Mr. JULIAN. The gentleman misunder stands what I said. I have juststated what the Gentfrom Ohio now aflirms, that be de fends the amendment reported by the committee as a mere penalty intended to restrain the States from striking down the rights of their citizens under the Constitution; but as we are now endeavoring. to amend the Constitution, why incorporate in it a mere penalty against its violation, which at least sums to imply the right to violate it, if the penalty shall be accepted? Since the whole policy of the government from its beginning hasyielded the right of the southern States to disfranchise their people of color, why not provide a positive prohibition of such right? Mr. Madison declared it tobe wrong “ to admit in the Constitution the idea that there can be property in man.” So I say it seemsto me wrongto admit in thisamendment the idea that the rights of the citizen can be taken away by reason of color or race, and that in perfecting the organic law of the nation we should avoid an phraseology which by any possibility would mit a construction so fatal to the fundamental principle of all free government. Why temporize y adopting halfway measures and a policy of indirection? The shortest distance between 2 given points is a straight line. Let us follow it, in so imor tanta work as amending the Constitution. he advocates of the proposed amendment do not profess to be satisfie with it. They confess that it comes short of its purpose. They as the have another proposition in reserve which will cover the whole ground. Then why not bring it forward and let us meet it on its merits? Why yield any longer to the policy of compro mise? Sir, remembering the mistakes of our fathers in the beginnin, and the frightful legacy to their children which has been the result, let us be warned against any short sighted and tem porary expedients today. Let us bring ourselves ace to face with the great demand of the nation upon us, and then appealto the people to sanction a plain, unambiguous amendment of the Constitution, which we believe to be necessary for their future security. But the advocates of this measure, while promising us a better, frankly tell us it is the best we can now hope to secure. Thoy defend it on this ground, and insist that our present alternative is between its adoption, and the representation of 4 million loyal colored people in Congressby exrebels, who would utterly misrepresent their wishes and trample down their rights. To this several answers are obviously suggested. n the 1st place, how do you know that the broad proposition I advocate will fail in congress, or before the people? These are revolutionarydays. Whole generations oti common time are now crowded into the span of a few years. Lifeavas never before so grand and blessed an opportunity. The man mistakes his reckoning, who judges either the present or the future by an political almanac of bygone years. Growt, development, regress, are the expressive watchivords of p the hour. Who can remember the marvelous events of the past 4 years, necessitated by the late war, and then predict the failure of further measures, woveninto the same fabric, and born of the same inevitable logic? It is only a few days since this nation, speaking through its lie re sentatives on this floor, by a.vote of 1168 inst 54, deliberately sanctioned the very policy I urge as an amendment to the Constitution of the U.S. Sir, if that policy is right in this District, shall we decline to extend it over the districts lately in revolt where far stronger reasons plead for it? Shall we distrust the people, who have been so ready to 2nd all rad ical measures during the war, and now speak with such emphasis oncinergin, withnewly anointed vision, from its terribIe baptism of fire and blood? and besides, how do you knowMr. Speaker, that even the proposition reported by the committee can prevail, either in Congress or in the States? It encounters, I know, a very considerable opposition here, and I sincerely hope it may be recommitted and amended. It may encountera greater opposition in theStates. Its indirect mode of reachinga desirable result, and its apparent recognition of the infernal heresy of State sovereignty, may seriouslyen danger, if not totally defeat, the proposition. Sir, I hope this so gestion will not be deemed unworthy of consideration. But the question, after all, is, what amendment of the constitution, ifany, is really demanded? If we can agree as to this, then we should submit it, trusting in God, in the people and in the great educational forces now everywhere at work, that it will prevail. Should it fail foraseason, it willtriumph ultimately, and in the end repay all the cost of its delay. Neither constitutional amendments nor reforms in any other direction could make much headway, if no man should ever espouse them till the people are found prepared to accept them without opposition or dissent. Again, Mr. Speaker, it should not he forgot ten that the proposed amendment. should it prevail, must fail of its purpose till after the census of 1870. If I am not mistaken, there could be no new allotment of Representatives among the southern States prior to that time. If I am mistaken, and the Constitution will permit us to take another census whenever we choose, it will not make any practical difference, as no one proposes that measure, and if adopted the reapportionment under the new census could not take effect sooner than the time I have named. In all these intervening years, therefore, these rebel States must have their full representation underthe existing basis, or else their Representatives must be kept out of Congress. If they should be admitted, prior to the passage of the amendment, there would be no coercive authority in the hands of the Executive or Congress to constrain any State to ratify the amendment, and it could not be ratified. If the southern Representatives should not be admitted, then the evils of unequal represeutation would be avoided, so long as they are kept out. The object of the amendment, therefore, namely, the reduction of rebel representation in Congress and the extension of suffrage to the whole people of the South, could not be secured before the year 1870, or 1872, if the next census shall be taken at the regular time; and then it would remain for the southern States to say whether they would have the ballot to the negroes, or still cling to that unchristian spirit of caste and lust of power which have so long been the higher law of the South. If I am correct in making these statements, much of the alleged practical significance of the proposed amendment is made to disappear, and we are thus the better