June 6, 1866

Mr. CO WAN. I congratulate the honorable Senator upon it; and now all I wish is that he would go down to the Freedmen s Bureau believe the transportation is free—and ship up a hundred thousand negroes to Maine; take a hundred thousand of them there; I have no doubt they would be well treated. Then these philanthropic people would have an opportunity to exercise their skill. They would have an opportunity there to educate them and develop them, and they would see after awhile exactly what they could get out of them. If that were done, I could understand the philosophy of a movement like this. I believe I should agree to almost any new proposition if sufficient evidence was given to me that the people who urged it were honest in their designs, and had not some covert advantage which they expected lurking behind it. If Massachusetts had as many negroes as South Carolina, I could well understand her advocacy of this as being from the purest motives; but when I find her saying "You take the possum and I will take the turkey, or I will take the turkey and you take the possum," I do not understand that kind of talk to be fair.

And, Mr. President, I am opposed on principle to meddling with Jliis matter. I am opposed to it again on the ground that to me it looks to be unjust, unfair, taking an unfair advantage of people at an improper time. Is this a time to amend the Constitution? I ask honorable Senators if in their opinion this is a time when the Constitution can be amended well and properly, because, as I understand it, if we are to amend the Constitution we must amend it in such a way as to be satisfactory to the people everywhere, not merely the people of Massachusetts or the people of Michigan, but to the people of Georgia and the people of Louisiana, to the people of all the States. Does any man want an amendment to the Constitution forced through here under circumstances of ^his kind, against people who are unable to resist, against people whom you will not hear, and in the face of a numerical majority in the country against you? Do you suppose that is going to be beneficial? I ask in all sober earnestness, is there anybody who supposes that that will be for the benefit of the country?

Again, suppose you pass this amendment to the Constitution, and suppose the southern States either for the purpose of getting themselves into line with you or for the purpose of increasing their political power under it, should admit the negro to the franchise, will your children and your homes and your governments be the more secure for that? What is the difficulty under which you labor to day Js it that you have not voters enough? Is it that the food upon which the demagogue fattens has grown scarce and he has grown thin? Or is it the reverse? Is it not because demagoguism is rife everywhere; and is not dema-

CONGRESSiOMAL GLQIE. goguism rife just in proportion as you furnish it the material upon which to work? Degrade your franchise, put it down in the hands of men who have no intelligence, no virtue, and, what is worst of all, no independence it into the hands of men who have nothing to hope from it except in so far as they can use it for corrupt purposes, and shall we be safer then, I ask? Do you suppose that the people of the States in which there are negroes will send you more intelligent, more learned, more virtuous, and more independent Senators and Representatives here if you make this change than they would without?

Mr. WILSON. They will send more loyal

Mr. COWAN. "Loyal.'; What is "loyal?" I ask Massachusetts what is "loyal?" What is the meaning of the word? A fellow that votes with you! That is like the chap defining" orthodox orthodox is the way I believe; heterodox is the way the other man believes."

"Loyal" means an abolitionist, I suppose. At least I find that everybody who does not happen to be an abolitionist or tarred with that stick, is said to be disloyal. Loyalty, Mr. President, is a very simple word. Loyalty means obedience to the laws. It means legality. Lcgalis meant law as well as lex meant it. When a man alleges his loyalty to me, let me see his reverence for the Constitution and the laws. Show mo a man who disregards either; show mo a man who does not believe in the Constitution which brought this country to such a pitch of prosperity l or seventy five years and made us so great and so happy a people; show me a man that lays sacrilegious hands upon that instrument, especially when I know that half the time he does not understand it and that he never read a commentary upon it in his life; show me that man, and I show you one who is not loyal. Show me a man who for a temporary advantage, either for himself or his party, would set a foot upon one of his country s laws, and he is not loyal.

It is time we were beginning to understand the meaning of words in this country. It is time, now that the war is over, when passion has subsided and when reason ought to come back and resume her throne, that we ourselves should be reasonable. Let us look at this in the light of the past; let us look at it calmly and coolly as we survey it in bygone thousands of years, not as it looks to the eye blood shot with passion, red with a rage that is hardly dying out. Let the lower stock indulge in passion if it is to be indulged in; but here in this the highest forum of the nation; here where, if anywhere, there should bo justice and fairness, and that broad view over the whole country which takes it all in and which considers all the people as the people, virtuous, intelligent, independent enough to govern the country; let us here bo reasonable, and especially let us know the meaning of our words.

Mr. President, I have another objection to this measure, and that is to that section which imposes a punishment upon people who have not been heard and who have not been tried and who have not been convicted according to law. If there is one thing above every other thing necessary to the maintenance of personal liberty mean your liberty, my liberty, and the liberty of every man, great and small, noble and ignoble is that no man shall be condemned until he is heard. Who could have dreamed that men educated as we have been, impregnated as we ought to be with the love of English literature, English law, and English history, could stand here for one moment and sanction a proposition of this kind, and particularly when we look back and see the consequences which fell upon them from their bills of attainder; and their bills of attainder were— well, I was going to say they were right compared to this, but that is not the word; they were not the one thousandth part as reprehensible as this, because when they undertook to inflict punishment through the medium of the Legislature, they took the criminal and named him by name; they described him, so that, he could be known; they did not attempt to throw a drag net over the whole country and to sweep in thousands of people and ostracize them, or punish them, make them eternal enemies.

