Mr. Hager: I hope the Senator from Vermont will withdraw his motion. I desire to make a few remarks.
The Presiding Officer (Mr. Clayton in the chair). The motion is not debatable.
Mr. Hager: I ask the Senator to withdraw the motion for a few minutes.
Mr. Edmunds: If the Senator will renew it when he finishes his remarks, I will do so.
Mr. Hager: Very well.
Mr. Edmunds: I withdraw the motion.
Mr. Hager: Mr. President, it seems to me strange that a question of so much importance as that raised by this amendment appears to be, from the positions taken by Senators on the floor, should be presented upon this bill, which, if amended as proposed, will not confer the right of suffrage upon females throughout the country; and for us to undertake to legislate upon this question in regard to a distant Territory where perhaps there are few or no women, unless they be of the Indian race, is to me a very astonishing thing.... If suffrage should be extended to females let it come up as a distinct, independent proposition by itself, and then every Senator can take his position in regard to a question which affects the whole country, and not a distant Territory merely. That is the way, in my opinion, to get at it.... Inasmuch as in the wisdom of the Government and people of the United States the right to the elective franchise has been conferred upon the black race in this country, I see no reason on the ground of qualification why it should not be conferred upon females.... But I am unwilling to legislate by piecemeal in this manner. If there is any good in it; if, as the Senator from Indiana says, as a matter of right women should be entitled to the franchise, that right should be co-extensive with the whole country, and not be limited to the little Territory of Pembina, which is not yet organized.
Mr. Edmunds.—I renew the motion to lay the bill on the table.
Mr. Sargent.—On that motion I ask for the yeas and nays. The yeas and nays were ordered.
Mr. Ramsey.—I should like to appeal to the Senator from Vermont to withdraw the motion for five minutes.
Mr. Stewart.—We will not lay it on the table.
Mr. Ramsey.—Very well; let the vote be taken. The question being taken by yeas and nays, resulted—yeas, 24; nays, 24; as follows:
Nays—Messrs. Bogy, Boreman, Boutwell, Carpenter, Chandler, Clayton, Ferry of Michigan, Flanagan, Gilbert, Harvey, Hitchcock, Logan, Mitchell, Morton, Patterson, Pratt, Ramsey, Sargent, Spencer, Sprague, Stewart, Tipton, West, and Windom—24.
Absent—Messrs. Alcorn, Allison, Anthony, Brownlow, Cameron, Cragin, Dennis, Dorsey, Fenton, Ferry of Connecticut, Goldthwaite, Gordon, Hamilton of Texas, Hamlin, Kelly, Lewis, Morrill of Vermont, Oglesby, Pease, Robertson, Saulsbury, Schurz, Stevenson, Stockton, and Thurman—25.So the motion was not agreed to.
The Presiding Officer (Mr. Clayton in the chair.)—The question is