Mr. ROGERS. The argument which I was making was tending to answer the very objection which the gentleman makes. Now, sir, I hold to the doctrine of the constitution as it is, allowing the States to exercise sovereign control and power over the qualifications and rights of the whole voting population. I say that if the State of SCarolina, or the State of Louisiana, in the exercise of its sovereign and delegated powers, sees fit to enfranchise those who have taken up arms against the flu of their country, it is within their discretion and under their control, and under the constitution of the U.S and the organic law of their own States they may exercise that right and let me say to gentlemen that when the State of Missouristruck at the foundation of political rights and political society and disfranchised 1/2 or 2/3rds of the population of the State because they took up arms against the country, it degraded the memory of ashington and his compeers who declared by revolution and apeal to God that they would be free from Great rit ain because she attempted to exercise the pow grsofdespotism and tyranny over them, and the action of that State is a burning disgrace upon the proud record of civil, political, and religious liberty in this country. Ah! sir, it will et have to be admittedit has been admitted by allmenthat the right of revolution is an inherent power which God Almighty has implanted in the human breast. Whenever a people believe they are oppressed by despotism and tyranny, and have sufficient power to throw them off, they have the right to resort to revolution. Without saying anything in dis)aragement of the sages and heroes of the Revolution, do not let us forget that had it not been for revolution the 1st flag of liberty would never have been planted on this continent; and that by the blood of the sires of the Revolution are we today enjoying, because of their revolution against England, the road heritage of civil liberty, which I want to hand down to the people of this country and their children and chi drens children unimpaired forever and ever. Now, sir, do not let me be reported as favoring secession. I am here to stand by the doctrines of AndrewJohnson. I am here to reconstruct these States at once. I would go further. I would open the halls of legislation in this count to our erring brethren, and in a Christian spiritsayto them, “Come here through our Representatives into the Halls of Congress; et us bind Ourselves together as a band of brothers, and march in joint phalanx to the halls of the Montezumas, and drive the impe rial despot from his throne.” [Applause in the galleries] I Sir, it is because I love my country, because love these States, because I love the grand foundations of liberty which were cemented by the blood of our fathers that I invoke the Power above to so control and direct our hearts that every single one of the stars and stripes which now emblazon themselves upon that glorious flag shall wave in triumph from one en of this country to the other. this because this JtResolution saps the foundation of the prinei les which induced our fathers to spill their blood upon the battlefields of the Revolution that I, in my humble capacity as a Representative of one of the old 13 States, and as a Representative of this whole Union, use my voice and my power in behalf of that great constitutional Government which gives us peace, libort, happiness, and prosperity, and whose founations were laid broad, strong and deep in the beginning by George Washington and the other patriots and heroes of the Revolution. Sir, why shoud SCarolina, NCarolina, Virginia, Florida, and the other glorious States of this Union have such a law as this passed upon them, taking away representation from half their population, when tyranny and espotism are preventing their from entering the Halls of the Representatives country and preventing them from joining the ody of the no: populi and speaking out in opposition to the legislation propose by the portion of the Statesnow assemple inCougress? Why, sir, take 2 or 3 States of the South; take SCarolina and the other 3 States whose negroes constitute a majority of the population. By the passage of this Jtresolution you strip them of more than 1/2 of the whole representation for which their fathers, side by side with the men of the North, shed their blood; that blood which now glows in the veinsof us, their descendants. That representation they derived, based not upon the voting population, but upon the whole people who are free, without regard to their race or color. If this amendment shall pass, and NewJersey shall alter her organic law and strike from it the word “white, ” and ive to her colored population a qualified suffrage, still she can have no representation for any of the race or color who gave their franchise abridged by reason of that qualification. Would it not be bet ter, be more consonant to reason and to common sense, would it not be doin according to the injunction of Holy Writ, ” o unto others as ye would have others do unto you, ”to submit this organic law to the people of the different States? This amendment provides that when ever any portion of the colored population shall have but qualified suffrage, on account of race or color, the whole of that population shall be excluded from the basis of representation. It oes so far that if NewJersey pass a law allowing such of her black population to vote as can read the constitution of the U.S., and although every negro in that State could take advantage of that qualification and could read the constitution of the U.S. except one, then NewJersey would lose the advantage of representation for the whole of that population. Will honorable gentlemen stand ere in the face of this country, and the intelligence and patriotism of the masses of the South, and say to them, now when reason ought to have resumed its sway and the roaring of cannon ceased, ” we shall so for exercise our power in a tyrannical manner as to prohibit representation to a State for rits colored) population if a single man of that colored population is pprohibited from voting by the operation of a qualification bpsedmpon property, intelligence, or anything e se? But I object to this JtResolution upon another groundupon the same ground that I objected to the passage of the negro suffrage bill for the DistCol without consulting the people. It has been said in this country that all power emanates from the people and I say that to submit this grave question to the consideration and decision of artisan Legislatures in the different States, legislatures which were elected without any regard to this question, is violative of the cat principles which lie at the foundations of the h erties of this country; that no organic law, affecting the whole peole, shOuld be passed before submit ting it to the pee le for their ratification or rejection. Now this JtResolution proposes simplyto submit this amendment for ratification tot c Legislatures of the different States. The Legislatures are not the States; the Legislatures are not the people in their sovereign capacity: Legislatures are not the source from which all power emanates. But the people, the sacred people, in the exercise of their sovereign power, either at the ballotbox or in conventions, are the only true and proper forum to which such grave and serious questions should be submitted. If the people of the U.S. want negio suffrage unualified and unabridged, to be adopted in the U.S.A., I, as a Democrat, as a citizen believing in the power of the majority, will yield to their decision. But I want that decision rendered in the manner