Mr. President, if I wanted to sow the seeds of another rebellion, if I wanted to plant that fatal upas in this country, I would do it by means of just such a clause as that which deprives all men of the right to hold office who ever took an oath to support the Constitution of the United States, and that without hearing them, without inquiring how they engaged in the rebellion, whetherthey were commanded in by a superior authority that they could not resist, whether they were forced in by actual physical force, whether they were deluded in, or how they got in. What, sir, punish such people! I have no word that will convey my sense of the impropriety and impolicy, to say no worse, of such a provision as that.

When I reflect upon the conduct of this Government toward those men at the very time when it should have been on the ground to rescue them, I am more and more astonished at our own folly in uttering a word upon such a subject. They owed allegiance to this Government. Did it owe them nothing? It owed them protection. Did it protect them What did it do? Many of the Senators within the sound of my voice know that on the 4th day of March, 1861, when we came here, the United States, the great protector of the people, the sovereign authority of the land, that to which they all looked, and had a right to look, to preserve them their freedom of opinion at least upon subjects of this kind—that Government was that day ignominionsly out of possession of seven States of the Union; had its• feet on but two points in those States, I believe, Pickens and Sumter. Those were the only two points in the seven States that were held; and held how? So far from being able to protect the people, those places were scarcely able to protect themselves, and Sumter certainly was not.

Did wc go to the rescue? Did the Government go and fulfill its part of the contract? Did it give them protection? History answers. No, sir, they were allowed to be driven into that vortex of rebellion, nobody to stand between them and the current that was sweeping everything with it. They were in, and now, because they were in and because they were in on account of the neglect of this Government to give them the protection they deserved, they are to be punished. It is time we looked at it. Why should we not look at it? Are we afraid to look it in the face? Are we afraid to do right? Can we not now" be just and fear Mr. President, let me suppose a case. An old man lives in the South, an old Whig if you please, strugglingfor the last thirty years against secession, fighting it in all its shapes from nullification down, voting for Bell and Everett, if you please, in 1800, or voting for Mr. Douglas, because I suppose that everybody admits that those who then voted for those men were not disunionists, were not secessionists.

That old man sits there surrounded by his family and surrounded by his slaves; slaves that were born beside him, slaves perhaps that his own mother nursed when she nursed him; slaves that he loved; slaves that he was kind to, and slaves that to day would go to him for a favor perhaps far sooner than to anybody else. There he is, surrounded by his sons and his daughters. In December, 18G0. a messenger comes in, a son, if you please, and he says," Father the State has seceded." "The State seceded! What! Gone out of the Union! Oh, we 11 see about that. Where is the United States? Where are the United States officers? We shall have a halter about these fellows' necks before they know what they are doing. Seceded! Gone out of the Union! We'll see aboutthat.'' The old fellow bustles about, and while he is bustling about- another son comes in and says, "They have taken all the forts except Sumter, and all the United States officers are out of commission, every one; those that were true were frightened, and those who did not want to give up their offices have been threatened, and they have all resigned; there is no United States officer in South Carolina." What then? Where is your Government there to protect this man? He may have been a member of your Congress. He may have taken an oath to support the Constitution twenty times. He may have been a member of this body. What is he told? Where is ho to go? He says, "I will see about this." He is an active, vigorous, energetic man, and ho comes up here to Congress, and he finds Congress sitting at this end of the avenue, he finds the President sitting at the other end, and he tells them" South Carolina has seceded; you are out of possession; you cannot protect anybody; the whole people there are at the mercy of these secessionists. What are you going to do?" What did you do at either end of the avenue?

Mr. HOWARD. Ask Mr. Buchanan.

Mr. COWAN. Yes, and ask that Congress that sat here, too; ask that Congress did it pass any bill to authorize him to put down the insurrection; did it make any provision? The history of that Congress is written. "Well," the old man says, X cannot, do any good here; these people seem to be all demented; they have forgotten what the Government was organized for; they have forgotten its mission. They seem to think it lias no function, that it. is to remain seated here and do nothing, and that the people will still maintain their allegiance to it as against State governments and confederate governments; however, this will be all right, yet." He goes down home and tells the boys and everybody that things will be better after a little; that there is anew President coming in; that Congress and the old President are fighting and have got to loggerheads; one will not do this and the other will not. do that, and both are waiting for some new advent.

