According to the Constitution, “the _times, places, and manner_ of holding elections for Senators and Representatives shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such _regulations_, except as to the places of choosing Senators.” Here is the text of this portentous power to blast a race. In these simple words no such power can be found, unless the seeker makes the Constitution a reflection of himself. The times, places, and manner of holding elections are referred to the States,--nothing more; and even these may be altered by Congress. Being matters of form and convenience only, in the nature of _police_, they are justly included under the head of “regulations,” like the sword and uniform of the army. Do we not familiarly speak of a _regulation_ sword and a _regulation_ sash? Who will dare to say that under this formal power of _regulation_ a whole race may be despoiled of equal rights and of all participation in the Government? This very pretension was anticipated by Mr. Madison, and condemned in advance. Here are his decisive words in the Virginia Convention:-- “Some States might regulate the elections on the principles of equality, and others might regulate them otherwise.… Should the people of any State by any means be deprived of the right of suffrage, _it was judged proper that it should be remedied by the General Government_.”[232] Thus was it expressly understood, at the adoption of the Constitution, that Congress should have the power to prevent any State, under the pretence of regulating the suffrage, from depriving the people of this right, or from interfering with the principle of _Equality_. Kindred to this statement of Mr. Madison is that other contemporary testimony which will be found in the “Federalist,” where the irrepealable rights of citizens are recognized without distinction of color. This explicit language cannot be too often quoted. Here it is:-- “It is only under the pretext that the laws have transformed the negroes into subjects of property that a place is denied to them in the computation of numbers; and it is admitted, that, if the laws were to restore the rights which have been taken away, _the negroes could no longer be refused an equal share of representation with the other inhabitants_.”[233]