Mr. WILLIAMS. Much of the legislation of a State proceeds upon the assumption that certain persons have rights as citizens. They are described in the legislation of the States as citizens and the constitution of the U.S. describes certain persons as citizens of the U.S. The constitution of the U.S. provides that no person but a nativeborn citizen of the U.S. with other qualifications as to a e and residence, shall be POTUS; that no person not possessing the qualifications prescribed in it shall be a Senator or Representative. If this bill makes these persons citizens within the meaniu of the constitution of the U.S., I as if the do not become eligible to these different o ces? Is not any man in the U.S., who is a citizen of the U.S., within the meaning of the constitution, eligible to the office of President or Senator or iepresentative? Is the congress of the U.S. prepared at this time to adopt a proposition that negroes and Indians and Chinese and all persons of that description shall be eligible to the office of POTUS, Senator, or Representative in Congress before they are allowed to vote? I might reer, I think, to other instances to show that rights might follow if these persons are declared to be citizens of the U.S. Now, sir, in the State of Oregon it has been found necessary to pass laws regulating the intercourse between the Indians and white persons. The Indians are put under certain disabilities, and it is supposed that those disabil ities are necessary in order to protect the peace and safety of the community. As an illustration, it is made an indictable offense in the State of Oregon for any white man to sell arms or Suppose these Indians have equal rights with white men in that State. Then if a man is indicted for selling arms and ammunition to an Indian. may he not defend that prosecution successfully upon the ground that Congress has declared that an Indian is a citizen, and has the same right to buy and hold any kind of property thata white man of the State has? In that way, the white people of that State would be deprived of the power of protecting themselves, or of enacting such laws as they might deem necessary for their own protection. I might refer to another law in reference to the sale of intoxicating liquors in the State to Indians. A white man has the legal right in the State of Oregon to buy a gallon or a barrel of whisk; but the law forbids white men selling whis to Indians, because it endangers the peace and safety of the community. But if Congress declares that Indians in the State of Oregon shall have the same right to bu and hold all kinds of property that white men have, then, it seems to me, if a man is indicted in that State for sellin liquor to Indians, by which he puts the lives of the white people in peril, he may defend himself upon the groun that congress has declared that an Indian has as time right to buy, sell, and use that kind of propertfias a white man has.