Volume II Part 71 (1/2)
Mr. MERRIMON.--My friend did not hear my question. Why not confer suffrage on the women of the District of Columbia.
Mr. SARGENT.--We will the first time we get a chance.
Mr. STEWART.--The Senator from North Carolina asks, ”Why not try it here?” The question has been suggested whether there is not a const.i.tutional reason for not trying it here, and that const.i.tutional question applies to males as well as females. The Const.i.tution says that Congress 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 a.r.s.enals, 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 a.s.sured 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 of Columbia.
Mr. STEWART.--Inasmuch as the Senator from New York has designated me as the leader whom he is to follow, and I take it for granted he is in earnest in his question, I shall occupy the time of the Senate briefly in answering it. When the question arises for suffrage at all in this District, with my present ideas, I shall vote for female suffrage in this District. I was saying that I do not think there need be any popular voting at all in this District by males or females, for the reason that the great ma.s.s of people here are merely sojourners. I think we should govern the District directly by the Congress of the United States, that can pa.s.s all needful laws. When the question comes up properly as to the District, it will be time enough to meet it. Here is the question directly up as to a Territory, and there is no doubt about this being a good opportunity.
Mr. CONKLING.--I beg to inquire when ever in time or eternity that question will come up here, unless some champion who has the courage and genius of my friend brings it up? Who shall bring it up if he refuses to do it? And when a bill is pending to which that amendment is appropriate, and his attention is called to it, if he flinches, if he goes back, who shall we hope for to come hereafter who will break a lance in such a cause? I say to him that unless he wants to discourage me and other men of less courage who are trying to follow him, he must not flinch by saying that he can not do anything about it until it comes on a motion to bring it up. He should bring it up himself.
Mr. STEWART.--The only fear I have as to the Senator from New York is that he will not have sufficient courage to follow.
(Laughter.) The question is up now. The question is squarely up on this amendment whether we will allow the females in this distant Territory to vote. I propose to vote for it. He has said that I was his leader. The only question now is whether he has the courage to follow my lead, I following the lead of the Senator from California. I want to put his courage to the fullest test now. I only ask him to follow me in this one little step. If he breaks down here, I hope he will not say any thing more about it; and I am afraid he will. I will say to him, however, that the time will come when he will look very much astonished if anybody questions the right of a female to vote; and when that time comes, I shall never mention his past record to him because I do not mention unpleasant things to gentlemen. I say that for his benefit in case he should not do the gallant thing he proposes to do of following me, I following the lead of the Senator from California. The question is squarely up, and is nothing more than this: will you give women a chance to try this experiment where it is admitted it can do no harm, and where a large portion if not a majority of the people of the United States believe it will do a great good? Try this experiment there; and if the struggle which is inaugurated there shall spread over the country as the struggle that was inaugurated in Kansas spread over the country and finally terminated in the colored man having full rights, if it should have full effect on the rest of the country, so be it.
I rather think it will.
Mr. MERRIMON.--In the discussion in which I engaged, I was more anxious about the principle involved than I was about the particular amendment, and therefore I hardly mentioned it in the hasty argument which I submitted. In order to support my position now, I desire to read a report from the Judiciary Committee which embraces the very subject under discussion, the question of the power of the State governments and the Federal Government to abridge the right to vote and hold office. The subject came before that committee in the way of a pet.i.tion of certain citizens of the State of Rhode Island who insisted that their rights as citizens of the United States were abridged--
Mr. STEWART.--Will the Senator allow me to ask him a question?
Mr. MERRIMON.--Certainly.
Mr. STEWART.--Suppose the American people come to the conclusion that it is right that females should vote, does not the Senator think there will be plenty of ways to accomplish it notwithstanding that report of the Judiciary Committee?
Mr. MERRIMON.--O yes, I think so; but I do not care to debate that. My object was to throw light on this question. I do not want a wrong construction put upon the powers of the Government at this day. It is important that we should be upon the right line and keep upon it; and with a view to strengthen my argument I ask the Clerk to read the report which I send to the desk. It is very brief; and I beg leave to say now that it is well known to the Senate and must be known to the country that this committee embraces the ablest lawyers in this country on const.i.tutional law.
