170 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



munds, Flanagan, Hamilton of Maryland, Howe, 

 Kellogg, Lewis, Nye, Pratt, Sprague, and Stewart 

 17. 



The Vice-President : " The Senate being 

 equally divided, by the Constitution the Vice- 

 President must give the casting vote. Voting 

 upon this amendment as a whole, without 

 concurrence with all the features contained in 

 it, the Chair votes in the affirmative, and the 

 amendment is agreed to. 



The next pending question will be on the 

 amendment of the Senator from Vermont (Mr. 

 Merrill), to add a fourth class of exceptions to 

 the bill." 



Fourth. All persons who have been or shall be 

 members of what is known as the Ku-klux Klan, 

 or any organization existing, or which may exist, 

 for like objects and purposes. 



The question being taken, resulted as follows : 



YEAS Messrs. Ames, Anthony, Boreman, Brown- 

 low, Caldwell, Cameron, Carpenter, Chandler, Clay- 

 ton, Cole, Conkling, Corbett, Ferry of Michigan. 

 Flanagan, Frelinghuysen, Gilbert, Hamilton or 

 Texas, Hamlin, Harlan, Morrill of Vermont, Mor- 

 ton, Osborn, Patterson, Pomeroy, Pool, .Ramsey, 

 Robertson, Sawyer, Spencer, Simmer, "West, Wilson, 

 Windom, and Wright 34. 



NATS Messrs. Blair, Davis of West Virginia, Gold- 

 thwaite, Hill, Jobnston, Kelly, Morrill of Maine, 

 Norwood, Saulsbury, Schurz, Stevenson, Stockton, 

 Thurman, Tipton, Trumbull, and Vickers 16. 



ABSENT Messrs. Alcorn, Bayard, Buckingham, 

 Casserly, Cooper, Cragin, Davis of Kentucky, Ed- 

 munds, Fenton, Ferry of Connecticut, Hamilton of 

 Maryland, Hitchcock, Howe, Kellogg, Lewis, Logan, 

 Nye, Pratt, Rice, Scott, Sherman, Sprague, and 

 Stewart 23. 



So the amendment was adopted. 



Mr. Morton: "I offer a further amendment, 

 with a view to give effect to the one just 

 adopted, by putting it into the oath." 



The Chief Clerk read the amendment, which 

 was in section two, line six, after the word 

 "same," to insert the words "and that he is 

 not, and has never been, a member of any 

 association commonly known as the Ku-klux 

 Klan." 



The yeas and nays were ordered ; and, be- 

 ing taken, resulted yeas 33, nays 12. 



So the amendment was agreed to. 



Mr. Thurman : " Mr. President, ever since I 

 have held a seat in this body I have been a 

 believer in the good policy of removing the 

 disabilities imposed by the fourteenth amend- 

 ment. 



" But, sir, while I am in favor of their re- 

 moval, while I believe that public policy re- 

 quires it, that it would be a measure tending 

 to produce peace in the country, and much 

 more than that, that it would give to some 

 States (which are now afflicted with the worst 

 governments almost on the face of the globe) 

 governments under which it would be tolera- 

 ble to live, yet I cannot, even for the purpose 

 of removing these disabilities, vote for a bill 

 that I believe to be unconstitutional, as I do 

 believe this bill to be since the amendment 

 of the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Sum- 

 ner) has been fastened upon it. If I vote for 



amnesty, I am compelled to take it in the 

 form it now stands with the amendment of the 

 Senator from Massachusetts. I am compelled 

 to vote for that which I think we have no 

 right to enact into a law in order to vote for 

 that which we have a perfect constitutional 

 right to pass. That which is unconstitutional 

 in my judgment is tied to that which is con- 

 stitutional ; they are made inseparable ; and I 

 am necessarily driven by the respect that I 

 have for the Constitution, and the oath I have 

 taken to support it, to vote against this bill in 

 its present shape." 



Mr. Robertson: "Inasmuch as the friends 

 of equal rights have chosen to risk their amend- 

 ment on this bill which requires a two-thirds 

 vote to become a law, I will join hands with 

 them now in advocating the passage of the bill 

 as amended, and I hope the friends of equal 

 rights and amnesty will now vote together and 

 let us pass the bill." 



The bill was ordered to a third reading, and 

 was read the third time. 



The Vice-President: "The question is on 

 the passage of the bill, which requires a two- 

 thirds vote." 



Mr. Sumner: "Mr. President, I shall vote 

 for the bill as amended. That bill is now ele- 

 vated and consecrated. Whoever votes against 

 it must take the responsibility of voting against 

 a great measure for the assurance of equal 

 rights. He must take the responsibility of 

 setting himself against a final measure for the 

 establishment of reconstruction. Senators ob- 

 ject to the association of equal rights with 

 amnesty. Sir, they naturally go together." 



Mr. Sawyer, of South Carolina : " I say the 

 effect of the tactics of the Senator from Mas- 

 sachusetts on this bill has been to defeat not 

 only the civil rights bill but the amnesty bill. 

 That is patent here to-day; and it is doubt- 

 ful if the bill, as amended by him, will receive 

 a majority of the votes of the Senate. 



"It is also perfectly patent to the Senate, it 

 is perfectly patent to the country, that his bill 

 could have been passed here at any time by a 

 majority vote as an independent measure, and 

 that the amnesty bill could be passed by the 

 requisite constitutional majority as an inde- 

 pendent measure ; and yet the Senator comes 

 here and tells me that it is the greatest mistake 

 of my life that I have not followed in his path 

 to do this slaughter-house work on both these 

 measures. Sir, it is too much for mortal men 

 to bear with equanimity when they have seen 

 a measure for which they have as much affec- 

 tion as for this amnesty measure, or one of 

 which they desire the passage so ardently as 

 most of us on the Republican side of the Cham- 

 ber do an act to protect the rights of our fel- 

 low-citizens wherever they may go I say it is 

 too mucli for human nature to bear patiently 

 with tactics, the evident effect of which, what- 

 ever the intention may be, is so disastrous to 

 both ; and then to be lectured by the Senator 

 from Massachusetts as we are lectured here 



