treat them better than the Republicans do, they will probably
get their votes, and I hope they will.

"And it will be just so down in these rebel States. Give the negroes
of Virginia the right to vote, and you will find Wise and Letcher and
the whole tribe of the secessionists undertaking to prove that from
the landing at Jamestown in 1620 the first families of the Old
Dominion have always been the champions and the special friends of the
negroes of Old Virginia, and that there is a great deal of kindred
between them, [laughter;] that they are relations, brethren; that the
same red blood courses in the veins of many of them. They will
establish all these things, perhaps by affidavits. [Laughter.] And I
say to you, sir, they will have a good opportunity to get a good many
of their votes, for in these respects they have the advantage of us
poor Republicans."

Of the pending amendment, Mr. Hendricks said: "I propose to vote for
it, not because I am in favor, as a general proposition, of an
intelligence qualification for the right to vote, but because in this
particular instance, I think it to be proper to prescribe it."

"I shall vote," said Mr. Lane, "to enfranchise the colored residents
of this District because I believe it is right, just, and proper;
because I believe it is in accordance with those two grand central
truths around which cluster every hope for redeemed humanity, the
common fatherhood of God above us and the brotherhood of universal
mankind."

"The bill for Impartial Suffrage in the District of Columbia," said
Mr. Sumner, "concerns directly some twenty thousand colored persons,
whom it will lift to the adamantine platform of equal rights. If it
were regarded simply in its bearings on the District it would be
difficult to exaggerate its value; but when it is regarded as an
example to the whole country under the sanction of Congress, its value
is infinite. It is in the latter character that it becomes a pillar of
fire to illumine the footsteps of millions. What we do here will be
done in the disorganized States. Therefore, we must be careful that
what we do here is best for the disorganized States.

"When I am asked to open the suffrage to women, or when I am asked to
establish an educational standard, I can not on the present bill
simply because the controlling necessity under which we act will not
allow it. By a singular Providence we are now constrained to this
measure of enfranchisement for the sak