Mr. JOHNSON. I do not know exactly what is the majorit of the people of the State of NewYork; but I now that ere are a great many children and women there, and they are notal lowed to vote. The government of the State of NewYork is a representative democracy; it is a part of our American system of government; it is not an absolute democracy, or it is not necessary that all the people should be permitted to vote. Whence comes the discrimination in regard to mine rs? and how many persons are deprived of voting in the State of NewYork by a most tyrannical and outrageous restry law, which compels a man to go twice to the lls before he can vote? How many thousan s are rejected because the laws that guard the ballotbox are too stringent? Certain regulations are necessary to protect the ballotbox; but when those regulations become too stringent, so strin gent as to keep the voter awa, they do injustice to our system, though they o not change our form of government. Now this is certainly a new doctrine that is contended for, a doctrine that the framers of our Government never dreamed of. For when they promulgated this constitution of ours, this guarantee of a RFG to the seVeral States. the elective franchise was much more restricted than it is now. If, therefore, the negrorace, up to the commencement of the late war, had no part in this government, what has been done anyone since that time that established his claim to any such part now? Prior to this war it never was mooted in this Hall that the federal Government should undertake to confer upon the negro race the elective franchise. All parties and classes of men admitted that it was a question not within the scope of the Federal constitution. But now it seems that the principle has gained new force. Now, has the negro rendered any service to the Government that entitles him to make this claim as a matter of right? Mr. Speaker, I am one of those who during the whole war steadily opposed the pnttin of negro troops into the military service of the U.S. I never believed that their services were indispensable, and I am doubly confirmed in that opimou now. I believed then that those who 1866. 307 urged the employment of the negro in the Army did so for the express purpose of giving rise to some such claim as this. he negro, however, did render some military service, and new it is contended that in gratitude for those services we ought to extend to him and graciously confer upon him this particiation in our Government. All that was promise the negro has been given him for the services he has rendered, and more, too. He was never promised the emancipation of hisracc in this country, yet that has been given him. He was not invited to take artin the contest by any reclamation or act o Congress. He was treute simply as one liable to serve, and allowed pay, bounty, and pensions. No formal call was ever made upon the negroes as a race to enter the service in our late struggle. No promise was held out to them that if they did enter the service their race should be benefited in any way whatsoever. They Were treated as liable to service, liable to draft, and granted pay, bounty, and pensions. Gentlemen know that fact verywell. I remember perfectly the 1st recruiting of negroes that took place in Pennsylvania. Some one or 2 negroes from Massachusetts made their appearance in our town and commenced gobbling up our negroes. They olfered very high beunties to fill quotas in Massachusetts, and then, when the conscrition law came the negroes were in great deman; and they were drafted and forced into the service of the Government. As an organized body of men in the U.S. they took no action at all. They had no representatives of their race here, to whom they could express their desire to enter the military service, or by whom they could negotiate any terms with the Government of the U.S. by which they should gain any privileges of citizenship as white men of this country. I am very well reminded by the Gentfrom NewYork [Mr. CHANLER] near me that. they were refused officers of their own race. So subordinate were they to the white men in this war that they were refused to have officers of their own race to command them. Well, sir, I was speaking of the manner in which they were drafted. I will give you an instance which I remember, a scene that took place in my own town. Some bounty brokers from Philadelphia brought up a negro to put him in the service as a substitute. The brokers about Easton got around the negro, and finally stole him awa. One of the m told me himself that he kept that negro hid in agarret for 3 days and 3 nights, until the Philadelphia brokers had gone 08. But not venturing to produce him then, he sent him out into the country in the middle of the night, over the Blue Mountain, into the Pocena region, and there kept him ten days and ten nights longer, until he was satisfied the Philadelphia brokers were all gone, and then he brought him down and, said he, “I made $600 on that nigger. Ought that man to vote? That he went into the service and fought I have no doubt that he obeyed the orders of his commanders I have no doubt; and if he was down at the big mine in front of Petersburg I have no doubt he ran as well as any other negro there; because anyone who would consent to be locked in a garret for 3 days and 3 nights, then to be transported 40 miles over e mountains and kept there for ten days, then brought back and put in as a substitute in that way, would certainly obe the orders of his superiors, and when told to c arge he would charge. But onght that man to vote? Does his service in the rmy under those circumstances have him a right to the elective franchise? how many 1,000s of the men who were in the service of the U.S., and rendered good military service in the war, are of the same class with that n o? Let memention another incident as ani us tratfon on this subject. Iwas standing one day at the junction of NewYork avenue and 15th street in this city, in conversation with 2 gentlemen who had been appointed by the city authorities here to fill up their quota. While I was standing there, 5 negroes, who, from their appearance, were undoufirtedly fugitive slaves, came up and handed to one of those gentlemen a paper. He looked at it, and pointed them to the pass othee just above, where they could get passes to go over to the Freedmens Village on the other side of the Potomac. The negroes passed on, and the gentleman remarked to me, ” That is the way the negroes are put into the service here.” They ha been down to Colonel Green to get directions to the freedmens Village. He adgiven them a slip of aper, with the direction, to which he had added: Cant ou recruit these fel lows?" The agent reused to undertake it. The object was to get them in by hOok or by crook, to take advantage of their ignorance