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CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



bers in some of the Northwestern States which 

 he mentioned. Mr. President, every member 

 of that population in those States entitled to 

 vote ought to be counted. You have no right 

 to draw the line between the black and the 

 white, and assume that the black man, because 

 he did not vote the Republican ticket, is there- 

 fore a suppressed voter. Is it to be assumed 

 that in every Southern State the property and 

 population of the State are in such necessary 

 antagonism that no amount of local misrule 

 can teach them the advantage of their natural 

 alliance? What right has he to assume that 

 whites and blacks are never to vote and act 

 together as citizens of a common country ? 

 Now, sir, let me call attention to one point in 

 the Senator's argument. If we are to enter 

 upon a system of legislation and political 

 movements in order to adjust representation 

 and political power in this Government accord- 

 ing to the number of actually voting constitu- 

 encies, the principle may operate further than 

 the gentleman thinks. What is the population 

 of the State of Maine? I believe 625,000. It 

 has been diminishing within the last twenty 

 years. I can not now recollect, but perhaps 

 it is 623,000. Vermont, which is also solid, 

 has not more than 350,000. And yet the State 

 of Maine has as much power in this Govern- 

 ment with her 600,000 people as the State of 

 New York with her 5,000,000." 



A Senator : " You mean in this Chamber." 

 Mr. Lamar: "No, sir; I mean in this Gov- 

 ernment. Gentlemen correct me by saying 

 ' in this Chamber' ; but I adhere to the phrase. 

 I say, and repeat, that they have the affirma- 

 tive power of legislation this day; 625,000 in 

 Maine are equal to 5,000,000 in the State of 

 New York. A positive equality of States, 

 whatever be their population, in either Cham- 

 ber where concurrent legislation is needed, is 

 positive affirmative power in the passage of 

 any law. Why, sir, the whole of New England 

 has not three and a half millions of population ; 

 and yet under the operation of the Constitu- 

 tion and laws of the land, of which I make no 

 complaint and which is a legitimate thing, 

 those three and a half millions of population 

 have six times as much power as sovereign 

 commonwealths that have five millions. They 

 have got as much power as twenty millions in 

 the large Northwestern States that the gentle- 

 man called attention to. Sir, why is one man 

 in these Eastern States equal to twenty in the 

 Northwest, except by virtue of the Constitu- 

 tion the Constitution which we are intending 

 to abide by and to maintain ? 



" But, as the gentleman has vouchsafed ad- 

 vice to Southern men on this floor and outside, 

 in all spirit of fairness and equity I will speak 

 to the people of the New England States and 

 tell them that in my opinion the direst foe they 

 have got on earth is the Representative or 

 Senator, whether from their own section or 

 any other, that will kindle this fire whose sub- 

 terranean flames will liquefy the very founda- 



tions on which these proud and free common- 

 wealths now rear their aspiring heads. Sir, 

 the Senator is fishing in troubled waters upon 

 this subject; and, when you come to agitate 

 questions of this kind, you will find that 

 changes of a more radical and fundamental 

 nature will be necessary in order to adjust rep- 

 resentation to numbers in this Government." 



Mr. Edmunds of Vermont : " Mr. President, 

 the point of the Senator from Mississippi ap- 

 pears to be, that if a Senator from New Eng- 

 land proposes to inquire whether the Consti- 

 tution has been violated in depriving any part 

 of the people of the States of their right to 

 vote for members of Congress, etc., he thereby 

 incurs the danger of oversetting the Constitu- 

 tion itself, which says that the States in this 

 body shall be equal; and therefore I under- 

 stand him to put it out as a warning that the 

 people of New England through their Senators 

 and Representatives have no right to stand up 

 for the Constitution as it is in favor of an 

 equal representation by the people of the States 

 in the other House, unless they run the risk of 

 being exposed to the danger of having their 

 senatorial representation overturned. That, 

 then, is the question we are invited to consider, 

 and the peril that we expose ourselves to if we 

 undertake to inquire whether the Constitution 

 of the United States has been violated. In 

 other words, the representatives of the Demo- 

 cratic party of the South say to an inquiry into 

 a violation of the Constitution, ' If you dare to 

 make such an inquiry, you run the risk of over- 

 turning the representation of the States and 

 reducing yourselves to a state of servitude.' 

 That is the proposition ! " 



Mr. Lamar: "I hope the Senator will allow 

 me to explain " 



Mr. Edmunds: "Certainly." 



Mr. Lamar : " Or rather to protest against 

 the interpretation which he has put upon my 

 remarks. I made no such suggestion. It was 

 simply in reply to the theory the Senator from 

 Maine had broached, that this investigation 

 was justified in order that the evil which he 

 had disclosed of one hundred thousand white 

 men in the South having a political power and 

 vote in this Government equal to three hun- 

 dred thousand somewhere else, that I said that 

 the tendency of such a theory would lead to 

 further investigation, and would undermine 

 the principle and the system of government 

 upon which our American fabric rests." 



Mr. Edmunds : " I am very glad to know, 

 Mr. President, that the Senator did not mean 

 what his remarks appeared to indicate; and 

 he has misunderstood " 



Mr. Lamar : " I did not mean what the gen- 

 tleman has attempted to force my remarks in- 

 to, but which he will never succeed in doing." 



Mr. Edmunds : " The Senator is mistaken in 

 that. I have not attempted to force the Sena- 

 tor's remarks into anything. The 'Record' 

 will show exactly what he has said, and I 

 think it will appear that I have not misstated 



