him the
question, 'Can you write your name and read?' 'Oh, yes.' 'Well, let us
see you try it.' He then writes his name and he reads it; and he is
admitted if he is understood to belong to that party. But suppose, as
has recently happened, that this dark man should come to the
conclusion to vote on the other side, and it were known that he meant
to vote on the other side, what kind of a chance would he have? Then
the man of the dominant party, who desires to carry the election,
says, 'You shall not only write your name and read it, but you must
read generally. I have read the senatorial debates upon this question,
and the honorable Senator from West Virginia, who originated this
amendment, was of opinion that a man should read generally. Now, sir,
read generally, if you please.' 'Well,' says he, 'what shall I read?'
Read a section of the _Novum Organum_, or some other most difficult
and abstruse thing, or a few sections from Okie's Physiology."

On the 13th of December, the last day of the discussion, Mr. Anthony
occupied the chair during a portion of the session, and Mr. Foster
took the floor in favor of the amendment proposed by his colleague.
"The honorable Senator from Pennsylvania," said he, "from the manner
in which he treats this subject, I should think, was now fresh from
his reading of 'Much A-do about Nothing,' and was quoting Mr. Justice
Dogberry, who said, 'To be a well-favored man is the gift of fortune,
but to read and write comes by nature.' The Senator from Pennsylvania
and others seem inclined to say, 'Away with writing and reading till
there is need of such vanity.' I believe that the idea of admitting
men to the elective franchise who can neither read nor write is going
backward and downward.

"Who are the men who come forward to deposit their ballots in the
ballot-boxes? They are the people of this country, to whom all
questions must ultimately go for examination and correction. They
correct the mistakes which we make, and which Congress makes, and
which the Supreme Court makes. The electors at the ballot-boxes are
the grand court of errors for the country. Now, sir, these Senators
propose to allow men who can not read and write to correct our
mistakes, to become members of this high court of errors.

"The honorable Senator from Massachusetts says he wants to put the
ballot into the hands of the black man for his protection. If he can
not read the ballot, what kind of protection is it to him? A Wr