Mr. HENDERSON. I was very vwell satisfied, without examining hisviews, that the principle he laid down must go to that extent. Half representation is haltas bad as no representation. If it be tyranny to deny it. entirely, it is half tyranny to deny the half, and half tyranny is equally a violation of the great principle of right. this only a difference in degree; it is only modified tyranny, but it is tyranny at last. ow, sir, Congress is constantly revising our impost. duties; and equally often we revise our stamp, incomQ; and excise taxes; and if you will give the distinguished Senfrom Maine, [Mr. Fassmmns, the chairman of the ComFinance, the power to regulate impost and excise duties according to his will and pleasure, it is quite certain that. he can build up the people of the State of Maine, or the people of all NewEngland if he choose, and make them rich while other sections may be dragged down to poverty. Look at the varied products of this country and think how taxes may be adjusted. You do not raise cotton in Maine nor in Massachusetts. nor in any other New to land State. But you manufacture the artie e in large quantities. Cotton is the chief production of a great many of the southern States. Suppose you increase your tariff on cotton goods and levy an excise tax upon the growth of cotton in the southern States, giving a drawback for the tax on the raw may terial, as you proposed at the last session of “Congress to the manufacturer, but denying it to the producer, thereb levying in effect an export tax and payin ounties to the manufacturer, how long below NewEngland would be filled with the stream of wealth that had its source in the sweat of southern laborers I Is not the negro interested in this? He may have no ballot in Alabama. But this should excite your sympathy and not tempt you to robhim. The same may be said of the sugar interests of Louisiana, the tobacco and grape interests of Missouri, the turpentine interests of NCarolina, the pork interests of Ohio, and the whisky interests of Illinois and Indiana. It is useless to spend time in enumerating the many evils to spring from unequal and unfair representation. They meet us at every step. X en representation in the lowQr House be comes unequal, the salt of the Constitution is gone. This looks like an effort to give the power in the lower House, by another comro mise, to the same section of country to which an undue power was given in the Senate. If it must be done, let it be done in another name than mercy to the black man. Again, the Constitution provides: “The Congress shall have power to regulate commercewith foreign nations, and among the several States, and with theIndian tribes.” In the formation of the Constitution this power was considered by the commercial States of such great importance to them that in consideration thereof the bartered away the liberties of a race; With unequal representation in the hands of the commercial section, what injuries might not be inflicted on the agricultural portions of the communit? Are not the negroes intereste in the exercise of this power by Congress? For many years they must look to agriculture for support. Laws, oppressive to them and ruine us to their pursuits, may he passed under this and other clauses of the Constitution. The interests of the negro deserve consideration whether he enjoys the franchise or not. Again, Congress has the power “to declare war, “to raise and support armies, ” “to provide and maintain anavy.” The mercantile interests of our nation are now in no kind mood toward England. I do not propose to speak of the action of England during our late war, or to condemn or indorse the denunciations of her conduct toward us. I simply refer to our present attitude to that Power to show the injustice of the pending proposition. Is war to be de clared? Some persons desire it to be done, and 1000s of our people might grow rich with “letters of marque an reprisnl.7 The mercan tile interests might be rejoiced at an opportunity to retaliate for real or imaginary wrongs. however such a war might gratify individual or seetional feeling, however it might add to our national glorv, yet it would be a war of vast proportions, destroying the material interests of the nation, plunging us into almost hopeless bankrn toy, and bringing poverty and misery to all cliisses. If a minority of the people, inhabiting the Atlantic States, had the power and the will to declare such a war, and to impress the majority into the armies of the nation to maintain it, what sort of a Government would ours be “I Can it be said that the negro of the southern States, struggling in poverty to support himself and family, has no interest in preventing this war, simply because he has no ballot 7 What diiierence does that make to us? The women of NewEngland who did not vote do nounced the war O 1812, and rightly held their places, in the basis of congressional representation, to force an early peace after an unprofit able and unavailinff war. The women and men of NewEngland denounced the war of 1846 with Mexico. Had the women and mine rs been excluded from the basis of their representation, and war then declared against the voice of NewEngland voters, another war than the Mexican war might have come. In such event, who would have said that the women and mine rs had no interest in the matter and therefore no right to complain, because they could notvote in their respective States? might continue this course of remark, but I dismiss it and look for a moment to the population South and some of the effects to be produced. If these States shall deny the suffrage, then by this rule you exclude from representation, in the single State of Virginia, 548, 907 human beings, largely more than the white population of Kansas, Delaware, Minnesota, Oregon, and Florida, under the census of 1860. hink of it, Mr. President. These 5 States are entitled to 6 Re Representatives and ten Senators in Congress, with a white po nlation of 499, 117, which is 49, 790 less than the negro poulation of the iinglcState of Virginia. You have 6 Senators and ten Representatives in congress, representin a white population in these States less than the negro population of the single. State of Virginia. O your excise