Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. Speaker, I had not intended to participate in the discussion of the propositions embraced in this bill. It had not occurred to me there was such a diversity of opinion on the question of suffrage in this country. I hnd supposed the American system of popular Government was so well settled and so clearly defined that the debate on this bill i would range itself on either side of the question whether the elective franchise is a natural or acquired right; that those who hold the doctrine that this is anatural and inalienable right which belongs to all men who inhabit acouuti controlled by one Government Would be foun advocatin this measure on that principle, while those whoiold the other doctrine would be found contending that the elective franchise is an element of popular government, to be controlled only by those to whom such Government belongs; an then Iexpected, out of so large, respeclab e, and intelligent a body of men, there would be on or 2 at least who would refer to the free an equal clause of the DeclarIndep, while the great mass of debate would be directed to the question of expediency involved in the pro position, now for the 1st time in the history of the Federal Government seriously entertained, of extending it by Federal authority to a race of men who, whatever may be their claim to the protection of life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness under this Government, have no claim whatever to the ordering, management, direction, control and administration of the Government itseld I expected that those who contend that all men who inhabit a country controlled by a popular Government have an inalienable right to control, direct, and administer that Government, would favor this bill, and I am willing to accord to that class of its advocates the entire consist. ency of their course., I have neither the time nor the inclination now to take up the various arguments and reasons that gentlemen have assigned for the course they propose to take, and attempt to expose their fallacy or answer them in detail. I prefer to meet the qpestion stiuarely, and leave others to elaborate it. Some portions of this cOuntry seemed a little shocked when my distinguished collcague, [Mr. Sravnxs, a few weeks ago, openc his batteries with such terrible fury against the doctrine that this is a white mans Government. Many advocates of negro suffrage uffected to treat his doctrines as absurd, and he himself, with very becoming modesty, disclaimed any intention of leading the Republican party, or it being responsible for what he sai; but they little knew what he known so well, that unless that doctrine is utterly and entirely demolished, the claim of the negro race in this country to have the elective franchise conferred upon it by Federal authority is without any foundation in right and justice. Ours is a popular Government, a representative democrac. Lt is republican in form. Our fathers made it what it is so far as its form is concerned. They framed the States together into one common Union, and whatever theories may have prevailed before the war, that tribunal has given its irreversible decision that from this Union no State can either secede or be expelled. This count is now under one Government. It was not so before the Union under the constitution, or at furthest before the Confederation. In the days of the colonies there were several Governments in this country. All were founded by white men, men of the European race. White men discovered the country, organized and established these Governments, and the Governments so established by them were their own as much as the country they inhab ited or the soil the tilled. In the course of time they changed the form, but never parted with their right to control and administer the Government. as against all other races of man “) I So far from being a discoverer of this country, the negro is not even an immigrant. He is not here o his own free will and accord. However wrong it may have been to thus force him from his own country and make him a stranger in a strange land. it was nevertheless donc, and all the rights that be h his presence here could acquire are those which have been graciously extended to him. In his slavery theywere very few as against the white man, and in his freedom they are no more than have been granted. 306 Jewelry}; today they are the right to dwell among us to labor and enjoy its fruits, to emigrate, an the right to enjoy life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. These the Government acknowledges; but he is not the Government, nor is he any part of it. Should he undertake to assert a claim to control and manage the Government he becomes a rebel, and forfeiting the rights he held he falls like Lucifer from his heaven. Let him give no heed to the instigation of political devils and he is safe. Not only is it true that the negro has had nopart nor ot in the organizing and establishing of any of the Governments of this country, popular or otherwise, but he has never yet anywhere upon the face of this earth organized and established any sort of popular Government whatsoever. Whence, then, comes an claim on his part to exercise the prerogatives o Government in this country? The negro, air is in possession of Governments upon this hemisp ere. The negro is in ssession of Governments in Central America, in South America, and in some of the islands of the western hemisphere; but he never or gahnized a Government in any of those places. e position which he has acquired there has been obtained by the yielding up of the white race to him, either by his rebellion or by their relinquishing to him the administration of the Government.