Mr. BOUTWELL. I am not ignorant, Mr. Speaker, of the fact that the votes of the House already taken foreshow conclusively its purpose to pass the ending JtResolution for the admission of 'ennessee. I can see many reasons which operate on the minds of others as they do upon my own mind tending to such a course; but after the most careful reflection during months and years I am still as deeply convinced as ever of the dangerous nature of this proceeding. While I am conscious that my voice falls upon unwilling ears; that it is the fixed purpose of the House in the presence l of a great political struggle to adopt this measure, and thoughI am the humblest of the members of this body, with less right than any other man to address the country, and with no hope whatever that my words will reach posterity, I yet avail myself of the kindness of the gentleman who has charge of this resolution and raise my voice here an new and for the last time against the consummation of this scheme. This morning I offered an amendment, on which, however, the Gentfrom Ohio [Mr. Bmdruu] declined to allow the House to vote, which embodies my opinions concerning the admission of Tennessee. If gentlemen observed the language of that amendment they are aware that I have in some degree departed from my own settled convictions as to the right of all men to the enjoyment of the elective franchise in deference to what I understand to be the judgment of the majority of this House, ‘and possibly at this time to what is the judgment of the loyal people of the country. The resolution that I proposed provided for impar tial suffrage in that State by the act of its own people as a condition precedent to its admission rte the exercise of power in the government. It secured justice to the colored people of Tennessee 1st, and then to the colere people of the revolted and still rebellious section of this country. I am not troubled by the informalities aparent in the proceedings of the Tennessee legisluture upon the question of ratifying the constitutional amendment. It received the votes of a majority of the members of a full House, and when the proper officers shall have made the customa certificate and filed it in the Dept 0 State, it is not easy to see how any legal objection can be raised, even if 2/3rds of the members were not present, although that proportion is a quorum according to the constitution of the State. My objections are not technical, but vital and fundamental. 1st, the governmentwhich they submit here, and which by our preamble and by our vote you declare no er the Constitution to be a RFG, is not, as it appears to me, such in fact. I have not time now in these 30 minutes to trace‘tho history of the opinions entertained by the founders of the Republic as to what constitutes a RFG. But if they identified themselves with any opinion or idea upon this subject, it was this: that whenever powers were conferred by hereditary rules upon a class of men, or whenever by hereditary rules a class of men were excluded from all participation in the government, that government was neocssaril antirepublican in form as well as in fact. Iydo not assert that it is necessary that ever man should vote, and that a government in which terms and conditions are imposed is necessarily antirepublican; but the terms and conditions must be reasonable; they must be such as to redder it not only possible but probable that the great mu‘ority will be able to meet the requirements of the law. What is this House today, in the name of the peeple of this country and under the Constitution, declaring? "but a State constitution by which more than 80,000 male citizens are forever, for themselves and for their posterity, deprived of all part in the government of that State is republican in form. Sir, that government is an aristocracy; it is an oligarehy; it is not republican; it is not democratic. Wherever a man and his posterity are forever disfranchised from all participation in the government, that government is not republican in form. Next, are we to question the existence of the power on our part to accomplish that which I new suggest ought to be accomplished the enfranchisement of the freedmen of Tennessee, as the beginning of the great work of reconstruction upon a republican basis? We have positive power with reference to the States that have been in rebellion, which we have exercised by the passage of the act establishing and continuing the Freedmen’s Burelalu and by the passage of the civil rights bill I do not now discuss the question whether we have the power directly to enfranchise the ncgroes of Tennessee and of the other States recently in rebellion. I have an opinion upon the question, but 'I offerno arment in its support at the present time. I clieve that that power exists in Congress; but now I up cal to the negative power of the Government t mt we may reject Tennessee, NCarolina, Arkansas, until they perform this act of justice, for the country, for the negroes, for themscives. In thus requiringan additional act of justiceon their part as a condition precedent to their return to the enjoyment of their former power in the country, we have the authority of President Lincoln, of President Johnson, and of numerous acts of this Congress and of the last Congress. We have exacted conditions precedent to the admission of those States to representative power in the Government of the country. I‘hrough Presidents Lincoln and Johnson the country insisted upon the ratification of the amendment abolising slavery, the repudiation of the rebel debt, and new we demand, even in the case of Tennessee, the ratification of the pending amendment to the Constitution equalizing representation and all as conditions precedent to the exercise of power in the