n the
floor. He said: "The resolution provides that whenever the elective
franchise shall be denied or abridged in any State, on account of race
or color, all persons of such race or color shall be excluded from the
basis of representation. Now, there is a great deal of indefiniteness
in both those terms, 'race' and 'color.'

"What is a race of men? Writers upon the subject of races differ very
materially on this point. Some of them would make four or five races;
others fifteen; and one, whom I might name, seems inclined not to
limit the number short of a thousand. I myself am inclined to think
that the Celtic race is a distinct one from ours. I think that any
gentleman who has studied this subject attentively will at least have
doubts whether or not the race that appears to have inhabited Europe
in the early historic period, and has been partly dispossessed there
by ours, is not a distinct race from ours.

"Again: the word 'color' is exceedingly indefinite. If we had a
constitutional standard of color, that of sole-leather, for example,
by which to test the State laws upon this subject, there might be less
danger in incorporating this provision in the Constitution. But the
term 'color' is nowhere defined in the Constitution or the law. We
apply the term to persons who are of African descent, whether their
color is whiter or darker than ours. Every one who is familiar with
the ethnological condition of things here in the United States, and
who sees the general mixing up of colors, particularly in the
Democratic portion of the country--I allude to that portion south of
Mason and Dixon's line--must say with me that the word 'color' has no
very distinct meaning when applied to the different peoples of the
United States of America."

Two Representatives from New York--Mr. Davis and Mr. Ward--expressed
opinions favorable to a modification of the basis of representation,
and yet were opposed to the details of the proposition before the
House.

Mr. Nicholson, of Delaware, in emphatic terms, denounced the acts of a
majority of the House in attempting to amend the Constitution. "If
they shall finally triumph," said he, "in the mad schemes in which
they are engaged, they will succeed in converting that heretofore
sacred instrument, reverenced and obeyed till the present dominant
party came into power, from a bond of union to a galling yoke of
oppression--a thing to be loathed and despised."

The discussion was still much p