The 4th of March comes round. What is done then? The new .President finds himself here without an army, without a navy, without a treasury, everything demoralized, everything at sixes and sevens, and for six weeks neither lie nor his Cabinet knew what, to do. What, is the old man to do in the mean time? The stern old patriot, good Union man, says, "Never mind; things ill come right yet; after awhile these people at the North will get. started and then we will be set all right; the traitors will be punished and we shall be protected." in the meanwhile one of the boys comes in and says," Father, 1 have got tired of being called a traitor; 1 cannot stand il any longer; my neighbors are joining companies ami regiments; and I am sometimes actually in danger of being mobbed when I go out; here are Vigilance Committees and Precipitators ami Knights of the Golden Circle, and il is hardly safe for a man to go out; but they have offered to make me colonel it 1 will lake command of a regiment. 1 do not see that we have any hope at all; Mr. Lincoln is not. going to do any better than Mr. Jinehauan; here we have waited a whole month ami he has not. done a thing; there have been no supplies thrown into Sumter, no troops sent there, no strengthening of that post; this is a foregone conclusion; can we look any longer to the Federal Government? L ohr months have already passed; Iguessriltakethecolonelcy." The old man says, "1 do not like that, but I do not see very well what else you are to do; if this thing shall succeed and you are not in it, of course you will be damned forever and spotted as a Tory down to the latest generation, perhaps; I guess you had better go in." John goes in and takes a colonelcy; Jim goes in and is made a major, and Ben is made a captain, and so on; and about the time that is done they tiro on Sumter and the North is on fire. Armies are in motion to go down and rescue these men after they have been in the toils.

Well, let us follow it a little further. Before our armies get within one hundred miles of this old man to protect him, to stand between him and the secessionists, he finds posted up On the wall a proclamation. What is that proclamation? Why that he is a sinner, a man who has violated a great moral law of God in the universe in owning slaves, and that his slaves that he owned, that he looked upon as his property, that he believed were his property, that had come to him from his father, if you please, were freed."

Now," says he, "that may be; but I always thought that when a man committed a sin he ought to know it. I do not understand slavery to be a sin in itself. My father did not teach me so; my mother did not teach me so; the church did not teach me so; our people all around here did not believe so. Our people thought slavery in itself was indifferent; that if a master took a hundred negroes and made them happier than they were before, wiser than before, better than before, it was a virtue, and if he took them and made them worse it was a sin; and who dares tell me that I have been a sinner in this behalf? And what kind of protection is this that a Government is to afford me to allow the country to be covered with war and desolation for months on account of its neglect at the outstart, and then after doing all this I am to be told, true as I have been to the Constitution and the laws and the flag, that J am a sinner and to be bereft of my property? However, perhaps this is after all right; this is a great Union and a great country. and we can afford great sacrifices for it, and I will submit to this and be a Union man still." Then after war is over, after peace has come back, his sons are disfranchised, or rendered ineligible to office every kind of ignominy is heaped upon him and upon them; they are punished without being tried, they are convicted without being heard; their apologies are not considered; tlicy are not considered in court; they are not considered in the legislative hall; this old man is not allowed the poor privilege of a friend from his district to come here and offer the little apologies lie may have for himself and his children.

That is an American citizen, a true man, a Union man; and this is the way we legislate for our fellow citizens This is the cement with which we propose to bind this Union again! This is the way we expect to extend the hand of fellowship to the Union men of the South! This is the thing we expect will secure to our children and to our children s children a future for the great Republic. Think ol it! J hear gentlemen taking airings in history; we were treated to a dish of it this morning, I would advise gentlemen to read Prcndcrgast s History of the Cromwellian Settlement in Ireland. Read the Partition of Poland. Read the suppression of all rebellions, and read where this operation has been performed successfully of putting down a rebellion and healing the wounds caused by, it, and ask whether this is part of the machinery that was resorted to there. Go to Roman history; read it from end to end, and see whether when they conquered a people whom they wished to unite to themselves they imposed conditions, whether they said, "You must do this and you must do that, you must pass under the yoke." Never, never. If the Romans intended that a conquered people should live with them they made them their equals immediately; they gave them all the rights of Roman citizens; and what was their argument?" They will love us the better the better we treat them, and they will hate us the worse the worse we treat them."

Then, Mr. President, there is a fundamental principle, a principle fundamental in the hearts of Englishmen, I hope, and their descendants; fundamental in our history, fundamental in our traditions, fundamental in our beliefs, fundamental as our religion; it is that no man is to be convicted without being heard. How can you tell what a man has to say who was engaged in the rebellion? You refused to put the word '■voluntarily" in. I o you propose to punish a man who was compelled to commit a crime involuntarily? And yet you do if he engaged in the rebellion.

Gentlemen tell us it is no punishment to say that a man shall have no voice and shall not be eligible to office. That might do to tell some of the verdant, virtuous districts out through the country, but it is a very singular speech here in the United States Senate, composed of forty or fifty men who have been all their lives struggling for offices, and have got very high ones at last. No punishment to say that a man shall not be elected to office! What kind of ideas of punishment must some people have? Do they think that punishment consists alone i n pulling teeth or smashing thumbs in the thumb screw or putting boots on the leg? Is that the only kind of punishment you can inflict on a man? Is there not such a thing as setting a mark upon him, the punishment of the first murderer, sending him out to wander through the world like the man in the novel who had no shadow? Is i t no punishment to put a wolf s head of this kind upon a man, to single him out, set him apart in tlie community, and label him "traitor, ineligible?" Do you know any men of our breed on the earth that ever submitted to that long? I should like some gentleman to consult his history and find when and where men of our race submitted to that long.

