Mr. HOTCHKISS. Constitutions should have their provisions so plain that it will be unnecessary for courts to give construction to them; they should be so plain that the common iniod can understand them. The 1st part of this amendment, to which the gentleman alludes, is precisely like the present Constitution; it confers no additional powers. it is the latter clause wherein Congress is given the power to establish these uniform laws throughout the U.S. Now, if the gentleman s object is, as I have no doubt it is, to provide againsta discrimination to the injury or exclusion of any class of citizens in any State from the privileges which other classes enjoy, the right should be incorporated into the constitution. It should be a constitutional right that cannot be wrested from any class of citizens, or from the citizens of any State by mere legislation. But this amendment proposes to leave it. to the on rice of Congress; and your legislation upon the subject would do end upon the political majority of Congress, an not upon 2/3rds of Congress and 3/4ths of the States. New, I desire that the very privileges for which the gentleman is conteuing shall be secured to the citizens; but I want. them secured by a constitutional amendment that legislation cannot override. Then if the gentleman wishes to go further, and provide by laws of Congress for the enforcement of these rights, I will go with him. But now, when we have the power in this.I do not wish to be Government the power in this congress, and l i g: gr the power in the ates to make the Constitution what we desire it to he, Iwant to secure those rights against accidents, against the accidental majorit of Congress. suppose that we should have ere the influx of reliels which the gentleman predicts; suppose 100 rebels should come here from the rebel States. Then add to them their northern sympathizers, and a reasonable %age of deserters from our side, and what would become of this legislation 2 and what benefitwould the black man or the white man derive from it? Place these guarantees in the Constitution in such a way that they cannot be striped from us by any accident, and I will go With the gentleman. Mr. Speaker, I make these remarks because placed in the wrong upon thisquestion. I think! the Gentfrom Ohio [Mr. BINGHAM] is not sutficientl radical in his views upon this subject. I think he is a conservative. Laughton] I do not inake the remark in any offensive sense. But I want him to go to the root of this matter is amendment is not as strong as the constitution now is. The Constitution now gives equal rights to a certain extent to all citizens. this amendment provides that Congress may pass laws to enforce these rights. Why not provide by an amendment to the Constitution that no State shall discriminate against any class of its citizens; and let that amendment stand as a part of the organic law of the land, subject only to be defeated by another constitutional amendment. We may pass laws here today and the next Congress may wipe them out. Where is our guarantee then? Let us have a ittle time to compare our views upon this subject, and avree upon an amendment that shall secure Iieyou question what the gentleman desires to secure. It is with that view, and no other, that I shall vote to postpone this subject for the present.