ation in the House. Five attempts were made to amend,' one of which was successful; namely, that offered by Mr. Bingham of Ohio, adding the words which the Senate had originally proposed, "nativity, property, creed," to the other specifications. Thus amended, the House passed the resolution by a vote of 140 to 37.2

The Senate in its turn rejected the House amendment, although it was substantially like that it had first adopted, and asked for a committee of conference. The House insisted on its amendment, but agreed to appoint a committee of conference. "The rule, indeed, seemed to be for each branch to desert its own proposition as soon as there was a prospect that the other branch would agree to it."3

The controversy was finally adjusted by the committees which reported the fifteenth amendment in the precise form in which it was finally incorporated in the Constitution. Both Houses accepted the resolution thus amended, the House by a vote of 145 yeas to 44 nays, the Senate 39 yeas to 13 nays. Thus the fifteenth amendment was recommended to the States, by Congress, on the 26th of February, 1869-six days before the expiration of the Fortieth Congress and the inauguration of General Grant as President.5

On the 30th of March, 1870, the Secretary of State issued a proclamation declaring that the amendment had been ratified by the legislatures of twenty-nine of the States, which constituted the necessary three-fourths, and thus it was incorporated in the Constitution.

132. MISCELLANEOUS PROPOSITIONS ON THE SUFFRAGE SINCE THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT.

A few amendments have been presented since the passage of the fifteenth amendment, proposing additional regulations in regard to the suffrage.

The first of these was presented by Senator Pomeroy of Kansas twice during the year 1870. It declared that "the basis of suffrage in the United States shall be that of citizenship," "but each State shall determine by law the age of the citizen and the time of residence required for the exercise of the right of suffrage, which shall apply equally to all citizens; and

1 App., Nos. 1302-1306.

2 App., No. 1305.

3 Blaine's Twenty Years of Congress, Vol. II, p. 417.

4 Conference committee struck out the words "to hold office." language used, see Foster, Com. on the Const. I, p. 3 328.

Reason for the peculiar

App., No. 1284.

shall also make all laws concerning the time, place, and manner of holding elections for all State and municipal officers." In 1875 President Grant in his annual message recommended that education should be made compulsory "so far as to deprive all persons who can not read and write from becoming voters after the year 1890, disfranchising none, however, on grounds of illiteracy who may be voters at the time this amendment takes effect." In his last annual message President Grant renewed his recommendation of the previous year. It has already been noticed that in 1866, when the early attempts were being made to give the suffrage to the negro, Mr. Howard had proposed an amendment to enfranchise all negroes who could read either English, French, or Spanish.1 In the following year an amendment was introduced providing that after July 4, 1876, ability to read and write the English language should be a necessary qualification for the franchise." When the fifteenth amendment was under consideration, several attempts were made to include in its provisions a clause regulating or forbidding the requirement by any State of an educational or property qualification for the suffrage.

One amendment has been proposed since to require an educational test for the franchise for all citizens of the United States born after the adoption of the amendment.

Congressman Bunker of Missouri proposed, in 1877, an amendment to restrict the application of the fifteenth amendment "to persons who were citizens of the United States on the 30th of March, 1870, when the amendment was adopted, and their issue."" Three other resolutions proposed that the Constitution should be amended so that the right to vote should not be abridged on account of nativity. The first of these was presented by Senator Butler of South Carolina, in 1883; the other two were championed by Mr. Collins of Massachusetts, in subsequent years.10

7 App., No. 1514. It required each State to support a system of free public schools. See post, par. 172.

App.. No. 1445.

9 App., No. 1578.

10 App. Nos. 1603, 1650. In the Fifty-third Congress, third session, two amendments were proposed to prohibit the States from granting the right of the franchise to aliens. H. Res., 278, 280; Record, pp. 2425, 2477. At present in seventeen States an alien who has declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States can vote.

133. SUFFRAGE OF THE CHINESE.

When the suffrage amendment passed by the House was under discussion by the Senate, February 3, 1869, Mr. Corbett of Oregon submitted the following addition: "But Chinamen not born in the United States and Indians not taxed should not be deemed or made citizens." The amendment was, however, rejected by the Senate on the 9th of the month.

1

Within a month after the submission to the States of the suffrage amendments, Mr. Johnson, of California, moved in the House that the rules be suspended to enable him to submit the following resolution: "Resolved, That in passing the resolution for the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States the House never intended that Chinese or Mongolians should become voters." The House, however, refused to suspend the rules by a vote of 42 yeas to 106 nays.

134. WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE.

The first attempts to amend the Constitution so that the right of suffrage should be extended to women were made when the reconstruction amendments were before Congress. Upon the 23d of January, 1866, Mr. Brooks of New York, after presenting a petition from several thousand woman suffragists, gave notice of his intention to introduce an amendment to the resolution then pending,3 by inserting the word "sex" after the word "color," so that this portion of the amendment should read: "That whenever the elective franchise shall be denied or abridged in any State on account of race or color or sex, all persons therein of such race or color or sex shall be excluded from the basis of representation."4 In each of the following years, until the early seventies, one or more amendments were proposed, the terms of which involved the extension of the franchise to women. Two of these deserve further notice. Mr. Brooks again, in 1869, championed the cause of woman's suffrage, by offering as a substi tute for the suffrage amendment a very singular proposition in these words: "The right of any person of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of his or her race, sex, nativity, or age

App., No. 1265.

2 App., No. 1322. The constitution of California of 1879 expressly withholds the right of suffrage from natives of China. Art. XIX of the Constitution makes other discriminations against them.

3 Amendment in regard to the apportionment of Representatives.

4 App., No. 1085.

1

when over twelve years, color or previous condition of slavery of any citizen or class of citizens of the United States." This resolution was not brought to a vote.

During the consideration of the suffrage amendments in the Senate, Senator Pomeroy of Kansas made an ineffectual attempt to substitute for the House amendment and the Senate amendment, respectively, an article of such liberal terms that the enfranchisement of women must follow its adoption. It was as follows: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote and hold office shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State for any reason not equally applicable to all citizens." 3 The animus of the proposition is seen in a remark made by Mr. Pomeroy: "I have studied this form of government to no purpose if its logic does not lead me to universal and impartial suffrage."

The first of another series of amendments on the same subject made its appearance in 1878; twelve resolutions to extend the right of suffrage to women have since been introduced into Congress, six in the Senate and six in the House. The first of these was presented by Senator Sargent of California, in 1878. Senators Lapham of New York and Blair of New Hampshire, and Congressman Reed of Maine, have each presented a woman's suffrage amendment twice. Usually these resolutions have been reported back by the committee to which they have been referred with extended reports both from the majority and minorty. Since 1882 these resolutions in the Senate have been referred to the Select Committee on Woman's Suf rage. The amendment submitted by Senator Blair in the first session of the Forty-ninth Congress, was finally brought to a vote in the second session and rejected, 16 yeas to 34 nays." The last amendment on this subject was presented in 1888 by Mr. Mason of Illinois, "by request." It contains the singular provision of extending the right of suffrage to "widows and spinsters," presumably on the ground that there is no voter to represent their interests.

App., No. 1251.

2 To amend the House amendment February 3, 1869; to amend the Senate amendment January 29, 1869.

3 App., Nos. 1269, 1289.

4 App., Nos. 1458, 1504, 1506, 1560, 1561, 1580, 1590, 1636, 1671, 1689, 1700, 1723.

Reported favorably in 1884. Senate Report No. 399, Forty-eighth Congress, first session. App., No. 1636.

7 App.. No. 1723. In Wyoming and the recently admitted State of Utah, women have full suffrage. In Colorado, in 1893, the people voted in favor of general woman suffrage. Women

135. PRESENT CONDITION OF THE SUFFRAGE.

The principle of leaving to the States the determination of the qualifications for the franchise has in general approved itself. The only deviation from this principle is in the case of the fifteenth amendment, which was the outcome of great politi cal causes.

The fifteenth amendment was framed not because of any feeling of dissatisfaction with the working of the old system, but to meet the exigencies of the time-the enfranchisement of the negro. At present there is no disposition to extend, or even to enforce the extension of the fifteenth amendment by additional amendments. Since the adoption of the last amendment the number of proposals. has been small. The only considerable movement to secure an additional amendment comes from the woman suffragists. There is no popular demand for a further extension of the franchise.

Although there is some uneasiness on account of the increase in the naturalization of foreigners, no amendment to restrict the rights of naturalized citizens has been proposed sine 1858. Possibly the propositions of recent years forbidding the denial or abridgment of the right to vote on account of nativity, were called out by the fear that at some future time the States might pass laws discriminating against citizens of foreign birth.

136. PRESENT STATUS OF PERSONAL RIGHTS.

The freedom of the individual is now completely assured, and the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments stand as an unalterable statement of the fact. There has been no effort to secure a new amendment on this subject. Slavery and the questions arising out of its abolition have given rise to more than five hundred of the amendments proposed, but happily the subject has now passed out of politics.

The possession of the legal rights of suing and being sued, and kindred rights, leads to but little trouble, and has called out few amendments. Citizenship is still a troublesome question. The complications of national and State citizenship have formerly voted in the Territory of Washington, but do not possess general suffrage under the State constitution. In a limited way, mainly as to taxation or the selection of school officers, woman suffrage exists in twenty-four other States and two Territories. For woman's suffrage in New Jersey under the Constitution of 1776, see Foster, Com. on the Const., I, p. 320, note 4.

1 There has been, however, a movement to enforce by law the provision of the amendment. The latest phase of this movement was the Federal election bill in the Fifty-first Congress.