ation between the male and the female
portion of the American people; they provided that the males
should hold the offices, that the males should have the right to
vote; and not only that, but by way of further exposition of
their views of the nature, purposes, and meaning of the
Declaration, they provided that the black race should be slaves.
That Constitution recognizes negro slavery in three several
provisions.

Mr. MORTON.--Does the Senator speak of the Constitution of the
United States?

Mr. MERRIMON.--Yes, sir. In the matter of representation, slavery
was expressly provided for; it was recognized in another
provision relative to prohibiting the importation of certain
persons until after the year 1808; and in another provision which
provided that those held to labor, escaping to another State,
should be surrendered to their masters on demand. The
Constitution of the Union, made in pursuance of this very
Declaration of Independence and conforming to it, recognized a
distinction between the white race and the black race, and
recognized and provided distinctions between the male and the
female portions of the people of the American Union, and thereby
in the most absolute manner drew the civil and political
distinctions that have been kept up in one way or another from
that day to this, and which I contend, with a view to good
government, so far as the male and female portions of the
American people go, ought to be kept up and perpetuated. It seems
to me that any one who will take into consideration the facts to
which I have called attention must see that the broad, radical
construction which the Senator puts on the Declaration of
Independence can not be sustained by reason, authority, or
practice.

But, sir, I want now to refer to the position taken by the
Senator from California [Mr. Sargent]. He says that under the
Constitution by the XIII., XIV. and XV. articles of Amendment,
Congress has no power to deprive the females of this country of
the right of suffrage. That I deny as emphatically as I can. I
read from Paschal's Annotated Constitution, p. 65:

18. But citizenship of the United States, or of a State,
does not of itself give the right to vote; nor, _e
converso_, does the want of it prevent a State