Now I put it to Senators whether any injurious consequence can result from allowing these books to come in free. The duty that you receive from them is small; it is very little for you to give up; but in giving facilities to the importation of such books you contribute to knowledge. I am sure of it. I have no motive in making this motion, or this succession of motions, except my anxiety for the extension of knowledge in this Republic. I am for free schools; I am for free knowledge everywhere; and I wish to beat down all the obstructions possible, and one of these is the tax which we impose in our tariff. I hope there can be no question on that amendment. The vote being taken by yeas and nays resulted, Yeas 14, Nays 26; so this amendment was likewise rejected. NATURALIZATION LAWS: NO DISCRIMINATION ON ACCOUNT OF COLOR. REMARKS IN THE SENATE, JULY 2 AND 4, 1870. July 2, 1870, the Senate having under consideration a bill “to amend the Naturalization Laws and to punish crimes against the same,” which had been reported from the Committee on the Judiciary as a substitute for one from the House,--the particular object of both bills being the prevention of the election frauds perpetrated through the instrumentality of unnaturalized or illegally naturalized aliens,--Mr. Sumner moved to add, as a new section, a bill previously introduced by himself, and reported favorably from the same Committee, providing-- “That all Acts of Congress relating to naturalization be, and the same are hereby, amended by striking out the word ‘white’ wherever it occurs, so that in naturalization there shall be no distinction of race or color.” The motion was strenuously resisted, as ill-timed and out of place,--Mr. Edmunds, of the Judiciary Committee, remarking, that, although he reported the bill in question, and believed in it so far as he now understood, yet, under existing circumstances, he should vote against it as an amendment to the pending bill. Mr. Sumner briefly responded:-- MR. PRESIDENT,--The remark of the Senator from Vermont [Mr. EDMUNDS] renders it necessary for me to make a brief statement. Some time during the last Congress I had the honor of introducing a bill to strike the word “white” from our Naturalization Laws. I tried to have it put on its passage. I was resisted then by the Senator from Vermont, who moved its reference to the Committee on the Judiciary. There it remained until near the expiration of that Congress, and was then reported adversely, too late for further action. During the third week of the present Congress, now more than a year ago, I introduced the same bill again. It remained in the room of the Judiciary Committee from March, 1869, until very recently, when it was reported favorably.