elective
franchise according to the State law. And they may do in regard to the
elective franchise just what they are doing now in regard to slavery.
They may provide that no man shall exercise the elective franchise who
has been guilty of a crime, and then they may denounce these men as
guilty of a crime for every little, imaginary, petty offense. They may
declare that no man shall exercise the right of voting who has not a
regular business or occupation by which he may obtain a livelihood,
and then they may declare that the black man has no settled occupation
and no business. It seems to me, therefore, necessary that we should,
by some provision in this amendment, settle this beyond a
peradventure, so that none of these shifts or devices may defeat the
purpose of the enactment."

Mr. Farnsworth was in favor of more radical remedies: "I protest here
that I will not accept any such constitutional amendment as this as a
substitute for that full measure of justice which it is our duty to
mete out. I will not promise that hereafter I will not propose, and
vote for, and advocate with whatever power I possess, a measure which
will give to all the people of the States that which is their due. By
no vote of mine shall there be incorporated in the Constitution a
provision which shall, even by implication, declare that a State may
disfranchise any portion of its citizens on account of race or color.
We have no right to give our countenance to any such injustice. All
provisions in reference to representation which are based upon any
other principle than that of the people of this country, who are the
subjects of government, have the right to vote and to be represented,
are false in principle. Such a measure may, perhaps, answer for a
temporary expedient, but it will not do as a fundamental rule to be
embodied in the Constitution for the people of this country to live
by. I deny that a State has the right to disfranchise a majority or
even a minority of its citizens because of class or race. And I say
that that provision of the Constitution which makes it the duty of the
General Government to 'guarantee to every State in this Union a
republican form of government' ought to be taken into consideration by
this Congress and enforced. Does a State that denies the elective
franchise to one-half of its citizens possess a republican form of
government? Where a large portion of the citizens of a State--the men
who are required to pay ta