May 24, 1866

The Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, resumed the consideration of the joint resolution (H. R. No. 127) proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, the pending question being on the amendment offered by Mr. Wade.

Mr. STEWART. Mr. President, I am satisfied that it is impossible for this Congress to fully agree as to what is expedient to be done to harmonize factions and restore peace to our distracted country. Every one is liable to estimate the sentiments of the whole country by the views of a few friends or a small portion of his constituents, modified by his own peculiar ideas and wishes. This has and will continue to produce an irreconcilable conflict of opinions upon all questions of mere expediency. There is very little difference of opinion among Union men as to what ought to be done if we had the power to do it. I have always been of the opinion that it was expedient to do right. In this ease we must agree as to what, is right and do it, for wo cannot agree as to what is expedient or what is likely to return A, B, or C to Congress. The Union party are agreed that all men are entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and they will indorse any necessary means to secure these inalienable rights to every American citizen. The more direct and positive the plan the better. All digressions from principle or compromises of human rights, whether by Congress or the President, only involve us in new difficulties and increase our embarrassments. The President s plan of restoration was unsatisfactory, because it ignored the rights and excluded from constitutional liberty four million loyal citizens guilty of no offense but fidelity to the Government, and at the same time deprived the friends of the Union of the cooperation t f these loyal citizens in maintaining the integrity of the Constitution, the honor of our brave soldiers, and the financial burdens of the war; because it placed the State governments of the South in the hands of the very men who plunged the country into war for secession and the extension of slavery, and because it admitted into Congress an increased representation of the disloyal elements of the rebellion. Yet it was better than no plan, no restoration, no Union, and no peace. The paramount importance of speedy restoration made me hesitate to condemn the plan of the President for want of a better. I was unwilling to pull down without the material at hand with which to rebuild.

But in the progress of events, two noble sentiments became manifest to me upon which the people of the loyal North might unite; protection for the Union and the friends of the Union, and mercy to a fallen foe. The attainment of these humane objects promised restoration and peace. I reflected seriously upon a solution of our difficslties by an appeal which addresses itself only to the most Christian qualities of humanity, and examined with great anxiety every plan presented. I found none which promised security for the future and protection for the friends of the Government, and at the same time extended mercy to its ememies. Every proposal was wanting either in justice or mercy. Mercy pleaded generous amnesty; justice demanded impartial suffrage. Both were buried beneath an ocean of prejudice. But the voice of an enlightened press and the arguments of earnest men in Congress inspired me with the hope that a direct proposition for a settlement of the questions at issue might finally succeed. I proposed' pardon for the rebels and the ballot for the blacks. The general plan was, and still is, approved by the loyal press with no important exception, while every scheme based upon expediency alone has disappeared like the mist of the morning before the rising sun. Although the advocacy of the resolutions subjected me to some invidious criticisms by persons who judge the motives of others by their own, yet 110 one lias attempted an argument against the humanity and justice of the propositions.

If those who have always entertained the the same views upon all subjects cannot vote for my resolution because they think it inconsistent for me to advocate negro suffrage, I shall be satisfied if I can obtain the votes of those only who have held themselves open to conviction and have sometimes changed their opinions. Give me the votes of those who liavc changed with the progress of events during the last six years, and the balance may vote as they please. Those who, in the language of Mr. Lincoln," adopt new views whenever they appear to be true views," are the only persons wise or useful in this age of progress. The "world moves, and those who do not, perceive it are dead to the living issues of tile day. I have always advocated the necessity of taking the world as we find it, and following the logic of events. The development of new facts is constantly exploding old theories. The trouble is that some men do not seem to comprehend the new facts. The attempt to apply the theories of slavery to a condition of freedom is the most dangerous evil of the age, yet those who do this boast of their consistency. They were educated to believe that a negro was a slave, possessing no rights that a white man was bound to respect, and they believed it still, and they are astonished at the inconsistencies of the world and its tendency to recognize the rights of man.

In advocating this plan my only hope of success is predicated upon the principles involved, and although it may receive 110 favor and few votes now, I am profoundly impressed with the conviction, that if this Union is ever restored, it must be done with impartial suffrage and general amnesty Gentlemen on all sides freely admit the justice of these principles, but express a fear that the country is not yet prepared to meet the issue. Let us not deceive ourselves; the people understand these questions better than we suppose. The leading minds of the nation have proclaimed from the beginning the doctrine of these resolutions. The people are in advance of Congress in their demands for justice, and in their magnanimous generosity to a vanquished enemy. All they demand is security for the future, and with it they proceed to the work of restoration" with malice toward none, with charity for all." To start right in this matter it is only necessary to adhere to first principles, and constantly bear in mind that—"

Mankind are all by nature free and equal,'

'Tis their consent alone gives just dominion."

