Page:Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Affairs (Volume Two).djvu/49

Rh recently by order of the Senate. From that report it appears that I proposed an amendment for conferring the right to vote upon the freedmen of the State of Tennessee. As far as I know that was the first time the proposition was made in connection with the proceedings of Congress. The committee did not concur in the proposition. Indeed the time had not come for decisive action in that direction. The motion was made in the committee the 19th day of February, 1866, when the admission of the State of Tennessee into the Union was under consideration. The motion was in these words: “Said State shall make no distinction in the exercise of the elective franchise on account of race or color.” The motion was lost by the following vote:

Yeas: Howard, Stevens, Washburne, Morrill, Boutwell.

Nays: Harris, Williams, Grider, Bingham, Conkling, Rogers.

Absent: Fessenden, Grimes, Johnson, Blow.

The 16th day of April Senator Stuart, of Nevada, came before the committee in support of a similar proposition that he had introduced in the Senate April 7.

In January, 1866, a bill was under discussion in the House of Representatives for the establishment of a government in the District of Columbia. Mr. Hale of New York moved amendments by which the right of suffrage by negroes would be limited to those who could read and write, to those who had performed service in the army or navy or who possessed property qualifications. The amendment was defeated. My views were thus stated in one of the very small number of my speeches that have had immediate influence upon an audience or an assembly:

“I am opposed to the instructions moved by the gentleman from New York, because I see in them no advantage to anybody, and I apprehend from their adoption much evil