Mr. BINGHAM. Mr. Speaker, I intend to give my support to this bill; but before doing Iso desire to state"my reasons. It is known to the House and to the country that at the kast session we passed bills for the admission of the States o: Nebraska and Colorado into the Union, upon an equal footing with the original States in all respects whatsoever. The constitutions upon which the people of those Terri tories organized their forms of State government were the same then that they are now; and I submit, therefore, to the House and to the country, that the 39th Congress cannot, without stultification, refuse to do this session what it did at the last session in relation to these 2 States and their admission. Your Journals will show that in each case the bills for the admission of the States othis House by a vote of more than 2/3rds. The one perished by the veto of the President; the other perished by the act of the President and by lapse of time, the Congress having adjourn before the expiration of ten days after its pas: sage. I propose to stand now by the record I made then, and trust the House also will stand by its own record on the premises. I regret that the Senate have deemed it necessary to add the 3rd section to this bill. In other respects the bill is the same that we passed at the last session. Notwithstanding the 3rd section, I shall vote for the bill for the reasons I shall give. My 1st objection to the 3rd section, imposing a condition upon the State of Nebraska, is that it is repugnant, in every sense of the word, to the 1st section of the bill and the o: The preamble of the bill recites that the people of Nebraska, have adopted a constitution in conformity with the provisions and conditions of the enabling act of Congress and republican in its form of government. The 1st section of the bill enacts: That the constitution and State government which the people of Nebraska have formed for themselves be, and the same is hereby, accepted, ratified, and confirmed, and that the said State of be, Nebraska shall and is hereby declared to be, one of the U.S.A., and is hereby admitted into the Union upon an equal footing with the original States in all respectswhatsoever. The section added to the bill of the last ses.sion by the Senate provides That this act shall take effectwith the fundamental and perpetual condition that within said State of Nebraska there shall be no abridgement or denial of exercise of the elective franchise, or of any other right to any person by reason of race or color, excepting Indians not taxed. The constitution of the State, which is coa firmed by the 1st section of this bill, limits, as do the constitutions of an overwhelming majority of the States of this Union, the exercise of" the elective franchise and the privilege of the franchise of office to white citizens of the U.S. That constitution with that limitation is expressly ratified and confirmed by the 1st section of the bill, while the same constitution is attempted to be disaffirmed by the 3rd section of the bill; so that the 2 sections cannot stand together. If the 3rd section is passed and valid in law Nebraska be comes a State, not upon the constitution made by the people, but on a constitution made by Congress; if the 1st section is valid, the State is admitted in violation of the 3rd section; therefore, if this bill shall pass in the form in which it now is, the one or the other of those sections must fall. Again, the 1st section declares that the State of Nebraska shall be, and is hereby declared to be, one of the U.S.A., and is hereby admitted into the Union upon an equal footing with the original States in all respectswhatsoever. Now, I venture to affirm that the legislation go). attempted to be imposed upon this State by the 3rd section of this o, no parallel in anything that has ever before been attempted by an American Congress. It is a guarantied power of every State in this Union to regulate for itself the elective franchise within its limits, subject to no condition whatever except that it shall not so exercise that power and so regulate the elective franchise as to transform the State government from one republican in form into any other form of government. The right of the majority of the male citizens of the U.S. of full age to control its political powers is of the essence of the rights guarantied to the States by the 1st article, 2nd section, of the Constitution of the U.S., and reaffirmed by that other provision of the Constititution of the U.S. which declares “that the U.S shall guaranty to every State in this Union a RFG.” he provision of the Constitution of the U.S. is “The HoRep shall be composed of members chosen every 2nd year by the people of the several States, and the electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for the most Pumerous branch of the State Legislature.” Article l, section 2. Now, sir, what is a RFG?. If there is anything settled, under the American Constitution by the traditions of Qur people and by the express laws of this land it is the absolute, unquestioned, unchallenged right of a majority of American male citizens, of full age, resident within an organized constitutional State of this Union, to control its entire political power, both State and national, in the mode probed by the Constitution of the U.S. It has been so settled time and again, legislatively and judicially, and finally it was so settled upon 100s of stricken fields of battle, through 4 years of war, that the majority of the people, speaking through organized State governments, had an unquestioned right to control unchallenged the exercise of the elective franchise under their respective State laws and compel obedience to the decision. That and all other political rights of the people of the several States, acting under the Constitution of the U.S., were challenged by the late rebels in arms, and the American people by wager of battle reaffirmed in fire and blood, where the earthquake led the charge, that there should be no appeal in this land from the decision of the legal majority, either in the affairs of the State or in the af. fairs of the nation. I stand, sir, o that decision, the right of the majority to rule under the law and subject to the Constitution. Again, sir, this principle has been affirmed since our session opened by the solemn act of 12 million people, through their representatives in the Legislative Assemblies of 12 organized States, in the solemn ratification of that constitutional amendment which this congress proposed, and upon the final adoption of which, and its incorporation into the Constitution, depends, in my judgment, the future safety of the Republic. The last clause of this bill is in utter conflict with one of the provisions of the proposed constitutional amendment, as it is in conflict, as I have already shown, with the existing text of the Constitution. The provision of the constitutional amendment to which I refer is as follows: “Sec. 