Mr. BLAINE. Mr. Chairman, the popular elections of 1866 have decided that the lately rebellious States shall not be readmitted to the privilege of representation in Congress on an 'ss stringent condition than the adoption o the pending coustitutional amendment; but those elections have not determined that the privilege of representation shall be given to those States as an immediate consequence of adopting the amendment. In that respect the decision of the loyal people has been rather negative than affirmative; expressive of the least that would be accepted rather than indicative of the most that might be demanded. Had the southern States, after the adjournment of Congress, accepted the amendment promptly and in good faith, as a definitive basis of adjustment, the loyal States would have indorsed it as such, and the 2nd session of the 39th Congress would have been largely engaged in perfecting the details for the full and complete representation of all the States on the new basis of apportionment. The southern States, however, have not accepted the amendment as a basis of adjustment, but have on the other hand vehemently opposed it; every one of them that has thus far acted on the question, with the exception of Tennessee, having defiantly rejected it. This absolute and obdurate refusal on the part of those States to accept the amendment as the condition of their regaining the privilege of representation certainly relieves cj.whatever promise or obligation may have been originally implied in regard to admitting them to representation in consequence of adopting the amendment. This promise, or implication, or whatever you choose to term it, was, by uni versal understanding, conditioned on the southern States accepting the amendment in good faith, as was significantly illustrated in the case of Tennessee. Having refused so to accept it, the promise, if ever made, is assuredly no longer binding on the Congress of the U.S. But even if the constitutional amendment should be definitely accepted, South as well as North. as the condition on which the rebel States should regain the privilege of congressional representation, the actual enjoyment of that privilege would of necessity be postponed until the terms of the aunendment could be 9 and accomcomplied with, and that would involve a some what uncertain period of time. For I take it for granted, as I did when I voted for the constitutional amendment, and as I presume overy other gentleman on this floor did, that we were not to be guilty of the supreme folly of declaring that the basis of representation was so unfair as to require correction by constitutional amendment, and then forth with admit the southern States to the House with their undue and inequitable share of Representatives. If the constitutional amendment is to effect a correction in the basis of representation, it should effect it at once. If the southern States are to be deprived of their undue share of representatives, based on their non-voting population, they should be deprived of them at once, and not be admitted, even temporarily, with the old apportionment, by which they would continue to exercise in the HoRep and in the Electoral Colleges the same weight oluence enjoyed by them before the rebel 1011. The population of the States recently slave holding was by the census of 1860 only 12, 240,000, of whom 8,039,000 were whites and 4, 201.000 negroes. The population of the free States by the same census was 19, 201,546, of whom only 237,000 were negroes. It would hardly be maintained by anyone that the late slave holding States, taken as a whole, have done anything more than hold good their population of 1860, while in the free States, despite the losses of the war, the ratio of increase has never been more rapid than since that year. It is speaking with all moderationto say that the population of the free States is today 25,000,000. Supposing the constitutional amendment to be adopted, therefore, as the basis of readmit ting the southern States to the privilege of representation, it would be a o, of. whole aim and intent of that amendment to usher those States upon this floor with the full number of Representatives assigned them by the census of 1860, when 3/5ths of their slaves and all their disfranchised free people of color were allowed them in fixing the basis of apportionment. Were they so admitted to day, the aggregate number of Representatives from the late slave States would be 85, and from the free States 156 making a House of 241 in all. And yet if those 241 members were divided between the free and slave States on the basis of the representative population as directed by the constitutional amendment, the slave States would hiav.e but 58 members, while the free would have 183. A corresponding change would be wrought in the Electoral Colleges. Were the Government to permit an election for President and VEEP in 1868 on the basis assigned by the census of 1860, the late slave States would have 115 electoral votes, while the free States would have 198. But on the actual basis contemplated by the constitutional amendment the late slave States would have but 88, while the free States would have 225. On the old basis the free States would thus have a majority of 83, while on the basis of the constitutional amendment they would have a majority of 127; a net difference of 44 electoral votes in favor of the free States. In view of these results, which are the plain est arithmetical deductions, it could not be expected that the free States, even if they were to adhere to the constitutional amendment as the ultimatum of adjustment, would consent to have the lately rebellious States admitted to representation here and to a participation in the Electoral Colleges until the relative and proper strength of the several States should be adjusted anew by a special census and by an apportionment made in pursuance thereof. It was in this belief and with these views that at the last session of Congress I framed a bill providing for a special enumeration of the inhabitants of the U.S., which bill was on my motion referred to the reconstruction committee, and has never been reported upon either favorably or adversely. What then shall be done? ift people, so far as I represeut them, have plainly spoken in the late elections, and the interpretation of their voice is not difficult. They have pronounced with unmistakable emphasis in favor of the constitutional amendment with the sufferadded and indispensable prerequisite of man good suffrage. The constitutional amendment with its definition of American citizenship, with its guarantee of the national obligations and with its prohibition of the assumption o the rebel debt, is an invaluable addition to our organic law. We cannot surrender its provisions, and the rebel States cannot by their utmost resistance defeat its adoption. It is too late to deny or even to argue the right or power of the Government to impose on those States conditions precedent to their resumption of the privilege of representation. The President set the example by exacting 3 highly important concessions from those States as his basis of reconstruction. Congress followed by imposing 4 other conditions as its basis of reconstruction, if you please, and now the people have spoken demanding one additional condition as their basis of reconstruction, and that condition is the absolute equality of American citizens in civil and political rights without regard to caste, color, or creed. The objection in the popular mind of the loyal States to the constitutional amendment as a basis of final adjustment is not directed to what that amendment will effect, but to what it will not effect. And among the objects of prime importance which it will not effect is the absolute protection of the 2 classes in the South to whom Government owes the most, namely, the loyal white men and the loyal black men. The amendment, it made the basis of final adjustment without further condition, leaves the rebel element of the South in possession of the local governments, free to persecute the Union men of all complexions in numberless ways, and to deprive them of all participation in civil affairs, provided they will submit to a curtailed representation in Congress as the penalty. The danger is that they would accept the comparatively small infliction on themselves in order to secure the power of visiting the loyalists with a full measureof vengeance; just as certain religious denominations in England at various times under the reign of the Stuarts favored measures of proscription which bore with some hardship on themselves, because they were enabled thereb to punish some rival and hated sectaries wi still more severity and cruelty. Among the most solemn duties of a sovereign Government is the protection of those citizens who, under great temptations and amid great erils, maintain their faith and their loyalty. "he obligation on the Federal Government to protect the loyalists of the South is supreme, and they must take all needful means to assure that protection. Among the most needful is the gift of free suffrage, and that must be guaranticd. There is no protection you can extend to a man so effective and conclusive as the power to protect himself. And in assuring protection to the loyal citizen you assure permanency to the Government; so that the be stowal of suffrage is not merely the discharge of a personal obligation toward those who are enfranchised, but it is the most far sighted provision against social disorder, the surest guaranty for Jogo prosperity, and public justice.