Mr. Johnson, of Maryland, Mr. Henderson, of Missouri, Mr. Clark, of New Hampshire, Mr. Williams, of Oregon, Mr. Hendricks, of Indiana, Mr. Yates, of Illinois, Mr. Buckalew, of Pennsylvania, Mr. Pomeroy, of Kansas, Mr. Saulsbury, of Delaware, Mr. Morrill, of Maine, and Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts, all spoke at length. Of these, Mr. Henderson, Mr. Yates, and Mr. Pomeroy sustained Mr. Sumner, in opposition to the House expedient, although the first preferred to assure suffrage by a Constitutional Amendment ordaining it: while insisting upon the ballot for the colored citizen, he doubted the power of Congress. Mr. Johnson thought the claim of our fathers, in their cry against Taxation without Representation, was for communities, and not for individuals. Mr. Sumner afterwards replied at length to this opinion.[197] In the course of Mr. Henderson’s speech, occupying two days, the following colloquy occurred. MR. SUMNER. Do I understand my friend as insisting that the denial of the franchise is consistent with a republican government? Take the State of South Carolina, which denies the franchise to more than half its population. MR. HENDERSON. In theory it is not. Under the Constitution it was regarded as a republican State at the time of the adoption of the instrument. MR. SUMNER. It did not deny the franchise to half its citizens and more. I say citizens. Most excluded were slaves. MR. HENDERSON. It then had only one hundred and forty thousand whites, and had one hundred and seven thousand slaves. It also had eighteen hundred free negroes. I think it more nearly a republican State now than then. Practically, the question of suffrage was left to the States---- MR. SUMNER. But that is the question, whether they were left to deny suffrage to any freeman on account of color. MR. HENDERSON. If that be the question, then the point is against my friend; for both South Carolina and Virginia did deny the suffrage to the free negroes on account of color only, at the time when the Constitution was made, and when it was adopted. Virginia had upward of twelve thousand free negroes thus denied. MR. SUMNER. But the question is--I cannot anticipate my friend’s conclusion on that point---- MR. HENDERSON. My conclusion is, that a mistake was made in recognizing a Constitution as republican that permitted Slavery. I know of no way to get rid of it except by Constitutional Amendment. I think another mistake was committed in leaving each State to so far abridge the right of suffrage as to change, in theory, the republican form. But such is the Constitution, and you cannot change it by Act of Congress. That is my conclusion.