hat even among Republicans there
was no disposition at this period to confer upon the negro the right
to vote. Even so radical a Republican as Mr. Fessenden, during the
debate in the Senate on this question, said, "I take it that no one
contends--I think the Honorable Senator from Massachusetts himself (Mr.
Sumner), who is the great champion of universal suffrage, would
hardly contend--that now, at this time, the whole of the population of
the recent slave States is fit to be admitted to the exercise of the
right of suffrage. I presume no man who looks at the question
dispassionately and calmly could contend that the great mass of those
who were recently slaves (undoubtedly there may be exceptions), and
who have been kept in ignorance all their lives, oppressed and more or
less forbidden to acquire information, are fitted at this stage to
exercise the right of suffrage, or could be trusted to do it unless
under such good advice as those better informed might be prepared to
give them."

The bill, as finally passed by both Houses, reached the President on
the 10th of February. On the 19th he sent a message to Congress
informing each House that, having with much regret come to the
conclusion that it would not be consistent with the public welfare to
give his approval to the measure, he returned the bill to the Senate,
stating his objections to its becoming a law. The main argument of the
President was based upon the principle that legislation such as that
contained in the bill was not proper for States that were deprived of
their right of representation in both branches of Congress. "The
Constitution," he said, "imperatively declares, in connection with
taxation, that each State shall have at least one representative,
and fixed the rule for the number to which in future times each State
shall be entitled. It also provides that the Senate of the United
States shall be composed of two senators from each State, and adds with
peculiar force that no State, without its consent, shall be deprived
of its equal suffrage in the Senate. . . . Burdens have now to be borne
by all the country, and we may best deem that they shall be borne
without murmur when they are voted by a majority of the representatives
of all the people. . . . At present all the representatives of eleven
States are excluded, those who were the most faithful during the war
not less than others. The State of Tennessee, for instance, whose
authorities were e