t in the victory he has
achieved. Let it be our task, as it will be our highest glory, to make
the vanquished, and their posterity to the latest generation, rejoice
in their defeat."

Mr. Julian could not accept heartily the proposition reported by the
joint committee. He thus presented what he considered a preferable
plan: "Under the constitutional injunction upon the United States to
guarantee a republican form of government to every State, I believe
the power already exists in the nation to regulate the right of
suffrage. It can only exercise this power through Congress; and
Congress, of course, must decide what is a republican form of
government, and when the national authority shall interpose against
State action for the purpose of executing the constitutional
guarantee. No one will deny the authority of Congress to decide that
if a State should disfranchise one-third, one-half, or two-thirds of
her citizens, such State would cease to be republican, and might be
required to accept a different rule of suffrage. If Congress could
intervene in such a case, it could obviously intervene in any other
case in which it might deem it necessary or proper. It certainly might
decide that the disfranchisement by a State of a whole race of people
within her borders is inconsistent with a republican form of
government, and in their behalf, and in the execution of its own
authority and duty, restore them to their equal right with others to
the franchise. It might decide, for example, that in North Carolina,
where 631,000 citizens disfranchise 331,000, the government is not
republican, and should be made so by extending the franchise. It might
do the same in Virginia, where 719,000 citizens disfranchise 533,000;
in Alabama, where 596,000 citizens disfranchise 437,000; in Georgia,
where 591,000 citizens disfranchise 465,000; in Louisiana, where
357,000 citizens disfranchise 350,000; in Mississippi, where 353,000
citizens disfranchise 436,000; and in South Carolina, where only
291,000 citizens disfranchise 411,000. Can any man who reverences the
Constitution deny either the authority or the duty of Congress to do
all this in the execution of the guarantee named? Or if the 411,000
negroes in South Carolina were to organize a government, and
disfranchise her 291,000 white citizens, would any body doubt the
authority of Congress to pronounce such government anti-republican,
and secure the ballot equally to white and black citizens as t