the negative.

Mr. Willey opposed the bill before the Senate in a speech of
considerable length. He advocated the bestowal of a qualified and
restricted suffrage upon the colored people of the District. His chief
objection to the measure before the Senate was that it was untimely.
"Any thing not essential in itself," said he, "or very material to the
welfare of the nation, or a considerable part of the nation, if it is
calculated to complicate our difficulties, or inflame party passions
or sectional animosities, had better be left, it appears to me, to a
more propitious hour."

The "propitious hour" hoped for by the Senator, did not come around
until after the opening of the second session. The subject did not
again seriously occupy the attention of the Senate, with the exception
of Mr. Sumner's effort to have it taken up on the first day of the
session, until the 10th day of December, 1866.

On that day, Mr. Morrill, who, as Chairman of the Committee on the
District of Columbia, had the bill in charge, introduced the subject
with a speech of considerable length. "This measure," said he, "not
only regulates the elective franchise in this District, but it extends
and enlarges it. The principal feature of the bill is that it embraces
the colored citizens of the District of Columbia. In this particular
it is novel, and in this particular it is important. In this
particular it may be said to be inaugurating a policy not only
strictly for the District of Columbia, but in some sense for the
country at large. In this respect it is, I suppose, that this bill has
received so large a share of the public attention during the last
session and the recess of the Congress of the United States."

Mr. Morrill called attention to the remonstrance of the Mayor of
Washington, who had informed the Senate that in an election held for
the purpose of ascertaining the sentiments of the voters of the city
upon the subject, some six thousand five hundred were opposed to the
extension of the elective franchise, while only thirty or forty were
in favor of it.

"These six or seven thousand voters," said Mr. Morrill, "are only one
in thirty at most of the people of this District, and it is very
difficult to understand how there could be more significance or
probative force attached to these six or seven thousand votes than to
an equal number of voices independent of the ballot, under the
circumstances. This is a matter affecting the capital of