There is another way, at once prompt, energetic, and comprehensive. It is by Act of Congress, adopted by a majority of two thirds, in spite of Presidential veto. The time has passed when this power can be questioned. Congress has already exercised it in the Rebel States. I do not forget its hesitations. Only a year ago, when I insisted that it must do so, and introduced a bill to this effect, I was answered that a Constitutional Amendment was needed, and I was voted down. A change came, and in a happy moment Congress exercised the power. What patriot questions it now? But the power is unquestionable in the other States also. It concerns the rights of citizenship, and this subject is as essentially national as the army or the navy. Even without either of the recent Constitutional Amendments, I am at a loss to understand how a denial of the elective franchise simply on account of color can be otherwise than unconstitutional. I cannot see how, under a National Constitution which does not contain the word “white” or “black,” there can be any exclusion on account of color. There is no such exclusion in the Constitution. Out of what text is this oligarchical pretension derived? But, putting aside this question, which will be clearer to the jurists of the next generation than to us, I vouch the authoritative words of the National Constitution, making it our duty to guaranty a republican form of government in the States. Now the greatest victory of the war, to which all other victories, whether in Congress or on the bloody field, were only tributary, was the definition of a republican government according to the principles of the Declaration of Independence. A government which denies the elective franchise on account of color, or, in other words, sets up any “qualifications” of voters in their nature insurmountable, cannot be republican; for the first principle in a republican government is Equality of Rights, according to the principles of the Declaration of Independence. And this definition, I insist, is the crowning glory of the war which beat down Rebellion under its feet. It only remains for Congress to enforce it by appropriate legislation. There are two recent Constitutional Amendments, each of which furnishes ample and cumulative power. There is, first, the Amendment abolishing Slavery, with its clause conferring on Congress the power to enforce it by appropriate legislation, in pursuance of which Congress has already passed the Civil Rights Act, which is applicable to the North as well as the South. Clearly, and most obviously beyond all question, if it can pass a Civil Rights Act, it can also pass a Political Rights Act; for each is appropriate to enforce the abolition of Slavery, and to complete this work. Without it the work is only half done.