d the Electoral College consist of sufficiently qualified
voters alone; _Second_, To deprive the States of the power to
disqualify or discriminate politically on account of race or color.

After presenting some reasons why the committee saw proper to
recommend neither of these plans, Mr. Conkling further argued in favor
of the proposed amendment: "It contains but one condition, and that
rests upon a principle already imbedded in the Constitution, and as
old as free government itself. That principle I affirmed in the
beginning; namely, that representation does not belong to those who
have not political existence, but to those who have. The object of the
amendment is to enforce this truth. It therefore provides that
whenever any State finds within its borders a race of beings unfit for
political existence, that race shall not be represented in the Federal
Government. Every State will be left free to extend or withhold the
elective franchise on such terms as it pleases, and this without
losing any thing in representation if the terms are impartial as to
all. Qualifications of voters may be required of any kind--qualifications
of intelligence, of property, or of any sort whatever, and yet no loss
of representation shall thereby be suffered. But whenever in any
State, and so long as a race can be found which is so low, so bad, so
ignorant, so stupid, that it is deemed necessary to exclude men from
the right to vote merely because they belong to that race, in that
case the race shall likewise be excluded from the sum of Federal power
to which the State is entitled. If a race is so vile or worthless that
to belong to it is alone cause of exclusion from political action, the
race is not to be counted here in Congress."

Mr. Conkling maintained that the pending proposition commended itself
for many reasons. "_First._ It provides for representation coextensive
with taxation. I say it provides for this; it does not certainly
secure it, but it enables every State to secure it. It does not,
therefore, as the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Rogers] insists,
violate the rule that representation should go with taxation. If a
race in any State is kept unfit to vote, and fit only to drudge, the
wealth created by its work ought to be taxed. Those who profit by such
a system, or such a condition of things, ought to be taxed for it. Let
them build churches and school-houses, and found newspapers, as New
York and other States have done, and