Meanwhile the subject of Reconstruction was practically discussed in both Houses of Congress. In this Chamber a bill was introduced by the Senator from Oregon [Mr. WILLIAMS], providing a military government. In the House there was another bill, and on that bill good Representatives--to whom be all honor!--sought to ingraft the requirement of colored suffrage. This effort, unhappily, did not prevail. The bill came to this Chamber without it. In this Chamber the same effort was made; but the bill, while it was still immatured, passed into our caucus. The effort which had thus far failed was then renewed by me in the committee, where it again failed. It was then renewed by me in the caucus, where it triumphed. This is the history of that proposition. I claim nothing for myself. I alluded to it the other day only in direct reply to the arraignment of the Senator from Illinois. I allude to it now reluctantly, and only in direct reply to the arraignment of the Senator from Nevada. I regret to be obliged to make any allusion to it. I think there is no occasion for any. I have erred, perhaps, in taking so much time in this explanation; but when the Senator, after days and weeks of interval, came here with his second indictment, I felt that I might without impropriety throw myself upon the indulgence of this Chamber to make the simple explanation that I have made. I have shown that as early as February 25, 1865, I proposed in this Chamber to require the colored suffrage as the corner-stone of Reconstruction. I have shown that in an elaborate bill introduced December 4, 1865, being a bill of Reconstruction, I required the very things which were afterward introduced in the Reconstruction Act of 1867; and I have shown also that here in this Chamber, at home among my constituents, in direct intercourse with the President, and also in communication with colored persons at the South, from the beginning, I insisted upon the colored suffrage as the essential condition of Reconstruction. It so happened that I was a member of the committee appointed by the caucus to consider this question, giving me the opportunity there of moving it again; and then I had another opportunity in the caucus of renewing the effort. I did renew it, and, thank God, it was successful.