The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-12-20

/ were purchased. .
The Senate bill authorizing the appointment of
! pension agents by the President by and with the
! advice and consent of the Senate, amended by the
House to limit the number of agencies of them for
each State territory, and providing that no ad
! diuonal agency shall be established in any State
where the pensions paid do not exceed S500OOO for
the preceding year, and that the term of all agents
appointed since January I, 1866, shall expire with
in thirty days after the passage of the act and the
President be requested to nominate their success
sors with ninety five days from the same date, was
reported from the Judiciary Commltee, WIN
amendments, substituting October Il 800, Ior jan
uarY Is 1866 and striking out all ln-
sertng provision that the rms OF All otner pen
sion agents shall expire when successors snail be
Mr. WILLIAMS of Oregon, presented reso-
| luton directing the Committee on Foreign Rela-
tions TO nquire into the expediency of regulating
| and restricting the immigration and importation
| of Chinese into the United States. Mr.. Williams
said he offered this resolution at this time with
view to call the attention of Congress and the
country to the subject to which it refers. Since
the first discovery Of gold in California, the Chi
nese in considerable numbers have emiGrated to
the Pacific coast They came there not to be citi-
zens, not TO learn to speak our language, or pro-
less our religion, or adopt our customs, manners
or habits but to be a people unto themselves, and
TO maintain their attachment to the government of
the country in which they were born.
He (Mr Williams) would not undertake to say
that any particular harm had yet resulted from
the presence OF these people on the Pacific coast
but new facilities for their immigration have re-
Gently been made, and no doubt they will be in
creased so as TO bring the Chinese here in great
numbers. Ii was time for Congress to give a little
attention to the subject. The resolution was
adopted.
mp as the unfinished business of yesterdayI
Mr.. HOWARD, Of Michigan, took the floor in
advocacy of the bill and opposition to the amend
mens OF Mr.. Brown, that this act shall take effect
only upon the fundamental condiuon that there
shall b. no denial of the elective franchise on ac-
count of color in Nebraska. Mr.. Howard did not
agree with the Senator from Massachusetts, that it
was violation of the Declaration of 1ndepen-
dence to deny the franchise to colored persons. He
did rot regard the right to voteas a natural right,
hut as n conventional right. In the previous his
tory of legislation no such conditions as were now
pronosed were attached TO a hill for the admission
of new State. Nebraska and Colorado had COM
piled with all conditions imposed on them in the
enabling act. 1t was departure from the good
faith which should regulate the conduct of Oon-
gress toward the territories to exact such condi-
tions.
It was competen. for Congress to prescribe con-
ditions for the admission of new State, but they
must be conditions precedent, to be complied with
before the admission Of the State and not after it,
After territory had come into the Union and
been vested with the powers of State, il would
be competent for its people to set aside or repeal
such a condition as was embraced in Mr.. Browns
amendment In doing this they would only be
exercising the right of STATES to regulate the fran
chise. He (mr. HowGrd) expected to live to see
the day, and not be very old man, either when
every State in the Union would grant the right of
suffrage to COoTed men. He saw remedy but
universal suffrage for the condition of affairs that
now existed in the south, yet he was careful, as
member of the Committee on Reconstruction, in
presenting the pending constitutional amendment
TO Congress, to leave the regulation of suffrage to
the States.
Mr. BROWN asked Mr. Howard whether, in
affirming that the States have an exclusive con-
troll over the whole question of the right of suf-
trage, he took the position that if any State In the
Union, by its limitation upon the franchise, shall
destroy the republican form of the government,
that the United States has right to interpose to
protect the guarantee Of republican form of 60
Vernment.
Mr. HOWARD said that when it should be
made manifest to him, as a mem Der of this body,
that there was in any State in this Union gov
ernment which was not republican in form, he
ghH Hnl ha " IN pHv eNn lsf laH
by the Constitution But lie must, at the same
time, say 10 the Senator from Missouri that he
did not believe that that clause of the Constitu-
ton authorized Congress to pass q law in refer
TO any State IN this Union giving to the black
people OF that State the right to vote at its polls.
In other words, he did not hold that the eXclu-
sion Of the black race from the right to vote was
such a departure from a republican form of gov
ernment as would authoIize Congress to interfere.
Toward the conclusion of his remarks Mr., How
ara dyvelt ur on the subject Of reconstruction The
Senator from Ohio (Mr. Sherman) bad said that
Congress had agreed that If the rebel states would
rauty the pending constitutional amendment they
would be Teadmitted into the Union, and permitted
to participate in legislation in the two houses OF
Congress, Doubtless the honorable Senator from
Ohio (Mr. Sherman) said what he really believed
to be true. The same statement had often been
made, not very frequently in Congress, but very
frequently during the last congressional canvass,
and in the various journals Of the country
He CMr. Howard) would take this occasion, so
far as he was concerned, to contradict the fact.
Congress has never proposed TO the insurgent
States that il they would adopt the present pend
ing amendment of the Constitution, or any other
amendment to the Constitution, they should be
readmitted as States of the Union, and allowed to
participate in the legislation of Congress. Con-
gress the last session, after the most mature de-
liberation, saw fit to propose an additional article
to the Constitution OF the United States, which,
upon being ratified by three-tourths of the States
OF course, said Mr. Howard, mean three e-tourths
of the States in the Union, and not out OF the
Union
Mr.. SUMNER-Yes, not including the rebel
Mr.. HOWARD-Yes; that then it should be a
part of the Constitution. But neither of the COM
mttee of fifteen, nor either House of Congress, so
far as nv memory serves me, has ever made such
q proposition that the rebel States shall be re-
admitted upon the ratification by them OF this
Mr. NORTON, of Minnesota would like to
inquire of the Senator from Michigan if he did not
in the city of st. Paul. urge and argue in speech
that by the adoption OF the amendment the rebel
States would obtain representation, and that such
action by them would be the settlement OF the
Mr. HOWARD-I understand the question of
the Hon. Senator from Minnesota l know not
what report OF my speech he may have seen, but
am ready to say now that did not then and there
make any such statement 1t was so understood
/ was most grossly misunderstood
Mr. NORTON-I would state to the Senator
that he was reported, and that the speech he
made was cited in opposition to an assertion made
of the opposite character.
Mr. HOWARD-Of course / am entirely igno-
rant Of the report which may have been made of
my speech, and also of the sense in which 1t may
have been understood by the public or by the au-
dience who listened. l know very we'll what my
objects were, and what my language, so Tar as
the substance is concerned, was never made
any such statement, and 1 shall never agree, let
me say TO the Senator from Minnesota, and to
others, to any such thing. / will not agree that
the State of South Carolina in adopting that
amendment of the Constitution, shall Instantly be
re6omitted into Congress; will l agree that
Alabama or Mississippi or Georgia, and last of
all, Texas, shall be admitted to their seats in Con-
gress on going through with what would certainly
be, in their case the mere farce OF ratying that
amendment to the Constitution. 1 think we have
not been go blind, Mr. President as to offer sucn