Mr. WADE. I do not remember about Flor ida. The gentleman spoke of Florida coming in without an enabling act. I do not recollect that it did. But in searching back the cases, and hearing this question argued so often here, I do not recollect that Florida. has ever before been cited as an instance where a Territory has been admitted without an enablin not, though I (:0not pretend to say that it h an enabling ac. I kuowit is in the power of Congress, if they see fit, to ratify what these people have done; butif they do it they do it at the hazardof setting a precedent which will be attended with very great disadvantage in a great many ways. For How was it with I has been here long has done it. instance, a Territory will be feverish and uneasy to get into the Union without any regard to its population, and without asking Congress whether it is properthey should come in or not. There is no question but that will be the case. The will make a eorfititution, they will elect all their Officers, they will appear at the doors of our Capitol demanding to be admitted, outfit will be a hardship to them if they are turned out of doors after all this expense in curred and have to go home empty. We are reluctant to do any such thin, but nevertheless. if you set this exam le, it will be all hap hazard hereafter; they will form constitutions and de mand admission under such circumstances that.undoubtedly no judicious m and would say they ought to come in. Then, they labor under the disadvantage of having been at the expense of getting up a constitution and voting upon it and sending members here for admission from remote parts of the Union, and staying here a great while at rest expense in order to have the question tried, and with a case that congress cannot sanction. Sir, they ought not to come in without an enabling act. I will not say that circumstances may not transpire where it is proper to admit a State withoutan enabling act, but there should be some great and paramount reason for it when a people appear in that way. They certainly shon d not come here and ask for one and have it refused, and right over on to of that refusal come here and in defiance of the act of Congress claim that they ought to come in. I say that when the applied last winter and we refused to give them a new enabling act, it was as much as saying to that people, “In the judgment of Congress you are not in a condition to come into the Union;" and therefore these people cannot complain that it is any hardship that we do not admit. them, because we did not tell them we would admit them; we did not tell them the could come in. On the other hand, we tol them, “ You cannot come in yet; in the judgngent of Congress you are not in a condition t come in, and your own people, the last time we heard from them, decied that it was not for their interest to come in.” For these reasons and a great many more that I might detail, perhaps not as strongl and as cogentlyas theyhave been detailed by Others, in my judgment this Territory is notin such a condition as that in justice to her own people and in justice to the other States of the Union, she should now be admitted into the Union. As to this word “white” in the constitution, I have but one word to say. In my judgment that of itself constitutes a very great reason why she should not be admitted. It will not do to tell me that I have voted heretofore for the admission of States with the word “.white” in their constitutions, excluding the colored population. I have no doubt that every Senatorwho Why, sir, the man who has made no progress upon the great subject of human rights within the last 5 or 6 years belongs to the fossil race; he must be clear down to the old red sandstone. [Laughter.] We are now demanding free sutirage everywhere. How long have we been doing so? How long is it that slavery has been abolished throu bout this whole Union? How could a man 5 years ago stand upon this floor and claim that the black population should have the right of suffrage in every Territory admitted into this Union? We were contending then, not for the admission of the blacks to the right of voting in the Territories, but we were endeavoring to fence out slavery itself in the territories. We were fighting in a death struggle to keep slavery out. It would have been preposterous then to talk about admitting one with the right of the colored people to vote, and the man that would have insisted upon it would have been an impractical man. A statesman should always take all the good that he can possibly get. My rule has always been to contend for all that pertains to human right and liberty that under the circumstances can be oxtorted from those who are reluctant to grant it, and if I can et an inch I will not fore of the opportunity. will ask what I can get. but in those days we could get nothing; and it was a great triumph if we could fence slavery out of an Territory., Vhy, sir, the fiercest battles that were ever fought in this Senate were fought over the question whether there should be slavery allover the Territories and all over the States, and we thought ourselves happy if we could fence it from there. My mind has under one no change upon this subject. I knew what was right then just as well as I know it now. I knew that the colored man had the same right to political power that a white man had. ny man in any country that is responsible for maintaining that nation or State is entitled to vote, and it is nothing but oppression and tyranny to exclude him from it. The man who desires to exclude anybod, white or black, who has the burdens of the Covernmentto bear, and will not let him participate in all the privileges, political and civil, that he himself enjoys is a tyrant, and I would not trust him with mv dog.