tion of the Union
until after the next Presidential election."

Mr. Kelley, if he "could have controlled the report of the Committee
of Fifteen, would have proposed to give the right of suffrage to every
loyal man in the country." He advocated the amendment, however, in all
its provisions. He especially defended the third section. "This
measure," said he, "does not propose to punish them; on the contrary,
it is an act of amnesty, and proposes, after four years, to reinvest
them with all their rights, which they do not possess at this time
because of their crime."

The passage of the resolution was next advocated by Mr. Schenck.
Referring to the third section, he denied the principle advanced by
Mr. Garfield that there was any thing inconsistent or wrong in making
it an exclusion for a term of years instead of exclusion altogether.
"If there be any thing in that argument," said he, "in case of crime,
you must either not sentence a man to the penitentiary at all, or else
incarcerate him for the term of his natural life. Or, to compare it to
another thing, which perhaps better illustrates the principle
involved, when a foreigner arrives upon our shores we should not say
to him, 'At the end of five years, when you have familiarized yourself
with our institutions, and become attached to them, we will allow you
to become a citizen, and admit you to all the franchises we enjoy,'
but we should require that he be naturalized the moment he touches our
soil, or else excluded from the rights of citizenship forever."

Mr. Schenck thought the loyal and true people throughout the land were
"full ready to declare that those who have proved traitors, and have
raised their parricidal hands against the life of the country, who
have attempted to strike down our Government and destroy its
institutions, should be the very last to be trusted to take any share
in preserving, conducting, and carrying on that Government and
maintaining those institutions."

Mr. Smith opposed the resolution in a speech which, if it added
nothing to the arguments, contributed, by its good humored
personalities and its harmless extravagancies, to the amusement of the
auditors.

On the following day, May 9th, the consideration of the subject was
resumed, and Mr. Broomall addressed the House in favor of the
resolution. He began by counting the votes that would probably be cast
against the amendment. "It would meet the opposition," said he, "of
the unrepentant