CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



lie property unless raised by taxation for or 

 devoted to public schools. Now we all know 

 that as a general thing and in most of the 

 States the various church or denominational 

 schools are private schools and not proper- 

 ly included under the designation of ' public 

 schools ' at all. 



" But, Mr. President, believing that neither 

 any church nor any denominational school 

 should be supported or aided by taxation or by 

 appropriation of public property, I have from 

 my youth up steadily advocated this view. It 

 is a principle essential to the success of any 

 system of public education in this country, and 

 is, or at least should be, far above all mere 

 party politics, and I am as intensely desirous 

 as any man can be to place it entirely beyond 

 and outside of the field of party politics, where 

 it may always be safe, whatever party may be in 

 power. This is a favorable time to accomplish 

 this desirable end, and I hope we shall avail our- 

 selves of it and ward off at once and forever all 

 the threatened dangers to arise from the viola- 

 tion of this great principle. All this will be ac- 

 complished if the resolution reported by the 

 committee shall pass and become a part of the 

 Federal Constitution." 



Mr. Stevenson, of Kentucky, said : " Mr. 

 President, I was one of the Committee on the 

 Judiciary who did not concur in this amend- 

 ment. I should not have voted for it if I had 

 been present in the Chamber when it was 

 adopted. I have seen no necessity for it. 

 While I impugn no man's motives here, a re- 

 ligious discussion, appealing to passions which 

 do not in my judgment belong to a deliberative 

 body, at the end of a long session of Congress, 

 seems to be out of taste, and to be accompa- 

 nied by no practical good. 



" I am not a Catholic ; I am a Protestant 

 from head to foot ; but I will tell the honor- 

 able Senator from Vermont what the doctrine 

 of the Democratic party is on this subject. 

 Long before this Constitution was formed, Mr. 

 Jefferson, who more than any other man de- 

 serves the credit of being the father of the Dem- 

 ocratic party, was the author of that act of re- 

 ligious freedom in the State of Virginia, adopt- 

 ed in 1785. He would have indorsed all that 

 the Senator from Vermont has said, but he 

 would have accomplished it by a different 

 mode. Friend as he was of religious freedom, 

 lie would never have consented that the States 

 which brought the Constitution into existence, 

 upon whose sovereignty this instrument rests, 

 which keep it within its expressly limited pow- 

 ers, should be degraded and that the Govern- 

 ment of the United States, a Government of 

 limited authority, the mere agent of the States 

 with prescribed powers, should undertake to 

 take possession of their schools and of their 

 religion ; and had the speech of the honorable 

 Senator from Vermont been uttered before 

 Mr. Jefferson, he would have told him 'that 

 he did not know what free government was. 



" No, sir ; this power is not in the Federal 



Government. Kentucky does not want New 

 England and other States to dictate to her 

 what her schools shall be or what her taxes 

 shall be, and least of all what her religion shall 

 be ; and whenever any religious denomination 

 undertakes to interfere with this great right of 

 religious freedom the free people of every State 

 will find themselves potential enough and will- 

 ing enough and able enough to crush it. There 

 is our safety. But when you undertake to 

 bring to the Federal Government the power of 

 making the States hewers of wood and draw- 

 ers of water you destroy the whole foundation- 

 stone upon which this Government was reared 

 and upon which only it can be preserved. 



" No man can mistake the object of this de- 

 bate. We all see where it tends. But I hope 

 the great issues of this campaign will not be 

 covered up, however, in such system as this, 

 of in this nineteenth century attempting to go 

 to the Pope of Rome to scare the people of the 

 free thirty-seven States of this confederacy 

 that they cannot manage their schools and 

 their religion and their various instrumen- 

 talities within their States, and which was re- 

 served to themselves when the Constitution 

 was formed of managing in their own way." 



The President pro tempore : " The question 

 is on the passage of the resolution." 



The result was announced, as follows: 



YEAS Messrs. Allison, Anthony, Booth, Bout- 

 well, Bruce, Burnside, Cameron of Wisconsin, 

 Christiancy, Clayton, Conlding, Cragin, Edmunds, 

 Ferry, Frelinghuysen, Harvey, Jones of Nevada, 

 Logan, McMillan, Mitchell, Morrill, Morton, Oglet- 

 by, Paddock, Patterson, Sargent, Spencer, Wad- 

 Icigh, and West 28. 



NATS Messrs. Bogy, Cockrell, Cooper, Davis, 

 Eaton. Gordon, Jones of Florida, Kelly, Kernan, 

 Key, McCreery, McDonald, Maxey, Norwood, Ean- 

 dolph, and Stevenson 16. 



ABSENT Messrs. Alcorn, Bnrnum, Bayard, Cam- 

 eron of Pennsylvania, Conover, Dawes, Dennis, 

 Dorsey, Goldthwaite, Hamilton, Hamiin, Hitchcock, 

 Howe, Ingalls, Johnston, Merrimon, Kansom, Kob- 

 ertson, Saulsbury, Sharon, Sherman, Thurman, 

 Wallace, Whyte, Windom, Withers, and Wright 

 27. 



The President pro tempore : " Two-thirds 

 of the Senators present not having voted to 

 agree to the resolution, the same is not passed.'' 



In the House, on August 10th, Mr. Lord, of 

 New York, offered the following resolution : 



Whereas, The right of suffrage prescribed by the 

 constitutions of the several States is subject to the 

 fifteenth amendment of the Constitution of the 

 United States, which is as follows : 



"ARTICLE XV., Section 1. The right of citizens 

 of the United States to vote shall not be denied or 

 abridged by the United States or by any State, on 

 account of race, color, or previous condition of ser- 

 vitude. 



''Sec. 2. The Congress shall have power to en- 

 force this article by appropriate legislation." 



And whereas the exercise of the right of suffrage 

 so prescribed and regulated should be faithfully 

 maintained and observed by the United States and 

 the several States and the citizens thereof; and 

 whereas it is asserted that the exercise of the right 



