h directly, Mr. Fessenden said: "If
negro suffrage can be secured by the indirect action of an amendment
of the Constitution which appeals to the interest of those who have
hitherto been and who are yet probably the ruling class among whom
this large population is situated, and with whom they live, it will be
far better than to run the risk of all the difficulties that might
arise from a forcible imposition, which would create ill-feeling,
generate discord, and produce, perhaps undying animosities."

To the objection urged by Mr. Hendricks, that it was intended for a
party purpose, Mr. Fessenden replied: "Has he any right to attack the
motives of those who support it? Must it necessarily be attended with
benefit to a particular party? If so, it is necessarily attended with
injury to another party, of which the honorable Senator is a prominent
member; and it would as well become me to say that his opposition to
it is for party purposes and for party objects as it became him to say
that its introduction and its support were intended for party
purposes. It is well known here and out of this Senate that the
honorable Senator from Indiana is a gentleman who never, in any of his
addresses here, says any thing that is in the slightest degree
calculated to effect a party purpose, and has so little of that party
feeling which presses itself upon other men as to be hardly suspected
of being a party man at all." [Laughter.]

Mr. Fessenden thus replied to the objections of two opponents of the
measure: "The Senator [Mr. Hendricks] objected to this measure upon
another ground, and that was, that in one sense it was intended as a
punishment, and that was wrong; and in another sense it was what he
called a bribe, a reward, and that was wrong. If he considers it a
punishment, he differs very much from his leading associate on this
question, the honorable Senator from Massachusetts, [Mr. Sumner,] for
he does not consider it a punishment at all. The Senator from
Massachusetts says there is nothing punitive in it. On the contrary,
it is a reward to these States; it is conferring power upon them; it
is strengthening power in the hands of the whites of the South, and
only oppressing the colored race. Behold how doctors disagree! They
operate upon the same patient, and are operating at the same time,
with different remedies and in different directions.

"Suppose it is a punishment, and suppose it is a bribe, a reward; it
does not differ v