Mr. HOWARD. I refer the Senator to the Constitution of the United States, which declares that none but a natural born citizen of the United States shall be elected President of the United States. That is one instance.

Mr. COWAN. Oh, that is a capital joke, Mr. President. Now, we have been bamboozled and fed on that kind of stuff for the last four years. That is an answer to the argument! I ask the honorable Senator if he believes there is a sane man in the world who thinks that has anything to do with my argument. It has no more resemblance to the case I put than a hawk has to a hand saw—not a bit. Because all the people who are not born in this country cannot bo President they are punished! Is that so?

Mr. HOWARD. I do not think so.

Mr. COWAN. I do not think so either. Nobody believes that that is any punishment or any stigma or anything else upon those people; but if I were to select the honorable Senator from Michigan and say £o him, by law or otherwise, "You shall not sit upon a jury; you shall not sit in the Legislature; you shall not wear the ermine of a judge; you shall not be Governor of your State or Senator from that State," I should like to know what he would think of that. What would he say to his wife and children in explanation of that? "How does it come that our father cannot be a judge, so good a lawyer as he is? How does it come that he cannot go to the Senate of the United States, eloquent and learned as he is, and superior to the men whom we are obliged to send?" 'What would be his answer? "My children, I have committed no crime; my name shall come down to you pure and unspotted as it did from my own father; but I am the victim of a law which condemned me without hearing me, convicted me without a trial, and punished me not even by name, but by class."

I am reminded by my learned friend from Wisconsin [Mr. Doolittle] that we ourselves made that a part of the punishment of treason; and the honorable Senators who think this joke is an answerto a ponderous argument, that this quip and quirk is to stand in the face of a great fact covering eleven States of the Union, voted for it. We ourselves made it a part of the punishment of treason. It is in the book; 1 need not read it. That is a fact; and yet we are told this is no punishment. I ask again, and I defy gentlemen to put their finger upon a single instance where our race submitted to this, or submitted to it long. Impose that upon the southern States, pass this bill of attainder through the medium of an amendment to the Constitution, and the seeds of rebellion are there, and they will grow, and the feeling of this injustice will grow with it; and if redemption cannot come the children of the men you render ineligible to office in a very short time will themselves make a mighty army, an army not to be conquered in a cause of that kind. No, Mr. President, let us treat these people fairly, let us give them their rights under the Constitution and the laws; and if they merit punishment, let us ltietethat punishment out to them by the law, not by bills of attainder or ex post facto laws, not by making a law as amendments to the Constitution. If we can maintain the Union at all, we can maintain it in that way. If we cannot maintain it in that way wp cannot maintain it at all.

I am aware, Mr. President, that this is a foregone conclusion. I am aware that it was decided that something must be done, and I know how difficult it was to get that something into being, to get that unlicked bantling into shape. I know how long the period of parturition lias lasted. And, Mr. President, I am afraid, too, that if it had not been from pride of preconceived opinions it would have been strangled by its own mother at the instant of its birth. I believe she would have been glad to get rid of it if it had not been for that pride. But it is here, it is to go through, it is to be proposed to the people; but relying upon the people, upon the sense of the people, I have no fears for the result.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on the amendment of the Senator from Wisconsin, [Mr. Dooltttle.]

Mr. VAN WINKLE. I desire to say that my colleague [Mr. Willey] has been called away for this afternoon.

The question being taken by yeas and nays, resulted—yeas 7, nays 31; as follows:

YEAS— Messrs Cowan. Davis, Doolittle, Guthrie, Hendricks. Johnson, and Riddle—7.

NAYS—Messrs. Anthony, Chandler, Clark, Conness, Cragin, Edmunds, Fessenden, Foster, Grimes, Harris, Howard, Howe, Kirkwood, Lane of Indiana, Lane ot Kansas, Morgan, Morrill Norton Nye, Pomeroy, Ramsey, Sherman, Sprague, Stewart, Sumner, Trumbull, Van Winkle, Wade, Williams, Wilson, and Yates—31.

ABSENT— Messrs. Brown, Buckalew, Creswell, Dixon, Henderson, McDougall, Nesmith, Poland, Saulsbury, Willey, and Wright—11.

So the amendment was rejected.

Mr. WILLIAMS. Mr. President

Mr. DOOLITTLE. Before the Senator from Oregon proceeds to offer any amendment I desire to offer one further amendment.

Mr. WILLIAMS. The Senator will excuse

Mr. DOOLITTLE. Does the Senator offer an amendment in behalf of the committee? I supposed the committee s amendments were through with. I had two or three amendments I desired to offer.

