Mr. HENDERSON. I am glad to hcarthe Senator say so. If all the Senators around him prefer it, and he prefers it, why not take it? Simply because it cannot be adopted. Before I closc, I should say something further upon this argument addressed to our fears. It is an argument that ought not to be addressed to us by the able Senfrom Maine. That which is right will succeed. It is bound to succeed. It may not succeed today; it may not succeed tomorrow; but I have an abiding confidence that justice will oon or late triumph. Man maybe unjust, but God is just, and as He is more powerful than man, so His justice is borne on to ultimate triumph against all human obstacles. I am slow to appreciate the argument that a proposition correct in itself can never receive the favor of the people. I know that such fears were entertained a short time ago when the proposition to amend the Constitution abolishing slavery was under consideration. Even the able and sanguine Senfrom Massachusetts, [Mr. Sunner, ] I think, had some fears on the subject, and introduced a bill to declare slavery abolished. He now offers a bill, refusing yet to believe. He thought that a constitutional amendment could not then succeed. He wanted the object accomplished with all his heart, but his anxiety drove him to the selection of means wholly ineffectual. I thought that a simple act of Concress would always be dispute; the courts, federal and State, might dispute it. But now that the amendment has been adopted the Senfrom Kentucky Mr. Guriiuin rises in the Senate and says, with honor to himself, he recognizes it as the law of the land. Thereis not asouthern man from one end of the country to the otherwho does not acknowledge the fact that the constitutional amendment is an operative amendment and that slaver is forever abolished in the HU.S. hat is a great thing accomplished. It gives peace, contentment, order, satisfaction. Nobody is now disputing it. Eve Dept of the Federal Government so (now edges it. The courts cannot dispute itthe people do not disute it; the State Legislatures O not dispute it the State magistrates do not dispute it; the whole world acknowledges the fact that slavery is abolished. It was said that the emancipation proclamation would do no good, that it was a dead letter and could not be enforced. I must confess that at the time I had some doubts of the propriety of it, and greater doubts of its efficiency. Does anybody doubt its propriety now? Was it not sanctioned by the country I You remember the relentless opposition waged against it. The discussions thats rang out of it gave it additional strength, an finally the people approved it as an act of justice; and the inspiration breathed by that proclamation gave us ultimate success in this war. You remember the opposition made to arming the neg mes, but final y it received the sanction of the entire body of loyal men, and the country gratefully acknowledges their services in suppressing the rebellion. No, Mr. President, if we have satisfied our minds that the ncgroes of the seceded States should now, or, in the future, have the elective franchise, the sameright exists in other States; and let us place a distinct proposition before the peopleand defend it as onest and fearless men. t has been truly said that one earnest man in the right is always a majority. objections, other than those Moray I have name, might be urged against this amendment proposed by the reconstruction committee, but to name them would require too much time. must apologize to the Senate for trespassing already so ong. I come now to the measure proposed by the honorable Senfrom Massachusetts, [Min SUMNER, I a JtResolution of Congress to secure civil and political rights irrespective of color. It gives me pain at. any time to differ with the honorable Senator, and I regret especially a difference now. His. ur oses do not condemn, but the means by or no he proposes to arrive at them cannot receive my sanction. I could not vote for his bill two years ago to abolish slavery; Icaniiot vote for his hill to secure political rights now. I desired emancipation then, but took a different road to arrive at it. I desire that no State law hereafter shall be permitted to set up the senseless test of color in xing the qualifications of voters. Butl am not now ready to take away from the States the long enjoyed right of prescribing the qualilicotions ofe ectors in their own limits. glongress is not now prepared to take and exercise pro erly this power. Local reasons mayeirist, and O often enist, for excludiu certain persons from the ballot. The people ofeach State can better judge of these reasons than Congress or the people in other States. But the U.S. is certainly interested in maintaining a RFG republican bot in theory and in practice. No State can vitall wound the true republican principlethat“al men are created equal, ” and that whon government is to be established, its just powers must come from “the consent of the governed, ” without causing injury and bringing disease into the entire system. If wrong he done in one of the States, it is event equally felt by the nation. If a State becomes an oligarchy, the deleterious influences are not alone confined