Protection and allegiance are reciprocal. It is the duty of the Government to protect; of the subject to obey. Where both these duties are performed by the respective parties, peace and order must follow. Monarchical government is founded upon the idea that the sovereign is the source of all power and the guardian of the rights of the people. Republican government is founded upon the idea that the people are the only source of legitimate authority and the guardians of their own rights through the instrumentality of the ballot. The theory of monarchical government is that the sovereign only can be trusted; the theory of republican government is that the people must be trusted. Monarchical and republican Governments arethe only Governments tolerable among men. The mixed forms of oligarchies and aristocracies are only a multiplication of tyrants to prey upon the people. Our fathers established a republican Government on the representative basis, and declared that all power emanated from the people, and that all men were equal in the right to exercise that power in a constitutional way at the ballot-box. But in practice they failed to come up to the high standard of their theory; they even tolerated slavery as an unavoidable evil, and from a supposed necessity ignored all the civil and political rights of the colored man, and even counted him as a chattel. It was a declaration of rights for all men, but a Government for white men only. The theory was good, the practice in this respect fatally defective. Disfranchisement and slavery in a portion of the Republic produced the results which might have been expected. The master exercised, both in the local and General Government, the power belonging to him as a freeman and the power belonging to his slaves. This created an inequality in the beginning. The slaveholder was more powerful than the non slaveholder This inequality and violation of republican principles produced" arrogance and intolerance on the part of the slaveholding South, and jealousy and hatred on the part of the non slave holding North. Free labor was odious to the southern aristocracy, slave labor was still more odious to the Democracy of the North. For a time an effort was made by our statesmen to keep up a balance of power between the slave and non slaveliolding States, and all manner j of expediencies were attempted to compromise and reconcile the irrepressible conflict between slavery and freedom, but all to no purpose. Neither felt safe, or, indeed, was safe, while its antagonistic principle existed in the Government. The inevitable conflict came, and after four years of death, carnage, and desolating war, democracy was triumphant, and the aristocratic institutions of the South, based upon slavery and inequality of human rights, were overthrown and utterly crushed. The triumph of arms was complete. The question now presented is, shall the triumph of democratic principles be equally so? There are two great obstacles in the way, both based upon passion and prejudice, and each seems nearly insurmountable. One is hatred of rebels, and a demand that they shall be disfranchised and enslaved—for disfranchisement is slavery. The other is hatred of the negro, and a demand that he shall be disfranchised and robbed of the power of self protection and virtually reenslaved. The great mass of the people of the South are either rebels or blacks, and if we yield to either demand the struggle is not ended. The democratic principle of the equality of all men in the right to protect themselves at the ballot-box will still be denied. The party left in power, whether it be black men or white men, will soon display all the meaner qualities of petty despotism, intolerance, arrogance, contempt for labor, and above all a fierce hatred for the democratic protective principle of the equality of man. If we yield to both these demands, and disfranchise both blacks and whites, what will become of our free Government, for which we were willing to sacrifice the last dollar and the last man? I am aware with what effect the argument for disfranchisement of rebels can be urged to the soldier, still heated with the conflict of battle; to the widows and orphans, destitute and sorrowing beneath the afflictions brought upon them by a wicked and cruel rebellion; with the laboring masses of the North, still smarting under the insults heaped by southern aristocracy upon the "mudsill" democracy of the loyal States short, with every loyal man who loves the Union and hates its enemies. But it is not the part of men and Christians to appeal to these most natural sentiments of the human heart unless it be necessary to continue the conflict for the attainment of a great principle. Now is the time to declare for human rights and the equality of man before the law, and if that be still denied no human power can stay the conflict. But can we not now claim that the loyal men of this nation by their valor and by their sacrifices have won not only for themselves but for every man in all this broad land the glorious right of self-government, and that they and their posterity are to reap a rich harvest of blessings as the fruits of the free institutions they have rescued? May we not say to the South, "It was not your young men whose lives we sought, it was not your property we desired to destroy, but we found these sheltering and protecting and hedging about an institution in conflict with human liberty, and in conflict with the Union, and in destroying it we were compelled to overthrow its defenders; but if you have ceased to defend it and war upon the Union we will now cease to harm you?" All we want is justice for all men, and we will become the advocates of mercy for all men and amnesty and forgiveness for the past and a promise of friendship for the future. Let justice and mercy stand together and the demands of each are satisfied.

"The quality of mercy is not strained;

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven

"Upon the place beneath: it is twice blessed;

It blesseth him that gives and him that takes;

'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown; His scepter shows the force of temporal power. The attribute to awe and majesty, Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; But mercy is above this sccpterd sway

It is enthroned in the hearts of kings;

It is an attribute to God himself:

And earthly power doth then ahowlikest God s

When mercy seasons justice."

Let justice be done and then it becomes the duty of every loyal man to invoke mercy even for those who have attempted the destruction of our free institutions. We will then reflect that the South is not alone responsible for slavery and all its woes; that the North and civilized Europe have all played a part in planting this vile institution upon the most favored section of our common country; and that the whole nation has been clothed in sackcloth and ashes for this great crime. When the evil is removed and the rights of man acknowledged we will cease to inquire who is most to blame or who is most guilty, but we will labor to forget the past in view of the bright prospect of universal peace and universal justice. But while the war lasts, whether it be a conflict upon the battlefield or at the ballot-box, all men loyal to equal rights and even handed justice will be arrayed in fierce antagonism with the enemiesof liberty. But itissaid thatthenegro is ignorant. Grant it. That he is inferior to the white. Grant it. That the great mass of them will not vote intelligently. Grant it. But what are you to d j with him? He must either exercise his own political rights or somebody must exercise them for him. You once trusted the duty of exercising both the civil and political rights of the blacks to the whites and it came near destroying every spark of republicanism they ever possessed. It destroyed all their love for democratic institutions, and caused them to make almost superhuman efforts to destroy the best democratic f epublican Government ever organized.

It is now a fixed fact that it is not safe to add to the political and social power of the white man the political and social power of the black man. The white man cannot exercise that amount of power and remain a friend of free institutions; hence it becomes a necessity either to destroy the negro so that he shall 110 longer be a source of power to corrupt the whites, or to trust liini with his own political and civil rights. One thing is certain, that the negro iimsthave the ballot or have 110 friends; and being poor and friendless, and surrounded as he is by enemies, his fate is extermination. But give him the ballot, and he will have plenty of white friends, for the people of the United States love votes and office more than they hate negroes. I need not allude to the kindly feelings the ballot secures for the poor, for you have plenty of illustrations at every election. There are many classes of poor people in the North who would be little better than slaves but for the power of the ballot, before which not only politicians but merchant princes and millionaires tremble; and the mighty Executive of forty million people bows in humble submission to the omnipotent power of the ballot. In a republic it is mightier than both pen and sword. Before slavery was abolished the master was interested in protecting the slave from ruffianism and violence, but now he has no protection but the sword or the ballot. We will not give him the former. We want no more blood. We must give him the latter or betray him from slavery, not to liberty, but to destruction. We talk of giving equal civil rights, but he answers in the language of the poet—

41 So let thorn ease their hearts with prate

Of equal rights which men ne er know;

I have a love for freedom too."

Give him the ballot and he will secure his own freedom, which includes all the balance. Freedmen s Bureaus, civil rights bills, are all very well in their way, but very expensive in their operation. They can effect very little in protecting or governing four million people. The government of a Freedmen s Bureau is not self-government, and the sooner we commence to give these people self gov ernment the better. Immediate and universal suffrage may not be wise, but what danger can there be to allow all the negroes to vote with like educational, intellectual, and moral qualifications with the whites hereafter to become voters. If the rising generation of whites are unable to compete on equal terms in these respects with their late slaves, the negro must be regarded as supei ior But there is no question of competition in it. It is simply a question of self protection and the negro must have the ballot for his own protection, and it must come to this before the conflict will cease. The whites who have been in this rebellion must also have the ballot and full enfranchisement or they must be driven out of the country, for if you retain them here disfranchised enemies, the extraordinary powers necessarily devolved upon the few whom you trust with political rights must make them tyrants. The principle is that a man to be free must exercise political power for himself. If he is not allowed to do this he is a slave. If he is allowed to do more he is to that extent a despot. Every attempt to govern the people of any State by a minority, however loyal that minority may be, is a mockery on republican institutions and will inevitably produce anarchy" and discord. We must either abandon our principles or repudiate the idea of dealing with irresponsible minorities and calling them the people. There will be no peace or prosperity in Maryland, Missouri, or Tennessee until the people are enfranchised.

