Mr. ROGERS. The gentleman knows very well that it was held by a large portion of the people of this country that the President had no right by law to take into his hands 20 million peole, regardless of the rights and domestic tranquil it of the States, so as to control the whole militia and deprive the State in case of invasion of using its own militia to protect its own rights. It was also held, and I believe that was the letter and spirit of the constitution, that the act of despotism which placed in the power of the POTUS the lives and liberties of 20 million free men was in violation of the constitution and nothing more nor less than usuation. The framers of the constitution inten edthat the militia of a State should be under the control of the sovereign power and jurisdiction of the State, to be furnished by the State when called for in such numbers an with such qualifications as the State should please to prescribe. When the State in its sovereign capacity furnished the men to the Federal Government then the Federal Government had the right to organize and arm the men the State had furnished. The Administration had the right to fix the quota, and it did so. It called upon NewJersey to furnish so many thousan men, and other States their various apportionments. But it is still a fact that, under that call, the States by their legislation exempted from militia duty firemen, Quakers, and other classes of citizens; and the President never claimed the right under that call to interfere with the various exemtions which were made by the laws of the different States. Now, sir, I maintain that the negroes have no just claim upon the people of this count to stand in an equal position politically with the white citizen. I us nothing in disaragement of the abilities of the negro as exlibited on the field of battle or elsewhere. I am the friend of the negro in his properosition. I always treat him with respect an conideration. I believe, however, that the result of his freedom, taken in connection with the state of seciety into which he has been thrown, will necessarily result in his consignment to the same sad fate by which the North American Indian is fast being swept from the face of our land. I say that the negroes are not entitled to the exercise of e political privileges with the white man. hat have they done tor the country to entitle them to this great political prerogative which they have never heretofore claimed, and which, until recently, no one has pretended that they had a right to exercise? Vho raised the armies to put down this rebellion? Who were the men that carried our flag in triumph from Virginia to Louisiana? Whose efforts kept the proud banner of the Union waving unceasingly over the Capitol of the Union? Who were they that came in teeming 1,000s from the hills and the valleys of every State in our land to find an unmarked grave on the battlefields of the South? Who were the Officers that led these mighty armies in their work of putting down a igantic rebellion? Who were they that, in this Congress, in the various Legislatures, and amid the assemblies of the people, carried on the political machinery of our evernment during this terrific contest? Was all this the work of the negro race or of the white race? The poor white soldiers who came forward, periling, and in many cases sacrificing, their lives to defend their homes and those of their more aristocratic nei hbors, are the men who are entitled to the cre it of the final victory of the Union armies. Had itnotbeen for the negroes the labors, erils, and sacrifices of the white soldiers won d not 1866. 29g, have exacted such tremendous losses in their glorious ranks, and the heroic dead would not have been sacrificed upon the altars of shrieking fanatics. History will record the white soldiers as foremost among the illustrious throng, resting in the immortality of their national fame, won by their heroic qualities and eminent services, whose daring bravery opened tlw wa to crowning victory, and around whom will cluster the peculiar warmth, gratitude, and affections of the white men and women of this land. Their deeds have proven them to be warriors of the highest order, and their life in war has shown them to be the very type and model of Christian heroes. From the 1st battles in Virginia to the final blow in the war, their dauntless valor was exhibited in every field. They have, in the opinion of people who love the white as much or more than the black race, reaped a rich harvest of fame, become an exam 10to their countrymen and the admi ration of the civilized world, and the memory of their deeds and the spirit they inspired glows through the hearts of their countrymen today in ra tures of love for their valor, patriotism, an selfdevotion. The names of such martyrs to republican liberty and independence canonize them to the faith and devotion of the lovers of their country, and constitute a resist less appeal to the justice of God and the sympathies of mankind to save them from negro suffrage in this land. Ali, sir, this negro question has alrcad cost the lives of a million of brave soldiers. It has placed on the shoulders of ourselves and those who shallcome after us adebtof$3,000,000,000. It has carried desolation and anguish to 1,000s of homes in ever State of this Union. It has or haned a count ess myriad of wan and woestric on children, in whose homes destitution has taken its abode, and whose wail of distress rises this day to heaven. The fathers and relatives of such as these are the men by whose aid the rebellion has been suppressed. Shall the brave soldiers of our Armybe now, by any kind of extreme and radical