Mr. WILLIAMS. I beg to be excused from yielding the floor. I move to strike out the second section and substitute these words for it:

Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons iq each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But whenever the right to vote at any election held under the Constitution and laws of the United Stages, or of any State, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty one years of age and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty one years of age in such State.

Mr. SHERMAN. I should like to have that printed.

Mr. CLARK. It is merely in a better form.

Mr. SHERMAN. I should like to have the opportunity of seeing it in print.

Mr. HOWARD. 1 can assure the honorable Senator from Ohio that the amendment offered by the Senator from Oregon does not vary in effect the second section. It is a more condensed form in which the ideas contained in that section are expressed, but I am not aware that it changes the meaning and legal effect of the section at all. I hope, therefore, it will be adopted as it has been very carefully and thoroughly considered.

Air. JOHNSON. So was the clause as it stands carefully considered. 1 ask for the reading of that amendment again.

The Secretary again read the amendment.

Mr. JOHNSON. I should like my friend from Oregon to state in what the amendment differs from the section as it stands.

Mr. WILLIAMS. I will state that in substance and effect it is the same as the original section; but the words the right to vote are substituted for the words "the elective franchise." It was suggested, with considerable force, that this section related to the apportionment of representation, and that the words "elective franchise" might be construed as exclusively applying to that subject, and that a State might claim that it was entitled to count persons as allowed to vote when it extended the elective franchise to such persons so far as the election of Representatives was concerned; and therefore the words "any election held, under the Constitution and laws of the United States or of any State" were substituted so that electors could not lie deprived of the right to vote at State elections. The object of the change in the phraseology is to require the State to allow those persons, before they can be counted in the basis of representation, to vote at elections held under the constitution j and laws of the State as well as at elections held under the Constitution and laws of the i United States; so that there is substantially no difference. There is a change in the phraseology; some of the sentences and words are transposed, the object being to make the section more clear and explicit and satisfactory than it was in the other phraseology.

Mr. JOHNSON. Will the honorable member explain why it is that the words "which may be included within the Union," in the eighteenth line are omitted in the amendment?

Mr. WILLIAMS. They were omitted for the sake of brevity and because they added nothing to the sense of the section.

Mr. JOHNSON. That is the language of; the original Constitution.

Mr. WILLIAMS. That is true. At that time, when the Constitution was adopted, there were States that had not been admitted into the Union, States that might not ratify the Constitution, and those words were intended I suppose to apply to those States that might j ratify the Constitution afterward. At this time these words are not supposed to be applicable, and certainly the Senator will not contend that the words in the proposed substitute are not as full and as complete as the words in the original seel ion, and they are altogether more brief. That is the only reason why those words were omitted.

Mr. HENDRICKS. I suppose it is desirable that we shall know what is in this amendment, and of course we could not understand its full force by merely hearing it read. I move that the Senate adjourn. It is past the usual hour of adjournment.

Mr. DOOLITTLE. If the honorable Senator will allow me, I should like to submit amendments that I intend to propose, so that they may be printed also.

Mr. HENDRICKS. Very well.

Mr. DOOLITTLE. I desire to submit amendments to be printed.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wisconsin proposes an amendment which lie intends to offer at another time, and asks to have it printed. The order to print will be made.

Mr. DOOLITTLE. The effect of my proposition is that each of these sections shall be submitted as separate articles, to be passed upon severally. That is the effect of the amendment of which I now give notice.

Mr. HENDRICKS. I move that the pending proposition beprinted, and that the Senate adjourn.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The order to print will be made if there be no objection. The Senator from Indiana moves that the Senate do now adjourn.

The motion was not agreed to, there being 10 in favor of the motion and 19 against it.

Mr. HENDRICKS. I do not expect to vote for this proposition nor the one for which it is proposed as a substitute, but still I presume that evou the minority have some little say and do about an amendment of the Constitution. Yesterday afternoon there was no press upon the Senate to stay here and consider this resolution. We adjourned at an early hour, when the Senator from Wisconsin [Mr. Howe] was making his speech, I believe about four o'clock. I suppose he was a little fatigued in •making his speech, and some Senator proposed that we adjourn— I think it was the Senator who has charge of this measure—and there was no Senator who thought of questioning the propriety of the adjournment to accommodate the Senator from Wisconsin.

Mr. HOWE. The adjournment was not at my request at all.

