ntions and Legislatures as there are hundreds in
this Congress.

"There is no equality, and there can be no equality, in the proposed
amendment. It seems to me, therefore, if we undertake to amend the
fundamental law at all in this respect, we ought to agree upon what
should be the qualification of voters for members of this House,
embodying them in the proposed amendments to submit to the
Legislatures of the States. Then there would be a definite
proposition; and that, I believe, if it emanated from this House,
would have substantial equality and justice--would have the elements
of equality and uniformity, and be enforced without difficulty in
every State of the Union."

Referring to a mode which might be adopted for evading the legitimate
results of the proposed amendment, Mr. Jenckes remarked: "I was
alluding to another one. Some of the Southern States, up to the
breaking out of the war, had constitutions which prescribed a property
qualification. Suppose this amendment were adopted, and the State of
South Carolina chose to annul the Constitution recently proclaimed and
to go back to that of 1790, and that the word 'white' should be
stricken out of it, I desire to ask how many freedmen, how many
persons of African descent, can be found who own in fee fifty acres of
land or a town lot, or who have paid a tax of three shillings
sterling. As far as I can ascertain from the statistics, there would
not be, if that constitution were restored and the word 'white'
omitted, over five hundred additional qualified voters in that State.

"Ever since the adoption of the Constitution of 1790 down to the time
of firing on Fort Sumter, South Carolina was in practical relation to
this Government as a State of this Union. She had been considered as
having a republican form of government, and that which we had
guaranteed as such for many years we would be bound to guarantee to
her hereafter. Stronger than ever this oligarchy would be enthroned
upon their old seat of power, not upheld merely by slaves beneath it,
but by the power of the General Government above and around it. She
might make any of the discriminations which I have suggested, of age,
of residence, of previous servitude, and of ignorance or poverty."

Mr. Trimble, of Kentucky, was "exceedingly gratified at the
disposition manifested among the party in opposition here, by reason
of their own differences of opinion, to allow an opportunity to us to
present our objection