any year except under the special effort of 1866. The most prominent churches in the South which have received aid have been in Baltimore, New Orleans, Memphis, Atlanta, and thirteen churches in Missouri. The seven Western States of Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan, contain eight hundred and sixteen Congregational churches. During these ten years this Union has aided in paying for the building of more than one-fourth of all these churches. The treasurer's report stated: legacies, $74,428.44; from other sources, $12,783.25-making a total of $437,884.77. There was a balance in favor of the treasury September 1, 1866, of $6,201.07. The number of foreign missions established, including stations and out-stations, is 604; the whole number of laborers employed, including natives, physi cians, and ordained missionaries, 1,264. The secretary reports as the number of foreign churches under the board's control, 205; the number of church members, as far as reported, 25,502; added during the year, 1,447. The .$32,530.22 prudential committee, in their report, ask for 67,119.18 eighteen new missionaries, three missionary physicians to reënforce the stations already oc.$99,649.40 cupied, and for forty new missionaries to be The total amount of appropriations paid forwarded to a new field, making sixty-one. feeble churches, $83,796.44. Amount voted, which they request to be sent without delay. but yet unpaid, waiting for the erection of build- The appropriations for the coming year have ings, $23,200. Amount loaned feeble churches, been fixed at $525,000. The prudential com$2,700. mittee in their report lay especial stress upon the importance of the Chinese mission. Receipts of the year, total.. Total funds for the year.. Some of the Congregational churches have taken action against those members who join secret societies; in particular the Free-Masons. Thus at the conference of Western Congregationalists at Ottawa, Illinois, a series of strong resolutions were adopted against Free-Masonry and other secret institutions, for these, among other reasons: because, while claiming a religious character, they, in their rituals, deliberately withhold all recognition of Christ as their only Saviour, and Christianity as the only true religion; because, while they are, in fact, nothing but restricted partnerships or companies for mutual insurance and protection, they ostentatiously parade this characterless engagement as a substitute for brotherly love and true benevolence; because they bring good men into confidential relations with bad men; and because, while in theory they supplant the church of Christ, they do also, in fact, largely tend to withdraw the sympathy and active zeal of professing Christians from their respective churches. The General Association of Illinois also adopted a strong report against secret societies, chiefly directed against Masonry. The "American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions" is chiefly, though not wholly, a Congregational society. The income of this society for the past year was reported to be as follows: From donations, $350,172.08; from From the English Congregational Year-book for 1868, it appears that in the metropolis the number of independent churches has increased since 1858 from 171 to 227. The number of pastors in 1858 was 226, against 291 at the present time, being an increase of ministerial power numbering 65. There are also at the present time 100 students in the metropolitan college associated with Congregationalism. The proportion of increase is in about the same ratio throughout the country, so that at the present time there are in Great Britain and her dependencies 3,330 independent churches, with 1,613 out-stations and mission-rooms, under the superintendence of 2,876 independent ministers, whose labors are supplemented by 2,326 evange lists and lay preachers. The denomination has 76 associations and unions, 27 colleges and institutes, with 386 students under training for ministerial