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continues coal will be higher next year than it is now, and it is the duty of the Administration to estimate in reference to the expenditures for coal what will be the expansion of the currency. As I have said, if the war continues next year coal must be dearer, higher in price than now.

Mr.Chairman, these deficiency bills are notonly in contravention of law and of the practice of the Government, but they show the folly of the estimates on the part of the Administration. If when they do call upon us for these deficiency bills they would go into a little calculation of the possible expansion of the currency, say fifteen or twenty per cent. a year, they would probably reach some proper and satisfactory estimate.

Mr. THAYER. I ask the gentleman what the difference is provided it is shown that the money has been honestly expended.

Mr. BROOKS. I will inform the gentleman from Pennsylvania that this is an old subject of complaint in this House, which has been discussed frequently. Congress has again and again protested against the practice of deficiency bills. The whole object of these estimates is to hold the Departments and the Administration to a strict accountability; to appropriate money upon the estimates and to restrain all expenditures within the scope of the appropriations, and on no account to permit the Administration to exceed them. It is only just and proper that the Administration should be restricted to legally-adopted appropriations, yet we have constantly-occurring instances where expenditures are made not authorized by law, and appropriations are diverted from their legitimate objects. We ought to put a stop to the use of money by the Administration for which there is no appropriation, and confine the action of the Government rigidly to the legal appropriations made by Congress.

Heretofore, sir, previous to this war, under all Administrations, it has been the practice to estimate within a few hundred thousand dollars.the aggregate annual expenditures of the Government. During the war of 1812 and the Mexican war, the appropriations corresponded with the estimates of the Departments, and these appropriations were rarely exceeded. The reason why the present Administration goes beyond its estimates hundreds of millions is because of its inability to comprehend the real value of money; that a dollar now will not be a dollar one year from now. They refuse to recognize that the inflation of the currency will depreciate its value as compared with gold. Mr. STEVENS. In one thing the gentleman has said I agree perfectly with him. The Administration, holding such opinions as it does in respect to the currency, could not be expected to calculate upon its depreciation. My idea was that our policy in reference to the finances would make gold worth 200 or 250 as compared with currency. This was to my mind in consequence of requiring interest on the public debt to be paid in gold as well as the duty on imports. The Administration holding contrary views could not be expected to make estimates according to the views of the gentleman and myself.

Again, it has been generally supposed by the Administration that this war would end shortly, and therefore they were bound to make their estimates accordingly. Now, I find from the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Cox] that peace is to be brought about by the negotiators who have gone to Richmond and the one who I am sorry to learn was arrested on his way to this city. There is no doubt that the efforts of Mr. F. P. Blair and others will bring this war to a close in sixty days, [laughter;] and the Administration may possibly reconsider its estimates. Until they do so I think we had better pass them as they are. The amendment was concurred in. Tenth amendment:

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Thirteenth amendment:

Insert the following:

For a gold medal to Cornelius Vanderbilt, pursuant to the joint resolution approved January 28, 1864, $3,000. The Committee of Ways and Means recommended concurrence.

Mr. COLE, of California. It seems to me that this is a useless appropriation, and that even if a medal is to be presented the present condition of our finances would suggest to us to postpone it till a less sum would answer the same purpose. If we are to appropriate for a medal to a naval officer it should be for one who has suffered and not for one who has been largely benefited by this war.

It is alleged by some one near me that Commodore Vanderbilt has made a donation of a vessel to the Government. True it is, but it was not to the advantage of the Government, perhaps, so much as his own advantage, that the donation was made. I hope, therefore, this appropriation will not be made at this time. If at some subsequent time, when the national Treasury is more plethoric than at present, such a propsition should be made, I might not perhaps oppose it, though at this time I do.

$3,000. The question, then, is this: Commodore Vanderbilt gives $1,500,000 to the Government, and the reward we offer for it is, first, the honor, a very great honor, and in addition a testimonial of $3,000, not for himself, but to be handed down to his children, to be shown as the representative of the high patriotism which induced him in a most trying time to make this noble gift to his country to open James river and to protect the country from the incursions of the Merrimac.

I hope no personal, political, or sectional feeling will be permitted to mingle itself with this question, but that the House will respond to this call on its part of the Administration with a like unanimity that the medal itself was voted.

Mr. HIGBY. It may be very well for the gentleman from New York to get up here and give us a chapter of laudation of the celebrated Commodore Vanderbilt. But he represents one constituency, and I represent another; he represents one upon the Atlantic coast, and I represent one upon the Pacific coast. And I would say to him that when I express my views, I express the views of my constituents; and I say that the Commodore Vanderbilt for whom this appropriation is made, I understand to be, and so do my con

Mr. STEVENS. Let me say that the last session of Congress ordered the medal to be pro-stituents, one of the greatest swindlers there is in cured. It has been procured in pursuance of that order, and the only question is whether we shall pay for it or not. The only thing wrong about this matter is that the people of California charge three times more for their gold than they ought to; and if we could make them take one thousand instead of three I would go for it.

As to the merits of this matter, I will say that I felt at the time we passed the resolution that we had been guilty of a shameful neglect in delaying so long to make a proper acknowledgment to Commodore Vanderbilt for making a present to the Government of the fastest vessel on the ocean, worth $1,000,000. Our poor return for it is this medal, and I am sorry to hear any objection to it. At the commencement of the war Commodore Vanderbilt gave to the Government that grand vessel which was earning him its thousands a day. We neglected to acknowledge it for a long time, but at last ordered this medal.

Mr. COLE, of California. Do I understand the gentlemen to say that medal has already been obtained and bestowed upon the commodore? Mr. STEVENS. Not bestowed yet.

Mr. COLE, of California. Then it is not clear that it has been already made, but only contracted for upon the contingency, perhaps, of making this appropriation. If so, I still maintain that the appropriation is improper at this time.

this nation. He cannot be excelled or exceeded in that respect, and I do not know but that I might add that he is a murderer. He builds crafts and puts them upon the ocean, and he resorts to all the contrivances he can to prevent other people from putting crafts upon the ocean, and monopolizes the whole business. He lies across the throat of every Californian who travels from New York to San Francisco. I should have failed in my duty here if I had not, when this question came up, risen in my place and said what I have said. It is not necessary that I should reiterate what I have said.

This matter is not understood by the members of this House. We had no opportunity of expressing our views when the resolution providing for this medal passed the House. The previous question was called, and it went ripping through this House at once.

