Mr. COWAN. That is the way I construe it; and I suppose as this is to be a law, it is to have that legal precision which will make it effective. In making a law, and particularly a law which is calculated to limit the highest of man's rights, as this is supposed to be, there ought to be that certainty and that precision about it which would enable the test to be applied. If it is to be reading generally, what is the man to read? Is he to read the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th Eglectic Reader? Is he to read the acts of Congress, or is he to read the New Testament? Is he to read the confession of faith, or the Constitution of the country? What is he to read? How much is he to read? Who is to determine what he can read, and the amount of it? And as I before remarked, shall he understand as he reads, or is he merely to read as a parrot might be taught to read or as an idiot might be and has been taught to read 2Isuppose that if truly a test at all, it was to be a legal, practical test which would satisfy legal and practical men. Who shall determine this thing? Is it to be the judge of the election? The judge of the election, according to the theory, may not be able to read, because there is no provision to deprive other electors and other people eligible to this office of "; who are notable to read. Then you would have the most extraordinary spec tacle presented in the capital of the nation, here in the city of Washington, in the DistCol, of having a board of 3 election judges no one of whom could read or write his own name or read or write anything else, to determine the qualifications of one of this new batch of voters who are to be admitted on ualifications, one of which it is not possible for these judges to judge of: Think of it! It is one of the difficulties which will have to be encountered. It is perfectly immaterial to me whether you take it. one way or the other. If you confine the construction as I have done to the simple fact that he shall be able to read and write his own name, then I say to my honorable friend with all due deference, this is no barrier at all; this is a mockery in the name of a barrier; this is an insult to those who expect barriers. What! a barrier which can be surmounted in 24 hours, because I venture to say that with the acknowledged imitative ability of the African (and he has that unquestionably in the highest degree) he may be taught in 24 hours not only to write his own name legibly, but afterward to read it, recognize it as he would recognize his own mark. Take that to be his qualification if you please; take that to be the test, and I say it is a mockery, worse than a mockery, it is a barrier inadequate when the want of an adequate one is acknowledged. But if you please take it in its broader sense, as the honorable Senfrom WestVirginia understands it; then I ask where is its precision, where is it to begin and where is it to end, and who shall determine its limits” I tremble for my sable brother when I reflect that he may be at the mercy of some political board in this respect. I beg my friends here to observe that this sable gentleman may not be quite so certain, as they fancy he is, on their side. Now, I will put the case of a board belonging to the dominant party, and suppose they have the statute amended by my honorable friendfrom Connecticut before them; and a colored man comes forward and proposes to vote. They put to him the question “Can you write your name and read?” “Oh yes.” “Well, let us see you try it.” He then writes his name and he reads it and he is admitted if he is understood to belong to that party. But suppose, as has recently happened, that this dark man should come to the conclusion to vote on the other side, and it were known that he meant to vote on the other side, what kind of a chance would he have? Then the man of the dominant party who desires to carry the election says, “You shall not only write your name and read it, but you must read generally; I have read the senatorial debates upon this question, and the honorable Senfrom WestVirginia who originated this amendment was of opinion that a man should read generally. Now, sir, read generally if you please.” “Well, “. says he, “what shall I read?” Read a section of the Novum Organum or some other most difficult and abstruse thing, or a few sections from Okie. Oken's Physiology would be delightful. [Laughter] Is this to be an engine? Instead of being a test for the true voter, and instead of being that which will enable us to detect the American citizen even under this sable garb, is it to be a snare and pitfall in the poor man's way? Is it to be made the instrument in the hands of cunning politicians and corrupt election boards to permit the law that we now make in such tribulation for their benefit to be annulled and made void, or to minister merely to the will of a party? Certainly my honorable friendfrom Connecticut would not say that. I understand him to say that a barrier is needed: that a barrier is needed against every ignorant population, every population which has not enjoyed the advantages of education, which have made that little yellow spot in the map called Connecticut, as deToequeville once demonstrated, such a remarkable place. The honorable Senfrom Connecticut, when ignorant populations of this kind are to I be admitted to franchises of this sort, admits that there is very great danger. The fact is there is the greatest danger in the world. And, as I said before, I have no doubt that he desires, if there be a barrier at all, that that be an effective barrier. That this should be considered a barrier in the State of Connecticut, that it should be found to work well in the State of Connecticut, I have no doubt. In the 1st place, I think the State of Connecticut would work just as well without the barrier. I would not be afraid of such a population as the State of Connecticut has if there was not a barrier in the world. I believe, too, the people of the State of Connecticut (and I do not desire it to be taken in any very high complimentary phrase) could get along very well if they had no constitution whatever. If they were allowed to go, as Dogberry said, simply by the light of nature, reason; if they were to take the gifts which they have from nature alone without education, I think they could get along. But house. up such a barrier as that they should }. able to make a wooden clock and to understand its mechanism, there might have been some force in the thing. I am sorry that I was guilty of such a want of knowledge of the origin of this test as to oin any way to deprive Connecticut of the honor of it. I supposed it belonged to the State of Massachusetts, although I cannot say that I had examined it carefully before. But, Mr. President, with all deference to Connecticut and her ability in restraining ignorant masses by means of this kind, I have to say that it is only about equal to another test that I heard they had applied a good while ago for another purpose, and that was an ancient enactment of that State, that no girl should get married until she could bake a doughnut that would preserve its twist for a year. [Laughter].