of you will seek 

 in vain to escape his just vengeance by creep- 

 ing under the bellies of sheep, like Ulysses and 

 his companions. 



" I shall make no further opposition to the 

 amendment in any form you may please to 

 mould it, beyond my negative vote." 



Mr. Willey, of West Virginia, said : " Mr. 

 President, this proposition of the Senator from 

 Alabama is one of universal suffrage and uni- 

 versal amnesty. I confess that I should like 

 to feel myself authorized to extend amnesty 

 and make it universal now, and I shall take 

 pleasure in doing so whenever I can be con- 

 vinced that the true interests, the welfare, the 

 safety, the public peace of the country will 

 justify it. The time has not yet come when 

 we can venture so far as that. We have not 

 fully justified ourselves yet in imposing this 

 restriction in our previous legislation. I have 

 not yet seen those fruits meet for repentance 

 to justify me in responding to the inclinations 

 of my feelings and my heart. I, therefore, 

 while that feature remains in the proposition 

 of the Senator from Alabama, allowing those 



who have been so recently engaged in a most 

 terrible effort to overthrow the best of all gov- 

 ernments on the face of the earth to be rein- 

 troduced into the political control of the gov- 

 ernment I say at present I cannot bring my- 

 self to allow that to be done if I can prevent 

 it." 



The President pro tempore : " The question 

 is on the amendment of the Senator from Ala- 

 bama to the amendment of the Senator from 

 Nevada." 



The amendment to the amendment was re- 

 jected. 



Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts, said: "I de- 

 sire to submit an amendment, to strike out sec- 

 tion one and insert the following : 



There shall be no discrimination in any State 

 among the citizens of the United States in the exer- 

 cise of the elective franchise in any election therein, 

 or in the qualifications of office in any State, on ac- 

 count of race, color, nativity, property, education, 

 or religious belief." 



Mr. Anthony, of Rhode Island, said : " It is 

 now within half an hour of the usual time of 

 meeting for to-morrow, and in order to make 

 the Journal read correctly there should be aa 

 adjournment, and I think, Mr. President, some- 

 thing is due to the officers of the Senate." 



On motion of Mr. Anthony, at eleven o'clock 

 and thirty-five minutes A. M. (Tuesday, Febru- 

 ary 9), the Senate adjourned. 



In the Senate on February 9th, Mr. Stewart, 

 of Nevada, moved that the consideration of the 

 constitutional amendment be taken up. The 

 question was on the adoption of the amend- 

 ment offered by Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts. 



The yeas and nays were ordered ; and, being 

 taken, resulted yeas 19, nays 24; as follows : 



YEAS Messrs. Cattell, Conness, Grimes, Harlan, 

 Harris, Howe, McDonald, Morton, Eamsey, Boss, 

 Sawyer, Sherman.Sumner, Van Winkle, Wade, 

 Welch, Williams, Wilson, and Yates 19. 



NAYS Messrs. Abbott, Anthony, Bayard, Cole, 

 Conkling, Corbett, Davis, Dixon, Fessenden, Fowler, 

 Frelinghuysen, Howard, Morgan, Morrill of Ver- 

 mont, Norton, Nye, Patterson or Tennessee, Eice, 

 Eobertson, Spencer, Stewart, Trumbull, Vickers, and 

 Willey 24. 



ABSENT Messrs. Buckalew, Cameron, Chandler, 

 Cragin, Doolittle, Drake, Edmunds, Ferry, Hender- 

 son, Hendricks, Kellogg, McCreery, Morrill of Maine, 

 Osborn, Patterson of New Hampshire, Pomeroy, 

 PooLSaulsbury, Sprague, Thayer, Tipton, Warner, 

 and W hyte 23. 



So the amendment to the amendment was 

 rejected. 



Mr. Sawyer, of South Carolina, said : "I 

 move to amend the amendment by striking 

 out all of section one of the amendment re- 

 ported by the committee, and inserting the fol- 

 lowing : 



The right to vote and hold office in the United 

 States and the several States and Territories shall 

 belong to all male citizens of the United States who 

 are twenty-one years old, and who have not been 

 or shall not be duly convicted of treason or other in- 

 famous crime: Provided, That nothing herein con- 

 tained shall deprive the several States of the right to 

 make such registration laws as shall be deemed ne- 

 cessary to guard the purity of elections and to fix 