laws not reach these noggin“? Do not your tariff laws reach them? ill they not have to buy imported goods, and pay like others your excise and income taxes? I am answered, “If the States want justice done to the negroes and themselves, let them admit the negroes to the right of suiira c." That is not satisfactory. Suppose, as I have said, the whites of these States resolve to accept the compromise or bargain you tender them? Suppose they take the chances of unjust legislation for the privilege of robbin the negro by local law. but l procee. The 5 States named have a representative population, as the Constitution now stands, of only 569, 017, which is but 10, 110 more than the negro population of Virginia. The negro po uation of Geor in exceeds the white population of Rhode sland, Kansas, Delaware, and Oregon, by 45, 525. The negro population of Mississippi exceeds the white population of the States last named by upwar sof 17,000. These States have 5 Representatives and 8 Senators in congress. The negro population of Georgia and SCarolina 18878, 018, lar ely more than the entire white population O NewHampshire, Ver mont, and RhdIsland, it being only 810 636. These States have 6 Senators and 8 Representatives, but this vast population of near y a million souls will go unrepresented. Add the negro poulation of Virginia to that of Georgia an Sent I Carolina, and it almost equals the white population of Maine NewHampshire, Vermont, and RhdIslan. The proposed amendment does not declare that this pulation shall go unrepresented, but it imp ies that a good reason may exist for their local disfranchisement in the States, and if the States do regard them as brutes, and not persons, they can do so. I, for one, am totally unwilling to permit them to do it. I append a comparative table showing the population white and lack in 1860 in 15 States, the number of Representatives they now have, the number to which they would be entitled under the constitution as it is, the number to which they would be entitled under the committees plan, in case the ncgroes are excluded, the proportion of direct tux allotted to each under the act of 1801, levying a tax of $20,000,000, and the proportion each of said States would be required to pay of a 20 million tax under that Constitution as it now stands, and as the commit tee proposes to leave it, thleirlslalves being free: I likewise from the basis of taxation. n To show the monstrous injustice, however, that may result from the proposed amendment I may state that should it be adopted an a direct tax of $20,000,000 be levie, the apportionment to Virginia would by $1 015, 258. The representation of Virginia nt e lower branch of Congress would be nine members. The State of Illinois with 16 members in Congress, would pay but $1, 088, 800. Kansas, with one member, would pay $68, 183. Oregon, with one member, would pay $33, 367. llIRinesota, with two members, would pay $109, 470. Delaware, with one member, would pay $71, 369. NewHampshire, with 3 members, would pay $200, 382. Vermont with 3 members, would pay $200, 402 and Maine, with 6 members, would ay $800, 586. Hence, these 8 States, headed by the rent State of Illinois, and including 3 of the NewEngland States, would altogizther pay $2, 177, 556. The State of Virginia would have to pay over one million, or nearly halfthis suni. Virginia would be represented by two Senators and 9 Representatives, while the States I have named would be re presented by 16 Senatorsand 33 Representatives. under such circumstances the peculiar interests of Virginia industry might possibly be protected by these Representatives from States having diverse interests, but to believe it requires a beliefiu the improvement of mans moral na ture far beyond what it promises to be in our day. If a vast public debt is to be paid, the representatives of peculiar interests will likely forget the plodding negro in the South, in their efforts to protect those interests and commend themselves to their own constituents. It matters not by whom the Virginia Representative may be elected, if when ere his votes shall be cast in favor of the negrosinterest. If he represents the whites he cannot fail to represent the negroes, for their pursuits are regulated by soil an climate and productions. Their pursuits are necessarily similar and their interests cannot be divided. If, then, the object of the committee be to deny representation to citizens of the U.S. merely because the States seefit to deny them the suffrage, I think I have shown it to be politically wrong, leading to acts of injustice and oppression on the one side, and to overty and humiliation on the other. I thankt c Senfrom Massachusetts [Mr. SUMNER] for his amendment to perfect this proposition. It de clares that if the negro is to be excluded from the basis ofrepresentation, he must be excluded That is fair, and argues a mind fully imbued with the foundation principles of civil liberty. But if this amendment, which is but the repetition of the highest tribute we have ever paid our republic, should be adopted, the amendment itself, suspect, would be abandoned. You leave it to the States to exclude the negro from suffrage. If the States do so, you accept the action and at once proceed to say he is a brute. a thing that cannot enter into the basis of Federal representation. If, in your judgment, the negro be a person, how shall he be excluded from representation? This rule, in Mr. Madisons opinion, is the true one and proper to protect“ personal rights.” The whole onvention ofl 87, a body of pure and u right and wise men, be. lieved with him. Ift cy were right, you cannot deny the negro representation wnhout ignoring every profession of the Republican party and a most important principle of republican theory. But if he be a thing, and unworthy of representation, how is it that he is more than a thing for purposes of taxation? If he is a drone, unfit to vote, and therefore should have no more voice in Congress than a stone or a stick, why should he be required to pay money for government purposes? If he be an nnreasoning animal, it is enough that he provide himself with the means of life. If he is without capa city, white men should scorn to take from him the little he may accumulate.