that fact as the exercise of a
right which this bill would abridge or impair. The honorable gentleman
from Massachusetts (Mr. Dawes) answered him truly and well, but I submit
that he did not make the best reply, why did he not ask the gentleman
from Kentucky if Massachusetts had ever discriminated against any of her
citizens on account of color, or race, or previous condition of
servitude? When did Massachusetts sully her proud record by placing on
her statute-book any law which admitted to the ballot the white man and
shut out the black man. She has never done it; she will not do it; she
cannot do it so long as we have a Supreme Court which reads the
Constitution of our country with the eyes of Justice; nor can
Massachusetts or Kentucky deny to any man on account of his race,
color, or previous condition of servitude, that perfect equality of
protection under the laws so long as Congress shall exercise the power
to enforce by appropriate legislation the great and unquestionable
securities embodied in the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution.

* * * * *

Now, sir, having spoken of the prohibition imposed by Massachusetts, I
may be pardoned for a slight inquiry as to the effect of this
prohibition. First, it did not in any way abridge or curtail the
exercise of the suffrage by any person who enjoyed such right. Nor did
it discriminate against the illiterate native and the illiterate
foreigner. Being enacted for the good of the entire commonwealth, like
all just laws, its obligations fell equally and impartially on all its
citizens. And as a justification for such a measure, it is a fact too
well known almost for mention here that Massachusetts had, from the
beginning of her history, recognized the inestimable value of an
educated ballot, by not only maintaining a system of free schools, but
also enforcing an attendance thereupon, as one of the safeguards for the
preservation of a real republican form of government. Recurring then,
sir, to the possible contingency alluded to by the gentleman from
Kentucky, should the State of Kentucky, having first established a
system of common schools whose doors shall swing open freely to all, as
contemplated by the provisions of this bill, adopt a provision similar
to that of Massachusetts, no one would have cause justly to complain.
And if in the coming years the result of such legislation should produce
a constituency rivaling that of the Old Bay State, no one would be more
h