It is said that Vanderbilt has given a steamer to the Government of the United States worth a million or a million and a half of dollars. I am credibly informed that he made money by giving it, for the reason that it cost so much money to run it that he could not make money by it, and had better give it away.

I suppose that as this medal has been voted we shall have to appropriate this money, but if I had to hang a medal on his neck it should be Mr. BROOKS. I do not know that it is ne- one of leather, and nothing more valuable. I am cessary that I should add anything to the remarks opposed to the amount appropriated, but if in made by the honorable gentleman from Pennsyl-good faith there has been a medal made which vania, [Mr. STEVENS.] But Commodore Van- cost $3,000, why, I suppose that this appropriaderbilt, though not a constituent of mine, is a cit- tion must pass the House. izen of New York, and I feel it my duty to say a I have now had an opportunity to express word or two. Sir, I am sorry to see any mani- myself upon this subject, and I have expressed festation of feeling upon the part of any Califor-myself freely and truthfully. Murder! Why, nian respecting the steamboats run between Pan- how do this man's vessels go out upon the ocean ama and San Francisco, leading to any conflict at times? Sometimes they go out upon an ocean of opinion upon a subject of this nature. harrowed by storms with their machinery withed and wired up so that it is nothing but God's mercy, and not because of any precautions on the part of the owner of the vessels, that they do not go to the bottom; they are well insured. It is disgraceful when you examine the details in regard to the kind of shipping he puts on the ocean to carry men. We know that at our end of the route, and I am glad of an opportunity to express it. There is not a Californian who would not express himself precisely as I have done upon this question.

The facts stated by the gentleman from Pennsylvania are that in a trying time, when the Administration was utterly unable, or supposed to be unable, but for the fortunate appearance of the Monitor at Fortress Monroe, to provide a steamer of sufficient swiftness and power to confront the Merrimac, Commodore Vanderbilt gave to the Administration of the Government one of the most magnificent presents that was ever made by any man to any Government on earth; and that was a steamer worth $1,000,000, and which could not be built now for less than $1,500,000, and probably would cost nearly two millions.

That steamer has done essential service to our Navy, to its character, to its honor, and to the police of the seas in almost all parts of the world. For this the voting of a medal was our inadequate reward. At the last session of Congress both Houses almost unanimously voted that a medal should be provided for Commodore Vanderbilt in testimony of this magnificent donation; but Congress omitted at that time to vote the proper amount of money for the medal.

The Administration of the Government, unable to provide for that medal without coming to Congress, comes now and asks for the execution of our own act in this call for an appropriation of

It is very easy for gentlemen from the city of New York, who do not go upon the ocean, who do not have to go upon the water and expose and hazard their lives, to rise here and speak in laudatory terms of this man. We of California have no laudations for men of that kind.

Mr. STEVENS. It is mortifying, it is humiliating, to hear an opposition of this kind in this House, and to find gentlemen departing from the question before the House in order to attack a man's private character. Sir, if there had been anything connected with this donation which was discreditable to the donor, if they could have objected to it, that would have been pertinent; but to take occasion of a valuable gift by a private gentleman to the Government, without finding the

Fifth amendment:

Strike out the following:

For salary of the commissioner for codifying the naval laws, under joint resolution of March 3, 1863, from July 1, 1864, to March 3, 1865, $2,025.

The Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union recommended concurrence.

The SPEAKER ordered tellers; and Messrs. ROLLINS, of Missouri, and HOOPER were appointed.

least fault with the thing given or with the man- in without division, with the exception of the folner of giving it, to enter into his private and pro-lowing: fessional character in relation to other matters, is wholly impertinent; no judge in a court would hear such a plea for a moment, but would put down the offer of such an argument as scandalous. Now, I know nothing about the facts alluded to by the members from California. We are considering a magnificent present made to the Government by Commodore Vanderbilt, and we are not paying him for that present, but we are giving him an honorable testimonial of our regard for it. I care not how bad the man is who has done a good act. The only question is whether he should be honored for that act. Am I to bring up his former life and other things in order to defeat the consideration of that question? I say, sir, it is shameful. It is unpleasant to hear the benefactor of the nation dealt with thus irreverently||lay_the_motion to reconsider on the table. in this House. I hope the amendment will be adopted unanimously with the single exception of the members from California.

Mr. HIGBY. Will the gentleman from Pennsylvania permit me to ask him a question? Mr. STEVENS. Yes.

Mr. HIGBY. I made the statement that I was credibly informed that Vanderbilt did not run the steamer because it was no profit to him, and therefore he gave it away. Is not that pertinent?

Mr. STEVENS. "Credibly informed." That is about as much evidence as I expected.

Mr. HIGBY. It is not a question of evidence. Mr. STEVENS. "Credibly informed." When, how, where, by whom? Sir, I do not like this "credible information" to justify an unjust speech.

Mr. TOWNSEND. Mr. Chairman, Commodore Vanderbilt has just been assailed on this floor in terms that those who have had an opportunity of knowing him will be astonished to hear. He needs no defense against the attacks of the gentlemen from California. His noble deeds and great enterprise, rewarded with success, are too well known to call for anything in his defense. I know that, independent of the magnificent gift which this medal is to acknowledge and commemorate, Commodore Vanderbilt, at a time when the national finances were disturbed and money could scarcely be had at any price before the war, took one Government loan of $3,000,000, and holds the bonds to-day. I should like to know from the gentleman from California whether a vessel that is worth $1,000,000 could not be disposed of for nearly that sum? What constitutes the worth of an article? What it will bring, does it not?

Commodore Vanderbilt donated his vessel to Government. The argument, then, that because he found the expense too great to retain it is too trifling to be considered. The hostile feeling in California toward him is founded on the fact that Commodore Vanderbilt manages his own affairs to suit himself. The assertion that he conducts his line of steamers in a way prejudicial to the comfort of travelers is no argument to be made in this House. He never seeks to force people into his steamers, and those who take passage do it of their own free will. That that gentleman, with his talents and his wealth always at the disposal of the Government, should be assailed in such unhandsome terms, will be a matter of profound astonishment and regret to his numerous friends. And, sir, I am simply performing what I consider a pleasant duty in defending him.

The question was taken, and the amendment was concurred in.

Mr. STEVENS. I move that the committee rise and report the amendments to the House. The motion was agreed to.