to the limits of the State. They cannot be so confined, because the few elect ors who control State policy are the same who send Representatives to Congress. The members of the Legislature, chosenby those electors, select the Senators who sit With us here. If the fountain be muddy, the stream is not clear. If the electors be aristocrats, the representatives will rarely be republicans. he riflht of suffrage, ” said Mr. Madison, “is a fundamental article in republican constitutions.” “The regulation ofit, ” he further said, “is at the same time a task of peculiar delicacy.” He said, in another paper: “It would be happyif a state of societycould be found or framed in which an equalvoice in making the lawsmight beallowed to everyindividual boun tthoeoobreieyst, hem. But this is a theory which. like most confessedly requires limitations and moditleations." Madiaon Papers, Appendix.vol. 3. p. 15. We all feel the force of these simple words, “Suffrage is a fundamental article of republican constitutions.” How true! But yet Mr. Madison and the fathers were content, according to my reading, to leave the whole subject with the States, under the hope that the people thereof would not “abridge the rights secured to them.” That the States have abridged the p rights of suffrage and have violated the fundamental rule of republicanism, as then under stood in theory we cannot doubt. An imor tant question, however, to he considers is, were the theoretical views of republicanism entertained at that day in I rafted on the constitution? I think not. I ey made a written Constitution, and when they speak of RFGs in the instrument itself, they mean simpl a conformity with that Constitution. Our faters did not sanction or approve of, slavery, but they left it existing in what they called republican forms. The time has now come, foreseen by Mr. Madison, (see No.48Federalist) when a “ minority of citizens in some of the States ” has become a “majority of persons.” when, indeed, a majority of personsis found in that “unhapp species of po 11lation abounding in some oft ie States wh0, during the calm of regular government, are sunk below the level of man.” Truly those men have now “ emerged into the human character, ” and unless the have the suffrage, the republican system will become diseased. Violence and revolution must follow a denial of suffrage to a majority of free persons in a State, especially when that majority are the subjects, not only of prejudice, but hatred. But, on the other hand), as this is a practical question, and must be dealt with in a practical way, I am free to say thatI would nottoday open the polls in the seceded States, were it in my power, to the entire population, white and black. hen there is a way to effect a great good without any evil, that way should be adopted. Good is often accomplished through bloo, but l when it comes in peace, accepted by all, how much better itisl What would be the result of indiscriminate suffrage now in the South? The whites for 200 years have taken the labor of the black without further compensation than a scanty support. Perhaps that was all their labor was worth. I do not pass judgment on that question now. The negro is ig norant and brutalized by this long period of slavery. Perhaps the white man would be no better under similar circumstances. I doubt if he would. The negro is poor; the white man has something left, but not much. The little he has, the negro thinks belongs or ought to belong, in part at least, to him. The belief may be well founded in justice. I will not pass judgment here either. The white is offended that his grasp has been violently loosed from his slave, and like all angry mOrtals must wreak his vengeance on somebody. He has not power to harm the conqueror; be harms the innocent object of the conquerors kindness. Like other disappointed men, he would destroy that which he can use no longer. The feelings of the ig norant and degraded negro may well be ima ined, and I leave to the Senfrom Massa c iisetts to imagine the consequence s of an open, full, and unlimited ballot in those States now, and especially where the negroes have the numerical majority. perhapsteir excesses, following the ignorant, unski led use of power, would set back, for years, this great reform. I. have no time for further comment on the consequences of such conduct. t is, in my judment, yet proper to leave the qualifications O electors with the States, but not to the extent of allowin them to introduce disease and death into the body politic, by denying in their own organizations the elementary principles of republicanism. Mis. souri has an interest in the State governments of Virginia, Louisiana, and Texas. If these governments become diseased, the whole body suffers, for the States are but limbs of that body. Our governments must be truly republican. The present Constitution tolerates something else. Let us amend it. The preamble of the honorable Senators resolution indicates that the power to pass it is claimed, 1st, in the guarantee clause, and 2nd, in the constitutional amendment abolishing slavery. It seems admitted that the power must be derived from these provisions of the Constitution or it does not exist at all.