ason for dreading
interference from that quarter I know not. [Laughter.] I certainly
shall never vote to insert the word 'male' or the word 'white' in the
national Constitution. Let these things be attended to by the
States."

In answer to the objection that the amendment proposed by the
committee "might be evaded by saying that no man who had ever been a
slave should vote, and that would not be disfranchisement on account
of race or color," Mr. Stevens said: "Sir, no man in America ever was
or ever could be a slave if he was a white man. I know white men have
been held in bondage contrary to law. But there never was a court in
the United States, in a slave State or a free State, that has not
admitted that if one held as a slave could prove himself to be white,
he was that instant free. And, therefore, such an exclusion, on
account of previous condition of slavery, must be an exclusion on
account of race or color. Therefore that objection falls to the
ground."

In reply to the closing paragraph of Mr. Raymond's speech, Mr. Stevens
said: "I could not but admire (an admiration mingled with wonder) the
amiability of temper, the tenderness of heart, the generosity of
feeling which must have prompted some of the closing sentences of the
excellent and able speech delivered by the gentleman on last Monday.
His words were these:

"'The gigantic contest is at an end. The courage and
devotion on either side, which made it so terrible and so
long, no longer owe a divided duty, but have become the
common property of the American name, the priceless
possession of the American Republic, through all time to
come. The dead of the contending hosts sleep beneath the
soil of a common country, under their common flag. Their
hostilities are hushed, and they are the dead of the nation
for evermore.'

"Sir, much more than amiable, much more than religious, must be the
sentiment that would prompt any man to say that 'the courage and
devotion' which so long withstood our arms, prolonging the terrible
conflict of war, and sacrificing the lives of thousands of loyal men,
are hereafter to be the common boast of the nation, 'the priceless
possession of the American Republic through all time to come;' that it
is the pride of our country so many infamous rebels were so ferocious
in their murders.

"Sir, we are to consider these dead on both sides as the dead of the
nation, the common dead! And so,