MR. EDMUNDS. Yes, Sir.
MR. SUMNER. I am glad of it. That is the gain of a day. We were to
adjourn to-day at twelve o’clock, and then again to-morrow at twelve
o’clock, and now it is put off until Saturday. I cannot doubt that the
Senate would do much better, if it put off the adjournment until next
week. There is important business on your table, which ought to be
considered.
Mr. Sumner then called attention to measures deserving
consideration, and continued:--
Here is another measure, which I once characterized as an effort
to cut the Gordian knot of the suffrage question. It is a bill
introduced by myself to carry out various constitutional provisions
securing political rights in all our States, precisely as we have
already secured civil rights. The importance of this bill cannot be
exaggerated. There is not a Senator who does not know the anxious
condition of things in the neighboring State of Maryland for want of
such a bill. Let Congress interfere under the National Constitution,
and exercise a power clearly belonging to it, settling this whole
suffrage question, so that it shall no longer agitate the politics
of the States, no longer be the occasion of dissension, possibly of
bloodshed, in Maryland or in Delaware, or of difference in Ohio. Let us
settle the question before we return home.
When I rose, I had no purpose of calling attention to these measures.
My special object was to express satisfaction that the Senate at last
is disposed to harmonize with the other House on the important question
of securing to Congress the power of meeting during the summer and
autumn. That is a great point gained for the peace and welfare of the
country. Without it you will leave the country a prey to the President;
you will leave our Union friends throughout the South a sacrifice to
the same malignant usurper.
The substitute proposed by Mr. Edmunds was agreed to,--Yeas
25, Nays 14. The House non-concurring, it was referred to a
committee of conference.
March 29th, another resolution having been meanwhile adopted by
the House, providing for an adjournment to the first Wednesday
of June, and then, if a quorum of both Houses were not present,
to the first Wednesday of September, and then, in the absence
of a quorum, to the first Monday of December, Mr. Edmunds moved
the following substitute:--
“The President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House
of Representatives are hereby directed to adjourn their
respective Houses on Saturday, March 30, 1867, at twelve
o’clock, meridian, to the first Wednesday of July, 1867,
at noon, when the roll of each House shall be immediately
called, and immediately thereafter the presiding officer of
each House shall cause the presiding officer of the other
House to be informed whether or not a quorum of its body
has appeared; and thereupon, if a quorum of the two Houses
respectively shall not have appeared upon such call of the
rolls, the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the
House of Representatives shall immediately adjourn their
respective Houses without day.”