had not subsequently been honorably discharged | Whereas it has been announced by persons from the same, shall have the qualifications of an high in authority that propositions from the elector, and be entitled to vote at all elections." southern States having in view the adjustment In the SENATE, the vote was yeas 23, nays 11, of our present political troubles would be restrictly party vote except that Mr. Combs (Re-ceived and considered, &c: Therefore, publican) voted in the negative.

In Wisconsin.

Both houses have agreed to proposing an amendment to the constitution so as to extend suffrage to all persons* over the age of twentyone years. The vote in the Senate was 18 to 9, not voting 6.

In New Jersey.

A proposition to strike the word "white from the constitution was defeated in the house -yeas 20, nays 38, as follow:

YEAS-Messrs. Atwater, Sayre, Murphy, Edwards, Baldwin, Voorhees, Runyon, A. P. Condit, Bruere, Stansbury, Mount, Estler, J. D. Condit, Wolsieffer, Moore, Custis, Ball, Trimble, Morris, Falkenbury-20.

NAYS-Messrs. Allen, Taylor, Iliff, Davenport, W. W. Clark, Vail, Lippincott, Fort, Christie, White, Pickel, Henry, Coles, Crozer, Ayres, Tyrrell, W. J. Iliff, Evans, II. F. Clark, Vliet, Nixon, Garrison, Collings, Wilson, Thompson, Heudrickson, Hedden, Dwyer, Beesley, Van Emburgh, Jarrard, Fulmer, Corlies, Ward, Perrine, Givens, Coate, Yawger-38.

Resolved by the Legislature of the State of That the Congress of the United States be requested to propose to the legislatures of the sev eral States the following amendment to the Constitution of the United States:

The

1

ARTICLE 14, SEC. 1. No State under the Constitution has a right of its own will to renounce its place in or to withdraw from the Union; nor has the Federal Government any right to eject a State from the Union, or to deprive it of its equal suffrage in the Senate or of representation in the House of Representatives. Union under the Constitution shall be perpetual. SEC. 2. The public debt of the United States, authorized by law, shall ever be held sacred and inviolate; but neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obliga tion incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the Government or authority of the United States.

SEC. 3. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the States in which they reside; and the citi zens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States. No State shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

SEC. 4. Representatives shall be apportioned

A proposition to extend the elective franchise among the several States according to their reto women is pending.

A PROPOSED SUBSTITUTE FOR THE CONSTI

TUTIONAL AMENDMENT.

In February, 1867, an effort was made to prepare a constitutional amendment to be substituted for that proposed by Congress. The plan given below was published, and was declared to be approved by President Johnson, and submitted to the Legislature of North Carolina, but was not favorably received:

*The following paragraph from the New York Tribune is

apposite:

Lucy Stone and H. B. Blackwell, citizens of New Jersey, have made an investigation, the result of which is remarkable, and proves that previously to 1776 only men voted, but that in 1776 the original State constitution conferred the franchise on "all inhabitants" (men or women, white or black) possessing the prescribed qualifications of £50 clear estate and twelve months' residence, and this constitution remained in force until 1814. In 1790, the Legislature, in an act regulating elections, used the words "he or she" in

reference to voters. In 1797, another act relative to elections

repeatedly designates the voters as "he or she." In the same year, 1797, seventy-five women voted in Elizabethtown for the Federal candidate. In 1800 women generally voted through out the State in the presidential contest between Jefferson In 1802 a member of the legislature from

and Adams.

Hunterdon county was actually elected, in a closely con

tested election, by the votes of two or three women of color. In 1807, at a local election in Essex county for the location of the county seat, men and women generally participated, and winter of 1807-8, the legislature, in violation of the and were jointly implicated in very extensive frauds, In thew of the constitution, passed an act restricting suffrage these, virtually abolished the property qualification of £50, thus extending it to all white male tax-payers, while exclud ing all women and negroes. In 1820 the same provisions were repeated, and remained unchanged until the adoption of the present constitution in 1844.

to free white male adult citizens, and, in reference to

spective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when any State shall, on account of race or the exercise of the franchise at any election for color or previous condition of servitude, deny the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, members of the legislature, and other officers elected by the people, to any of the male inhabitants of such State being twenty-one years of age and citizens of the United States, then the entire class of persons so excluded from the exercise of the elective franchise shall not be counted in the basis of representation.

And whereas, &c., be it further resolved by the Legislature of That the following article shall be adopted as an amendment to, and become a part of the constitution of the State of ARTICLE

sided in this State for one year, and in the Every male citizen who has recounty in which he offers to vote six months immediately preceding the day of election, and who can read the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States in the English language and write his name; or who may be the owner of two hundred and fifty doltled to vote at all elections for governor of the lars' worth of taxable property, shall be enti State, members of the legislature and all other officers the election of whom may be by the people of the State: Provided, That no person by reason of this article shall be excluded from voting who has heretofore exercised the elective

franchise under the constitution or laws of this State, or who, at the time of the adoption of this amendment, may be entitled to vote under said constitution and laws.

