Republican Support for Black Suffrage, 1869

From Speech of J. M. Broomall (R-Pa.) in the House of Representatives, January 30, 1869. Appendix to the Congressional Globe, 40th Congress, 3rd Session, January 30, 1869. 102-103.

Mr. Speaker, in the debate upon a bill introduced by myself at the last session of Congress, providing for universal suffrage, I gave my views at length upon that subject. Those views may be stated in short, thus: every person owing allegiance to the Government and not under the legal control of another should have an equal voice in making and administering the laws; and in this I make no distinction of wealth, intelligence, race, family, or sex. If just government is founded upon the consent of the governed, and if the established mode of consent is through the ballot-box, then those who are denied the right of suffrage can in no sense be held as consenting, and the Government which withholds that right is as to those from whom it is withheld no just Government.

The proposition before the House is so to change the Constitution of the United States that no State shall hereafter discriminate among citizens of the United States with respect to the right of suffrage on account of family or race. This, though not going to the extent which, I desire, is a great stride in the right direction, and therefore it commands my most hearty support.