government. With equal, if not with more justice, we may demand an impartial system of suffrage. Nor can it he maintained with.ropriety that this exaction shall not be made because there are States, exercising their full functions as such, in which the negroes are excluded from the ballot box? The injustice in those States is not of such magnitude as to endanger the peace and safety of the country; while in the ease of the rebellious States there seems only the alternative of equal suffrage through the demands of the Government on the one hand and civil or social war on the other. Hence, while we may condemn the exclusion of negroes I from the ballot box in States now represented in Congress. there may be no public necessity for an attempt to remedy the wrong by the action of the (general Government. Moreover, in the case of the loyal States the General government cannot apply a remedy except by affirmative, positive action, for which the country is not prepared, and for which there is no controling public necessity. In the case of the States lately in rebellion we are not under the necessity of taking aliirmative legislative action. The proceeding on our art is simply and wholly within the domain of the precedents cited und the authority oflhc Constitution. The abolition of slavcry by the Censtitntion has given a new meaningto the phrase “ republican government;" for it is now settled that a State in which slavery exists is not republican in form according to our Constitution, though previous to the ratification of the amendment the fact may have been otherwise. While slavery existed it was generally true, however, that all free citizens were voters. To this rule there were some exceptions, but they were few and relatively unimportant. I proceed now to consider the expediency of this mcasure. There are in Tennessee not less than 200,000 able bodied adult male citizens, and you are consenting that the political power of‘that State shall be put into the hands of less than 60,000. By the constitution of Tennessee more than half the white male citizens of that State predisfranchised. Of this I do not complain; but in addition thereto 80,000 male colored citizens of the State are also disfrauchised, making an aggregate of 140,000 men who are excluded from participation in the government. The 60,000 loyal white men come here and ask to be accepted as a State, and you are solemnly resolving, in the presence of the country and with the light of history and the traditions of the Republic, that the government is republican in form. What do you invite and invoke in the future? Do you suppose that these 60,000 rebels are to rest quiet under their exclusion from political power in the government of that State or any considerable number of years? such an expectation, if entertained, will not be realized. On the other hand, this action invites and renders necessary a combination between the 80,000 colored men and the 60,000 rebels. The rebels, forgetting their past prejudices, and the loyal blacks, forgettin the isloyalty of the 60,000 rebels, will ‘oin hands and overturn the government of the State. And what you are doing today for Tennessee you are to be invited hereafter to do for the other ten States of the South. There is only an alternative. It is in this: that the 4 million colored people shall escape from the tyr anny which you authorize the southern oligarchs to exercise over them. And I bid the people, the working people of the North, the men who are struggling for subsistence, to beware of the day when the southern freedtnen shall swarm over the borders in quest of those rights which should be secured to them in their native States. 'A just policy on our part leaves the black man in the oath where he will soon become pros porous and happy. An unjust policy forces him from home and into those States where his rights will be protected, to the injury of the black man and the white man both of the North and the South. Justice and exediency are united in indissoluble bonds, an the men of the North cannot be unjust to the former slaves without themselves suffering the bitter penalty of transgression. I ask of this House what the answer is to be [when the other ten States demand recognition and the admission of members. Do you say they shall not be admitted on the terms you now offer to Tennessee? What other terms will you exact of Arkansas, NCarolina, and SCarolina? You can exact none in addition to what you a re now‘lilxacting, unless you demand for them what I now demand for the pen 10of Tennessee impartial suffrage for all loya adult male citizens. And if on then hesitate to meet the question from which you, now shrink the right of the ne 0 to votei you will have no excuse for denying full political rights to the other ten States. Arkansas has complied with the conditions named in the preamble to the resolution and you have no excuse for refusing to admit Arkansas except the excuse I now offer for refusing to admit Tennessee. You will have again upon you that question which you so much dread, but which cannot be postponed and which must he met, whether the colored men of the South, once in slavery but now free, are to be endowed with the rights of citizens of this country. But if you say, as you will say, unless the people rise in their majesty and demand justice for their suffering fellow men, that these States may be admitted, as Tennessee is today to be admitted, then to what extremity of woe have you reduced the country! You have 4 million discontented loyal persons made discontented by your action. You have in the States of the South more than 5 million discontented rebellions white people. You comel these classes, naturallyenemies, to unite an or the force of circumstances which now you may