Mr. JOHNson. I know they had; but they accomplished it and it was adopted; and they took a great while to do it, and they did it, not in the midst of a political excitement. No presidential election was looming in the distance or near at hand. No contest for political power, as is about to come of? even in the present year. A nation was to be created by means of their wisdom, and a nation they did create, awful in war, happy and conservative in peace. Now we are about to change it in a vital particular, even by the very amendment of the honorable member from Oregon, to change the basis of representation as they established it, although such a man as Hamil ton, in the number of the Federalist to which I have adverted, said that not a member of the Convention doubted that that was the proor basis. Upon that they had no difficulty. they  said that, according to the republican theory upon which the freedom of the people of the bU.S.s was so posed to rest, all ought to be represented. Nowit is proposod to deny the right to be represented of] a part, simply because they are not permitted to exercise the right of voting. You do not put them upon the footing of aliens, upon the footing of rebels, upon the footing of mine rs, upon the footing of the females, upon the footing of those who may have committed crimes of the most heine us character. Murderers, robbers, house burncrs, counterfeiters of the public securities of the U.S., all who may have committed any crime, at any time, against the laws of the U.S or the laws ofaparticular State, are to be included within the basis; but the poor black man, unless he is permitted to vote, is not to be represented, and is to have no interest in the Government. Why, sir, my friendfrom Massachusetts [Mr. SUMNER] has over and over again said that the State govrernments, even as they existed before the rebellion, and as they now exist, are not republican governments, and that we should change them by virtue of the obligation impose upon.the Government of tie U.S. to guaranty to the people of each State a RFG. What more antirepublican doctrine, looking to the genius of our institutions, can be imagined than that which says that there may be within the limits of any State a people who are not to be represented? The war of the Revolution was not waged because of the miserable tax which England imposed, but because she claimed the right to tax those who were not to be represented; in other words, because the colonies had no representation in the Parliament of England. And yet you tax the freedman; the States tax the freedman; you subject the freedman to the authority of both, while at the same time '0“ say, “You may not be represented, an it is not our purpose to secure a representation to you. verybody else is to be entitled. to the benefit of the doctrine that there shall be no taxation without representation, but you are to be an exception.