get them to sign the musterroll, and then senthem to the rent. 100s and 1,000s of negro recruits were got in that wayby agents who followed the Army, and gathered up slaves who had just run away from their masters, and who, ignorant of their rights as men could he, were easil induced to go into the ranks of the Army. et gentlemen tell us that men of this class, because they fought in the service of the country, are certainly entitled to the elective franchise as a reward for the service which they rendered.” Gentlemen tell us, too, that during the revolutionary struggle there was, here and there, a negro soldier in our Arm. Well, sir, it is not worth while for us to go back to the history of that struggle, and show how those persons were induced to enter that service. liberty at that time had its ardians, who were sufficient for that da. the men who made the constitution of the U.S. knew what service had been rendered by the negroes during the war of the Revolution and if that service had been sufli cieut to entitle them to be made citizens under our Government the founders of the Government would have guarantied them that position under the constitution. But 3 quarters of a century have rolled round, and new. it is just discovered that the services rendered by the negroes in the Revolution should be rewarded by allowing the negroes of this day to vote in the DistCol. Another class of arguments is adduced here in favor of the negro voting. We are told that in this District necroes have acquired some propertyhouses, Iands, churches, &c and that therefore they ought to vote. Mr. Speaker, the elective franchise is not to be sold out upon such considerations as these. If the negroes of this District have acquired property under the administration of the city by the white people, are they not content to hold it? If they complain that they nre not properly governed, that their property is not adequately protected here, then it is the duty of Congress to see that such laws are passed as will protect them in the full enjoyment of the fruits of their labor. Do they comlain that they are obliged to pay taxes to the Government for protecting their property, their liberties, and their lives? Well, air, if they can anywhere else obtain more cheaply the protection of their property, their liberties, and their lives, they have our leave to go there. It does not lie in the mouth of any man in this country to complain that he has to pay a slight tax for the protection which the Government affords to his property, his liberty, and his life. I reeat, that any man who is unwilling to pay the government tax imposed upon his property for protection let him put it in a store iiouse and pay the storage. [Laughtera] I am opposed, sir, to all of these qualifications of voters of my own race, resting upon the payment of taxes, registration, and every thing in the nature of restriction. The payment of tax, the requirement of residence, and tests of that character, are necessary to protect the ballotbox against fraudulent votin, but they confer no right upon people entit edto vote as citizens. A man who votes withOut law ful authority deprives a lawful voter of the effect of his vote. The payment of tax under our system, therefore, gives no man the right to vote. It is not a franchise to be bought and sold in that way. Then, sir, comes another class of arguments. We are told that the negro is intelligent and capable of voting; that there are some negroes who are more intelligent better educated, have better reasoningpowers than certain white men, and that these intelligent negroes do not vote while certain ignorant white men do vote. There is nothing in that at all. Elective franchise is not based upon a mans intelligence. Hence the tests that a man should be able to read the constitution and write his name before he should vote are all idle. Suppose when a negro comes u to vote in the DistCol he is as edhow he spells his name. The judge of the election says to the negro “Can ou s ell your name?” “Yes.” “Spell it.” Boliib. [Laughter] The judge of the election would as the negro s ells it with 3 Bs instead of 2, he compo led to decide that he should not be allowed to vote. I know there are gentlemen in this House who, if the clerks at this desk were the judges of election, would, under these tests, deny t cm the right to vote, because they could not write their names. [Laughter] These tests are all idle. The elective franchise belongs to the man whois a citizen of the Government. It belon s in this Government to the white man, who from his race is a citizen of his Government. I do not deny that the Government may confer the privilege of citizenship upon negroes, but the white man is a citizen without that. Gentlemen agree that. the negro race is inferior to the white or European race yet there seems to be something that in uces them to do something for the negro. Some, upon the free and equal clause of the DeclarIndep, say that this race of men belongs to the Government, and that therefore all people under it have the right to articipate in its administration. Some o half way, and are willin that the negro should have some art in the provernment; and some are excceingly jealous lest, if the negro be allowed to vote, he may become a controllin power. They only want a little sprinkling of the negro, just enough to spice it, with the property qualification, payment of tax, intelligence or something of that kind. They are Willing e should vote, provided he would always agree to vote in a minority. They are willing he shall vote provided they can limit him so that there will lie no danger of his controlling the election. What kind of privilege is that? It is like the voting privilege conferred upon our soldiers in the Army. They were to get the tickets as best they could. They were a owed to vote, provided they voted right, in the opinion of their superiors. Some who did not vote right had the satisfaction to know that their ballots were changed, and they were made to count contrary to their wishes by those gentlemen who claim to be the exclusive friends of the soldiers voting. Philadelphiahasbeen the great stampingground for that sort of thing. At the last election we had a commissioner elected by some 7 or 800 majority. He was a Democrat, and had been a major in the Army. By and by election returns came in from NewYork and every other direction, and he was beaten by several hundred votes. An investigation of those returns shows that there were no such persons as those who were claimed to have voted in the Army; that the companies returned as voting unanimously never voted. The poll lists returned proved to be made up of the names of men who had deserted or died years before. Out of this whole return every vote thus far has, been proven a fabrication and a fraud.