mighty agent in all these affairs, and we should
appeal to time. We are not ready yet for a restoration upon rebel
votes; we are not ready yet for a restoration upon colored votes; but,
thank God! we are willing and able to wait. We have the Government, we
have the Constitution of the United States, we have the army and the
navy, the vast moral and material power of the republic. We can
enforce the laws in all the rebel States, and we can keep the peace
until such time as they may be restored with safety to them and safety
to us."

Of the measure proposed by the committee, Mr. Lane remarked: "This
amendment, as I have already endeavored to show, will do away with
much of the irregularity now existing, and which would exist under a
different state of things, the blacks being all free. So far as the
amendment goes, I approve of it, and I think I shall vote for it, but
with a distinct understanding that it is not all that we are required
to do, that it is not the only amendment to the Constitution that
Congress is required to make."

Mr. Lane expressed his opinion of Mr. Summer's "counter-proposition"
in the following language: "It is a noble declaration, but a simple
declaration, a paper bullet that kills no one, and fixes and maintains
the rights of no one."

Of Mr. Henderson's proposition, he said: "It is a simple amendment to
the Constitution of the United States, that no one shall be excluded
from the exercise of the right of suffrage on account of race or
color. That begins at the right point. The only objection to it is,
that its operation can not be immediate, and in the mean time the
rebels may be permitted to vote, and its adoption by the various State
Legislatures is exceedingly doubtful. I should not doubt, however,
that we might secure its adoption by three-fourths of the loyal States
who have never seceded; and I believe that whenever that question is
presented, the Supreme Court of the United States will determine that
a ratification by that number of States is a constitutional approval
of an amendment so as to make it the supreme law of the land. I have
no doubt about it.

"If the rebel States are to be organized immediately, the only
question is whether the right of suffrage shall be given to rebel
white men or loyal black men. The amendment of the Senator from
Missouri meets that issue squarely in the face. Whatsoever I desire to
do I will not do by indirection. I trust I shall always be brave
enou