Mr. HOWARD. Mr. President, as the honorable chairman of the ComTerri tories announced to us yesterday his purpose to bring the Senate to a final vote upon this bill today if practicable, I shall endeavor to condense the remarks I have to make into as small a compass as possible. I hope, sir, we shall be able to take a final vote today. Time is not only flying but precious. We have a great number of bills of the highest importance now pending before the Senate which, in my judgment, ought to be acted upon at the present session, not to speak of those bills which are likely to be introduced. Mr. President, in April, 1864, now well on toward 3 years ago, Congress passed an act to enable the people of the Territory of Nebraska to form a constitution and State government and for the admission of that territory with that people into the Union as a State of the Union. At the same session congress also passed an act authorizing the people of the Territory of Colorado to form a State government, promising them also admittance into the Union. It seems that the people of neither of these Territories. in point of time with the requisitions of the respective acts. But it is not alleged, and I believe it cannot be truthfully alleged, that the people of either have deviated from the requirements of the respective acts in any other respect, and I do not understand from the objections that come from any quarter in the Senate that the deviation in respect to time is insisted upon. Congress knew quite well at the time they passed those 2 acts, what was the number of the population in each. The very fact that they or.acts is a conclusive answer to the objection that the population of the Territories was not sufficiently numerous. We took that question into consid. eration nearly 3 years ago; we received full and satisfactory information, upon that point, and we deliberately enacted that the population in each of those Territories was at that time sufficient to justify us in imparting to them the faculty of forming a State government and for them to act upon that permission. There is no complaint here that the people of those Terri tories have not complied substantially with those acts. At the last session of Congress the POTUS sent to us the constitution which had been formed by the people of colorado, not in strict accordance with the enabling act, but deviating from the requirements of that act only in respect to time. The President laid the constitution of colorado before Congress; and he asked for it the consideration of Congress. It is very true that he did not recommend the acceptance of that constitution by Congress, but he went so far as to submit it to our consideration; and there arose a very fair implication that, in doing thus, he pledged himself that if Congress should be satisfied with this constitution and with the proceedings that led to it he would approve the act of admission; for he certainly could not have been guilty of attempting to play upon Congress the practical joke of passing upon the constitution of Colorado, while at the same time he was satisfied in his own mind it ought not to receive their sanction. I cannot believe that even the present locum temens of the presidential office would have done an act in its nature so idle, so trifling; yet he returned to us the bill admitting Colorado into the Union with his objections, and strange to say, although he had submitted this instrument to our consideration asking us to legislate upon it, he included among i. objections to that constitution and to the admission of Colorado, the alleged fact that the population of the Territory was not sufficient in numbers, and that the proceedings which led to the formation of its constitution were irregular and not in accordance with the act of 1864. At the last session of Congress we also passed a bill admitting Nebraska into the Union as a State and under the same constitution which is now before us, the result of similar proceedings in that Territory. Unfortunately. owever, for the bill and the people of Nebraska, it was not presented to the President in season to make it necessary for him to return it to the Senate before the final adjournment of that body; he pocketed the bill. He applied to it what used to be known in old whig times as “the pocket veto.” He did not return it at all to that body in which it originated, on account of the nearness of the adjournment of Congress. Congress have thus with great unanimity already passed upon the objections which have been raised to this present bill. They have said that Colorado is fit to be admitted into the Union under the constitution she has framed. They have also said that Nebraska is equally entitled to be admitted under the constitution her people have framed. I consider that the objections on the ground of irregularity in the proceedings and upon the ground of the alleged insufficiency of the population are foreclosed. We are practically estopped from insisting upon these objections. We have passed upon them. It seems to !". that it is not exactly in the o: of good faith for us now to insist upon objections which we have heretofore overruled. The main conditions imposed by Congress upon these Territories are the following: “The constitution when formed shall be republican and not repugnant to the Constitution of the U.S and the Poinciples of the DeclarIndep.” " That said convention shall provide, by an ordinance irrevocable without the consent of the U.S and the people of said State: “1. That there shall be neith or slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said State, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted. “2. That perfect toleration of religious sentiment shall be secured, and no inhabitant of said State shall eyer be molested in person or property on account of his or her mode of religious worship.’ Then follows the usual clause contained in the acts of Congress for the admission of new States, prohibiting them from interfering with the primary disposition of the olio lands lying within their limits by Congress: All these conditions are folly and fairly met and performed by the terms of the ordinance they have passed. Now, sir, is this State constitution presented to us by the people of Nebraska in accordance with the DeclarIndep? My honorable friendfrom Massachusetts, my honorable friendfrom Missouri object that this constitution is not in accordance with the principles of that Declaration. I deem it Holy worth while to enter into a discussion of that question, but I will venture to say a few words upon it. ' It is insisted by these gentlemen that in order to bring this constitution within the terms of the condition here prescribed, and to make it accord with the principles of the DeclarIndep it ought to contain a provision allowing all persons, without distinction of color, to exercise the right of voting; and the honorable Senfrom Missouri has presented to us an amendment which is based upon that idea. With great respect for the opinions of my learned friendfrom Massachusetts and for those of my friendfrom Missouri, I must be allowed to take issue with them. I assert that there is nothing in the DeclarIndep or in the principles of that Declaration which, when properly understood, require any State or any W.to permit all persons without distinction of color to vote. There is not in that Declaration one word upon that subject nor any intimation that such is the proper construction of any of its provisions or any of its language. It is said that the Declaration declares that “all men are created equal, ” and hence it is sought to draw the inference that if one man of a white complexion is permitted to vote, it is equally the right of the colored man to do the same thing, because he, like the white man, has been created by our common Creator