s to the measure now under consideration. This
subject of amending the Constitution under which we have lived so
long, so happily, and so prosperously, is one of great moment; and
while I have some confidence in the ability and capacity of some of
the friends on the opposite side to make a constitution, yet I prefer
the Constitution as made by our fathers eighty years ago.

"In my opinion, the amendment proposed is in violation of the reserved
rights of the people of the States under that instrument. The object
and purpose of this resolution is to enfranchise a million men in this
country whom no political party in this country ever had the boldness
to propose the enfranchisement of prior to the present session of
Congress. I remember that, in 1860 and 1861, the party known in this
country as the Union party took the ground, from one end of the
country to the other, that neither Congress nor the people of the
States had the power, under the Constitution of the United States, to
interfere with slavery in the States where it existed; much less, sir,
did they claim the power not only to destroy it, but to strike down
the provisions of the Constitution that protected me and my
constituents in our right to our property. Sir, there was an amendment
submitted then for the purpose of peace, for the purpose of restoring
peace and quiet throughout the country. It met, at the time, my hearty
support, and I regret, from the bottom of my heart, that the people,
North, South, East, and West, did not agree to that proposition, and
make it part and parcel of the Constitution. I refer to the amendment
proposed in 1861, declaring that Congress should never thereafter
interfere with the question of slavery in the States.

"Sir, it is a well-established principle that no one should be
permitted to take advantage of his own wrong. If the party in power
have succeeded in freeing the slaves of the South, ought they not, at
least, to allow the Southern States to enjoy the increased
representation to which, according to the rule established by the
Constitution, they are now entitled? Or, if the Northern States
sincerely desire that the negroes of the South shall vote and shall be
represented in Congress, let them transport those negroes to the North
and take them under their guardianship; they are welcome to them.

"I believe that the people of Kentucky, whom I in part represent, and
I have no doubt the people of the whole South, will submit