“While the honorable Senator from Massachusetts argued, and argued with great force, that every man should have that right, and that he should only be subject to disabilities which he could overcome, his argument, connected with the other principle that he laid down, and the application of it that he made, that taxation and representation should go together, would just as well apply to women as to men; but I noticed that the honorable Senator dodged that part of the proposition very carefully.” He criticized the substitute offered by Mr. Sumner, when the latter remarked:-- “Last Friday this Senate solemnly declared, that, under the Constitutional Amendment abolishing Slavery, it had power to decree the equal rights of all persons everywhere throughout the United States, without distinction of color. The moment that was declared, I said to friends about me that the duty of Congress was fixed with regard to political rights also. If Congress can decree equality in civil rights, by the same reason, if not _a fortiori_, it can decree equality in political rights; and as the preamble to my proposition recited two reasons or moving causes, one the guaranty clause, and the other the Constitutional Amendment, I felt it my duty, acting upon the vote of the Senate, to insist that the declaration of equality for all should be coextensive with the Republic, claiming as I do under the guaranty clause that it operates within all the States where there has been a lapse of government, and that under the Constitutional Amendment it operates everywhere within the limits of the Republic.” In confining the guaranty clause to States that had “lapsed,” Mr. Sumner was cautious not to make his proposition too broad, although his judgment was that it was applicable to all the States, and authorized a prohibition by Congress of unrepublican provisions in any State. Mr. Fessenden said: “The Senator says we may secure it in the States which have lapsed. That is a new phrase, but perhaps it is as good as any other.” But he was unwilling to accept this power. Mr. Lane, of Indiana, said, in answer to Mr. Sumner:-- “If Congress had the undoubted and unquestionable authority to pass such a law, it gets at the result more readily than does the Constitutional Amendment; but it is doubtful to my mind whether Congress has this power. I believe, under the Constitution, the right to determine the qualifications of electors is left with the several States.” Then of the counter proposition he said:-- “It is a noble declaration, but a simple declaration,--a paper bullet, that kills no one, and fixes and maintains the rights of no one.”