So the committee rose; and the Speaker having resumed the chair, Mr. BOUTWELL reported that the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union had had under consideration as a special order the Senate amendments to the bill (H. R. No. 620) to supply deficiencies in the appropriations for the service of the fiscal year ending the 30th of June, 1865, and had directed him to report the same back to the House with a recommendation that some be concurred in and others nonconcurred in.

Mr. STEVENS moved the previous question on the amendments.

The previous question was seconded, and the main question ordered; and under its operation the recommendations of the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union were concurred

The House divided, and the tellers reportedayes 63, noes 35.

So the amendment was concurred in.

Mr. STEVENS moved to reconsider the votes by which the amendments were severally concurred in or non-concurred in; and also moved to

The latter motion was agreed to.

Mr. STEVENS. I move that there be a committee of conference appointed on the disagreeing votes between the two Houses.

The motion was agreed to; and Messrs. STEVENS, PENDLETON, and WEBSTER were appointed a committee of conference on the part of the House.

ENROLLED BILL.

Mr. COBB, from the Committee on Enrolled Bills, reported as truly enrolled an act for the relief of George Mowrey; when the Speaker signed

the same.

MILITARY ARRESTS AND IMPRISONMENTS. Mr. GANSON asked unanimous consent to offer the following resolution:

Resolved, That the Military Committee be, and they are hereby, directed to ascertain and report to this House as soon as possible the number of persons now confined in the Old Capitol and Carroll prisons; when such persons were respectively arrested and confined, and upon what charges their arrests were made; whether any of such persons are officers of the Army, and have been confined without a trial beyond the time in that respect prescribed by law or by the regulations in the military service; and whether any persons so in prison are confined without any written charges made against them; and whether there are any persons now in said prisons who have not had any trial; if 80, report the names of such persons, the time when they were arrested, and the alleged cause of their arrest respectively; and that the said committee be, and they are hereby, authorized to send for persons and papers.

Mr. FARNSWORTH. I object to the introduction of the resolution. The same avenues of information are open to the gentleman as to other members.

AMENDMENT OF ENROLLMENT ACT.

Mr. LITTLEJOHN asked leave to introduce a bill to amend an act entitled "An act for enrolling and calling out the national forces, and for other purposes.

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Mr. FARNSWORTH. I object.

SENATE BILLS REFERRED.

Mr. WILSON. I ask that two Senate bills on the Speaker's table be taken up and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

There being no objection, an act (S. No. 88) regulating criminal cases, and for other purposes, and an act (S. No. 72) supplementary to an act entitled "An act to prescribe an oath of office, and for other purposes," approved July 2, 1862, were severally taken from the Speaker's table, read a first and second time, and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

MESSAGE FROM THE SENATE.

A message from the Senate, by Mr. HICKEY, its Chief Clerk, informed the House that the Senate had passed without amendment House bill No. 163, for the relief of Charles Anderson, assignee of John James, of Texas.

RECONSTRUCTION.

Mr. ASHLEY. I now call for the special order.

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The SPEAKER. The special order is the consideration of "A bill (H. R. No. 602) to guaranty to certain States whose governments have been usurped or overthrown a republican form of government, reported from the select committee on the rebellious States. The consideration of this bill was postponed from December 20, 1864, to Tuesday, January 10, 1865, after the morning hour, and made a special order from day to day, after the morning hour, until disposed of. It has just been reached in the regular order of business.

Mr. ASHLEY. In pursuance of previous notice, I submit the following as a substitute for the original bill:

Strike out all after the enacting clause, and insert: That in the States declared in rebellion against the United States, the President shall, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, appoint for each a provisional governor, whose pay and emoluments shall not exceed that of a brigadier general of volunteers, who shall be charged with the civil administration of such State until a State government therein shall be recognized as hereinafter provided.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That until the United States shall have recognized a republican form of State government, the provisional governor in each of said States shall see that this act, and the laws of the United States, and the laws of the State in force when the State government was overthrown by the rebellion, are faithfully executed within the State; but no law or usage whereby any person was heretofore held in involuntary servitude shall be recognized or enforced by any court or officer in such State; and the laws for the trial and punishment of white persons shall extend to all persons, and jurors shall have the qualifications of voters under this law for delegates to the convention. The President shall appoint such officers provided for by the laws of the State when its government was overthrown as he may find necessary to the civil administration of the State, all which officers shall be entitled to receive the fees and emoluments provided by the State laws for such officers.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That until the recognition of a State government, as aforesaid, the provisional Governor shall, under such regulations as he may prescribe, cause to be assessed, levied, and collected, for the year 1865, and every year thereafter, the taxes prescribed by the laws of such State to be levied during the fiscal year preceding the overthrow of the State government thereof, in the manner prescribed by the laws of the State, as nearly as may be; and the officers appointed, as aforesaid, are vested with all powers of levying and collecting such taxes, by distress or sale, as were vested in any officers or tribunal of the State government aforesaid for those purposes. The proceeds of such taxes shall be accounted for to the provisional governor, and be by him applied to the expenses of the administration of the laws in such State, subject to the direction of the President, and the surplus shall be deposited in the Treasury of the United States to the credit of such State, to be paid to the State upon an appropriation therefor, to be made when a republican form of government shall be recognized therein by the United States.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That all persons held to involuntary servitude or labor in the States or parts of States in which such persons have been declared free by any proclamation of the President, are hereby emancipated and discharged therefrom, and they and their posterity shall be forever free. And if any such person or their posterity shall be restrained of liberty, under pretense of any claim to such service or labor, the courts of the United States shall, on habeas corpus, discharge them.

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That if any person declared free by this act, or any law of the United States, or any proclamation of the President, be restrained of liberty, with intent to be held in or reduced to involuntary servitude or labor, the person convicted before a court of competent jurisdiction of such act shall be punished by fine of not less than $1,500, and be imprisoned not less than five nor more than twenty years.

SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That every person who shall hereafter hold or exercise any office, civil or military, except offices merely ministerial and military offices below the grade of colonel in the rebel service, State or confederate, is hereby declared not to be a citizen of the United States.

SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That so soon as the military resistance to the United States shall have been suppressed in any State, and the people thereof shall have sufficiently returned to their obedience to the Constitution and the laws of the United States, the provisional governor shall direct the marshal of the United States, as speedily as may be, to name a sufficient number of deputies, and to enroll all white male citizens of the United States resident in the State in their respective counties, and to request each one to take the oath to support the Constitution of the United States, and in his enrollment to designate those who take and those who refuse to take that oath, which rolls shall be forthwith returned to the provisional governor; and if the persons taking that oath shall, together with the citizens of the United States from such State in the military or naval service of the United States, amount to a majority of the persons enrolled in the State, he shail, by proclamation, invite the loyal people of the State to elect delegates to a convention cliarged to declare the will of the people of the State relative to the reestablishment of a State government, subject to and in conformity with the Constitution of the United States.

SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That the convention shall consist of as many members as both houses of the last constitutional State Legislature, apportioned by the provisional governor among the counties, parishes, or districts of the State in proportion to the population enrolled by the marshal, in compliance with the provisions of this act, or in the military or naval service of the United States, as aforesaid. The provisional governor shall, by proclamation, declare the number of delegates to be elected by each county, parish, or election district; name a day of election, not less than thirty days thereafter; designate the places of voting in each county, parish, or district, conforming as nearly as may be convenient to the places used in the State elections next preceding the rebellion; appoint one or more commissioners to hold the election at each place of voting, and provide an adequate force to keep the peace during the election.

SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That the delegates shall be elected by the loyal male citizens aforesaid of the United States of the age of twenty-one years, and resident in the county, parish, or district in which they shall offer to vote, or in the military or naval service of the United States, and whoshall take and subscribe the oath of allegi

ance to the United States in the form contained in the act of Congress of July 2, 1862; and all citizens of the United States who are in the military or naval service of the United States shall vote at the headquarters of their respective commands, under such regulations as may be prescribed by the provisional governor for the taking and return of their votes; but no person who has held or exercised any office, civil or military, State or confederate, under the rebel usurpation, or who has voluntarily borne arms against the United States, shall vote or be eligible to be elected as delegate at such election.

SEC. 10. And be it further enacted, That the said commissioners, or either of them, shall hold the election in conformity with this act, and, so far as may be consistent therewith, shall proceed in the manner used in the State prior to the rebellion. The oath of allegiance shall be taken and subscribed on the poll-book by every voter in the form above prescribed, but every person kuown by or proved to

the United States, together with the citizens of the United States from such State in the military or naval service of the United States, amount to a majority of the persons enrolled in the State. And the President shall, thereupon, by proclamation, declare the recognition by the United States, in Congress assembled, of the said government of such State; and from the date of such proclamation the said government shall be entitled to the guarantee and all other rights of a State government under the Constitution of the United States; but this act shall not operate a recognition of a State government in either of said States till the conditions aforesaid are complied with, and till that time those States shall be subject to this law.

Mr. ASHLEY. The select committee on the rebellious States direct me to ask of the House that this amendment may be substituted for the

the commissioners to have held or exercised any office, original bill, and considered as an original bill, to which other substitutes may be submitted as amendments.

civil or military, State or confederate, under the rebel usurpation, or to have voluntarily borne arms against the United States, shall be excluded, though he offer to take the oath; and in case any person who shall have borne arms against the United States shall offer to vote, he shall be deemed to have borne arms voluntarily unless he shall prove the contrary by the testimony of a qualified voter. The poll-book, showing the name and oath of each voter, shall be returned to the provisional governor by the commissioners of election or the one acting, and the provisional governor shall canvass such returns, and declare the person having the highest number of votes elected.

SEC. 11. And be it further enacted, That the provisional governor shall, by proclamation, convene the delegates elected as aforesaid, at the capital of the State, on a day not more than three months after the election, giving at least thirty days' notice of such day. In case the said capital shall in his judgment be unfit, he shall in his proclamation appoint another place. He shall preside over the deliberations of the convention, and administer to each delegate, before taking his seat in the convention, the oath of allegiance to the United States in the form hereinbefore prescribed.

SEC. 12. And be it further enacted, That the convention shall declare, on behalf of the people of the State, their submission to the Constitution and laws of the United States, and shall adopt the following provisions, hereby prescribed by the United States in the execution of the constitutional duty to guaranty a republican form of government to every State, and incorporate them in the constitution of the State, that is to say:

First. No person who has held or exercised any office, elvil or military, except civil offices merely ministerial and military offices below the grade of colonel, State or confederate, under the usurping power, shall vote for or be a member of the Legislature, or Governor.

Second. Involuntary servitude is forever prohibited, and freedom and equality of civil rights before the law are guarantied to all persons in said State.

Third. No debt, State or confederate, created by or under the sanction of the usurping power, or in any manner in aid thereof, shall be recognized or paid by the State; and all acts, judicial or legislative, for the confiscation or forfeiture of any debt, property, or franchise, of any loyal citizen of the United States, are hereby declared null and void.

SEC. 13. And be it further enacted, That when the convention shall have adopted those provisions it shall proceed to reestablish a republican form of government, and ordain a constitution containing those provisions, which, when adopted, the convention shall by ordinance provide for submitting to the people of the State entitled to vote under this law, at an election to be held in the manner prescribed by the act for the election of delegates, but at a time and place named by the convention, at which election the said electors, and none other, shall vote directly for or against such constitution and form of State government. And the returns of said election shall be made to the provisional governor, who shall canvass the same in the presence of the electors, and if a majority of the votes cast shall be for the constitution and form of government, he shall certify the same with a copy thereof, to the President of the United States, who, after obtaining the assent of Congress, by act or joint resolution, shall, by proclamation, recognize the government so established, and none other, as the constitutional governinent of the State; and from the date of such recognition, and not before, Senators and Representatives and electors for President and Vice President may be elected in such State, according to the laws of the State and of the United States.

SEC. 14. And be it further enacted, That if the convention shall refuse to reestablish the State government on the conditions aforesaid, the provisional governor shall declare it dissolved; but it shall be the duty of the President, whenever he shall have reason to believe that a sufficient number of the people of the State entitled to vote under this act, in uniber not less than a majority of those enrolled as aforesaid, are willing to reestablish a State government on the conditions aforesaid, to direct the provis ional governor to order another election of delegates to a convention for the purpose and in the manner prescribed in this act, and to proceed in all respects as hereinbefore provided, either to dissolve the convention or to certify the State government reestablished by it to the President.

SEC. 15. And be it further enacted, That the United States, in Congress assembled, do hereby recognize the government of the State of Louisiana, inaugurated under and by the convention which assembled on the 6th day of April, A. D. 1864, at the city of New Orleans; and the government of the State of Arkansas, inaugurated under and by the convention which assembled on the 8th day of January, 1864, at the city of Little Rock: Provided, That the same or other conventions, duly assembled, shall first have incorporated into the constitutions of those States, respectively, the conditions prescribed in the twelfth section of this act, and the marshal of the United States shall have returned to the President of the United States the enrollment directed by the seventh section to be made and returned to the provisional governor, and it shall appear thereby that the persons taking the oath to support the Constitution of

The SPEAKER. That can be done only by unanimous consent.

