“_Be it enacted, &c._, That in all States lately declared to be in rebellion there shall be no oligarchy invested with peculiar privileges and powers, and there shall be no denial of rights, civil or political, on account of race or color; but all persons shall be equal before the law, whether in the court-room or at the ballot-box. And this statute, made in pursuance of the Constitution, shall be the supreme law of the land, anything in the Constitution or laws of any such State to the contrary notwithstanding.”[260] The second was “A Bill to enforce the guaranty of a republican form of government in certain States whose governments have been usurped or overthrown.”[261] Read this bill, if you please, Sir. I challenge criticism of it at this date, in the light of all our present experience. It is in twelve sections, and you will find in it the very proposition which is now in question,--being the requirement of Equal Rights for All in the reconstruction of the Rebel States. “SEC. 5. _And be it further enacted_, That the delegates”-- that is, the delegates to the Convention for the reëstablishment of a State government-- “shall be elected by _the loyal male citizens_ of the United States, of the age of twenty-one years, and resident at the time in the county, parish, or district in which they shall offer to vote, and enrolled as aforesaid, or absent in the military service of the United States.”[262] And then the bill proceeds to provide,-- “SEC. 8. … That the Convention shall declare, on behalf of the people of the State, their submission to the Constitution and laws of the United States, and shall adopt the following provisions, hereby prescribed by the United States in the execution of the constitutional duty to guaranty a republican form of government to every State, and incorporate them in the Constitution of the State: that is to say:--” After one--two--three--four provisions, the section proceeds as follows:-- “Fifthly, There shall be no distinction among the inhabitants of this State founded on race, former condition, or color. Every such inhabitant shall be entitled to all the privileges before the law enjoyed by the most favored class of such inhabitants.” And the section concludes:-- “Sixthly, These provisions shall be perpetual, not to be abolished or changed hereafter.”[263] Nor is this all. On the same day I introduced “A Bill supplying appropriate legislation to enforce the Amendment to the Constitution prohibiting Slavery,”[264] of which I will read the third section:--