But we are told that if the rebels are allowed to vote those States will fall immediately into disloyal hands; that the power of those States will be used to embarrass the Government and to degrade and persecute loyal men. This is undoubtedly true if the rebels only are enfranchised; but that they will ultimately, and at no distant day, achieve the ballot no sensible man can doubt. In their struggle to obtain this, so necessary for their protection, millions of the American people will sympathize, aid, and approve their efforts, for the principle that a white man (who is allowed to live) ought to vote is too deep rooted in the nature of the American people to be ignored or repudiated. But they tell us when this is done the life and liberty of every loyal man, both black and white, is in jeopardy. Grant it. Nobody is insane enough to doubt it. But what is the remedy? There are but two: military despotism by the General Government, or an extension of the franchise to the loyal as well as the disloyal; for in each of those States the majority of the whole people are to day acknowledged to be loyal; and whether we are in favor of negro suffrage or not is not the question. The question is, shall this Government be in loyal or disloyal hands—in the hands of its friends or the hands of its enemies? It is too late for the Republican party to dodge the issue. There have been too many speeches made in this Congress in favor of negro suffrage to deny that it is a part of the Republican creed. There have been too many votes in this Congress sustaining the principle of suffrage to admit of any doubt of the real design and purposes of the Union party. If we deny our principles the proof of our insincerity will overwhelm us before the people. There is nothing left, if we would have a party, but to affirm and justify our principles. Any attempt to hide them is prima facie evidence that they are contraband of political warfare, and subject to confiscation before the tribunal of the people. I was slow in committing myself to the necessity of negro suffrage. My constituents were opposed to it; my education and mode of thinking had been opposed to it; but when I found the Union party committed to it; when I was thoroughly convinced that it alone would protect the negro and redeem the pledge of the Government that he should be free; when I was forced to the conclusion that the fifteen original slave States must shortly be handed over to the enemies of the Government to aid the Democracy in repudiating the national debt, and, perchance, paying the confederate debt, in making loyalty odious and treason honorable, in rewarding traitors and persecuting Union men, unless we extended the ballot to the friends of the Union for our mutual protection, I was resolved to meet the issue, and meet it squarely. Any attempt to conceal our designs will be proof positive of a conscious weakness and a want of faith in the correctness of our principles.

Mr. SAULSBURY. I desire to ask the Senator a question.

Mr. STEWART. I prefer not to be interrupted.

Mr. SAULSBURY. Does the Senator from Nevada say that the Democratic party of this country would, if they had it in their power, repudiate the national debt or would assume the confederate debt? I should like a frank answer. I only refer to it because I observe that the Senator has repeated an intimation which I have seen in the public press.

Mr. STEWART. I will answer the Senator very frankly. For myself, I think there is too much danger to run the risk of giving them the power, and I propose to retain it and not take the chances.

The second section of the constitutional amendment proposed by the committee can be justified upon no other theory than that the negroes ought to vote; and negro suffrage must be vindicated before the people in sustaining that section, for it does not exclude the non voting population of the North, because it is admitted that there is no wrong in excluding from suffrage aliens, females, and minors. But we say, if the negro is excluded from suffrage he shall also b§ excluded from the basis of representation. Why this inequality? Why this injustice? For injustice it would be unless there be some good reason for this discrimination against the South in excluding her non voting population from the basis of representatiou. The only defense that we can make to this apparent injustice is that the South commits an outrage upon human rights when she denies the ballot to the blacks, and we will not allow her to take advantage of her own wrong, or profit by this outrage. Does any one suppose it possible to avoid this plain issue before the people? For if they will sustain you in reducing the representation of the South because she does not allow the negro to vote, they will do so because they think it is wrong to disfranchise him. Why, then, I ask, will they not sustain you in stopping the wrong at once? Why license the South to outrage equal rights for the small compensation of reduced representation? You do not license murder. Why not? Because it is a. crime. Why should you barter away human rights and authorize oppression? Is that no crime?

It is most evident, sir, if we gain a victory at all it will be because the people are satisfied the black loyalist ought to vote; the verdict will be for suffrage. But the verdict will be surplusage. No judgment can be entered on it in favor of human rights. The issue in the pleadings is too narrow. The relief sought cannot be granted. The rebel State governments, with all their local machinery, must at once fall into the hands of the enemies of the Union, and both the black and white loyalists must then be turned over to the tender mercies of a fierce people smarting under a thousand imaginary wrongs and burning with unquenchable vengeance. But you say you will disfranchise the rebels, and the plan of the committee proposes continuance of test oaths, disfranchisements, exclusions from Federal office, kc. The accomplishment of this involves military despotism and the utter destruction of republican institutions in the South. This only aggravates the evils, adds to the calamities of our common country; for, instead of liberating four million blacks, you will have enslaved eight million whites. The President of the United States will become Dictator as well as President—Dictator of eleven States, President of twenty five Since it is evident that we must either have disfranchisement and military despotism or enfranchisement and liberty, there can be no doubt of the verdict of the American people. They have had more difficult questions to decide, and have decided on the broad principles of human rights. The united voice of the loyal North demands the oppoi tunity to settle every question that can again disturb the peace or endanger the liberties of the people or the perpetuity of the Union once for all. The patriotic sentiments echoed from the mountains of Switzerland are reechoed from the loyal American heart. Grant impartial suffrage and universal amnesty, and the great work is accomplished. I ask the Secretary to read the Swiss address.

The Secretary read as follows: Address of the Sxciss Conventions {Comites) {of Geneva, Hale, Neufchatel, Tessin, and Berne) in favor of the freedmen, and of the Assembly convocated at Geneva on the 29th March, 1866, by the Genevan Convention. To the President and Congress of the United States of America: Mr. President, Messrs. Members of Congress: For four years we have, as it were, lived with you, have borne your grievances, been rendered joyous at your deliverance, and have gloried in your success.

When the election of Lincoln announced to the world that you had had enough of the system which abased you, enough of complicity and compromise with slavery, of man hunting ordained• by slavery, of conquests for the profit of slavery, of politics in favor of the party of slavery, we gave thanks to God. When your Union was disrupted by revolt, when your prosperity was crippled, (ieroulS,) when many voices had prophesied the dissolution of the Union, we hailed the commencement of a new and a better life for your people.