prepared to demand the amendment, really necessary and effective, or else such congressional action as shall grant suffrage to the people of the South, irrespective of color. Should both these measures for the present hefound impracticable, I do not see that any great interest of the country wil[ suffer in consequence, while the regular march of events and the great tidal force of public opinion will at length open the way for such action, in some form, as shall be required by the national exigency. Finally, Mr. Speaker, I deny that the rebels of the South, who are the rulers of the South, would grant the ballot to the ne proif the proposed amendment were nowin full force. hey would not do it, because their love of domination, their contempt for free labor, and their scorn of an enslaved and downtrodden race are as intense as ever. They hate the negro now, not simply as the ally of the Yankee in foiling their treason, but as the author of all their misfortunes, who, having been villaine usly misused by them, is of course villaine usly despised. The hate him with a rancor that fee s unceasing y upon eve memory of their humiliation and defeat. They confront him with a hatred so remorseless, withering, consuming, that it crops out today in every quarter of the South, in deeds of outrage, violence, and crime, which find no parallel even in the atrocities practiced in that section under the old codes of slavery, which were codes of mur der and all mine r crimes. Can any gentleman read the late report of General Schurz, and listen to the testimony of the great cloud of concurring witnesses whose voices are now filling the land, respecting the popular feelin in the South, and then believe that the rebel c pass will ever, under any inducements, voluntarily very equal political rights to the freedmen? he leaders of southern opinion openl declare that they would rather die than give the ballot to their former slaves. While it would give their section an increased representation in Congress, that representation would be secured by the votes of negroes, and abolitionists, whose darling purpose would be to Yankeeize and abolitionize the entire South, and put the old slaved nasty hopelessly under their feet and the ol slave dynasty understands this perfectl. They know that negro suffrage, by checing rebel rapacity and restoring order, and thus rendering emigration from the North and from Europe a safe and practicable thing, will reorganize the whole structure of society in their reion, and thus doom their pride and sloth to aoeless conflict with the energy and enterprise of free labor. Do you tell me that men are governed by their own interests, and that the ruling class in the South, finding no other way to serve those interests, will extend suffrage to the negroes? I answer, that long cherised and t itionary prejudices and passions are stronger than interest. It was always the true interest of the Southto abolish her slavery, but she waged a horrid war to save and eternize it. She could always have increased her power in Congress by its abolition, but she loved her domination over the negro more than she loved political power. It was the interest of the northern States, long o, to unite in checking the ressions ant? lie further spread of slavery int c Union, and thereby to hasten the employment of peaceable measuresin the South for its abandonment; but the northern States, on the contrary, became the allies of the slave breeders in fortifyin and extending their rule on this continent. It was the interest of our 1st parents not to sin, but the devil proved too much for them. Sir, the argument of interest will not do. Passion is stronger than interest, because, being blind, it does not perceive the best good. BeforeI agree to intrust the freedmen to the interest of their old masters, I want to know that they understand what their interest is, and that they have so far outlived their prejudices that they will follow it. I think no gentleman on this floor can feel sure on these points. What we want, what the nation needs for its own salvation, isa constitutional amendment, or a law of Congress, which shall guaranty the ballot to the freedman of the South. This is not simply his equal political right as a citizen, but his natural right as a man. As I have argued on another occasion, avoice in the Government which deals with property, liberty and life, is not a “ privilege, but a fight, and as natural, as indefcasible as the right to life itself. Government cannot rightfully wrthhold it, but is as sacredly bound to secure it to all men, regardless of race or color, a it is bound to secure other rights which are accorded to them by common consent as natural. In this view I am very glad to find myself sustained by some of the ablest men in this House. Our fathers affirmed, as a self evident truth, that all men are endowed by their Creator with the right to life, libert, and the pursuit of happiness; and that governments are instituted among men to securethese rights, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Sir, et us not shrink from the practical vindication of this truth. Let us recognize no such anomaly in our free system of government as a disfranchised citizen, innocent of crime, but prize the franchise as so sacred that a man without it shall everywhere, and of necessity, wear the brand of a convicted enemy of society. Let us not preach a mere lip democracy, while we confess by our acts, our faith in the maxims of despotism. Let us not, with the warnings of the past before us, still continue to deny the very 0s el of our political salvation, and arm the aliso utists of the Old World with weapons fatal to every just theory of republicanism. Let us not make enemies and outlaws of 4 million people, among whom no traitor or sympathizer with treason has over yet been found; who were eager tohelp us from the very beginnin of our stmggle, and as soon as we were rea. y gladly furnished nearly 200,000 soldiers to aid in saving the nations life; and who, if allowed justice at our hands, will be found in the future, as they have been in the ast, our effective auxiliaries and most faithfu friends. Ah0ve all, let us remember, for our own sake as well as that of the colored race, that justice is omnipotent; that her de mands must be met to the uttermost farthing, and cannot be slighted without offending the Most High; and that if, when our pathway is lighted up by the fires of a stupendous civilWar, which the whole world interprets as the avenger of these wronged millions, we now turn a deaf ear to their cries, our uilt as a nation, and our retribution, will tint? no precedent in the annals of mankind.