The CHIEF CLERK read the following report submitted by Mr.
EDMUNDS on the 26th of May, 1870:
The Committee on the Judiciary, to whom was referred the pet.i.tion of citizens of Rhode Island setting forth, by reference, the XIV. and XV. Articles of Amendment to the Const.i.tution of the United States, and stating that, ”the State of Rhode Island, notwithstanding the provisions of the above-named amendments, persists, in and by the first section of article 2 of the const.i.tution of said State, in denying and abridging the right of about 10,000 citizens of the United States to vote at any and all elections holden in said State,” and praying that Congress will ”pa.s.s such appropriate legislation as may be found necessary to obtain for, and secure to, the citizens of the United States resident in Rhode Island all the rights, privileges, and immunities guaranteed to them by the Const.i.tution of the United States,” respectfully report:
That the const.i.tution of Rhode Island, adopted in 1842, prescribes two alternative cla.s.ses of qualifications for voting. The first gives to _all_ male citizens of the United States of a certain age, etc., the right to vote, if they own real estate of the value of $134, or which shall rent for $7 per annum. The second gives to every male _native_ citizen of the United States of a certain age, etc., the right to vote, if he pays a tax of $1 a year, etc., although he may not own real estate. No man or party has ever questioned the right of the people of Rhode Island and of every other State to establish such a const.i.tution of government as maybe agreeable to their views of the public welfare in that State, although its provision as to suffrage may not conform to the opinions of other States. At the time when this const.i.tution of Rhode Island was adopted the right to regulate the qualifications of voters belonged exclusively to the respective States. The pet.i.tion under consideration fully recognizes this, but it raises the question (although studiously framed in such a manner as not to declare or insist upon such a conclusion) whether, by the XIV. and XV. Amendments to the Const.i.tution of the United States, natives of foreign countries who have become citizens of the United States are not ent.i.tled to vote in Rhode Island, without regard to the qualifications imposed by her Const.i.tution?
The committee is unanimously of the opinion that this question must be answered in the negative.
The ”privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States” mentioned in the pet.i.tion as secured by the XIV.
Amendment do not include the right of suffrage. If they did, the right must necessarily exist in _all_ citizens of the United States from the mere fact of citizens.h.i.+p, without the power in any State or in Congress to abridge the same in any degree; and in such case, therefore, no qualification of any kind could be imposed, and all persons (being citizens), males and females, infants, lunatics, and criminals, without respect to age, length of residence, or any other thing, would be ent.i.tled to partic.i.p.ate directly in all elections.
Every provision in every State which experience has proved to be essential to security and good order in society would thereby be overthrown. It is enough to say that the rights secured by this amendment to the const.i.tution are of an altogether different character.
The XV. Amendment does apply to rights of suffrage, and to those only. By it the State of Rhode Island, in common with every other State, is forbidden to deny or abridge the right of citizens of the United States ”to vote on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” But, plainly, the const.i.tution of Rhode Island does not preclude any citizen from voting on either or any of the grounds thus prohibited. No fact of race, or color, or previous servitude prevents any citizen from voting in Rhode Island. Neither of these qualities depends in any degree upon the place of his nativity. This seems too obvious to need discussion. It is also a fact, appearing in the public records of Congress and doubtless known to the pet.i.tioners, that when the XV.
Amendment was under consideration by Congress it was proposed to embrace in it a prohibition of any denial of suffrage, on account of ”nativity,” and that this proposition was not agreed to, for the reason that Congress did not think it expedient to restrict the ancient powers of the States in these respects any further than appeared to be absolutely needful to secure to the whole people the great results of the overthrow of the rebellion.
The committee is therefore of opinion that there is nothing in the provisions of the const.i.tution of Rhode Island referred to in conflict with the Const.i.tution of the United States.
Whether these provisions are wise or right in themselves is a matter over which neither the committee nor Congress has any control. That subject belongs to the people of Rhode Island, who it must be presumed will correct any and all errors that may from time to time be found to exist in her internal affairs.