Mr. DONNELLY. Mr. Speaker, I shall detain the House but few moments with what I have to say upon this measure. I shall vote for it cheerfully as a step in the right direction, as tending to bring the representation in this House to a more exact basis of equality, and as doing away with that “ rotten borough” system originating out of slavery and by which it was made powerful and in great part maintained. It follows as a logical conclusion that if men have no voice in the national Government, other men should not sit in this Hall pretending to represent them and it is equally clear that an oppressed race should not end power to their oppressors, to he used in their name and for their destruction. It is a mockery to say that a mans agent shall be his enemy and shall be appointed without his consent and against his desire and by other enemies. In fact, I cannot see how any northern man can vote against this measure unless he wishes to perpetuate an injustice to his section, because the effect of it will cclearly be to increase the representation of the North and decrease that of the South; and this, too, upon a basis of undoubted justice. It means simply that those who do not take part in the Government shall not be represented in the Government. So far there can be no question as to the merit of the measure; but something more is claimed for it. It is claimed that this amendment will act as a grand panacea for all the ills that afflict the nation; that by its persuasive force it will induce the South to give suffrage and education to the freedman, and that when we have done this we should halt and allow this sovereign remedy to work its cure. Sir, I doubt this. I do not think any gentleman ought to vote for this measure under any such belief. It is to be believed that the southern people, under the influence of a vague hope that in some distant future the may regain possession of national power, will overcome their deep seated antipathy and contempt for the negroes around them, and admit them to the ballot box? Politicians eager for power might so far overcome their natural prejudices, but the body of the people have no such love for office no such far-reaching expectations of power while they are profoundly and directly aflected by their personal likes and dislikes and by those convictions which are the result of centuries. Nay, more the means by which they would seek their object would defeat it, for the right of suffrage once extended to the negro they are well aware would strengthen the North and divide the South. Do they not now have to employ northern men to induce the negroes to work for them? Do they not know that the negro will believe the word of a common soldier from the North rather than the solemn enactment of a Legislature of southern men? Will they be wild enough to hope that they can strengthen themselves and weaken the north by giving the right of suffrage to the best friends of the North? It is not to be believed. Mr. Speaker, when we vote for this measure, it must be because we think it right and necessary, not that it may furnish us with an excuse for failing to do all other right and necessary things expected of us by the people. We must take direct, not sidelong measures. We must make laws, not arguments. We must enforce, not induce. To pass this law and then hope that SCarolina, moved by the hope of future power, would dojnstice to the negro, is absurd. She has 291,300 whites and 412,406 negroes. To pass such a law would be for the governin power to divest itself of the government an and it over to a subject and despised caste, and that, too, for a faint hope of some future advantage that might never be realized under the most favorable circumstances, and certainly could never be realized by the aspiring class abdicatingaud relinquishin power. The same is true, more or less. of all the South. In Mississippi there are 353, 901 whites, and 436, 631 negroes; and in all the States the negro vote Would be large enough to turn the scale against the disloyal party. I shall vote for this measure, not as a finality, but as a partial ste, as one of a series of necessary laws; not, as have heard it termed, as a “compromise.” For one I shall not rest satisfied until every security is given for the safety, the prosperity and the development of all the people of the South, without distinction of race or color, feeling assured that in that only can we find the safety of the South and the well being of the nation. Mr. Speaker, I now yield the floor to the gentleman hem Wisconsin, [18112Steam]