control for the good of the country; andi, as we believe, the white race is the dominant race, at least for the time being, in intellect and intelligence, you thus give to the rebel class of the South the moral, physical, and litical power which can be derived from the influence they will exercise over the 4 million blacks. Does anyone believe that the blacks are to be exterminated? The old fable of Antzeus is founded in the nature of man. They who labor on the soil never yet have been and probably they never can be extermi nated. And consider further that the blacks are organized into churches they are establilshing everywhere schools; 1: ey are becoming the possessors of land; they have military knowledge. Do you expect that such apeople, though yet in their infancy, are to be extermi nate ‘2 They will continue to exist; they will thrive even under oppression; but the day may come, and I fear it may come soon if this policy be pursued, when they will assert by force and by dangerous combinations the natural rights with which they have been by God endowed. And what do you offerto the loyal whites of the South? You Offer them only submission, degradation, or expatriation. Do you suppose that when you have established in the other southern States governments like that of Tennessee, in which the disloyal whites are excluded and the loyal blacks are also excluded, lthe loyal whites can withstand for a moment “the surging waves of public sentiment which will rise, and foam, an rage, however unjust and foul their origin? If, on the other hand, the negroes are permitted to vote, even in small numbers only in the be inning, they naturally become the allies and riends of the iloyal whites of the South; and especially will they be our friends in any future controversy l involving the integrity of the Union. No country cau afford to disregard the rights or the power of an 8th of its population; and above all, it is dangerous for this Government to authorize or tolerate an unjust policy to ward so large a proportion of its citizens. There are in this country 2 great political public wrongs, one ofwhich you have taken the proper means to remedy by an amendment to the Constitution, securin to a white man in the North equal politicaI power with a white man in the South. We are agreed upon that. When a white man's rights are concerned, there is no diTTerence of opinion upon this side of the House as to the necessity of protecting him. But there is another great wrong, for which you make no provision, offer no rem edy, present no excuse, and that is the denial of the elective franchise to the black men of the South. I must say for the gentlemen upon the other side of the House that they are consistent in this matter. Tb vqhavenever asserted the citizenship of the sol: man; they have denied it; the have never invited him into the Army nor called upon him to fight the battles of the Republic. hey have, as far as they had the power, refused his services; and however wrong they may have been, they have been consistent in their course. But upon this side of the House it is otherwise. We have recently passed an amendment to the Constitution, to be submitted to the States, declaring that negroea are, under the Constitution, hereafter to be citizens, and now, when we have the power to secure for them the rights of citizens, we are silent. We have invited them into the armies of the Republic and now we abandon them to those who have been for years their enemies and oppressors. How are we to reconcile to ourselves, to our country, and to posterity this great inconsistency on our part? I am as much attached to party as any man can be, but the jewel of the is its consistency based upon Republican ustiee adnpanrtoyw we abandon justice and accept inconsistency as our policy. Is not the history of this country full of warning? I will not mention names, but from 1850 to the close of the rebellion the pathway of ambition for parties and for men hasjeen strewn right and left with the fragments of parties an the remains of politicisns that have proved false to justice, to umanity, and to republican princip cs. Do you inquire whether these States are to be forever excluded? By no means. We have assurances from NCarolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Texas that if this Congress will but demand imartial suffrage the people of those States who are loyal to the nion will enter the contest, 2nd the demand for impartial suffruge, contend for it, and ultimately, as they believe, they will secure it. I speak under the impression, the firm conviction, that we today here surrender up the cause of justice, the cause of the country, in the vain hope that the admission of Tennessee may work somewhat for the advantage of the party which has controlled the countryduring these last 6 years. We surrender the rights of 4 million people; we surrender the cause of justice; weimperil the peace and endanger the prosperity oftbe countr; we degrade ourselves as a great party which has controlled the Government in the most trying times in the history of the world. Fortunate will it be for us, for those whom we represent, and for the fixture of the count if these apprehensions shall not be realize; and, humble though I be, but in the full conviction that they are not oundless, I enter my earnest protest, against this proceeding. Believing it to be wrong, I dec are my convictions 1n the presence of those who have power to prevent the wrong; and I make the declaration with a sense of responsiblity such as has never before rested upon me in any experience of my life. Mr. Speaker, if my time is not consumed, I will, with the consent of the Gentfrom Ohio, [Mr. BlNGHAM] 'eld the remainder of it to the Gentfrom (Tdlifornia, [Mr. HIGBY.]