The News

The Senate has rejected proposed legislation meant to reassess representation in the south

It will be seen from our telegrams that the United States Senate yesterday rejected the famous amendment to the Constitution proposed in the House of Representatives by the Reconstruction Committee and forced through that body in such hot haste. The vote in the Senate was yeas 25, nays 22, which, so far from being the two-thirds required, was really a very small majority. The Radicals are evidently at fault. They know not what to do. A few weeks ago this particular amendment was the pet of the party, and the only question was, not as to whether it would pass the Senate, but whether the President would sign it. Thad. was afraid he would not, and therefore declared that it would not need his signature, but expressed not a doubt as to its fate in the Senate. We republish the rejected amendment to refresh the readers recollection: "Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives, etc., (two-thirds of both Houses concurring,) That the following article be proposed to the Legislature of the several States as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of said Legislatures, shall be valid as part of said Constitution, viz : ' Article- Representatives shall be appointed among several States which may be included within this Union according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed; Provided, That whenever the elective franchise shall be denied or abridged in any State on account of race or color, all persons therein of such race or color shall be excluded from the basis of representation."

“The News,” Reconstructing Virginia, accessed June 1, 2023, https://reconstructingvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/86.