“If Congress had the undoubted and unquestionable authority to pass such a law, it gets at the result more readily than does the Constitutional Amendment; but it is doubtful to my mind whether Congress has this power. I believe, under the Constitution, the right to determine the qualifications of electors is left with the several States.”
Then of the counter proposition he said:—
“It is a noble declaration, but a simple declaration,—a paper bullet, that kills no one, and fixes and maintains the rights of no one.”
Mr. Johnson, of Maryland, Mr. Henderson, of Missouri, Mr. Clark, of New Hampshire, Mr. Williams, of Oregon, Mr. Hendricks, of Indiana, Mr. Yates, of Illinois, Mr. Buckalew, of Pennsylvania, Mr. Pomeroy, of Kansas, Mr. Saulsbury, of Delaware, Mr. Morrill, of Maine, and Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts, all spoke at length. Of these, Mr. Henderson, Mr. Yates, and Mr. Pomeroy sustained Mr. Sumner, in opposition to the House expedient, although the first preferred to assure suffrage by a Constitutional Amendment ordaining it: while insisting upon the ballot for the colored citizen, he doubted the power of Congress. Mr. Johnson thought the claim of our fathers, in their cry against Taxation without Representation, was for communities, and not for individuals. Mr. Sumner afterwards replied at length to this opinion.[197] In the course of Mr. Henderson’s speech, occupying two days, the following colloquy occurred.
Mr. Sumner. Do I understand my friend as insisting that the denial of the franchise is consistent with a republican government? Take the State of South Carolina, which denies the franchise to more than half its population.
Mr. Henderson. In theory it is not. Under the Constitution it was regarded as a republican State at the time of the adoption of the instrument.
Mr. Sumner. It did not deny the franchise to half its citizens and more. I say citizens. Most excluded were slaves.
Mr. Henderson. It then had only one hundred and forty thousand whites, and had one hundred and seven thousand slaves. It also had eighteen hundred free negroes. I think it more nearly a republican State now than then. Practically, the question of suffrage was left to the States——
Mr. Sumner. But that is the question, whether they were left to deny suffrage to any freeman on account of color.
Mr. Henderson. If that be the question, then the point is against my friend; for both South Carolina and Virginia did deny the suffrage to the free negroes on account of color only, at the time when the Constitution was made, and when it was adopted. Virginia had upward of twelve thousand free negroes thus denied.