When military reverses menaced your noble cause, we still believed that it would not perish. When Europe lent, or seemed to lend, an intervention in favor of the South toward violating your blockades and in recognition of the rebel confederacy, we always believed that something would interpose itself between the design and the execution; that your grand principle would intervene, and through that you would become invincible.

When it wasgenerally believed and saidthatpeace negotiations would render nugatory the moral results of the war, that you would compromise with the prejudices and the institutions of the South, wo always believed that you would not lay down your arms until you had destroyed your real enemy, that is to say, slavery.

When the death of Lincoln plunged us in mourning, we believed that Lincoln s successor would stake his honor on the continuance and the completion of his work.

Finally, when you have announced to the world that the constitutional amendment was adopted, that already there was no single slave upon the soil of the Union, we have heard within expressible emotion this glorious progress, this greatest event of our Tt is this sentiment which we would manifest today as a duty. Of slight importance though the testimony may be, it shall not bo said that the voice of Switzerland should not make itself beard in your applause. You havef tr surpassed thehopes of those who hoped the most. At the same moment in which your trials terminated you pronounced the talismanic word of freedom. It will make itself heard throughout the New World; the Spanish treaty will be suppressed; you will annihilate Brazilian slavery. A whole race suffering in bondage shall be freed at the sound.

These are rare days in the history of mankind, when polities and the Gospel move hand in hand—these days of sunshine unobscured by a cloud.

After such days, in resuming the course of ordinary life, we should guard against dangers from contingencies, and set aside obstacles. To finish is more difficult than to begin; to make sure its application more arduous than the annunciation of a principle. The labors that await you to day are not less important, and are more complex and difficult to surmount than those of yesterday.

But the one goes not without the other. Sad will be the condition of your enfranchised slaves if you make not citizens of them.

Between slavery and liberty—real liberty—there are no breathing places Thus, what do the enemies of the Union now predict? That freedom will destroy the freedinen; that, tired of them, you will succumb to the ennui of the fatiguing problem; that you will no longer listen to the voice of the poor negroes; that it will not matter to you whether they remain or depart, whether they live or die: that in the rude contact with your prejudices and contempt they will perish, as the Indians have perished; that your Pharisaical abolition will find itself resulting in their extermination; that the pure glory of to day will turn to shame on the morrow.

Weprotest against such dark presages; weask that they maybe branded with falsehood. "We know that your acts will so brand them, and very soon.

The more you desire the dark question to cease troubling the United States the more you will feel that it must be disposed, of. Unfinished questions have no pity for the repose of mankind. And how shall that completion be attained? But two things remain to be done: to maintain your Ereedmcn s Bureau and to suppress allcivil and political distinctions on account of color. To refuse Federal protection to the slaves that were protection indispensable to the transition to givethem up purely and simply to the laws, the administration, the tribunals of the South. It would be to decree the reestablishment of slavery with the addition of hatred, and, by consequence, of atrocity. To conserve political exclusion to the black race, as a race, would be to deny the principle, even the name, for which the North has so valiantly combated.

That prudent measures should accompany the conferring of the right of suffrage in the South—that, for instance, it should be limited to those who can read and write, without distinction of color—we can well understand. But what we cannot understand, nor can any of those who teach and sustained your cause, is the exclusion of the race. If the southern States were readmitted to Congress without imposing upon them, as a condition, the equality of races, we should bitterly deplore it; we would bow the head in humility and sadness, and await in fear a recommencement of those hostilities between the South and North, between the Republicans and the Democrats, the end of which had seemed only to have come round.

But what would mostdisturballour hopeswouldbe to seethose freedmen who had spilled their blood for the defense of the Union rewarded for their devotion by being deprived of those rights which are, in all republican Governments, the appanage of those brave men who are called to bear arms for their country, at the same time that the rebels, who had torn the bosom of their country, and begged the intervention of the foreigner, not only reenjoy the rights they had before the war, but made the arbiters absolute of the fate of loyal citizens. To give to those guilty of high treason the power to reduce good citizens to the position of political pariahs is to reward treachery and to discourage patriotism give in to those who pronounced self-government impossible and selfannihilating.

That one condition necessary to future pcaceshould be imposed on the rebel States, the sense, namely, of the above, we doubtnotyouunderstand for youhuve already imposed upon them an affirmative vote upon the amendment abolishing slavery.

One stop more, and your task is finished. By the side of the abolition of slavery it remains to you to equalize the races before the law. What is abolition without equality? It remains to you to decide that the rebel States, before reentering Congress, should abolish all distinctions based on color. Political franchises in all respects should be enjoyed equally by blacks and whites. These guarantees obtained, open to them your arms and hasten toward a gen era! reconciliation. Avoid any unnecessary prolongation of the present interregnum, (regime excpptionncl.) Add to your other glories that of reestablishingthe power of your Government at the immediate close of a bitter civil war. Liberty is bold and strong: and of what use are her boldness and strength if she cannot trust and pardon?

It is repugnant to us to conceive your stoppinghalf way, and conferring upon the former slaves liberty without equality, or, in other words, liberty without the conditions of freedom; liberty without dignity; liberty with an unopened future, without possible progress; liberty without that upon which it becomes great and attains its end; thus you would reconstitute a. new slave party in Congress—further oppressions of slaves throughout the South. Seeking for peace you would reorganize war—servile war at first, for you cannot pronounce with impunity the words be FREE; and when those whom you have declared free feel that they havencitherprotectionnorrights, nor means of regular action, they are almost infai- 39th Cong. 1st Sess —No 176. libly driven to employ other means. Civil war would follow. Is it possible that the blood of the blacks shed on the other side of the Potomac, that cruel oppressions, would not speed that war, and that the generous instincts of the North wouldnotreawaken? They would complain, they would denounce iniquities, they would intervene morally, and the ancient quarrel would blaze forth again. As faithful friends we have better hopes foryou. We have said much, convinced thatyou will easily perceive that there is a warm sympathy in the depths of our fears, and that our sincerity is strengthened by respect and by attachment.

May He who has guarded you and protected you thus far continue to guard and protect you to the end; that He may empower you to finish what you have begun—to treat as fellow citizens and to love as brothers those who, thanks to you. are no longer in slavery; and that He may accomplish for you now and hereafter all those good wishes with which our hearts are filled.

J. H. SiSRMENT, and others, for Geneva.

ADOLPH CHRIST, and others, for B le

ROBERT LISSOT, and others, for Neufchatel. P. BIANCIfETTI, and others, for Tessin.

