Mr. HOWE. Well, I suppose “what is sauce for the nose is sauce for the gander, ” and as my ccilcagne has had the floor for a personal explanation, I can have the floor for a personal explanation. I regret that I was not here at the o ening of this explanation for I imagine from t ie little I heard of it that I am somewhat interested in it, if not implicated by it. That my colleague should take this hour or any other in the calendar to make a personal explanation is entirely proper, and for that act I have not the slightest disposition, as I believe I have notthe slightestoccasion, tocriticise him; but that he should take this very late hour in this very retracted session to make an attack upon me, think is not so free from criticism. But after all I am not disposed to complain of that, form political life has been so brief and so inconsi erable that I should be oorly off if I were not prepared to defend the ittle there is of it anywhere, at any time, and upon any notice, however brief. What my colleague has said in defense of himselfI shall allow to pass with but very slight comment, if any. What he has said in my hearing touchin myself, I must be ready now to make some 0 servation upon. And 1st it was the 1st I heard of this criticism upon my own course he presents me as having cannot in fact, but as having been reported to be an advocate and an indorser of 2 resolutionswhich were offered bya very distinguished gentleman in the State of Wisconsin and submitted to the last State convention held by the Union party for their acce tance. I allude to the resolutions presented by ‘eneral Paine. My colleague says thatGenlPaine declared that I indorsed these resolutions and recommended them to the convention. ThatGenlPaine did not so say, of course I shall not avouch; I cannot be supposed to know what he said, for I was not there. What the fact is in regard to myself, I am supposed to know and can speak by authority on that point, and so speaking I say thatGenlPaine certainly never had any authority to say that I ever proposed or suggested that the convention should taken. position on the question of negro suffragc, except further than when appealed to for my own opinion I stated for myself, that as we had a law submitting to the people of the State for their approval or rejection the question of admitting the negroes in our State to the right of suffrageI, recommended that the convention should indorse that act, and I did distinctly say to all who paid me the compliment to consult me on the point that I thoughtthat was as far as the conVention ought to go; that the nestion whether the suffrage should be extended to the blacks in the rebellious States or any other State than Wisconsin, was not legitimately before us; that the other question was legitimately before us; that I believed it was right that suffrage should be extended to the negroes in our State. The Legislature had invited the vote of' the people on that subject, and I thought the convention ought to take ground upon it on the one side or the other, and as I believed there was but one right side I did desire that the Union party should occupy that side, which was in favor of the suffrage. I did distinctly discour age, as I said before, all who 'consulted me on the point, against going further than that, against making precedents in the particular state of things in which we then found our selves. But, Mr. President, I should be doing injus tice to myself and to my convictions, perhaps I should do some injustice to my colleague and to his convictions, if I did not say a word' further, since I am arraigned upon the point, since I am charged in the indictment; if I did not take this opportunit to contest before the Senate and so much of the world as is now attending upon the sittings of the Senate, that I have never known an hour since I considered the question at all when I did not believe in my inmost heart that not only the highest and the truest justice, but the highost and truest policy, requires that the bslIot shall be put into the hands of every freeman for his own protection, be his race what it may, and his shade of color what it may. I heard my colleague ote the Janesville Gazette; but before I pass to that I will not allow the designation that my colleague has given toGenlPaine, of Wisconsin, to pass without correction. He has taken occasion here in this body, to whichGenlPaine, I suppose, is an entire stranger, to characterize him as a crazy man.