THE ELECTIONS OF 1867.

vote for members of the Assembly; but no person was allowed to vote who could not, if challenged, take and subscribe this oath:

"I (A.B.) do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I have never voluntarily borne arms against the United States since I have been a citizen thereof; that I have voluntarily given no aid, countenance, counsel, or encouragement to persons engaged accepted, nor attempted to exercise, the functions of any office whatever under any authority or pretended authority

In NEW HAMPSHIRE, the vote stood: Gov-in armed hostility thereto; that I have neither sought nor ernor-Harriman, Republican, 35,776; Sinclair, Democrat, 32,733. Republican majority in Legisin hostility to the United States; that I have not yielded a lature, about 75. voluntary support to any pretended government, authority, In CONNECTICUT, the vote stood: Governor-power, or constitution within the United States, hostile or Hawley, Republican, 46,585; English, Democrat, inimical thereto, and did not wilfully desert from the mili47,575. State Legislature: SENATE Republicans try or naval service of the United States, or leave this State 11, Democrats 10. HOUSE-Republicans 124, Democrats 114. Republican majority on joint

ballot, 11.

sons

In RHODE ISLAND, the vote stood: Governor Burnside, Republican, 7,554; Pierce, Democrat, 3,350. The legislature is largely Republican. In MARYLAND, the vote on calling a convention to revise the constitution of the State, was: For a convention, 34,534; against, 24,136. In Maryland, a new registry law was passed, directing the registering of "all white male perover twenty-one, not criminals or lunatics, and possessing sufficient residence. The legislature also passed an act authorizing and directing the comptroller of that State to examine, adjust, and pay all claims presented to him for settlement by the officers and members, and others of the General Assembly of 1861. It rejected a bill to authorize colored persons to testify in the courts. It provided for the appointment by the governor, by the advice and consent of the senate, in each county, of a "commissioner of slave statistics," to prepare statements of the names, number, age, sex, and physical condition of the slaves in the respective counties at the time of the adoption of the State constitution in 1864, to state whether they were slaves for life or term of years, and whether they were enlisted or drafted into the military service of the United States, so far as is known to said owners or others, and in what regiment they were placed, and what compensation, if any, has been received by such owners from the State or General Government for such slaves the lists to be preserved among the public records of the counties, and declared to be legal evidence of ownership, &c. The commissioners are to receive twenty-five cents per capita for each slave, to be paid by the

former owner.

CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTIONS.
A convention has recently been chosen in NEW
YORK by the votes of all persons qualified to

to avoid the draft during the late rebellion."

first Tuesday in June. The new constitution is to be submitted in November next-as a whole

The convention is to meet in Albany on the

therwise, as the convention may determine -to a vote of those qualified to vote for delegates. The convention stands, politically, Republicans 100, Democrats 60.

A convention was chosen in MARYLAND, "by Wednesday of April, in which St. Mary's county the registered voters thereof," on the second has three delegates; Kent, 4; Calvert, 3; Charles, 5 Dorchester, 4; Cecil, 5; Prince George's, 4; 3; Baltimore county, 7; Talbot, 4; Somerset, Queen Anne's, 4; Worcester, 5; Frederick, 7; Harford, 5; Caroline, 4; Baltimore city. 21 Montgomery, 4; Allegany, 6; Carroll, 6; Howard, 4; Anne Arundel, 4; and Washington, 6. Said constitution it is provided, shall contain a "clause prohibiting the legislature from making any law providing for payment by this State for persons heretofore held as slaves. The convenWednesday of May, 1867, the compensation of tion is to meet in Annapolis, on the second members to be five dollars per day and mileage, ized to order the payment of the compensation and the president of the convention is authorabove provided, and the treasurer required to pay the same, in conformity with said order. The constitution is to be submitted to the legal and qualified voters for their ratification or rejection, at such time, in such manner, and subject to such rules and regulations as the convention may prescribe. Judges of election, clerks of court, or sheriffs failing or neglecting to perform any tions, are made liable to indictment, and fine of duties required of them respecting these elec$1,000 and imprisonment of six months. The convention is unanimously Democratic and "Conservative,” the Republicans declining to run candidates.

In MICHIGAN, a Convention has been chosen, with a large Republican supremacy.

Statement of the Public Debt of the United States on the 1st of April, 1867.

PART III.

POLITICAL MANUAL FOR 1868.

XXIII.

ORDERS, LETTERS, MESSAGE AND VOTES IN THE SENATE

books, papers, and other public property now in my custody and charge.

Under a sense of public duty I am compelled to deny your right, under the Constitution and laws of the United States, without the advice and consent of the Senate, and without legal cause, to suspend me from office as Secretary of War, or the exercise of any or all functions pertaining to the same, or without such advice and consent to compel me to transfer to any person the records, books, papers, and public property in my custody as Secretary. But inasmuch as the General commanding the armies of the United States has been appointed ad interim, and has notified me that he has accepted the appointment, I have no alternative but to submit, under protest, to superior force. Very respectfully, yours,

Copies of the communications upon this subject, addressed to Mr. Stanton and the Adjutant General, are herewith transmitted for the information of the Senate. ANDREW JOHNSON.

[For copies of these orders, see the first and second Articles of Impeachment.]

Further Proceedings in the Senate.
February 21-Mr. Edmunds submitted the fol-
lowing resolution for consideration :

the communication of the President stating that
Resolved, That, having received and considered

he had removed from office Edwin M. Stanton,

Secretary of War, the Senate disapprove the
action of the President.

The Senate, by unanimous consent, proceeded
to consider the said resolution.

Mr. Dixon moved to amend the resolution, by striking out all after the word "Resolved," and inserting as follows: That the President be re quested to inform the Senate by what authority he