Mr. WILLIAMS. Mr. President, I believe that the author of this message, while he was “swinging around, the circle, ” frequently referred to his political consistency, and I am inclined to fo that this veto maintains his claim in that respect, and that he is now what he said he was at the conclusion of the war the Moses of the black race and in favor of extending to them the right of suffrage, During the canvass of 1864, if I am not mistaken, the President, then a candidate for office, declared that he was in favor of committing the organization of the rebel States to the loyal white and black men of the South, without making any discrimination as to color, and in the summer of 1865 he transmitted a dispatch to Governor Sharkey, of Mississippi, in which he advocated the extension of qualified suffrage to the black men of that State. Since that time upon various occasions, and particularly to one Mr. Stearns, and I think to the honorable Senfrom Missouri, [Mr. HENDERson, ] he expressed his conviction that qualified suffrage should be extended to the negroes of the U.S., and according to my information he declared that if he was in Tennessee and could vote upon that question he would vote to extend suffrage to the black men of that State. And, sir, this message seems to me to be somewhat consistent with the decla. rations which the President has heretofore made on this subject, for I find in one para graph that he is in favor, as he says, “of the gradual and harmonious introduction of this new element into the political power of the country.” Now, sir, to concede that the negroes of the U.S. are to be an element in the political power of this country is to answer all i. objections which the President makes to this bill, except those that are of a local character. It seems, then, that there is no difference in principle between the POTUS and the majority in Congress as to negro suffrage. Both are in favor of that kind of suffrage, and the difference is as to the degree or extent to which it shall be exercised. Congress, so far as the DistCol is concerned, has extended the right of suffrage to the black men above a certain age and who have resided within the District for a certain time, while the President in his advocacy of negro suffrage has favored other qualifications; and because the President differs from the majority in Congress upon that matter of qualification, he has seen proper, in the exercise of the veto power, to overrule the judgment of Congress, not upon any constitutional ground or question of principle, but upon a mere matter of opinion. Now, sir, it certainly cannot be so alarmin as the President represents it to be to exten suffrage to the black men in this District, when he has favored its extension to black men elsewhere, when not only the majority in Congress favor negro suffrage, but the leading Democratic journals of the U.S. have espoused the same cause. Sir, we find the President, the majority in Congress, the Chicago Times, the Boston Post, the Albany Argus, the leading Democratic journals of the country favoring negro suffrage in some way. Since the public judgment has become so convinced of its necessity and justice there seems to be no very good reason for sustaining this message. It has been objected by the Senfrom Pennsylvania, repeating what the message says, that Senators here undertake to force negro suffrage upon the people of this District when the States they represent do not allow suffrage to the negroes. I will ask the honorable senator if by the enactment of a law suffrage could be granted in the States, the legislative assemblies now in session would not extend to colored persons the right of suffrage. To change a constitution takes time. Conventions have been called in some of the States for that purpose, and in other States they are preparing to call conventions; but if by a law suffrage could be extended to the negroes of Pennsylvania as it can be to the negroes of the DistCol, I have little doubt that before the present Legislature adjourned negroes there would enjoy the elective franchise.