Mr. WILSON. I do not propose, Mr. president, to continue this debate, at as the authority of Mr. Gerritt Smith has been quoted today, I propose to state a fact to show how much the opinions of that gentleman should be permitted to uide the counsels of the Congress of the U.S. There is no man living for whose motives I have more respect than have for the motives of Gerritt Smith; but I cannot forget that when we proposed to amend the Constitution so as to make it forever impossible that there should be a slave in the U.S.A., that gentleman, influenced by the theory which e and a few I gentlemen had held for many years, that the Constitution did not permit the existence of slavery within the U.S., publicly opposed that amendment to the Constitution of the U.S. Congress, however, not holding to that theory, proposed an amendment to the Constitution forbidding slavery; the American people sanctioned that amendment; it is now in the Constitution of our country, and slavery has forever ceased to exist in America. Now. when the authority of Gerritt Smith is brought into the Senate to guide our action, I remind the Senate and the country of his course on the constitutional amendment; and I ask the Senate and the country, where, in Gods name, would be the former slaves in this land if the counsels of Gerritt Smith had governed Congress 2 years ago. There are gentlemen now who have got a new theory up, and have about as many followers as Gerritt Smith had 2 years ago in his notion that slavery could not exist under the Constitution; and impelled by that theory, they oppose the amendment proposed to the Constitution by the committee of 15, when every man in America knows that if it were today in the Constitution that provision would as surely enfranchise the black men as the amendment already adopted has emancipated them. File not question anybodys motives; I do not choose that anybody shall question mine; I choose to exercise my own Judgment in this matter; and I think I understand it quite as well as Mr. Gerritt Smith understands it. Sir, I do not propose to continue the debate. If I know myself today, I would go to the scaf foldjoyfully before the sun goes down ifI could put this proposed amendment into the Constitution o my country; for if it were there, there would be but one result and one end to it, and that is the enfranchisement of every black man within the bounds of the U.S. Believing so, I vote for it. That is the motive that governs me; and I believe itto be the motive of those who proposed it, the motive of those who advocate it here, and the motive of 99 out of every 100 of the men who sent us here; therefore I give my vote for it cheerfully and joyfully; and I never gave a vote in my life, not even for the constitutional amendment abolishing slavery, with the same clear conviction of a sense of public duty.