MR. PRESIDENT,--I have already voted against the motion to strike
out the word “male,” and I shall vote against the pending proposition
to fix an educational test. In each case I am governed by the same
consideration.
In voting against striking out the word “male,” I did not intend to
express any opinion on the question, which has at last found its
way into the Senate Chamber, whether women shall be invested with
the elective franchise. That question I leave untouched, contenting
myself with the remark, that it is obviously the great question of the
future,--at least one of the great questions,--which will be easily
settled, whenever the women in any considerable proportion insist that
it shall be settled. And so, in voting against an educational test, I
do not mean to say that under other circumstances such test may not be
proper. But I am against it now.
The present bill is for the benefit of the colored race in the District
of Columbia. It completes Emancipation by Enfranchisement. It entitles
all to vote without distinction of color. The courts and the rail-cars
of the District, even the galleries of Congress, have been opened.
The ballot-box must be opened also. Such is my sense not only of
the importance, but of the necessity of this measure, so essential
does it appear to me for the establishment of peace, security, and
reconciliation, which I so earnestly covet, that I am unwilling to see
it clogged, burdened, or embarrassed by anything else. I wish to vote
on it alone. Therefore, whatever the merits of other questions, I have
no difficulty in putting them aside until this is settled.
The bill for Impartial Suffrage in the District of Columbia concerns
directly some twenty thousand colored persons, whom it will lift to
the adamantine platform of Equal Rights. If regarded simply in its
influence on the District, it would be difficult to exaggerate its
value; but when regarded as an example to the whole country, under the
sanction of Congress, its value is infinite. In the latter character it
becomes a pillar of fire to illumine the footsteps of millions. What we
do here will be done in the disorganized States. Therefore we must be
careful that what we do here is best for the disorganized States.
If the bill could be confined in influence to the District, I should
have little objection to an educational test as an experiment. But
it cannot be limited to any narrow sphere. Practically, it takes the
whole country into its horizon. We must, therefore, act for the whole
country. This is the exigency of the present moment.
Now to my mind nothing is clearer than the present necessity of
suffrage for all colored persons in the disorganized States. It
will not be enough, if you give it to those who read and write; you
will not in this way acquire the voting force needed there for the
protection of Unionists, whether white or black. You will not secure
the new allies essential to the national cause. As you once needed the
muskets of blacks, so now you need their votes,--and to such extent
that you can act with little reference to theory. You are bound by
the necessity of the case. Therefore, when asked to open suffrage
to women, or when asked to establish an educational standard for
our colored fellow-citizens, I cannot, on the present bill, simply
because the controlling necessity under which we act will not allow
it. By a singular Providence, we are constrained to this measure of
Enfranchisement for the sake of peace, security, and reconciliation,
so that loyal persons, white or black, may be protected, and that the
Republic may live. Here, in the national capital, we begin the real
work of Reconstruction, by which the Union will be consolidated forever.
The amendment of Mr. Dixon was rejected,--Yeas 11, Nays 34.
The Senators voting in the affirmative were Mr. Anthony, Mr.
Buckalew, Mr. Dixon, Mr. Doolittle, Mr. Fogg, Mr. Foster, Mr.
Hendricks, Mr. Nesmith, Mr. Patterson, Mr. Riddle, and Mr.
Willey.
The bill then passed the Senate,--Yeas 32, Nays 13. On the
next day it passed the other House, and, being vetoed by
President Johnson, it passed both Houses by a two-thirds vote,
so that it became a law.[75]