Year: 1868

OAiolt Aon uaFo De allowed to vote so that they shall not be under the control and power of the Rebels. This is the pol

 icy, to divide the political power amono those men for the protection of each, Sir 7 the charge that we intend to create q neoro supremacy or colored State governments is without the slightest foundation, for it would have been in the power of Congress to have easily conferred such supremacv by simply excluding the disloyal from the } right of sufrage-a power which it had the clear right to exercise. Now MT. Presi } dent, allow me to consider for a moment the amendment offered by the Senator from

 Wisconsin, and upon which his speech was made, and see what is its efect-I will not say It's purpose, but its inevitable effect should It become law. will ask the Sec cetary to read the amendment which the Senator from Wisconsin has proposed to the Senate [The Secretary read as fol- loWs:l

 PForided nereltbeess That upon an election for the ratification of any constitution or of officers under the same previous to it's adoption in anv state, no person not having the qualifications of State previous to the late Rebellion shall be allow ca to vote, unless he shall possess one of the fol-

 lowing qualifications, namely

 | l. tie shall have served as a soldier in tho Fad efal Army for one year or more

 ~ z. ne snail nave sufficient education to read the Constitution fthe United States and to subscribe HIS 5 name ft to an oath to support the same or

 g. lie shall be seized in his own right or in the right ot his wife. ot freehold of the value of s25O

 Sir, these qualifications are, by the terms or the amendment, to apply to those who were not authorized to vote by the laws of tue State before the Rebellion-in otber words, the colored men. He nronoses to allow colored man to vote if he has been Ill the Federal army one year, and he nro- poses to allow Rebel white man to vote although he has served in the Rebel army four years! He proposes that colored man snail not vote unless he has sufficient edu cation to read the Constitution of the Uni. ted States and to subscribe his name to an oath to support the same, whereas he permits Rebel white man to vote who never heard of A. and does know how to make hls mark even to note given for whisky: Laughter. Again, Sir, he pro- poses that the colored man shall not vote unless he shall be seized in his own right. or Ill the right of his wife, of freehold of the value of s2o0, @ provision which, of course, would cut off 999 out of evarv 1000 colored men in the South, The coI- bred man cannot vote unless he has a free. hold ot S25O, but the white Rebel. who was never worth p cents, who never paid poll tax Ill his life, never paid an honest debt IS to be allowed to vote. Sir, what would be the inevitable effect of the adontion of this amendment? To cut off such a laroe part ot the colored vote as to leave the Reb elwhlte vote largely in the ascendancv and to put these new State governments tbere to be formed again into the hands of fine Rebels: Sir, will not spend longer time upon that. My friend yesterday alluded to my lndofsement of the Presidents poli- : cy ln speech in 1865. I never indorsed what IS now called the Presidents policy. Tn the Summer of 1865, when saw diyi- slon coming between the President and the hepuoncan party, and when I could not help anticipating the direful conseonencas that must result from it, I made n sneecb in which repelled certain statements that had been made against the President and denied the charge that by issuing his pro

 clamatlon of May 29, 1865, he had thereby ieft the Republican party. I said that he had not left the Republican party that act. dld show that the policy of that proclaim atlon was even more radical than that of Mir. Lincoln. l did show that it was more radical even than the Winter-Dayis bill of the Summer of 1864. But, Sir, it was all upon the distinct understanding that what ever the President did that his whole policy or acton was to be submitted to Congress TOT It's consideration and decision: and. as before remarked, if that had been done ali would have been we'll. did not then aaVocate universal eolored suffrage in the eouth' ana nave before given my reasons for 1t, and in doing that I was actino in harmony with the great body of the Re- publican party of the North. It was near y year after that time when Congress passed the Constitutional Amendment. WhlchiStlli left the question ofsiuffrage when the Southern States left it with the white people; and It was not until 8 year and half after that time that Congress came to the conclusion that we could not execute the guarantee of the Constitution without ralslng upa new class of loyal voters. And. Slr, nobody concurred in that result more heartily than myself. I confess land I do It without shamei that have been educa- tea oy the great events of this war. The American people have been educated rap- ioly' ana the man who says he has Hf4earned nothing, that he stands now where he did six years ago, is like an ancient mile post by the side of deserted highway. We MT. President, have advanced step by step. when thls war began we did not contem- plate the destruction of Slavery. remem- Der we'll when the Crittenden resolution was passed, declaring that the war waslnot prosecuted for conquest or to oyerturn the institutions of any State know that that was intended as an assur- ance that slavery should not be destroyed. and 1t received the vote I believe of every Republican member in both Houses of Congress; but in few months after that tune til It was found by the events of the war that we could not preserve Slavery and SUD- press hebelllon, and must destroy Slavery lot prosecute war to destroy Slavery-but destroy slavery to prosecute the war;

 winch was the better? To stand by the resolution and let the Union go, or to stand by the Union and let the resolu- tlon go? Congress could not stand by that pledge, and it was more honored in the breach than the observance. Mir. Lin coin issued his proclamation of emancipa- tion, setting free the slaves of Rebels. It was dictated by the stern and bloody ex- perience of times. Mir. Lincoln had no choice left him. When he began this con- test no one thought we would use colored soldiers in the war. The distinguished Senator sitting by me here [Mr. Cameron1. when in the Winter of 1861 he first brought forward the proposition, as Secretary of War. to use colored soldiers, was greatly in advance of public opinion, and was thonpht l to be visionary: but ar fho x,,o,. .,,.. --..1