duress and by force. No man dare charge me with that. I have
endeavored to act here as an honest man feeling his own
responsibilities, feeling the responsibilities of the oath upon
him when he took it; obliged to interpret the Constitution as he
himself understands it; feeling that that Constitution was a
restraint upon him, a restraint upon the people, a restraint upon
everybody; that we were sent here for the purpose of standing
upon it even against the rage of the people, even against their
desire to trample it under foot. Feeling all these things, I
have stood here, and appeal to my fellow-Senators to know if any
one of them can say that at any time I have manifested the
smallest disposition to yield in any one particular. I scorn the
imputation; I would rather have the approval of my own
conscience, I would rather walk in the star-light and look up to
them and to the God who made me free and independent, than to
seek the highest station upon the earth by truckling to any man
or to any set of people, or giving up my free opinions.

And yet I propose not to be irrational in this matter. As I said
yesterday, and as I said to-day, I have struggled against change;
but if it is to be made I wish to direct it properly. I made in
my own person, two or three years ago, a motion which passed this
body by, I think, a vote of precisely two to one--I believe it
was 28 to 14--that the voters of the District of Columbia should
be confined to white males; but upon that occasion I stated--and
the debates will bear me out, I think--that if the door of the
franchise was to be opened, if it was thought that the safety of
the country required more people to cast ballots, more people to
enjoy this privilege, I would open it to the women of the country
sooner than I would open it to the negroes. I say so to-day. You
are determined to open it to the negroes. I appeal to you to open
it to the women. You say there is no danger in opening it to the
negroes. I say there is no danger then in opening it to the
women. You say that it is safe in the hands of the negroes. I say
it is equally safe in the hands of our sisters, and more safe in
the hands of our wives and our mothers. I say more to you. I say
you have not demonstrated that it is safe to confer the franchise