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in eachState, excluding Indians not taxed. But whenthe right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and VEEP, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officersof a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being 21 years of age and citizens of the U.S., or in any way abridged except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number o male citizens 21 yearsof age in such State. What is this but a reaffirmation of the principle that the power of the several States in this Union shall be equal in this: that their representative power must be according to the whole number of their representative population and not otherwise. was so always, with the exception of that provision which was made on account and in restraint of slavery then in our midst; just as this amendment is now made in restraint of any abuse by the States of the reserved power in each to prescribe the qualifications of electors. But, Mr. Speaker, I recur to the provisions of the 3rd section of this bill, and ask, if that is to be held valid and become law, what be comes in that event of the 2nd section of the 1st article of the Constitution, before recited, that “The HoRep shall be composed of members chosen overy 2nd year by the people of the several States, and the electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature.” Why, sir, Congress might as well determine by law of Congress who jbe elected to the most numerous branch of the State legislature; and to be consistent, by the 3rd section of this bill Congress is asked so to deter mine, by the words, “there shall be no denial of the elective franchise or of any other right on account of race or color.” Why not add nor on account of age, sex, or residence; and thereby subject this new State to be over run and $o. by the population of other States and Territories? I for one enter my protest against any such pretended and attempted usurpation of authority. I would not vote for this bill but for the conviction that the section in question has no more validity than so much blank paper, and that so much of the bill as is valid is just and ought to pass that the people of Nebraska may be admitted as a State of the Union. The 3rd section, of which I have spoken as void and an attempted usurpation, declares that This act shall take effect with the fundamental and perpetual condition that within said State of Nebraska there, shall be no abridgment or denial of rtihgehte, xercise of the elective franchise, or of any other to any person by reason of race or color. If you should be able to give effect to this section you thereby say who shall be eligible to the office of Governor; you say by that who shall be eligible to the legislative and to the judicial offices of that State, contrary to the constitution of the people of the State, and forever after the State shall be admitted. I deny the right of Congress to do this.. I would say once for all that this dual system of national and State government under the American organization is the secret of our strength and power. I do not propose to abandon it. I shall vote for the bill, protesting that the 3rd section has no validity and ought not to be embraced in the bill, and from the conviction that the residue of the bill ought to become a law without delay in the interests of the people of Nebraska and of the Republic. “But, ” gentlemen say, “other bills have been passed admitting States upon the condition that they should not allow involuntary servitude or slavery except as a punishment for crime.” New States in that behalf were excepted by the very text of your Constitution. The language of that Constitution as it came to us provided that the power to continue that infernal traffic, the slave trade, should be exercised till 1808 only by the States existing at the time of the adoption of the Constitution. The attempt was made in the convention to extend this provision to the new States; but the proposition to that effect was voted down and rejected. There is therefore no justification in such restrictions against slavery in new States for what is attempted to be done here today. It is urged also that States have been admitted upon the condition that non-resident citizens of the U.S. should be subject to no other or higher rate of tax than resident citizens or be denied the immunities or privileges of citizens therein. But this is simply a car rying out of that provision of the Constitution which declares that “the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens” fo the U.S. ] (sup plying the ellipsis) “in the several States.” It has been urged also that States have been admitted with the condition that the public lands should not be subject to tax within the State. But, sir, the provisions of the Consti.tution declare that wherever the Government of the U.S. acquires property, even within the limits of an organized State, the Congress shall have exclusive jurisdiction in all cases over the same; and therefore such property of necessity is not subject to State taxation. Thus all these limitations have been imposed in strict accordance with the letter and spirit of the Constitution, in aid of, and not, as in this case, in violation of its express provisions. Suppose, sir, to complete this new fangled system of legislation, Congress should provide for the admission of a State “with the fundamental and perpetual condition” that it shall not enjoy as a State of the Union its equal representation in the Senate. The provision securing to the States equal suffrage in the Senate is no more obligatory than the 2nd section of the 1st article, which declares the right of the people of. every State every 2 to choose Representatives in Congress by the votes of such persons as are qualified electors for the most numerous branch of the State Legislature as prescribed by State law, thus affirming the equal right of the respective States to prescribe the qualifications of voters at all elections therein. If in an event Congress was to be allowed to alter the fundamental law of a State as to the qualification of electors or originally prescribed their qualifications, how comes it when the grant was made in the Constitution of the U.S. that “the Congress might at any time by law make regulations or alter State regulations as to the ‘time, place, and manner' of holding elections for Representatives, ” that the power now claimed was not added– “ and to prescribe or alter the regulations fixing the qualification of the electors?”. The answer must be, because it was not intended to give to Congress that power. The other provision of the Constitution is, that the Senate of the U.S shall be composed of 2 Senators from each State chosen by the Legislature thereof. And if it is competent, therefore, for the Congress of the U.S. to impose any such condition as this othis young State of Nebraska, it is equally competent for the Congress to impose that other condition, that said State shall have unequal representation or no representation at all in the Senate of the U.S. Sir, the American people will never submit to it. By the sacrifice of life, by the sacrifice of Treasure, that people have written upon the mount ains and the plains of this land in letters of living light, never, I trust in God, to be erased, that hereafter all the States and all the people of this Union shall be equal before the law; that we shall neither have vassal States nor vassal men in the Republic.