ress shall have exclusive power of
legislation within the District of Columbia, and it shall
exercise like power over places owned by the United States with
the consent of the States for arsenals, dock-yards, and other
needful buildings, making this District under the exclusive
control of Congress. I think that nothing but the emergencies of
the case could have justified the experiment we tried here with
negro suffrage; but we did it. We now have a fair field in the
West where the country is rich and inviting, as my friend from
Minnesota says, a country that is able to become a State; the
land fertile, the climate salubrious, and is to be occupied by
the very best people, and we can try it there under the most
favorable auspices.

Mr. CONKLING.--May I ask a question?

Mr. STEWART.--Most certainly.

Mr. CONKLING.--The Senator has assured us so often that he is in
earnest, that I know he will be able to afford those like me who
are following him, although they may be somewhat in the dark, the
requisite information. Some Senator inquired of my friend why he
did not try the experiment here, and he answered that Congress
has power to legislate here, and therefore there is no experiment
to try here. Now I know my friend does not mean to paddle out of
any thing, because he has courage enough to stand up to it; and I
submit to him that that is rather "thin." Under the organic law
of this District men vote here annually; the things upon which
they vote are prescribed; and if the Senator is in earnest, I
should like to know some better reason why he does not try it
here. An amendment is in order on this bill to try it here. We
have confessedly in this District, exceptionally in this District
the entire power upon this question; and if the Senator is in
earnest, knowing as he does that under the organic law, of which
as a member of the committee of investigation he has learned so
much, voting is to be done and is now committed exclusively to
men and denied to women, I beg him to state some broader and
better answer to the question why he does not try it here. And
let me remind him at the same time that under the rules of the
Senate an amendment is in order to this bill; he need not go
beyond this bill in order to insure the right in the District