There being no objection, it was so ordered. Mr. KELLEY. I move to amend this bill by inserting after the words "to enroll all the white male citizens of the United States," the words "and all other male citizens of the United States who may be able to read the Constitution thereof." Mr. ELIOT. I move the following as a substitute:

Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert: That the States declared to be in rebellion against the United States, and within which the authority of the Constitution and laws of the United States has been overthrown, shall not be permitted to resume their political relations with the Government of the United States until, by action of the loyal citizens within such States respectively, a State constitution shall be ordained and established, republican in form, forever prohibiting involuntary servitude within such State, and guarantying to all persons freedom and equality of rights before the law.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the State of Louisiana is hereby permitted to resume its political relations with the Government of the United States under the constitution adopted by the convention which assembled on the 6th day of April, A. D. 1864, at New Orleans.

Mr. WILSON. I move to amend the substitute proposed by the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. ELIOT] by striking out all after the word "that," and inserting the following:

Senators and Representatives shall not be received from any State heretofore declared in rebellion against the United States until by an act or joint resolution of Congress, approved by the President, or passed notwithstanding his objections, such State shall have been first declared to have organized a just local government, republican in form, and to be entitled to representation in the respective Ilouses of Congress.

Mr. DAVIS, of Maryland. Is the motion of the gentleman from Iowa [Mr. WILSON] in order under the rule?

The SPEAKER. It is, for it is in the nature of an amendment to an amendment. By unanimous consent the House has substituted the amendment offered by the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. ASHLEY] in the place of the original bill reported from the select committee on the rebellious States. The gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. ELIOT] submits an amendment to that bill, in the nature of a substitute. The gentleman from Iowa [Mr. WILSON] moves an amendment to the amendment of the gentleman from Massachusetts, [Mr. ELIOT.] The gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. KELLEY] has also submitted an amendment to the seventh section of what is now the original bill, and as his amendment is to perfect the original bill, the first question will be upon the amendment of the gentleman from Pennsylvania, [Mr. KELLEY.]

Mr. KERNAN. I ask leave to offer an amendment in the nature of a substitute.

The SPEAKER. There being already pending an amendment in the second degree, the amendment of the gentleman from New York [Mr. KERNAN] can only be received at this time by unani

mous consent.

Mr. DAVIS, of Maryland. I object.

Mr. ARNOLD. I ask the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. ELIOT] to accept as an amendment to his amendment that which I have in my hand. Mr. ELIOT. If it is the same that I have seen I have no objection to it.

within such States made free by this act, or declared to be free by the proclamation of the President of the United States, dated January 1, 1863, or of any of their descendants, otherwise than in the punishment of crime whereof the accused shall have been duly convicted, is and shall be forever prohibited, any law or regulation of either of said States to the contrary notwithstanding.

Mr. ELIOT. I accept the amendment.

The SPEAKER. The pending question is upon the amendment of the gentleman from Pennsylvania, [Mr. KELLEY.]

Mr. ASHLEY. I wish to enter a motion to recommit this bill, with all the pending amendments; and as I do not desire to discuss the sub

ject now, I will yield the floor to the gentleman from Pennsylvania, [Mr. KELLEY.]

Mr. KELLEY. Mr. Speaker, these are indeed terrible times for timid people. Use and wont no longer serve us. The guns traitorously fired upon Fort Sumter threw us all out of the well-beaten ruts of habit, and as the war progresses men find themselves less and less able to express their political views by naming a party or uttering its shibboleth. It is no longer safe for any of us to wait till the election comes and accept the platform and tickets presented by a party. We may have

served in its ranks for a life-time and find at lastcostly and painful experience being our guidethat to obtain the ends we had in view we should have acted independently of, and in opposition to it and its leaders. In seasons like this, an age on ages telling, the feeblest man in whom there is faith or honesty is made to feel that he is not quite powerless, that duty is laid on him too, and that the force that is in him ought to be expressed in accordance with his own convictions and in a way to promote some end seen or hoped for.

The questions with which we have to deal, the grave doubts that confound us, the difficulties that environ us, the results our action will produce, fraught with weal or woe to centuries and constantly-increasing millions, are such as have rarely been confided to a generation. But happily we are not without guidance. Our situation, though novel, does not necessarily cast us upon the field of mere experiment. True, we have not specific precedents which we may safely follow; but the founders of our Government gave us, in a few brief sentences, laws by which we may extricate our generation and country from the horrors that involve them, and secure peace broad as our country, enduring as its history, and beneficent as right and justice and love.

The organized war power of the rebellion is on the eve of overthrow. It belongs to us to govern the territory we have conquered, and the question of reconstruction presses itself upon our attention; and our legislation in this behalf will, though it comprise no specific provisions on the subject, determine whether guerrilla war shall harass communities for long years, or be suppressed in a brief time by punishments administered through courts and law, to marauders for the crimes they may commit under the name of partisan warfare. At the close of an international war, the wronged but victorious party may justly make two claims: indemnity for the past, and security for the future; indemnity for the past in money or in territory; security for the future by new treaties, the establishment of new boundaries, or the cession of military power and the territory upon which it dwells. Indemnity for the past we cannot hope to obtain. When we shall have punished the conspirators who involved the country in this sanguinary war, and pardoned the dupes and victims who have arrayed themselves or been forced to do battle under their flag, we shall but have repossessed our ancient territory, reëstablished the boundaries of our country, restored to our flag and Constitution their supremacy over territory which was ours, but which the insurgents meant to dismember and possess. The other demand we may and must successfully make. Security for the future is accessible to us, and we must demand it; and to obtain it with amplest guarantees requires the adoption of no new idea, the

Mr. ARNOLD. It is the same. It is as fol- making of no experiment, the entering upon no

lows:

SEC. And be it further enacted, That in all that portion of the United States heretofore declared to be in rebellion against the United States, and enumerated in the President's proclamation of January 1, 1863, slavery and involuntary servitude, otherwise than in the punishment of crime whereof the accused shall have been duly convicted, shall be, and the same hereby is, abolished and prohibited forever, and the reënslavement, or holding, or attempting to hold in slavery or involuntary servitude, any person

sea of political speculation. Ours would have been an era of peace and prosperity, had we and our fathers accepted in full faith the great principles that impelled their fathers to demand the independence of the United Colonies, gave them strength in counsel, patience, courage, and long endurance in the field, and guided them in establishing a Constitution which all ages will recog.

nize as the miracle of the era in which it was framed and adopted, and the influence of which shall modify and change, and bring into its own similitude, the Governments of the world. Had we, and the generation that preceded us, accepted and been guided by the self-evident truths to which I allude, the world would never have known the martial power of the American people, or realized the fact that a Government that sits so lightly as ours upon the people in peace is so infinitely strong in the terrible season of war.

