Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1871-09-22

On the "a Oh July NUOt June ,LHe
special order in the Senate was the
House bill to amend the naturaliza~
ton laws and to punish crimes
against the same. and was taken up
in Committee of the Whole. The
Judiciary Committee had reported q
substitute, and to this the attention
of the Senate was invited. Mr.. Har-
Ian here announced Ithat he was in
favor of the House bill, and would
vote against the amendment proposed
by the committee. The point was, he
was opposed to all amendments to
the bill, for good and sufficient rea
sons, as will appear further on. t."'
Mr.. Sumner here offered new
section to the bill, as an amendment
to the amendment of the Judiciary
Committee, as follows: ...f ~
"Afd be IL further enacted, That
all acts, of Congress relating to nat
uralization be, and the same are
hereby, amended by striking out the
word white wherever it occurs, SO
that in naturalization there shall be
no distinction of race or color"
Mr.. Summers amendment was
voted down, % to %, such Republi-
cans as Howe of Wisconsin, Howell
of Iowa, Morton of Indiana, and
Wilson of Massachusetts,, voting in
the negative with Mr.. Harlan. -. ..
immediately after this, however,
the amendment of the Judiciary
Committee was rejected by a vote OF
IL TO 33, and had Mr.. Summers
amendment been adopted it must
have gone with it. .. a.. I.
The question required of course on
the House hill, and Mr.. Sumner Of
fered his amendment again as an
amendment to that. This time it
was adopted, Ito %, Harlan, Will
son, Howell, Morton, Stewart and
other equally as good Republicans
voting In the negative.
The adoption of Mr.. Summers
amendment opened q wide range OF
objections to the bill, and invited q
protracted debate and endangered the
ultimate success. of the measure
Remember that the Senate was with
In few days of its adjournment, and
that large number of bills, includ.
ing the Tax bill, were yet undis
posed of. The only proper course
under the circumstances was TO pass
the House bill with as little debate as
possible, and without attempting to
engraft upon it 80 radical an amend
ment at that late day and in that
hurried and inconsiderate manner.
| AS an indication of the serious OBJ
jections that arose in the minds Of
thoughtful Senators to Mr.. Summers
amendment, we cite one paragraph
from the remarks of Mr.. Stewart, Of
Nevada:
"Sir, I say Nevada was the frs
State that. ratified the Fifteenth
am sndment. The Republicans Of
Nevada have stood up to all the adj
vRnced issues of the day. We have
some ten or fifteen thousand Chinese
in that State. Every good man in
the State is In favor of protecting
them to the utmost. If the time
shall come when they shall be fit for
nounce their pagan alliance, when
they shall come here as freemen.
then it will raise different question.
1t is not prejudice against the Chi
nese but the real objection Is to nat.
uralizing men who have no interest
in the Government, who are slaves,
who can be driven up and natural
lied, and their votes disposed of as
their labor Is disposed Of"
Without disposing of the matter,
the Senate adjourned until Monday,
and over Sunday the Senators, it
seems, had time to think of the con
sequences of their action and there
fore inauy had occasion to change
their minds. e.. ...,,4a. r....o &c..
The Senate, on Monday, In Com
mittee of the Whole, resumed con.
sideration OF the bill, and the vote
adopting Mr.. SumHer's amendment
WAS recOnsidered on q vote of q yeas
to IA nays.
The question recurring on the
amendment of the Senator from Mas
sachusetts, additional amendments
were offered, upon one of which Mr..
Wilson of Massachusetts,, spoke as
follows -.
~ shall vote against this amend
ment as have against all others on
this bill, and for the same reason
In doing so, wish to say that do
not abandon any of the doctrines of
the Declaration.0f Independence. i
was committed to those doctrines
publicly, and 1t is on record, before /
knew any member of this body, or
ever heard of any of them, or ever
read q word that they ever wrote
or uttered. have had no reason
in all these thirty-five years that
have passed, to change any of my
opinion, and have striven on all
proper and legitimate occasions to
carry them out. r.t..s s,t..} |
This matter came up in the House
of Representatives the other day in o
bill introduced by the judiciary
of that body, containing
this principle, making no exemp~
was defeated overwhelmingly. Then
the matter comes up here. This
naturalization bill comes up here in
another form at this late hour of the
session, when we have an immense
number of important bills crowd.
ing for action. 1t was clear and
plain to my mind that ii this propo-
sition was moved or put on this bill,
time must be taken, perhaps the
bill itself perilled, and O number of
other important bills, lost. Those
bills are lost; we have spent the
time.n '.'f 4" ts-.a a..- s1#
Now, we dare say that Mr.. Harlan |
looked at the matter precisely as Mr..
Wilson did. The record shows, at |
least that they acted together In
the matter, throughout. The Du-
buque Times, we imagine, will hard> |
ly question the Republicanism of
Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts,.
Mr.. Summers amendment was
then rejected--yeas, IA; nays
The bill was reported to the Senate
and here Mr.. Sumner again sought
to attach his amendment, and again
II was voted down-yeas, IL; nays
The bill passed, no Republican vot-
ing i'm the negative, on O vote of yeas
80, nays 8. zfse. ........ 80.
The record vindicates Mr.. Harlan
from the charges quoted
against him at the commencement
of this article, showing, as 1t does,
that Mr.. Summers proposition was
three times rejected, the two last
times by vote Of more than two to
one. 3I!s8h &assEG#-asd wool stb3
Our Senators stood together I'm this
matter, and whatever reflections are
made upon the course of one Involves
also the standing of the other, as
we'll as the record of such tried men
as Wilson, and Morton, and Chan
dler, and Howe, and score of others.
And now, will the Dubuque Times
please answer: Would Mr.. Allison
have voted differently? d
Hon. Jno. e. Burke Is the nominee
for Senaror i'm the Wayerly district.