and is the equal of the white man in respect to rights. I deny the correctness of the inference. I deny that the right to vote is one of those rights referred to by Mr. Jefferson, who penned the Declaration. The elective franchise is a privilege granted by the community to such of its members as a majority shall see fit. It is not one of the rights given us by nature. It is not the same as the right to breathe the air, without which we must instantly perish. It is not the same as the right to drink the water that falls from the sky, or that runs down the limpid stream, without which we should also perish. It is not in any sense, according to my judgment, a natural, inalienable right. It is not the right of liberty even; not one of those inalienable rights referred to in the Declaration, conferred upon all men in virtue of their creation, but a conventional right, to be granted or with held as society may deem best; one which has always been treated as such; one which cannot and does not exist without law, without a law founded on the will of the oin a republican government; that is, of the majority of the people; for the will of the majority of the people is the very foundation, the essence of republican government. The people of Nebraska have not seen fit to incorporate in their constitution a provision allowing colored persons to vote; and I do not think, for the reasons I have given, that they have in this respect violated this condition prescribed in the enabling act. They have done exactly what other Territories have done thus far. There is no case in which, when passing from a territorial condition into that of a State, the people of a Territory have incorporated in their constitution a provision granting to colored people or Indians the right to vote. So far as respects our previous history and our previous legislation this principle is a complete anomaly, and I for one do not feel that we ought at this critical moment, when public interests of the greatest magnitude are pressing upon us, to delay the admission of these 2 Territories into the Union as States on account of any such abstraction as here stares us in the face. These Territories have fairly and substantially complied with all the conditions imposed upon them. We have not imposed upon them the condition which is now insisted upon. We have omitted it; we have waived it by the enabling act and by the passage of the bills during the last session; and it strikes me as being a departure from that uberrima fides which should govern the action of Congress in its relations with the Territories of the U.S and their W. now to insist upon this new condition. We are bound, as I have said, by good faith, by the legislation which we have passed, upon the compliance of these people with the terms we have prescribed, to permit them to enter the Union. The Senfrom Missouri has resorted to a principle in his amendment which to my mind is rather a dangerous one. He makes the admission of the colored man to the elective franchise a fundamental condition to the admission of the Territory of Nebraska as a State, and irrevocable. There is no mistaking the language of his amendment. It says– “That this act shall not take effect except upon the fundamental condition that within the State of Nebraska there shall be no denial of the elective franchise or of any other right to any person by reason of race or color, and upon the further condition that this fundamental condition shall be submitted to the voters of the Territory at an election to be held on the 1stday of next.” I shall not deny that under the clause of the Constitution which authorizes Congress to admit new States, it is competent for them to prescribe conditions for their admission. The W is given to us in the broadest terms. Wemay admit upon condition, or we may admit absolutely without condition. I can entertain no doubt about the power to prescribe conditions for the admission of a new State; but it must be understood at the same time that the only conditions which it is possible in the nature of things for Congress to prescribe are conditions precedent, to be. performed not after the have become a State of the Union but before they have become such. They are mere obstacles thrown in the way of the enjoyment of the full and complete. of the State. The thing which Congress is authorized to do, the great object to be attained, is single and indivisible, and that is the admission of the State into the Union. It cannot escape the attention of the Senfrom Missouri or the Senfrom Massachusetts, that after the compliance of the people of a Territory with a condition precedent, such as this present amendment is in legal effect, it is entirely ompetent for the people of the State, after they have become such, to annul and set aside this condition, or rather the thing which has been accomplished by the performance of the condition precedent. In other words, no one will deny that after the Territory has come into the Union and been vested with all the powers, privileges, and franchises belonging to a State of the Union under the Constitution, it is entirely competent for the people of that State to undo what they did as the people of the Territory; and in the present instance, if they saw fit to do so I have no apprehension that they would it would be perfectly compe tent I say for them to call together a convention and declare that none but white persons shall be allowed to exercise the elective franchise. The people of Nebraska in 24 hours after shall have been admitted under this constitution, with this amendment attached to it, might assemble in convention and repeal that clause of their constitution which gave to the colored man the right to vote. Can anybody doubt it? The right to regulate the franchise is a political right which has ever belonged to the States as corporations. It is indubitably one of the reserved rights of the States, and thus far Congress has not attempted to interfere. it. Every State, from the old 13 inclusive down to the last new State admitted into the Union, has ever exercised this right, and there are now not less than ten free States of this Union whose constitutions or laws exclude the colored man from the exercise of the precious privilege. I refer to this fact, not in justification of the exclusion of colored men from this great"right, but as a fact showing what has been up to this moment, undoubtedly and in disputably, one of the reserved rights of the States. Well, sir, is the State of Michigan less respectable at this day than she would have been if her constitution had not contained just such a restrictive clause as this? Is Ohio less so 7 Is Pennsylvania, NewJersey, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and all the other States whose constitutions contain this restrictive clause, to incur the interference of Congress and the denunciation of those respected senators? The right to regulate the franchise is with the States. I hope to live to see the day and I expect to reach that age, and then not be a very old gentleman when every State in this Union by its own free consent will allow the same privilege of voting to the black man as is now enjoyed by the white man. I think it will be a great step forward; and in reference to the state of things in the rebel States, I confess I see no other permanent and effectual remedy for the disorders of the times brought about by the rebellion. I think we shall never have complete peace and quietude until this great end is attained. At the same time, after the most mature consideration of the subject which I have been able to bestow, I have shrunk, as did the JtCommee of 15 during the last session, from attempting to in corporate into the amendment of the Constitution of the U.S. a right clause giving this in terms to the colored man.