BERN ARD, and others, for Berne.

M. BECHET, for the Canton Do Vaud.

Geneva, April 10 1866

Mr. STEWART. How truthful the remark that u unfinished questions have 110 pity for the repose of mankind." While four million blacks are struggling for the ballot as the 011I37 protection known in republican Governments for life, liberty, and property 5 while the military arm of this Government is outstretched to enforce disfranchisement of rebels and restrain them from warring upon the life of the nation and the rights of the disfranchised blacks, gentlemen may cry, 11 Peace! peace!" but there is no peace.

"For freedom s battle, once begun,*

Bequeathed by bleeding sire to son,

Though baffled oft, is ever won."

The contest may be lost for years if left unsettled now but there can be no repose for this country until the principles of the Declaration of Independence are fully acknowledged and practically enforced from ocean to ocean, from the Gulf tp the Lakes.

I have often heard the appeal of earnest men in this great contest, and have too often hesitated at what seemed impractical or impossible, but before I could realize the grandeur of the design the work was accomplished. I hear the same warning voice of zealous reformers and earnest republicans proclaiming the simple truths of equal rights and generous amnesty; and as in the past the dark night of slavery and human bondage disappeared before the sunlight of humanity and justice, so in the future the clouds of prejudice and passion which envelope the rights of millions of American citizens will dissipate before the reason and patriotism of the loyal masses of the people.

What guarantees shall be demanded on the restoration of the South, and by what right do we demand guarantees? In proceeding to this branch of my subject I find my own views so well expressed in an able paper from the pen of Robert Dale Owen that I avail myself of his forcible language:

"To the Editor of the Chronicle:*'

I take exception, in these days, to no contrarieties of opinion touching the proper mode of restoring harmony between the late belligerent sections of our country. That is a problem which may tax the best energies of the wisest among us, and in regard to the solution of which the ablest may differ. But if the task before us is difficult, it is not hopeless; not, I firmly believe, doubtful even. I have faith in the people. I have faith, stronger still, that God, who forsook 11s not in the gloom of the rebellion, will guide us now when the scene of combat is changed from the field of battle to the election precinct and the legislative hall.

"The essential is, that we approach this greatsubject in a fitting spirit. It avails nothing to talk about the enormity of secession and the condign punishment it merits. The punishment of nations is in other hands than ours. If thejudgmcnts of God have not already stamped slavery as a sin and treason against a beneficent Government as a crime, in vain are the efforts of man in that direction.

"Nor let us, in our indignation, forget how that sin of slavery, the cause of the rebellion, originally came upon the South; against her own will against her solemn protest. In December, 1770, the King of Great Britain commanded the Governor of Virginia,' under pain of the highest displeasure, to assent to no law prohibiting the importation of slaves.' Virginia, in April. 1772, addressed the King in remonstrance, saying to him these remarkable words: 'The importation of slaves, a trade of great inhumanity, will endanger the very existence of your Majesty s American dominions.' Maryland and Carolina followed that lead.

"But aside from this, what so unphilosophioal and unjust as the spirit of the Pharisee? It is due to a geographical accident that we were not born slaveholders in the city of Charleston. Dare we assert that if we had been we should have been juster men than they more scrupulous aboutlivingbythejtabor of others? Shall we stand up, in the temple of our own self righteousness and say,' God, we thank thee, that we are not as other men, or even as these South Carolinians"

We can never, indeed, forget—God forbid that we should—the terrible consequences of treason; the hardships, the sufferings, the lost lives, the parents and widows bereaved, the countless thousands of homes made desolate among us. But to avert evils in the future better befits a Christian people than to avenge injuries of the past. Let us learn of the despised and the lowly. Is it we only who have injuries to requite? What were our sufferings during the war compared to the thousand wrongs perpetrated, throughoutgenerations, against the millions of southern slaves? But though the iron entered into their souls, did they return evil for evil? Did they forget, when the day of liberation dawned, the words of the text, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord?'

"if there be among our people a revengeful element, let us not pander to it. It we impose conditions before we restore political rights to those who, defying law and Constitution by force of arms, became public enemies, it ought to be in defense, not in requital. wc impose conditions.' To a dispassionate looker on it must seem strange that, here in the North, that should be a question at all. Atthe close of a four years' embittered war—producing a radical change in the legal and social condition of four million people, creating two vast antagonistic public debts, and entailing a thousand diversities of interest between millions on one side and millions on the other—itwould be athing incrediblethatgovernment could bo properly or safely resumed, without stipulation or precaution, as if nothing had happened. At such a juncture in our national affairs wise precautionary measures are as strictly a dictate of duty as they are clearly a matter of right."

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To us, and not to the' unjust aggressor' who appealed to the wager of battle and lost, belongs, at this time, the right to decide what guarantees are needed for the public safety, and how that' unjust aggressor' shall be rendered* incapable of doing mischief with the same ease in future.' Dearly wo paid for that right! We shall commit a folly unparalleled in the annals of nations if we neglect to use it."

But if all things are lawful for us, all things are not expedient. Thus, though due time must be taken for the matuiing and consummation of precautionary measures, yet, on the other hand, one section of a Republic containing a fourth of its inhabit nits cannot, except for a season, safely be shut out from Federal representation. Therefore the political rights of the States lately in insurrection should be restored to them at the earliest day consistently with the peace and safety of the country.

"The dangers attendant on unconditional restoration, which threaten that peace and safety, seem to me three in number; two of a political, the other of a financial character."

I concur with Mr. Owen that the dangers to be apprehended are three in number: two political and one financial. But I classify them thus: the political dangers are, first, immediate and absolute control of the several southern State governments by persons still hostile to the Union; and second, the increased representation in Congress of the disloyal elements of the South. The first is by far the greater evil, but for it the report of the committee furnishes no remedy whatever. The second and the lesser evil is but partially provided for. It is not proposed to eradicate the evil, but if possible to diminish its extent by a small reduction of representation in the other House. I very much fear that this will rather intensify the rebel elements than induce an extension of suffrage. While the franchise is restricted to the whites the rebels will be sure of a full voice in the Senate and a united (though a reduced) vote in the House and complete control of their several State governments. The danger of a division of this immense power by the extension of suffrage would more than counterbalance the loss in the other House. They would submit to this small loss of power and attempt to obtain satisfaction therefor in a more unlimited control over the destinies of the race we have attempted to liberate. I doubt very much whether this change will benefit the black man. It relieves him from misrepresentation in Congress by denying him any representation whatever.