The founders of our institutions labored consciously and reverently in the sight of God. They knew that they were the creatures of His power, and that their work could only be well done by being done in the recognition of His attributes, and in harmony with the enduring laws of His providence. They knew that His ways were ways of pleasantness, and His paths the paths of peace; and they endeavored to embody His righteousness and justice in the Government they were fashioning for unknown ages, and untold millions of men. Their children, in the enjoyment of the prosperity thus secured to them, lost their faith in these great truths, treated them with utter disregard, violated them, legislated in opposition to them, and finally strove to govern the country in active hostility to them. And for a little while they seemed to succeed. But at length we have been made to feel and know that God's justice does not sleep always; and amid the ruins of the country and the desolation of our homes let us resolve that we will return to the ancient ways, look to Him for guidance, and follow humbly in the footsteps of our wise and pious forefathers; and that, as grateful children, we will erect to their memory and to that of the brave men who have died in defense of their work in this the grandest of all wars, a monument broad as our country, pure as was their wisdom, and enduring as Christian civilization. So shall we by our firmness and equity exalt the humble, restrain the rapacious and arrogant, and bind the people to each other by the manifold cords of common sympathies and interest, and to the Government by the gratitude due to a just and generous guardian.

But, Mr. Speaker, I hear gentlemen inquire how this is to be done. The process is simple, easy, and inviting: it is by accepting in child-like faith, and executing with firm and steady purpose three or four of the simple dogmas which the founders of our Government proclaimed to the world, and which, alas! too often with hypocritical lip service, are professed by all Americans, even those who are now striving, through blood, and carnage, and devastation, to found a broad empire, the corner-stone of which was to be human slavery.

In announcing the reasons which impelled the colonies to a separation from the mother country, the American people declared that "a decent respect to the opinions of mankind" required "a declaration of the causes which impelled them to the separation;" and in assigning those causes announced a few general propositions, embodying eternal and ever-operating principles, among which were,

First, that "all men are created equal, are endowed with certain inalienable rights," and that "among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;"

Second, that "to insure these rights, Governments are instituted among men;"

Third, that "Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed;"

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Fourth, that "whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new Government, laying its foundations on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall scem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. And in these four propositions we have an all-sufficient guide to enduring peace and prosperity. If in the legislation we propose we regard these self-evident truths, our posterity shall not only enjoy peace, but teach the world the way to universal freedom; but if we fail to regard them, God alone in His infinite wisdom knows what years of agitation, war, and misery we may entail on posterity, and whether the overthrow of our Government, the division of our country, and all the ills thus entailed on mankind may not be justly chargeable

to us.

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This table, as will be observed, embraces the whole of Virginia as she was in 1860; and as I have not the means of distinguishing the proportion of her population that is embraced in the new State of West Virginia, I permit it to stand as it is. The new State is in the Union; her citizens never assented to the ordinance of secession; they have provided for the extinguishment of slavery general scope in which they may be applicable to within her limits; and my remarks, save in the any or all of the States of the Union, will not be understood as applying to her. It is of the territory for which it is the duty of Congress to provide governments that I speak. I should also call attention to the fact that the Superintendent of the Census includes the few Indians that remained in some of these States in the column of white inhabitants. Their number is not important; but it certainly should not be so stated as to create the impression that they enjoyed the rights or performed the duties of citizens. How unfair this classification is will appear from the fact that the following section from the Code of Tennessee of 1858, section 3,858, indicates very fairly the position they held under the legislation of each

and all the above-named States:

"A negro, mulatto, Indian, or person of mixed blood, descended from negro or Indian ancestors, to the third generation inclusive, though one ancestor of each generation may have been a white person, whether bond or free, is incapable of being a witness in any case, civil or criminal, except for or against each other."

Correcting the error of the Superintendent of the Census, I have enumerated the Indians with the people to whose fate the legislation of those States assigned them. It will be perceived that when that census was taken the white population numbered 5,447,222, and the colored population 3,666,110.

It thus appears that the colored people were considerably more than two fifths of the whole population of the insurgent States; and that while we have professed to believe that their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness was inalienable could not be alienated or relinquished by them, nor taken away by others-we have ignored their humanity, and denied them the enjoyment of any single political right.

That, while we have professed to believe that governments are instituted among men to secure their rights, the history of our country for the last fifty years proves that the whole power and constant labor of our Government have been exerted to prevent the possibility of two fifths of the people of more than half our country ever attaining the enjoyment of political, civil, or social rights.

That, while we have professed to believe that all Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, we have punished with ignominy and stripes and imprisonment and death the men who had the temerity to assert that it was wrong to deny to two fifths of the people of a country, and, as in the case of South Carolina and Mississippi, a large majority of the people of the State, the right even to petition for redress of grievance.

And while we have been swift to assure, in terms of warmest sympathy, and sometimes with active aid, any oppressed and revolting people beyond the seas that we believed it to be the right and duty of such people," whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of the ends" above indicated," to alter or abolish it, and to insti

tute a new Government, laying its foundations on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness," we have, even to the boundaries of the lakes and to the far Pacific shores, stood pledged and ready to lay down our lives in the suppression of any attempt these Americans might make to carry into effect this cardinal doctrine of our professed political faith. Is it any wonder that God, seeing millions of His people thus trampled on, oppressed, outraged, and made voiceless by those whose fathers had placed their feet in His ways, and whose lips never wearied in beseeching His guidance and care, should fill the oppressors with madness and open through their blood and agony a way for the deliverance of their long-suffering victims?

