having paid all required taxes." That
constitution has existed since 1780. It was provided further in
that constitution that "no person shall have the right to vote or
to be eligible to office under this Commonwealth who shall not be
able to read the constitution in the English language and write
his name. So that the power which I insist belongs to the United
States, and I think I have shown belongs to the States, not only
exists, but is actually exercised by States, at least two States
of the Union, at this moment; and indeed in nearly or quite all
the States there are more or less restrictions of the right to
vote; and the State and the Union have absolute power to abridge
the political right to vote except for three causes only, and
those three causes are race, color, or previous condition of
servitude.

Mr. STEWART.--I hope that the Senate will not suppose that there
is any constitutional question here involved. It is simply a
question of regulating the suffrage in a Territory, exclusively
under the jurisdiction of the Congress of the United States.
There is no doubt of the power of Congress to allow women to vote
in the Territories, and I hope there will not be a great deal of
time spent on that matter.

Mr. MERRIMON.--Why do you want to go into a remote, sparsely
settled Territory to make the experiment?

Mr. STEWART.--Why not try it everywhere? Why not try it in North
Carolina? Because we can not.

Mr. MERRIMON.--Why not try it in this city?

Mr. STEWART.--Because we have not the power to do it.

Mr. MERRIMON.--You have in the District of Columbia.

Mr. SARGENT.--We tried the question of negro suffrage in Nebraska
first.

Mr. STEWART.--Negro suffrage was opened in a Territory when there
were less people in it than there are here, and see how that has
spread.

Mr. MERRIMON.--My friend did not hear my question. Why not confer
suffrage on the women of the District of Columbia.

Mr. SARGENT.--We will the first time we get a chance.

Mr. STEWART.--The Senator from North Carolina asks, "Why not try
it here?" The question has been suggested whether there is not a
constitutional reason for not trying it here, and that
constitutional question applies to males as well as females. The
Constitution says that Cong