Mr. HENDRICKS. By no means; butthe Senator yielded that the motion might be made; no further business was transacted in open Senate; we went into executive session for a little bit. Now, there is a proposition simply that we adjourn that a very important amendment may be printed. I do not suppose it is the purpose to pass this measure to night I have not heard that expressed. I do not want to discuss it myself; but I should like to know what is in it before we vote on it. If it is better than the original, I want to vote for it; if it is not better, I do not want to vote for it as an amendment. I have a right to know what is in it because my judgment stands before the country upon the two propositions. This is an amendment to the caucus proposition, and I want to know whether it is better or worse. I have to give an intelligent vote on the subject, i and I find it is impossible to know just what is in it by merely hearing it read. The language] is changed materially. i Mr. JOHNSON. I certainly have no desire! to delay the action of the Senate if their minds! are made up oil the question; but I do not I understand I his amendment, and I have had it and the original section in my hand now for some three or four minutes; at least I do not understand it as I suppose it is understood by the gentleman who offers it. It appears to me to be obnoxious to this objection, and if it be liable to this objection I imagine that the Senators who are now apparently in favor of it will correct it in that particular. That part of the amendment to which I refer says that whenever the right to vote at any election held under the Constitution and laws of the United States, or of any State, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such States, being twentyone years of age, &c., a deduction is to be made. Now, sir, in all the States—certainly in mine, and no doubt in all—there are local as contradistinguished from State elections. There are city elections, county elections, and district or borough elections; and those city and county and district elections are held under some law of the State in which the city or county or district or borough may be; and in those elections, according to the laws of the States, certain qualifications are prescribed, residence within the limits of the locality and a property qualification in some. Now, is it proposed to say that if every man in a State is not at liberty to vote at a city or a county or a borough election that is to affect the basis of representation? I submit to the friends of this measure, and I speak it, as I am sure the Senate will believe me, in all sincerity, when I say as it is all important that the provision which we are about to adopt, or whatever we may adopt, shall be as certain as we can make it, that we had better print this amendment and bring to the consideration of it in the morning a better judgment than we may be able to form, at least than I am able to form, at this time. I move, therefore, that the amendment lie upon the table and be printed.

Mr. MORRILL. A motion to print it has been agreed to.

Mr. JOHNSON. No; the order to print has not been made.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. It is not in order to move to lay the amendment upon the table.

Mr. ANTHONY. That would carry the bill with it, as I understand.

Mr. JOHNSON. Then I move that the amendment be printed. That answers the same purpose.

The motion was agreed to.•

Mr. DOOLITTLE. I ask that the amendment which I proposed to submit be printed also.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The order to print h s already been entered.

Mr. HENDERSON. I am a friend of this measure, and I expect to vote for it and every one of these sections. I think, however, that at this hour of the evening the friends of the proposition -ought not to insist upon a vote upon it. I have never seen this amendment before j I have not examined it; it is entirely new; and when the Senator from Oregon offered it I really did not know whether it came from himself or the committee. Certainly we do not desire to take from the opponents of this measure the opportunity of judging it and examining it, and much less can we wish to take from our own friends the opportunity of examining the 'principles contained in it. It is now five o: clock; it is the usual hour of adjournment.

Mr. CLARK. "Will the Senator allow me to offer an amendment before he moves an adjournment?

lUr. HENDERSON. I will give way for a moment until you present it.

Mr. CLARK, with the permission of the Senator from Missouri, if there is a disposition to adjourn, I wish to offer an amendment to strike out the fourth and fifth sections and to substitute what 1 send to the Chair, and I will state for the information of Senators that it is an amendment from the committee. 1 move that it he printed.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The order to prinl will be entered, if there bo no objection.

Mr. HENDERSON. Now I move that the Senate adjourn.

Mr. AIN TIIONV I hope that before wo adjourn some understanding may be arrived at on both sides of the Chamber as to when we shall have a vote on this question.[ think we should take advantage ot the good feeling that is exhibited at present to come to some understanding on that point.

Mr. HOWARD. 1 trust wc shall stay here a little longer to day and make some further progress in the discussion. There are several Senators on the other side of the Chamber who intend to speak to the measure whieli is now under consideration, and 1 am anxious to make all tin; progress that, is possible to day and tomorrow; and! wish it understood that so far as it depends on mo I shall expect that the final vote will be taken at least on Friday.

ill*. CLAIilv. To morrow

Mr. HOWARD. I say at least on Friday.

Several Senators. To morrow

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri moves that the Senate do now adjourn.

Mr. HOWARD. I hope wo shall not adjourn.

The motion was not agreed to; there being, on a division—ayes 11, noes 17.

Mr. HENDRICKS. Mr. President, I had a sympathy to day for the Senator from Ohio [Mr. Sherman] when he announced to the Senate that his judgment was that the amendment proposed by the Senator from Wisconsin was right; that of the two measures that ought to be a part of the Constitution rather than the proposition of the caucus, but that he could not support it; and ho said that I had been placed in like circumstances a hundred times, and my political friends had decided for me how I should vote. I desire to say to that Senator that he is entirely mistaken upon that proposition. I never in my life cast a vote upon an important legislative measure because any body of men said I should; and I do not think I ever will. I am responsible to the people of the State of Indiana; and when it is proposed to change the Constitution of the country, I must be satisfied in my own judgment that the proposition is right, that it is the be t proposition that is before the body, or that my constituents expect me to vote for it, else I cannot give it my vote.

Mr. FESSENDEN. I should like to ask the Senator a question if he will allow me.

Mr. HENDRICKS. Certainly.

Mr. FESSENDEN. Has it ever occurred in the history of that Senator that when he became satisfied that he could not get what he wanted he voted for the next best thing he could get, or did he stick to the first and lose it, and let the other go with it 1

Mr. HENDRICKS. I do not recollect ever to have been placed in just that embarrassment. I am practical in my views as a general thing, and do the best I can.