But, Mr. Speaker, it is asked, who are these people? They are the laboring masses of the South-the field hand, the house servant, the mechanic, the artisan, the engineer of that region. Their sinewy arms have felled the forest, opened the farm and the plantation, made the road, the canal, the railroad. It was by the sweat of their brow that the sunny South was made to bloom; it is they whose labor has quickened the wheels of commerce and swelled the accumulating wealth of the world. Upon their brawny shoulders rested the social fabric of the South, and an arrogant aristocracy, that strove to dictate morals to the world, boasted that one product of their toil was a king to whom peoples and Governments must bow. Most of them are ignorant and degraded; but that cannot be mentioned to their disgrace or disparagement. Not they nor their ancestors enacted the laws which made it a felony to enable them to read the Constitution and the laws of their country, or the Book of Life through which their fairer brethren hope for salvation. Dumb and voiceless most of them are; but let not want of intellectual power be ascribed to them as a race, in view of the wit, humor, sarcasm, and pathos, of the learning, logical power, and scientific attainments, of a Douglass, a Garnett, a Remond, a Brown, a Stella Martin, a William Craft, and scores of others, who, evading the bloodhound and his master in the slave-hunt, have made their way to lands where the teachings of Christ are regarded and the brotherhood of man is not wholly denied. Others of them are and have been free, at least so far as to be able to acquire property and send their children to foreign lands for culture. Let some such speak for themselves. In the petition of the colored citizens of Louisiana to the President and Congress of the United States, they respectfully submit:

"That they are natives of Louisiana and citizens of the United States; that they are loyal citizens, sincerely attached to the country and the Constitution, and ardently desire the maintenance of the national unity, for which they are ready to sacrifice their fortunes and their lives.

That a large portion of them are owners of real estate, and all of them are owners of personal property; that many of them are engaged in the pursuits of commerce and industry, while others are employed as artisans in various trades; that they are all fitted to enjoy the privileges and immunities belonging to the condition of citizens of the United States, and among them may be found many of the descendants of those men whom the illustrious Jackson styled his fellow-citizens' when he called upon them to take up arms to repel the enemics of the country.

"Your petitioners further respectfully represent that over and above the right which, in the language of the Declaration of Independence, they possess to liberty and the pursuit of happiness, they are supported by the opinion of just and loyal men, especially by that of Hon. Edward Bates, Attorney General, in the claim to the right of enjoying the privileges and immunities pertaining to the condition of citizens of the United States; and, to support the legitimacy of this claim, they believe it simply necessary to submit to your Excellency, and to the honorable Congress, the following considerations, which they beg of you to weigh in the balance of law and justice. Notwithstanding their forefathers served in the Army of the United States, in 1814-15, and aided in repelling from the soil of Louisiana a hauglity enemy, over-confident of success, yet they and their descendants have ever since, and until the era of the present rebellion, been estranged and even repulsed, excluded from all franchises, even the smallest, when their brave forefathers offered their bosoms to the enemy to preserve the territorial integrity of the Republic! During this period of forty-nine years they have never ceased to be peaceable citizens, paying their taxes on an assessment of more than fifteen million dollars!

"At the call of General Butler they hastened to rally under the banner of the Union and liberty; they have spilled their blood, and are still pouring it out for the maintenance of the Constitution of the United States; in a word, they are soldiers of the Union, and they will defend it so long as their hands have strength to hold a musket.

"While General Banks was at the siege of Port Hudson and the city threatened by the enemy, his Excellency Governor Shepley called for troops for the defense of the city,

and they were foremost in responding to the call, having raised the first regiment in the short space of forty-eight hours.

"In consideration of this fact, as true and as clear as the sun which lights this great continent, in consideration of the services already performed and still to be rendered by them to their common country, they humbly beseech your Excellency and Congress to cast your eyes upon a loyal population, awaiting with confidence and dignity the proclamation of those inalienable rights which belong to the condition of citizens of the great American Republic.

"Theirs is but a feeble voice claiming attention in the midst of the grave questions raised by this terrible conflict; yet, confident of the justice which guides the action of the Government, they have no hesitation in speaking what is prompted by their hearts: We are men; treat us as such.""

This petition, which it is within my knowledge was prepared by one of the proscribed race, asks only for what the fathers of our country intended they should enjoy. They discovered in the AfricoAmerican the attributes and infirmities of their own nature, and in organizing governments, local or general, made no invidious distinction between him and his fellow-men. Under the Articles of Confederation, and at the time of the adoption of the Constitution of the United States, and long subsequent thereto, the free colored man was with their consent a citizen and a voter. Our fathers meant that he should be so. Their faith in the great cardinal maxims they enunciated was undoubting; and they embodied it without mental reservation when they gave form and action to our Government. No one who has studied the history of that period doubts that they regarded slavery as transitory and evanescent. Neither the word "slave," nor any synonym for it, was given place in the Constitution. We know by the oft-quoted remark of Mr. Madison that it was purposely excluded that the future people of the country might never be reminded by that instrument that so odious a condition had ever existed among the people of the United States. That instrument nowhere contemplates any discrimination in reference to political or personal rights on the ground of color. In defining the rights guarantied by the Constitution they are never limited to the white population, but the word "people" is used without qualification. When in that instrument its framers alluded to those who filled the anomalous, and, as they believed, temporary position of slaves, they spoke of " persons held to service," and in the three-fifths clause of " all other persons." They confided all power to "the people," and provided amply, as they believed, for the protection of the whole people. Thus in the second section of article one, they provided as follows for the organization of the House of Representatives:

"The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several States, and the electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature."

And in the amendments of the Constitution we see how careful they were at a later day to-guard the rights of the people:

"ART. 1. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

"ART. 2. A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

"ART. 4. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated."

"ART. 9. The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

"ART. 10. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

It has, I know, been fashionable to deny that the framers of the Constitution intended to embrace colored persons when they used the word "people;" and it is still asserted by some that it was used with a mental reservation broad and effective enough to exclude them; but the Journals of the Convention and the general history of the times abound in contradictions of this false and mischievous theory, the source of all our present wocs. A brief review of contemporaneous events ought to put this question at rest forever.

