Mr. WARD. Mr. Speaker, I do not suppose there is a Union man upon this floor but desires that some amendment to the constitution should be secured that shall avdld in future the patent injustice and glaring defect which now exists in the basis of representation in the southern States. The fact that one South Carolinian, whose hands are red with the blood of fallen patriots, and whose skirts are rocking with the odors of Columbia and and ersouville, will have a voice as potential in these Halls as 2 and a half Vermont soldiers who have come back from the grandest battlefields in history maimed and scarred in the contest with SCarolina trai tors in their efforts to destroy this Government, cries aloud for remedy; and it depends upon Congress to inaugurate this remedy and the country expects and demands from the large Union majority here some united action and not to fritter awa our strength in useless visions and accomplish nothin. We must be guided here by a spirit of compromise and harmony. No amendment can be presented entirely free from objection, and that may not bear unequally in seine respects, but l in the spirit of our fathers who framed the immortal instrument we are seekin to change, let us who have a common object at heart strive faithfully to a ree, each section willing. if necessary, to yiel a little for the general good. I am free to say that to my mind there are serious objections to the amendment reported by the committee. Still, if nothing better can be agreed upon, I will support it upon the principle that it is better than no amendment at all. Numerous amendments have been proposed, many of which I deem so extraordinary as to be entirely out of the nestion. There are, however, a class of amendments that propose to base representation upon male suffrage simply. Let us examine for a moment the effect of this. Those who vote will of course in all cases be the direct agents in selecting the representative; but what becomes of that large class of nonveting taxpayers that are found in every section? Are they in no manner to be represented? They Mainly should be enumerated in making up the whole number of those entitled to a representative. If that is not done, then indeed we have reversed the progress of nearly a cen tury, and the doctrine that our fathers fought against and overthrew in the revolutionary struggle is at last asserted in this country and made a part of the fundamental law of the land, namely, “taxation without representation.” The amendment reported by the committee adopts the right principle, and is good enough as at as it goes; but it can readily be seen that if the poor whites of the South or the blacks are excluded for any other ostensible reason than of “race or color, ” or if no reason is given for the exclusion in the law excludin them the same difficulty exists as now, an the object sought to be obtained is defeated. Do you suppose that these “whitewashed” traitors, with the infernalingenuity which maintained the rent rebellion against the grandest army and the most mighty power on earth for 4 long years, will not invent some scheme, if the amendment as it now stands prevails, to keep a downtrodden people whom they hate away from power and all means of elevation, and yet, true to their old habit of appropriating the use of these people without compensation, use their numbers as a basis of representation with which to get themselves into Congress? They will readify publish some ground of excluSion from suffrage other than of “race or color.” They may require them to read and write, and yet keep alive the black code against disseminating knowledge among them. Indeed, they may require them to have acollegiate education, or something else equally absurd. Perhaps the fact of their undoubted loyalty to the Government will be a ground of exclusion. It is no answer to say that the same ground of exclusion must be applied to whites as well as blacks. This does not necessaril follow. Suppose it were so, what consideration have the southern oligarchy ever shown for tln “ oor white trash “I” With their contempt for la or, their known desire for a landed aristocracy and a privileged class, how ready would they be to exclude the masses by some property or other qualifications from power, to the en that they might grasp it all. ow, then, you ask, shall this be remedied? I answer, by simply also excludiii from the basis of representation all these who are deprived of suffrage by reason of a property or tax qualification, or any other qualilicatien not heretofore recognized as a qualification of suffrage in the Statewhere the qualification is applied; so that no subterfuge could be adopted to defeat the purposes of the amendment, and so that a State would have the choice simply, as we desire it should, of enfranchising its eo ple or not having them counted in the bums of representation; and thus the tax ayer of the State is not deprived by the Federal constitution of representation absolutely, as in the other plan I have referred to; but the excepted classes are made dependent upon State action alone, the State having the power at any time to remove the disability that the constitution imposes. amendment consists in adding to the Jtresolution proposed by the committee these words: and prwidedfmjlher That all persons who are deprived of the electivefranchisein any State by reason of a tax or property qualification, or by reasonof any ptherqaali cation, whieh(etharqualifieation wasnot in force on the 1stday of January, 1866, in e State where the sameis applied, shall beexcluded from the basisof representation. 1 So that the pint resolution shall read as follows: Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be includedwithin this Uiiion accordingtotheir respective numbers. counting the whole number of pemons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed: Providge That wheneverthe elective franchiseshall bedeni or abridgedin any State on account of race or color all personsof such race or color shall be excluded from the basisof representation: and voidedfur ther, That all personswho are deprly of the elective franchise in any State by reason of a tax or propertyqualification, orby reasonofany other qualification which other qualifleation)was not in forceon the let day of anuary 1866, in the State where the same is applied shall beexcluded from the basis of representation. I ask the earnest consideration by the House of the amendment. It seems to me to meet all the difficulties that surround us, and I hope it will prevail. It has been suggested that perhaps the loyal States will not pass the amendment. In my judgment the loyal States will pass any article that we shall propose to them for their adeption and make it the fundamental law of the lan. As for the disloyal States, those that stood in a hostile attitude against this Government and have exerted all their power for its destruction during the last 4 years, I have only to say that they have only the right which the criminal has who leads before the judge for mercy. They will pass this amendment as they did the former.