endment, was simply seeking to perpetuate its power
in the country; but on this point he was effectively answered by Mr.
Wilson of Massachusetts. "The senator from Kentucky knows, and I
know," said Mr. Wilson, "that this whole struggle to give equal rights
and equal privileges to all citizens of the United States has been an
unpopular one; that we have been forced to struggle against passion and
prejudice engendered by generations of wrong and oppression; that we
have been compelled to struggle against great interests and powerful
political organizations. I say to the senator from Kentucky that the
struggle of the last eight years to give freedom to four and a half
millions of men who were held in slavery, to make them citizens of
the United States, to clothe them with the right of suffrage, to give
them the privilege of being voted for, to make them in all respects
equal to the white citizens of the United States, has cost the
Republican party a quarter of a million votes."

The House of Representatives had been considering the question of the
suffrage amendment at equal step with the Senate. On the 11th of
January Mr. Boutwell of Massachusetts, from the Committee on the
Judiciary, proposed an Amendment to the Constitution in these words:
"The right of any citizen of the United States to vote shall not be
denied or abridged by the United States or any State, by reason of
the race, color, or previous condition of slavery of any citizen or
class of citizens of the United States.--The Congress shall have power
to enforce by proper legislation the provisions of this Article."

Mr. Boutwell made one of the strongest and most pointed arguments
delivered in Congress for the adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment.
He showed that by the Fourteenth Amendment we had declared that "all
persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the
jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the
States wherein they reside." "There are," said he, "citizens in
Kentucky and Maryland eligible to-day to the office of President or
Vice-President of the United States, yet who cannot vote for
representatives in Congress, or even for a State, county or town
officer. What is the qualification for the office of President? He
must be a native-born citizen of the United States and thirty-five
years of age. Nothing more! These are the only qualifications for
the office of President. By the Fourteenth Amendment to t