The financial danger, so far as it depends upon an assumption or payment of the rebel I debt or compensation for emancipated slaves, 1 is properly guarded against in the fourth section of the report. But the further and greater financial danger which threatens our national credit grows out of the political dangers which I have mentioned. The commotions and agitations, and perchance civil wars, growing out of the unsettled political questions will disturb our financial system more than the rebels could "possibly do by any efforts they might make to saddle upon a loyal people a debt incurred in the interest of slavery and secession. There are but two possible modes of escape from the political dangers which menace the peace and prosperity of our country. The first is disfranchisement of rebels by military power, for it can be done in no other way. To this I am opposed, because it violates the democratic principle and is utterly repugnant to free institutions; because it is against Christianity and humanity; because it is the usual and direct road to despotism because it has been often tried, and its fruits have been in all ages, in all times, and in all countries, the bitter dregs of slavery, tyranny, human misery, and wretchedness; and because it must inevitably result in the destruction of the Union and the liberty of the people. The second is enfranchisement of the blacks. The trying times which Mr. Lincoln thought might come when the colored man could help "to keep the jewel of liberty in the family of freedom" are upon us. Two fifths of the people of the eleven States are colored, and are instinctively loyal and real friends of the Government. This two fifths was a great drawback upon secession, and after the emancipation proclamation, in spite of all efforts to deceive the blacks, they felt that the Government was their friend, and although they may have done very little effective fighting, still they aided us and injured the enemy in a thousand ways: by giving information, by kindness to prisoners, by the moral effect of enemies at home upon the cause of secession, and by the subtraction of their labor from the rebels and adding it to the resources of the Government.

After this proclamation the South became a house divided against itself, and the work of tearing down was half accomplished. Suppose to day the South were united against the Government, and we became involved in a war with Great Britain or France, would we not expect a fearful struggle? But suppose we had two fifths of the people in the South as our friends, would we not regard that fact as a great acquisition of strength? Who can say that an emergency of this kind may never happen when we will need friends in the South as we did during the late war? And remember that the blacks are now free and capable of being more useful friends than they were as slaves. Suppose in settling with our enemies we should make no effectual provisions for the safety of our friends, but turn these State governments over to the late rebels, our friends would be at the mercy of our enemies and compelled to make terms. Would it be impossible, in that event, for our late enemies to convince our late friends that our friendship after all was of little value? And might not the act of emancipation be regarded by the blacks as a snare and a delusion rather than a blessing? Deserted by all the world, surrounded by their enemies, without means of self protection might they not under such circumstances sink in despair and relapse into a hopeless state of wretchedness and misery, awaiting in silence their fate of extermination, prepared for them according to the predictions of the late slaveholders? After all this might not the Union soldier in another war for liberty look in vain for the trusted black friend whom he found ministering to his wants in the darkest hours of the late rebellion?

But asidefrom their usefulness to us in aiding to sustain the Government, dare we offend a just God by failing to redeem the solemn pledge of liberty which this nation made to the slave? Has not the late war proved a sufficient warning that nations are punished for wrong and oppression and for disregarding human rights? But you still insist the negro is ignorant and ought not to vote. Are not many of the whites also ignorant? This argument proves too much, and if practically put in force so as to exclude all ignorant men, both North and South, the reduction would be too great. But if you allow, as you must, ignorant men who are disloyal to vote, why not let ignorant loyal men vote? All that the friends of suffrage ask is, that the black should vote upon a like educational, property, and moral qualification with the white. Let the States place the standard where they will, provided a majority are not disfranchised and a government not republican set up in violation of the Constitution; but let it be impartial. We go even further, and, not wishing to disfranchise any who now vote, we propose to relieve them from restrictive qualifications which may hereafter be imposed on voters, but we insist that the ballot shall be placed within the reach" of every American citizen of whatever race or color. Place any safeguards you please on the ballot, but make them impartial, and we will take the chances for the negro.

Does any one suppose that the Senators and Representatives from South Carolina would not soon have aloyal constituency if the ballot were within reach of the black man? In that" State over one half of the people would be a solid column (a black column, if you please,) of loyalty. Does any one doubt that there would be whites enough to join them to obtain control of the State? Suppose those who join them are mere politicians, and they go with the negroes for office and spoils, would it be the first political combination formed for that purpose, and would not those who should obtain office and power by such means be compelled to respect the loyal sentiments of their constituents in order to retain power; and would not the ordinary desire of the politician to serve his friends prompt him to make equal laws and sustain the Union? The more this question is considered the plainer it becomes. 1 like a platform of principles which will bear examination and investigation. The simple fact is, give the people the ballot and the rulers are their servants, withhold it and the people exist at the will and sufferance of their rulers, and this rule applies South as well as North. Suppose you should withhold the ballot from the laboring classes of the North and allow capital to legislate for labor, aristocracy to make laws for democracy, how many civil rights bills and Freedmen s Bureaus would it require to secure freedom to the masses of the people and make them contented and happy?

But let Senators be warned by the grand demonstrations of the people in favor of these measures of protection for the blacks. Let this voice be understood. What does it mean? Is it difficult of interpretation? Not at all. It means that the blacks shall be free and that Congress shall demand full and complete securities for their freedom. In less than six months every Union man will see that there is no protection, no freedom, for the blacks without the ballot, and the universal sentiment of the loyal masses will demand the enfranchisement of the oppressed race. This is security for the future, self supporting and selfsustaining security. It permits every man to protect himself, and his own self interest will prompt him to do it well. It will not impoverish your Treasury and burden you with taxation. It will not consolidate your Government and destroy the legitimate functions of the States; but it will strengthen the foundations of the Republic and enlarge the base and prepare it for the grand superstructure which the builders of our institutions designed when they proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence the equality of every man in the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and the perfect equality of every man to strive to equal and to strive to excel his neighbor in everything great, good, and useful.

But I am asked, would you allow the leaders of the rebellion to return to Congress to insult the loyal North with their odious presence in the councils of the nation, there to plot treason and. revue loyalty? I answer, no. I would take the proper measures to prevent it. I would chain them to the ballot of the loyal blacks, and hold them in the strong grasp of a loyal people. They will not send them here. You may frame all the exclusion bills you please, but if you exclude loyalty from the ballot-box, and allow none but rebels with a small portion of loyal whites to vote, disloyalty will find expression in your national Legislature in the persons of lower and meaner men than the intellectual chieftains of the rebellion. The desire to exclude a few from office as an exception or an expression of a sentiment can accomplish no great good. It is not worth serious consideration. It is like disputing about an old whip in a negotiation for a first class six horse team. Exclusion from the franchise and office is idle. It is too difficult to accomplish, and no good results can possibly follow. We do not wish to punish the South. It has already been sufficiently scourged and humiliated by the inevitable results of a bloody war. The avenging hand of Providence has desolated and devastated their land and smitten down the first born in every household, and if they will now let the bondmen depart from oppression in peace, with the ballot as their shield and buckler, why should we demand further vengeance? "Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord."

