Mr. CONKLING. I am, of coursc, not arguing in favor of the voting basis; but I will say to the Gentfrom Maine Mr. BLAINE, that the table from which he rec. s was not, It ink, made by the Gentfrom Vermont, but by another. I have examined it. with some care, and I have detected in it those errors which when the gentleman comes to look at it, will show him that the table which I present is correct. It has been said in aid o a votin basis that many of the abuess to which it. won d be liable could be prevented by restrictin the enumeration to male citizens of the U.S. 20 one years old and upward. This would prevent much abuse; but it would shut out. 4/5ths of the citizens of the countrywomen and children, who are citizens, who are taxed, and who are, and always have been, represented. It would also narrow the basis of taxation, and in some States seriously. The 2nd planmentioned, the proposition to Iprohibit States from denying civil or political rights to any class of persons, encounters a great objection on the threshold. It trenches upon the principle of existing local sovereignty. lt denies to the people of the several States the right to regulate their own affairs in their own way. It takes away a right which has been always supposed to inhere in the States and transfers it to the General Government. It meddles with a right reserved to the States when the constitution was adopted, and to which they will long cling before they surrender it. No matter whether the innovation be attempted in behalf of the ne prorace or any other race, it is confronted by the genius of our institutions. But more than this. The northern States, moat of them, do not permit negroes to vote. Some of them have repeatedly and lately pronounced against it. Therefore, even itwere defensible as a principle for the General Government to absor by amendment the power to control the action of the States in sue a matter, would it not be futile to ask 3 quarters of the States to do for themselves and a others, by ratifying such an amendment, the very thing which most of them have already refuseyto do in their own cases? This step will be taken, if taken at all, as a last resort in the attainment of some object too wise and desirable to be o posed. The 3rd proposition is believe by the committee to avoid, as far as the case admits of, all the objections of the other two. Let me read it as it will stand in the Constitution if adopted by Congress and 3 quarters of the States: Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which shall be included in the Union according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by counting the whole number of persons in each State: Provided That whenever the elective franchise shall be denied or abridged in any State on account of reco or color all individuals of such race or color shall be excluded from the basis of representation. It contains but. one condition and that rests upon a principle already imbedded in the constitution, and as old as free government itself. That principle I affirmed in the beginning, namely, that representation does not belong to those who have not political existence, but to those who have. The object of the amendment is to enforce this truth. It therefore provides that whenever any State finds within its borders a race of beings unfit for political existence that race shafi not be represented in the Federal Government. Every State will be left free to extend or withhold the elective franchise on such terms as it pleases, and this without losing anything in representation if the terms are impartia as to all. Qualifications of voters may be required of any kind qualifications of intelligence, of property, or of any sort whatever, and yet no loss of representation shall thereby be suffered. But whenever in an State, and so long as a race can be found which is so low, so bad, so ignorant, so stu id, that it is deemed necessary to exclude men from the right to vote merely because they belong to that race, in such case the race shall likewise be excluded from the sum of Federal power to which that State is entitled. If a race is so vile or worthless that to belon to it is alone cause of exclusion from polities action, the race is not to be counted here in Congress. Thatis all, and the Gentfrom N ewJersey [Mr. Rocnns] scems not altogcther to a)preciate the bearings of the subject.