Mr. ORTH. Before the amendment is read, I will premise by so.ing that it is the same proposition which I he the honor of introducing at an early stage of this session upon the subject of amending the constitution, basing Representation upon voters. It provides substantially that in the amendment we contemplate passing and referriu to the different Sxfates rilzpresentation shall Iie based upon suffrage a one. The amendment now before the House. reported by the JtComReconstruction, does not new embrace that principle, but does embrace what to my mind is a most mischievous principle and in the few words which I am permitted to present at this time by the courtesy of the Gentfrom NewYork [Mr. CHAN i. i:it] I desire simply to note one of the objections raised by the Gentfrom Maine, [Mr. BLAINE] in which he attem is to draw a distinction between the State of fassachusetts and the State of Indiana, which I have the honor in art to represent on this floor. Iy position is that the true principle of representation in Congress is that voters alone should form the basis, and that each voter should have equal political weight in our Government; that the voter in Massachusetts should have the same but no greater power than the voter in Indiana; and that the voter in Indiana should have the same power but no greater than the voter in the State of SCarolina. The Gentfrom Maine, liowcvet, states that the census tables will show that by the amendment which I desire to offer at this time you will curtail the representative pewerof the State of Massachusetts and wh ! Because he has shewn by his figures that a though Massachusetts has a male population of 529, 244, her voting population is only 175, 487, being a per. centage of 29, while Indiana, with a white male population of ($93, 469, has a voting pepulation of 280, 655, being about 40%. Why is this difference? Isitbecauseour votin population is so much greater in proportion than the voting population of Massachusetts? Not at all. llhe difference arises from the fact that the State of Massachusetts has seen fit to exclude a portion of her citizens from the ballotbox. Indiana has done the something. Indiana has excluded one class of citizens; Massachusetts has excluded another class. Indiana has seen fit, for reasons best known to herself, to exclude the colored population from the right of suffrage. Massachusetts, on the contrary, has seen fit to exclude from the ballotbox those of her citizens who cannot read or write. While we in Indiana are governed by a prejudice of color, the people of Massachusetts, Imight say, are governed by a prejudice as regards ignorance. But here is the difference: under the amendment that I propose while Indiana excludes the black man from the right. to participate in the decisions of the ballotbox, she does not ask that the black men shall be represented on this floor. On the contrary, while Massachusetts excludes black and white persons who cannot read and write, she yet asks that that population excluded from the ballot shall have representation on this floor. I regard this as wrong in theory, wrong in principle, and injurious to the State which I have the onor to represent giving to Massachusetts a power upon this oer o which my State is deprived. Why? Because the exclusion which drives from the ballotbox in Massachusetts a large portion of her citizens, yet admits them to representative power on this floor. I might or these figures further. For instance, while assachusetts has but 8,000, not. quite 9,000 colored population, Indiana has nearly 12,000 colored population; so that in proortion to the number of inhabitants, black an white, in our State, we lose a representative power of nearly 4000 greater than is 0st by the State of Massachusetts. A ain, the proportion of females varies in the ifferent States. This argument has been adduced here by gentlemen from NewEng land. They state that the number of females in New enland is much greater in proportion to the number of malestion it is t roughout the West. The census tables do not sustain this position to the extent claimed. In Massachusetts, for instance, where the female population predominates, the difference between the male and the female portion of the population is only about 27,000; while in Indiana the male population redomi notes to the number of fort "7,000. But if we, of the West gain in representation over NewEngland, it is because the political power of this Government is rapidly concen trating in the valley of the Missismppi. which is destined soon to become, if it be not already, the seat of empire. I Again, iflliad time, I could run through these census tables and show that the white males under the age of 21 largely redomi note in my State and throughout the est over the number of such in Massachusetts and the other NewEngland States.