The Congress of the Confederation was in session on the 25th of June, 1778, the fourth of the Articles of Confederation being under consideration. The terms of the article as proposed were that "the free inhabitants of each of these States (paupers, vagabonds, and fugitives from justice

excepted) shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of free citizens in the several States." We learn by the Journal that "the delegates from South Carolina, being called on, moved the following amendment in behalf of their State: in article four, between the words 'free inhabitants' insert white.' How was this proposition, identical with that now made to us, received by the sages there and then assembled? Eleven States voted on the question. Two, South Carolina being one of them, sustained the proposition; the vote of one State was divided; and eight, affirming the colored man's right to the privileges of citizenship, voted "no," and the proposition was thus negatived. South Carolina-then, as she has ever been, persistent in mischief-further moved, through her delegates, to amend by inserting after the words "the several States" the words "according to the law of such States respectively for the government of their own free white inhabitants." This proposition was also negatived by the same decisive vote, as appears by the Journal of the Congress of the Confederation, volume four, pages 379, 380. What two States did not vote upon the question the Journal does not indicate; but when it is remembered that Pennsylvania led her sisters in the great work of emancipation, and that it was not till nearly two years after that date that she abolished slavery, it will be seen that it was by a vote of slaveholders representing slave States, that the proposition to deny citizenship, its rights, privileges, and immunities, to the colored people was so emphatically rejected. The delegates could not, with propriety, have voted otherwise. To have done so, they would have agreed that, in violation of all comity, while they secured the rights of citizenship within the limits of their State to citizens of others, those other States might deny them to citizens of their own. They did not probably foresee that South Carolina might cast the shipwrecked citizen of another State who had been thrown upon her shores into a jail, because of the decree of the Almighty, who had given him a complexion not agreeable to the eyes of her people, and in default of the ability to pay jail fees thus unwillingly incurred, doom him and his posterity to the woes of perpetual slavery; but they did see that such a proposition opened the door to inequality, and possibly to oppression, and they resisted it with a firmness and forecast which their posterity have failed to honor or emulate.

Again, they could not have consistently voted for such a proposition; for, by the constitutions of their own States, free colored men were voters, and in the enjoyment of the rights of citizenship. Not only then, but in 1789, at the time of the adoption of the Constitution of the United States, there was but one State whose constitution distinguished in this respect against the colored man. This odious distinction, so fraught with unforeseen but terrible consequences, marred the constitution of South Carolina alone at the latter date.

The constitution of Massachusetts provided that "Every male person (being twenty-one years of age, and resident in any particular town in this Commonwealth for the space of one year next preceding) having a freehold estate within the same town of the annual income of three pounds, or any estate of the value of sixty pounds, shall have a right to vote in the choice of a representative or representatives for the said town."

Rhode Island had adopted no constitution, but continued under colonial charter, which provided for the election of members of the General Assembly by "the major part of the freemen of the respective towns or places.'

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Connecticut also continued under colonial charter, according to which the qualifications of an elector were maturity in years, quiet and peaceable behavior, a civil conversation, and forty shillings freehold, or forty pounds personal estate.

The constitution of New York provided that— "Every male inhabitant of full age, who shall have personally resided within one of the counties of this State for six months immediately preceding the day of election, shall, at such election, be entitled to vote for representa tives of the said county in the Assembly, if, during the time aforesaid, he shall have been a freeholder possessing a freehold of the value of twenty pounds within the said county, or have rented a tenement therein of the yearly value of forty shillings, and have rated and actually paid taxes to this State."

The constitution of New Jersey contained this provision:

"All inhabitants of this colony of full age, who are worth fifty pounds proclamation money clear estate in the same,

and have resided within the county in which they claim to vote for twelve months immediately preceding the election, shall be entitled to vote for representatives in Council and Assembly, and also for all other public officers that shall be elected by the people of the county at large."

The constitution of Pennsylvania provided that

"Every freeman of the full age of twenty-one years, having resided in this State for the space of one whole year next before the day of election for representatives, and paid public taxes during that time, shall enjoy the right of an elector; provided always that sons of freeholders of the age of twenty-one years shall be entitled to vote although they have not paid taxes."

The constitution of Delaware declared that"The right of suffrage in the election for members of both houses shall remain as exercised by law at present." The declaration of rights, prefixed to the constitution, contained the following:

"Every freeman, having sufficient evidence of permanent common interest with and attachment to the community, hath a right of suffrage."

The constitution of Maryland provides that"All freemen, above twenty-one years of age, having a freehold of fifty acres of land in the county in which they offer to vote, and residing therein, and all freemen having property in this State above the value of thirty pounds current money, and having resided in the county in which they offer to vote one whole year next preceding the election, shall have a right of suffrage in the election of delegates for such county."

The constitution of Virginia contained a provision that

"The right of suffrage in the election of members for both houses shall remain as exercised at present."

The declaration of rights, prefixed to the constitution, contained the following:

"All men having sufficient evidence of permanent common interest with and attachment to the community have the right of suffrage."

The constitution of North Carolina provided that

"All freemen of the age of twenty-one years, who have been inhabitants of any one county within the State twelve months immediately preceding the day of any election, and shall have paid public taxes, shall be entitled to vote for members of the House of Commons for the county in which they reside."

The constitution of Georgia declared that—

"The electors of the members of both branches of the General Assembly shall be citizens and inhabitants of this State, and shall have attained to the age of twenty-one years, and have paid tax for the year preceding the elec tion, and shall have resided six months within the county." The constitution of South Carolina provided that

"The qualifications of an elector shall be, every free white man, and no other person, who acknowledges the being of a God, and believes in a future state of rewards and punishments, and who has attained the age of one aud twenty years, and hath been an inhabitant and resident in this State for the space of one whole year before the day appointed for the election he offers to give his vote at, and hath a freehold at least of fifty acres of land or a town lot, and hath been legally seized and possessed of the same at least six months previous to such election, or hath paid a tax the preceding year, or was taxable the present year, at least six months previous to the said election, in a summ equal to the tax on fifty acres of land, to the support of this government, shall be a person qualified to vote for, and shall be capable of electing, a representative or representatives."

But, Mr. Speaker, to evade the force of this overwhelming array of facts, the pro-slavery Democracy and purblind conservatism of the country have suggested that the thought of the black man was not present in the minds of those who fashioned these constitutions and bills of rights; that they could not have imagined that the freed slave or his posterity would have the audacity to ask that they should be recognized as freemen and citizens of our country; and with unblushing effrontery they have made the ignorant believe that the Government was organized, not for mankind, but for the white man alone. The falsity of these suggestions is fully exposed by the fact that South Carolina made the distinction, and in the Congress of the Confederation pressed it on the attention of the whole country, but will be still more amply demonstrated by the facts I shall hereafter cite. In every State but South Carolina, and possibly Virginia and Delaware, in which the right of suffrage was regulated by statute, and not by constitutional provision, the free colored man at that time was a voter. In no State constitution except that of South Carolina, which was replete with aristocratic provisions, was the right of suffrage limited by express terms to the white man; consequently but few, if any, of the members of the Convention that framed the Constitution of the United States could have failed

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