I will not attempt a description of the horrors of the civil war brought upon the South by the crime of slavery and the conspiracy for its perpetuation. In the language of Burke, "A storm of universal fire blasted every field, consumed every house, destroyed every temple." The furnaces of retribution for the sins of the people were heated seven times hotter than they were wont to be heated, and the vials of wrath were poured out in torrents on the heads of the conspirators, consuming slavery and destroying treason. Are we not satisfied? Cruel slavery and foul treason shall be no more in America unless we revive and resuscitate the former by disfranchisement and oppressions until it breed new treason to be expiated upon our children with more terrible vengeance than the sins of the fathers have brought upon us. It is no time for crimination and recrimination. This war was not the work of man but of God. Let the North mourn her dead heroes sacrificed in the cause of liberty and humanity, the noblest cause in which man can die. Let the South mourn her dead sacrificed for the crime of slavery, and let her respect the sacrifice and go and sin no more. Let the vengeance of man be stayed. The visitations of destruction and punishment are beyond our comprehension or control. Let not our small individual wrongs and personal prejudices, too insignificant for consideration when we contemplate the grand dispensations of Providence, delay us, or stand as barriers to the consummation of the great work of enfranchisement and liberty. I proclaim as the true platform of principles, which shall survive this Congress and the present age and serve as a landmark for the future, "Peace and good will toward all men;" liberty and union; impartial suffrage and universal amnesty.

I appeal to every Union man to declare his faith and stand by his principles; deal honestly with himself and frankly with the South. It is time they understood the full extent of our demands. The opponents of equal rights never argue the wright or wrong of impartial suffrage. They assume that it is a great political crime and then argue that the Union party is committed to it. If wo join issue with them on this point we must fail, for we are committed to it, and they can prove it. Upon that issue we must lose before the people. But suppose we admit what is true and cannot be denied, and justify our conduct by declaring that we are in favor of impartial suffrage because it is right, and ask our opponents, do you object? If so, why? Dare you deny protection to the friends of the Union while you demand political rights for its enemies? Dare you say that a Union soldier shall not vote, but a rebel soldier shall? Dare you say that he who fed our starving prisoners shall not vote, butthat he who starved them shall? Dare you say that this Government shall punish its friends and reward its enemies? Dare you contend that four million loyal citizens shall be outlawed and trampled under foot and allowed to perish because our enemies are exasperated against them on account of theirfriendship for us, and at the same time ask enfranchisement for our enemies so that they may destroy our friends, menace our liberty, and embarrass our finances? Dare you deny liberty to the loyal and claim power and freedom for the disloyal? In politics as inlaw, if you join issue on a false plea you will lose your cause. It is false to say we are not in favor of impartial suffrage; and if we make that issue we shall be defeated. But it is true that all men are equally entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and «f our enemies dare join issue with us on these great principles we are sure of an overwhelming verdict from a loyal and liberty loving people. Suppose we declare that when the rights of man are freely acknowledged and made secure, that we are in favor of amnesty and mercy for our enemies; dare our opponents say they are for vengeance and blood? Suppose we say that we are contending for justice, and when that is secure our enemies shall enjoy all the civil and political rights of American citizens; dare our opponents say that they shall not enjoy those rights? Suppose we rise to the true grandeur of this great contest and declare that we mean justice, humanity, liberty, and Union; dare our opponents say they mean wrong, oppression, secession, and slavery?

Let me appeal to the people of the South to cease contending for wrong and injustice, and learn to do right and love mercy. "Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy." Men of the South, put notyour trust in modern Democracy. Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep s clothing but inwardly are ravening wolves." Have you not heard enough of their vain glorious boasts of power to aid you? Did they not encourage you to rebel and promise you aid and comfort in your struggle to overthrow the Government, and did they not desert you in the hour of your greatest trial? Were they not invisible in war as they had been invincible in peace? Do you desire to be betrayed into another conflict with the overwhelming forces of liberty and union? Have not your efforts to destroy the Union and trample upon equal rights been sufficiently disastrous? Do you desire your homes to be again visited by war, pestilence, and famine? Has not the work of destruction satisfied you that there is a just God who takes vengeance on the oppressor and him who denies mercy to the poor and friendless? Think not that modern Democracy can shield you from the terrible retribution that awaits you if you longer deny the inalienable rights of man. A just God has declared oppression and wrong shall depart from the land, and the loyal millions who stand by the Union will execute His commands. For a time the arts of demagogues and the cohesive power of public plunder may seem triumphant, yet they do but seem. The same grand sentiment that rallied the loyal North to strike for liberty and union will still inspire the heart and nerve the arm to finish the work so gloriously begun. The little spring from which first' gushed the waters of liberty has become a mighty torrent, sweeping slavery and oppression to destruction. Modern Democracy is but the flood wood that maddens the rushing waters but cannot stay the flood. Regard not this floating trash but heed the loyal fountains from whence the torrent flows. Attempt no further obstruction of its course, but let it do its work and wash the crime of slavery from a land sacred to freedom. Attempt not impossibilities.

The chains of bondage are broken, the shackles have fallen from the limbs of the slave, and no earthly power can rob him of enfranchisement and liberty, the birthright of an American citizen. Engage not in this wicked work, for the avenging hand cannot be stayed from those who still oppress. In such a conflict your own liberty is in jeopardy, and destruction and devastation threaten your country. Men of the South, let by gones be by gones and join in the glorious work of enfranchisement. Let your afflicted country have repose from this fearful strife. Give the ballot to the black man and retain it for yourselves and your posterity. The ballot is a gracious boon and none the less precious because enjoyed by the poor as well as the rich, the black as well as the white. It is the only guarantee of liberty. Is liberty less sweet when secured by all mankind? I appeal to the South in the name of the Father of the Revolution, in the name of justice and humanity, in the name of peace and union, and in the sacred name of Christianity itself to grant the ballot and receive the cordial friendship and fellowship of the brave and generous people of the loyal States. Let it be distinctly understood thatif the evils of confiscation, disfranchisement, and military despotism come upon the South it will be because she refused to hear the truth from her friends, and refused to aid them to give her peace, but trusted to her enemies and those who would barter away her liberties in the vain hope of obtaining power for themselves.

