ing it with the other amendments, as it may
retard, if not endanger, the ratification of the amendment in regard
to representation, and we can not afford to endanger in any manner a
matter of such vital importance to the country."

Mr. Eliot had voted against the former amendment, which was passed by
the House and rejected by the Senate. The present proposed amendment,
while it was not all he could ask, was not open to the objections
which then controlled his vote. In advocating the third section, he
said: "It is clear, upon adjudged law, that the States lately in
rebellion, and the inhabitants of those States, by force of the civil
war, and of the Union triumph in that war, so far have lost their
rights to take part in the Government of the Union that some action on
the part of Congress is required to restore those rights. Pardon and
amnesty given by the President can not restore them. Those men can not
vote for President or for Representatives in Congress until, in some
way, Congress has so acted as to restore their power. The question,
then, is very simple: Shall national power be at once conferred on
those who have striven, by all means open to them, to destroy the
nation's life? Shall our enemies and the enemies of the Government, as
soon as they have been defeated in war, help to direct and to control
the public policy of the Government--and that, too, while those men,
hostile themselves, keep from all exercise of political power the only
true and loyal friends whom we have had, during these four years of
war, within these Southern States?"

It had been argued against the third section that it could not be
enforced, that it would be inoperative. To this objection Mr.
Shellabarger replied: "It will not require standing armies. You can
have registry laws. Upon this registry list you may place the names of
men who are to be disqualified, and you may also have the names of all
who are qualified to vote under the law. There they will stand, there
they will be, to be referred to by your Government in the execution of
its laws. And when it comes to this House or to the Senate to
determine whether a man is duly elected, you can resort to the
ordinary process applicable to a trial in a contested election case in
either body, as to whether he has been elected by the men who were
entitled to elect him."

Thursday, May 10th, was the last day of this discussion in the House.
Mr. Randall first took the floor and spoke in opp