legislation, put upon anequality with the very men whom tlEey fought to rec? Why, sir, the negroes have gained more by this rebellion than another class of people in this country. They have gained the blessed heritage of freedom; freedom to breathe the air of heaven and walk the earth with no one to molest them or make them afraid. What a great and glorious work, our o onents claim, has been achieved by the white people of this country; a work by which 4 million down trodden slaves have received the blessing of freedom. Ought not the negroes to be contented with what they have gaine by this war? Why should we seek to introduce into our political system, for their benefit, a principle to which our fathers gave no sanction in the establishment of the Government, and which must tend to degrade the high character of American citizenship in the eyes of the enlightened world? This question has its weight upon both sides. Where is the foreigner, the Irishman, the Frenchman, the German, the ScotchmanI ask them why they left their native land? Why did they leave the leasant banks of the Rhine and the Rhone? lihy did they leave the vine clad hills of France and Germany I They left them because they were told that there was a social equality among the white men of this country; that a man, however poor, who had to carry the hod or to dig the ditch, was entitled to come in at the time of an election and cast his ballotequally with the richest and noblest in the lan. I say that those foreigners had better have remained in their native land; that their ships had better have been stranded upon the coasts of Ireland and Scot land, England or France, than to have come here to have themselves do raded and to be placed in a social position where equally with themselves negroes shall be allowed to exer gise the great right of suffrage at the ballot ox. Why, if you have to have these men vote because they have fought in the Army, then I want all the women who went down into the Army to administer to the suffering soldiers to be equally entitled to vote. I want all from the age of ten and upward; all who were in the Army, from the youngest drummer be up to the age of 21, to vote, without regard to whether they are 21 or not. Nobody, however, seems to be legislating for them. No one takes into consideration the great benefits that those under the age of 21 have bestowed upon the country. They are entirely left in the dark. But this mighty, influential, African negro, who by the laws of God has been imprinte with a by ack color, seems to receive not only the onl, but all the consideration of the House is name ismentioned in almost every subject which interests us. It is not pretended that sutfra e is a natural right, except by the Gentfrom Pennsylvania, [Mr. KELLEY, who says that they have the right by the laws of Go. He says that the arguments against it have neither Christianity nor humanity about them. He says that they have the right to exercise this right by nature. He says that the black man has by nature the same rights as the white man. He says that the negro has the same right that we had under the constitution to put down rebellion the right of selfdefense. He says that he has the right to exercise that right of selfdefensethat e is as much entitle to it as any white man, however high he may be. I suppose gentlemen have not forgotten that the negroes were not so loyal. How few of the 4 million slaves took advantage of the emancipation proclamation of Abraham Lincolnl he records of the war show that while a few of them came into the ranks of the federal Army, the great body of themremained true and loyal to the South. We are told by the honorable Gentfrom Iowa [Mr. WiLsox] that this is a bad governed city, and that its inhabitants have sympathy with the rebellion. It is perfectly immate rial whether the people are loyal or disloyal. I would no sooner go for such a law in SCarolina than in NewJersey or this District. I am for leaving that to the people of each State and this District to act for themselves. Now, sir, in every State where the negrosuffrage question has been submitted to the people, it has been repudiated by large majorities and the Representatives of those people come here, and insist on forcing negro suffrage on the people of this District. I am for exercising toward the people of the South the greatest charity, and am or admitting them at once to full representation. I am for the Union in fact. but the honorable gentleman. from Pennsylvania [Mr. KELLEY] takes issue with the President in his enunciation of the doctrine that each State has sovereign power and control over the question of suffrage, and he claims that the constitution of the U.S. confers the pdwer upon Congress to regulate the qualifications for suffrage in each State, and quotes to prove his position the following clause of the constitution: “The times. places and manner of holdin cloctions for Sens&Reps shall a prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may, at any time. By law make or alter such regulations, except as to the placesof choosing Senators.” That clause has no relation to the qualifications of the voters, but only to the times, manner, and places of holding elections; and the question of qualifications was settled in the constitution by the 2nd section of the 1st article, which declares that the electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature. The people of this District have alread repudiated negro suffrageby over 6,000 in this city, with only35 in favor, and in George town there was but one vote in its favor, Democrats, soldiers, and Republicans all voting against it in both cities.