Mr. FESSENDEN. That, I suppose, is the ease with the Senator from Ohio.

Mr. HENDRICKS. I do not recollect any particular instance in which I was placed in the embarrassment the Senator suggests.

Mr. FESSENDEN. I can vary the form of my question.

Mr. HENDRICKS. Will the Senator allow me to complete my answer? When a proposition is before a legislative body, and an amendment is proposed to it, and the amendment, in my judgment, is better than the original proposition, I am never so embarrassed as to say that I shall vote for the more objectionable of the two propositions. I do not do it, and my party never ask rae to do it.

Mr. FESSENDliN. I suppose, then, if the Senator was satisfied that his vote would be "thrown away on the first proposition but would have effect on the second, he would prefer to throw away his vote and thus lose both.

Mr. HENDRICKS. 1 should vote for the proposition that my judgment approved. But so far as I have been connected with political parties I have never gone into any caucuses to decide upon any legislative measures. I have gone into caucuses to decide who should be the presiding officer of a body, and how the organization should be completed; I have gone into conventions for the purpose of establishing platforms for a political campaign; but to go into a convention of the members of the Senate or of the House of Representatives, in which a majority decides how the vote shall be east, and that majority fixing if, a measure is brought before this body which two thirds must support before it shall pass, I say is exceedingly objectionable. That is the position that the Senator from Ohio admits himself to occupy to day Upon a measure that two thirds of the Senate, under the Constitution, must approve before it can be submitted to the people, he subordinates his judgment to the will of a majority of his party friends in a caucus. He says his judgment approves of a particular proposition. 1 think that is illustrative of the present condition of the Senate.

How the Senator from Oregon comes to offer an amendment at this time, I do not know. The amendment comes here. Whether he was authorized to make the proposition, whether there was some latitude allowed to him in the decisions, 1 do not understand. It seems to meet with favor. I do not want to vote upon it to night I am not ready to vote upon it; but I am willing to stay here and discuss the question until in the end we get to know something about it.- As a part of my remarks, I ask that the proposition of the Senator from Oregon be read.

Mr. SHERMAN. As a matter of course, in making the observations I did, I did not seek the approval of the Senator from Indiana, and do not now; but I have no doubt, and I repeat the assertion, that ho has frequently, very many times, in the course of his legislative experience, found himself compelled to vote for a proposition which contained some matter in it that was objectionable. Scarcely a bill passes any legislative body, but what, when a member offers an amendment and fails to carry it, he votes for the measure although he has failed to carry his amendment; and I think that the Senator, who is under pretty good discipline in I the Democratic party, has often given way his opinion on minor matters in order to carry a great proposition. My position is precisely this: I believe that several amendments of the Constitution are imperatively necessary. One of the amendments proposed relates to the basis of representation. Upon that I have a clear conviction that the gentlemen who will vote for these amendments have fallen into an error. Either I am in error or they are. I still think more than ever that the simple true basis is the number of voters, citizens of the United States fixed by the law of the State; butthat proposition is voted down by a majority of those with whom I act. I do not expect the opposite side to vote for any of these propositions, and I do not consider their opinion worth much, because they commence "by opposing the whole proposition. I do not regard their opinion as entitled to much weight with me in fixing the terms of the amendment. When each proposition has been agreed upon by the majority of those expected to vote for the whole, and I am called upon to vote on the whole proposition and defeat the whole proposition, or vote for it with some clauses that do not exactly suit me, as a matter of course I will vote for them; and I have no doubt the Senator from Indiana would do the same thing if he were in my place.

Now, in regard to another matter, I do think that the attempt to press a vote on an amendment to the Constitution, which, although it is said only differs in form, none of us have had an opportunity to read, is made probably at this period of the day without sufficient reflection. Perhaps all of us will agree that the amendment proposed by the Senator from Oregon—a change of phraseology as he says—is the better proposition; but certainly, having adjourned yesterday at half past three o'clock when one of our own political friends was speaking in order to enable him to take two days to make a speech, we can scarcely refuse an adjournment now to the minority in order that they may be heard.

Mr. CLARK. We adjourned yesterday at a quarter past four o'clock.

Mr. SHERMAN. It is now five o'clock, and two amendments are introduced to the Constitution, it is true, only varying in form; but to attempt to force a vote on them to night is simply absurd. It cannot be done in a body organized like the Senate. I, however, sympathize with all as to the long time that has been occupied by this debate, and I think a time ought to be fixed for taking the vote. The Senator from Michigan having this matter in charge says that he expects a vote on Friday evening, and if he adheres to that I will support him in it.

Mr. HOWARD. I said" at least on Friday;" and I expect the vote to be taken in the morning.*

Mr. SHERMAN. .1 will support him in that. If some general understanding can be effected by which the vote may be taken on Friday I have no doubt we shall be able to get through without being at all hurried in the mean time.

