It is vain to say that our fathers did not intend this great power and foresee its exercise. There it is in the Constitution, clear and commanding; and there is the great definition in the Declaration of Independence, clear and commanding. If our fathers did not fully appreciate their mighty act, neither did the barons at Runnymede, when they obtained Magna Charta, the perpetual landmark of English rights. The words of the poet are again fulfilled: “They builded better than they knew.” But they did build. They built this vast temple of Republican Liberty, and enjoined upon Congress its perpetual safeguard, “anything in the constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding”; and, Sir, by the oath which you have taken to support the Constitution, are you bound to watch and protect this vast temple. The recent war has had its losses, terrible and afflicting. It has had its gains also. First among these gains is that interpretation of the Constitution which makes us a nation, and places the equal rights of all under the protection of the national power,--being nothing less than the fulfilment of the early promises of the Fathers. Too slowly has this been accomplished; but it is accomplished at last; and it is our duty to see that these promises are in no respect neglected, and that the Republic, One and Indivisible, dedicated to Human Rights, and an example to mankind, is upheld in every part of our wide-spread country. The amendment striking out the conditions of admission was rejected, and the bill passed in the form in which it came from the House,--Yeas 50, Nays 11. THE FIRST COLORED SENATOR. SPEECH IN THE SENATE, ON THE ADMISSION OF HON. HIRAM R. REVELS, A COLORED PERSON, AS SENATOR OF MISSISSIPPI, FEBRUARY 25, 1870. MR. PRESIDENT,--The time has passed for argument. Nothing more need be said. I doubt if anything more can be said in the way of argument. For a long time it has been clear that colored persons must be Senators, and I have often so declared. This was only according to the irresistible logic of the situation, to say nothing of inherent right.