contemplated by the spirit of selfgovernment and notb Representatives of the people who have not conelected with reference to the decision of this question. Let it be submitted to conventions of the people, the delegates to which can be instructed to vote for or against inflicting a penalty in this indirect manner upon States, 1f the do not choose to adopt the policy of unqualified negro suffrage. Why, sir, as I stated in the argument I made against the adoption of the bill passed by this House to inflict the disgraceful policy of negro suffrage upon the unotfcnding, harmless, and unprotected people of this District, I am now here to remind ntlemen that the State of Kau sas was refuse admission into the Union because her constitution, framed by the convention at Lecompton, had not been submitted directly to the people for their ratification or rejection and you may look through the history of the States, and you will find nowhere in modern times, within a cried of 40 years, a State that has adopted1 or changed its organic law without 1st submitting the reposition which its Legislature or convention as adopted to the people at the ballotbox, where they can decide rectly whether the want it or not. Now, gentlemen, am ready to meet this negro question. I am ready to go before the people of this country upon this polic; and say that if we submit this question to the sovereign people in the election of delegates, so that they may pass upon it directly, we shall then have at least an invitation on the part of3/4ths of the States to the other States to adopt unqualified negro suffrage. But when this question is submitted to the Legislatures that were elected without any regard to the question embraced in this bill, controlled by party rules, and actin under the party whip, they will be compelle to adopt it as a party measure, whether they approve it or not, as many members in this House voted the other day upon the question of negro suffrage in the DistCol. Now, sir, when the constitution was adopted every State that then constituted the Union had a negro population, quite a large population, too; an eve State except the State of Massachusetts ha a slave race. Now, sir, with a few exceptions, the negroes were not permitted to vote. By the constitution of the U.S. none of them could exercise the right of voting; it was only under the organic laws of the States, adopto in the exercise of their sovereign power, that the negroes had the right to vote in any State. Yet neither the framers of the constitution nor anybody else at that day claimed that it would not be right to allow Representation for the colored population, whether that population was entit e to vote or not. Now, sir, I maintain that the constitution of the U.S., as it now exists, is not as liberal toward the southern States, now that slave has been abolished as it was before the obohtion of slavery. thy, sir, in the days of the past, under our constitution, the southern States have been allowed a representation for a po nlation that was not classed as citizens or people; they were allowed a representation for people who had no political status in the State, persons who were not entitled even toexercise the right of comin into a court of civil justice as a plaintiff or efendant in the prosecution or defense of a suit. Now, after the raging fires of war have swept from the domain of every State in the South the pernicious institution of slavery, after the result has been that every slave has received his freedom, after the slaves have gained more by the success of this war than any other class of people in the U.S., white men, men who are the representatives of the white race, come here proposing to compel the States, on pain of being de rived of a portion of their Representation, to low all the negroes within their limits to vote, without regard to qualification or anything else, while under the same provisiop the State may, by its organic law, impose qimh ficqltionfs nag conditions upilqn the exprtcilse Of the rito ear by the wtepo Ha Oll gWhy, air, this; gillion slaves have been set. free; $8,000,000,000 have been e ended in setting them free. In the northern States, for the purpose of carrying on the war, we have run u a county, township, and State indebtedness o $1,500,000,000 or S2,000,000,000 more. 5,000 million dollars have been expended; 500,000 brave white soldiers who left their families to go into the war; men without property; men whose hearts glowed with patriotism; have been sacrificed on the altar of negro philanthropy. Yet the rulin party is not content with robing the South o millions of dollars invested in slaves and nearly ruinin the country to free them, but they seek to inflict a disgrace upon the AngloSaxon race of the South by coercing them to bestow upon these slaves political rights after they have been taken away from their masters without compensation. I think it time that we should begin to Legislate for white people. What are the obJect and intent of this bill? Simply to force upon an unwilling population, in this indirect manner, negro suffrage, when the States of the gentlemen advocating this measure have not adopted negro suffrage. The gallant little State of onneeticut has reudiated ne prosuffrage by 6 or 7,000 majority. Vhy should you undertake, in this way, to force the doctrine of unqualified negro suffrage upon the southern States when your own States repudiated it? I have too much reverence for the fathers of our Government to give my approval to such a measure. I have not forgotten that our Government was established for the benefit of the white population of the country. I have not forgotten it was white men wh. but down the tyranny of England and established the principles of liberty on this continent. I have not forgotten it was the white men of the northern States who went in 1,000s to the banks of the Mississippi to drive back the in vaders from our soil. get when a soldier who fought for his country happened to be under 21 years of age, or unnaturalized, he was not permitted to vote, while the whole class of negroes must have that right until they adopt it an pass such laws as will give unqualified suffrage to the negro race. It will not do to attempt to deny what is the object of this bill. This amendment is to constitute one of the barriers, to be devised by the committee of 15, to keep the South out of the Union. It is one of the points of that committee. Its object is to keep the States out. Let us extend to the southern people the hand of fellowship, and so let us act that they will regard the constitution and the Union more sacredly than ever before. Let us look upon them as the fatherlooked upon the rodigal son. Letuslook over their violations of aw, and take them again into full fellowship. In this way we will render the Union stronger than ever; and those southern States will then constitute, as they have done in the past, a bright galaxy upon the flag of our country. The southern people are entitled, in my judgment, to representation without such qualifications as much as the northern men. I hen An drew Johnson appointed southern men provisional governors of the southern States o did it in a spirit of Christianity and humanit. I beseech you not to pass legislation of this Kind, because it will engender a spirit that will drive every sentiment of Union from the southern States. It will inflict an injury upon both the northern and southern States. It will diminish the rtelpresentation of NewYork, Pennsylvania, and ewJersey, because it will exclu e from the basis of representation the negro population of those States. [Here the hammer fell.]