PROPOSED AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, FEBRUARY
6, 1865.
In the Senate, February 6, 1865, Mr. Sumner submitted the
following Amendment to the Constitution, which, on his motion,
was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States which may
be included within this Union according to the number of male citizens
of age having in each State the qualifications requisite for electors
of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature. The actual
enumeration of such citizens shall be made by the census of the United
States.
This Amendment was a first attempt to meet the new exigency
from the abolition of Slavery. One of two alternatives was
open: the extension of suffrage to the new-made freedmen by
the action of Congress, which Mr. Sumner insisted was the just
course; or the apportionment of Representatives according
to voters, which would make it for the interest of a State
to extend the franchise. Without one of these measures the
political power of the former slave-masters would be enlarged
by Emancipation.
This subject occupied much attention at the next session of
Congress.