Sir, my mountain home and the bold pioneers with whom I have passed all the days of my manhood, and whom I know well, call for no more blood, no more desolation, no more widows and orphans, no more accumulation of debt, but they hope forpeace, union, and liberty for all. My constituents love the country and the whole country. There is no State in the Union that is not the native land of many citizens of Nevada. Their home is in the far off mountains, but their affections cling to every village and hamlet in, America. We have lived together upon the shores of the Pacific for near twenty years. The good and bad fortunes of a miner's life have been common to us all. We have learned to appreciate and respect men from all sections, and our destinies are so interwoven in our common pursuits and common interests that the continuance of this unnatural conflict disturbs and mars the happiness of all our people. Nevada advocates everything for security, nothing for revenge; everything for political safety, nothing for partisan power. Her prosperity depends to a great extent upon friendly and cordial relations among her citizens. The restoration of the South will bring peace and happiness to Nevada, and I should not represent her if I were not zealous in that work. I deny that blood, confiscations, disfranchisement, and military despotism is any part of the platform of the Union party to which I belong. If to be a radical means to thirst for human blood, love human misery, and hate mercy, then I am no radical. If to be a radical means to love the Union, the Constitution, and the free Government of the fathers, to do justice to all men and respect the rights of all, then I am a radical. I know not what others may do, but as for me I shall labor honestly and zealously to secure the adoption of any plan which offers any hope of peace and union on the principles of justice and humanity. I shall not despair until a plan looking to revenge -and partisan rule shall have been adopted; a plan based on the worst passions of our nature shall have been sanctioned by this Congress, and then I shall lose all hope of any good results from our deliberations. I appeal to Senators to consider this momentous issue in the light of reason and Christianity, to be charitable for the sins of our common humanity, to deal justly, and love mercy.

I shall first offer my resolutions for amnesty and suffrage as a substitute. If I fail in that, 1 shall ask that they may be submitted as an alternative proposition, and if I am still unsuccessful, I will vote for the plan of the majority so long as it is a better plan than that of the President. But when Congress shall have committed itself to a platform which means either disunion or despotism, I shall await in despair the evils that threaten our country, hoping that an all wise Providence may avert the pending storm.

I have no disposition to find fault with the committee on reconstruction. I realize the difficulties which they have been called upon to encounter. That they have acted a noble part in their efforts to harmonize conflicting opinions no one has any just reason to doubt. I rejoice in the manner in which the report is presented and the liberal spirit manifested by the committee toward those who are anxious to aid in the perfection of their plan. I hope for good results when debate shall have terminated and final conclusions shall be presented to a generous public. I cannot believe thatif Congress should finally reach the conclusion that the late rebels must be supreme in their local State governments, that they will then adopt measures to exasperate those whom they trust with the life, liberty, and happiness of the black man. If the generosity of the South is to be the only guarantee of a precarious existence that is to be secured for the negro, it is cruelty to him to enrage his master—for master he will be—with aggravating legislation. If you leave him in the lion s mouth do not exasperate the lion, but appease him if possible. If you have no means of security admit the South at once and extinguish the hope of liberty in the breast of the negro, and let him make the best terms he can for his hopeless life.

The President s plan is by far the best, if Congress only aggravates and enrages the South but fails to eradicate the acknowledged evils. The President, according to Mr. Seward, is willing to take votes as a basis of representation, which differs but little from, and I think is an improvement upon, the report of the committee in that regard. He also wishes the confederate debt and claims for emancipated slaves repudiated.' If nothing better can be done, let Congress take any plan that will end the conflict; but if we have principles, as we profess to have, it is our duty to affirm and vindicate them. It will be time enough to say the States will not adopt a just plan when that experiment has been tried and failed. If we are to be defeated, let us fall with our face to the foe. I have no ambition to die in an irregular or guerrilla war. My motto is civilized warfare or a square surrender. The country will not justify a distinction without a difference. If there is no difference on questions of principle there ought to be no further cross purposes between Congress and the President. The world will brand us as faetionists and our efforts as a struggle for partisan power, if we rely too much on expediency. I hope the Senate will pardon the frankness with which I have attempted to express my views. Let amnesty and suffrage be submitted, and allow each State to act separately, and if the South adopt it, the North must; and if the North does, how can the South refuse? It is safe to say she will not jeopardize her peace and security in any such way. Let the plan embody civil rights, impartial suffrage, and repudiation of both rebel debt and claims for emancipated slaves on the one hand, and universal amnesty and restoration of rebels to civil and political rights on the other hand, and the country will finish the work. And when it is done it will be well done.

The PRESIDING OFFICER, (Mr. Williams in the chair.) The question is on the amendment to the joint resolution proposed by the Senator from Ohio, [Mr. Wade.] Is the Senate ready for the question

Mr. HOWARD. I suggest that the discussion be postponed until to morrow and I make that motion, that the further consideration of this subject be postponed until to morrow at one o'clock.

Mr. JOHNSON. Is it in order to move to strike out the third section as it stands now without offering a substitute for it?

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Such a motion would be in order.

Mr. JOHNSON. I make that motion.

Mr. GRIMES. The question will stand, then, on that motion?

Mr. JOHNSON. Yes, sir.

Mr. HOWARD. I hope the vote will be taken on the motion to postpone the further consideration of the joint resolution until tomorrow at one o'clock.

The motion was agreed to.

Mr. SHERMAN. I have prepared a constitutional amendment, or rather an amendment to the proposition of the committee of fifteen, which more nearly meets my own idea than any proposition that has been made, and at the suggestion of others I submit it and ask that it be printed. I do not say that I shall offer it, because I desire to vote for that proposition which will combine the greatest strength, but as this expresses more nearly my own individual idea than any other, I will ask that it be printed.

Mr. GRIMES. Let it be read.

The Secretary read the proposed amendment, as follows:

Strike out sections two and three, and insert as follows:

Representation shall be apportioned among the several States which may he included within this Union according to the number in each State of male citizens of the United States over twenty one years of age qualified by the laws of such State to choose members of the most numerous branch of its Legislature, and including such citizens as are disqualified for participating in rebellion.

Direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States according to the value of the real and personal taxable property situated in each State not belonging to the State or to the United States.

The proposed amendment was ordered to be printed.