Mr. CONNESS. I move that the Senate adjourn.

Mr. HENDRICKS. Mr. President

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California has the floor.

Mr. HENDRICKS. The Senator from California has not the floor.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California was recognized by the Chair.

Mr. HENDRICKS. I yielded the floor to the Senator from Ohio.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair was not aware of that.

Mr. HENDRICKS. I am not anxious about adjourning. I am entirely indifferent on that subject. If it is the pleasure of the Senate to stay here and discuss this measure this evening, I would just as lief go on now as at any other time.

Mr. CLARK. If the Senator will permit me, I wish to make a suggestion to him. I do not suppose anybody on this side of the Chamber, or in the Senate, desires to force a vote to -night, but we desire to make some progress; for I think all Senators will bear me witness that we have r ever been so much behind in matters before the Senate at any session as we are now. It is desirable for some of us to have a vote on this question on Friday by three or four o'clock.

Mr. JOHNSON. Say five o'clock.

Mr. CLARK. That would put it out of the power of some of us to go away from the city. It is necessary, I will say, that I should leave in the train on Friday evening, if I can. If we can have a vote by three or four o'clock on Friday

Mr. JOHNSON. The train does not go until half past six.

Mr. CLAKK. But we shall want something to eat after we get out of the Senate. If we can agree to take the vote by three or four o'clock on Friday, I shall be entirely content.

Mr. HENDRICKS. I have a few remarks to make yet. I have repeated the expression so often that I do not care to do it again, that, we ought to press the business that is before the Senate. I have expressed my desire that we shall not be kept here in the very hot months; but I have become almost indifferent about that. When I proposed this afternoon to adjourn, I thought it was a very reasonable proposition, especially in view of the fact that we had adjourned yesterday afternoon simply to accommodate a Senator who was addressing the Senate, and to allow him to occupy two days instead of one, and especially in view of the fact that that one Senator has occupied more of the time of the Senate than all the minority put together. I have also desired to agree upon some time when the vote shall be taken. I have always been ready to agree upon an hour for taking the vote on any proposition before the Senate; but I am entirely indifferent now, and would just as lief stay here for the remainder of the evening as not.

I wish to speak of one other proposition of Ethics on the part of the Senator from Ohio. In his usual plausible and delightful style he said that he would go with his party friends for a proposition that did not command his judgment rather than go with the Opposition and a portion of his party friends for a proposition that did command his judgment.

Mr. SHERMAN. I do not think the Senator quite states my position.

Mr. HENDRICKS. That is about the idea. I was trying to give the very words the Senator used, and I thought I had them, but not quite. That was about the idea, that rather than be associated with Democrats in the right, he would be associated with Republicans in the wrong. I can only account for that on the part of so elevated a gentleman in morals and intellect by the fact that he has been associated with Republicans in so much that is wrong ho has to some extent become satisfied with that condition.

The Senator laid down another proposition which struck me as singular. Ho said that if the southern States refused the right to vote to the negroes, and thereby said the negroes were not fit to vote, the southern people ought not to have representation for a class of men that they themselves said were unfit to be citizens. I want to know how the Senator is going to vote for this proposition if that doctrine be right; and it is not upon non essentials it is upon essentials. It is upon the most essential feature of this resolution—the relative representation of the States in the House of Representatives. It is not a non essential it is of the very essence of the resolution. The people of Missouri have by a most unjust, as T think, provision of their constitution said that one half of the people of Missouri are unfit to vote. How is it that the Senator will now, in amending the Constitution, continue to that minority a right to representation for the majority which they have by constitutional amendment declared unfit to vote?

Mr. SHERMAN. Do you want an answer?

Mr. HENDRICKS. Apply the principle. I am just discussing it. The, Senator says that 39th Cosro. 1st Sess.— —No 188. if the southern States elect to hold that the negi ocs are unfit to vote, they shall not be voted for upon principle; but upon principle if in Missouri a minority, by accidental power, excluding a majority, upon the ground that the majority is unfit to vote, the minority shall have a full representation for the whole. I want to know how that is. It is not upon a non essential not upon a matter of organization or political policy with which he agrees with his party, but upon a question of equality and justice in the representation of the States; upon the very merit and heart of this measure, if it has got any merit at all.

Mr. President, if it is the pleasure of the Senate to adjourn I will not occupy the Senate any longer at this time; but whatever is the pleasure of the majority is my pleasure on that question.

Mr. STEWART. I move that the Senate adjourn.

Mr. DAVIS. Mr. President

Mr. STEWART. I withdraw the motion temporarily if the Senator from Kentucky desires to speak.

Mr. DAVIS. I have two or three amendments that I want to present, and should like to have the amendment offered by the gentleman from Oregon voted on before I move them.

Mr. SHERMAN. You can speak on that just as well.

Mr. DAVIS. I will adopt the course suggested by the honorable Senator from Ohio, and speak to the general proposition of my amendments.

Mr. STEWART. I move' that the Senate adjourn.

The motion was agreed to; and the Senate adjourned.