and missionary work. The number of ministers who have died during the year has been 58. The London Missionary Society is principally sustained by the Independents, or Congregationalists. The receipts of the society for the year were £105,090 10s. 4d. The total income of the society, since 1695, has been £3,255,193. In the table below will be found a summary of statistics from the Congregational Quarterly. CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. The second session of the Thirty-ninth Congress* convened at Washington on December 3, 1866. For the President's Message, see PUBLIC DOCUMENTS, ANNUAL CYCLOPÆDIA, 1866. In the Senate, on December 10th, Mr. Morrill, of Maine, moved to consider the bill regulating suffrage in the District of Columbia. He The following is a list of the members of Congress: SENATE. California-James A. McDougall, John Conness. New York-Ira Harris, Edwin D. Morgan. Oregon-James W. Nesmith, George H. Williams. West Virginia-Peter G. Van Winkle, Waitman T. Willey. Wisconsin-Timothy O. Howe, James R. Doolittle. Not admitted at this session. Alabama-George S. Houston, Lewis E. Parsons. South Carolina-John L. Manning, Benjamin F. Perry. Connecticut-Henry C. Deming, Samuel L. Warner, AuFastus Brandagee, John II. Inbbard. Delaware-John A. Nicholson. Illinois-John Wentworth, John F. Farnsworth, Elihu B. Washburne, Abner C. Harding, Ebon C. Ingersoll, Burton C. Cook, H. P. H. Bromwell, Shelby M. Cullom, Lewis W. Fes Anthony Thornton, Samuel S. Marshall, Jehu Baker, Andrew J. Kuykendall; at large, S. W. Moulton. Taliana-William E. Niblack, Michael C. Kerr, Ralph Hl, John H. Farquhar, George W. Julian, Ebenezer Dumont, Heary D. Washburn, Godlove S. Orth, Schuyler ColJoseph H. Detrees, Thomas N. Stillwell. Jo-James F. Wilson, Hiram Price, William B. Allison, Jah B. Grinnell, John A. Kasson, Asahel W. Hubbard. Fame Sidney Clarke. Kentucky-L. S. Trimble, Burwell C. Ritter, Henry order, Aaron Harding, Lovell H. Rousseau, A. H. Ward, itze S. Shanklin, William H. Randall, Samuel McKee. Meine-John Lynch, Sidney Perham, James G. Blaine, An H. Rice, Frederick A. Pike. Maryland-Hiram McCullough, John L. Thomas, Jr., harles E. Phelps, Francis Thomas, Benjamin G. Harris. Massachusetts-Thomas D. Eliot, Oakes Ames, Alexander [Rice, Samuel Hooper, John B. Alley, Nathaniel P. Banks, Forge S. Boutwell, John D. Baldwin, William B. Wash, Henry L. Dawes. Michigan-Fernando C. Beaman, Charles Upson, John 7. Longyear, Thomas W. Ferry, Rowland E. Trowbridge, ohn F. Driggs. Minnesota-William Windom, Ignatius Donnelly. Missouri-John Hogan, Henry T. Blow, Thomas E. oil, John E. Kelso, Joseph W. McClurg, Robert T. Van said: "If I were to define this bill in a single phrase, I should say that it is impartial restricted suffrage; that is to say, it proposes to be impartial among all the male citizens of the United States, resident in this District. To that extent it is impartial. It is restricted in that it is confined to the male sex; and in that it is confined to persons of adult age; and in that it excludes Horn, Benjamin F. Loan, John F. Benjamin, George W. Anderson. Nevada-Delos R. Ashley. New Hampshire-Gilman Marston, Edward H. Rollins, James W. Patterson. New Jersey-John F. Starr, William A. Newell, Charles Sitgreaves, Andrew J. Rogers, Edwin R. V. Wright. New York-Stephen Tabor, Tunis G. Bergen, John W. Hunter, Morgan Jones, Nelson Taylor, Henry J. Raymond, John W. Chanler, William E. Dodge, William A. Darling, William Radford, Charles H. Winfield, John H. Ketcham, Edwin N. Hubbell, Charles Goodyear, John A. Griswold, Robert S. Hale, Calvin T. Hulburd, James M. Marvin, Demas Hubbard, Jr., Addison H. Laflin, Roscoe Conkling, Sidney T. Holmes, Thomas T. Davis, Theodore M. Pomeroy, Daniel Morris, Giles W. Hotchkiss, Hamilton Ward, Roswell Hart, Burt Van Horn, James M. Humphrey, Henry Van Aernam. Ohio-Benjamin Eggleston, Rutherford B. Hayes, Robert C. Schenck, William Lawrence, F. C. Le Blond, Reader W. Clarke, Samuel Shellabarger, James R. Hubbell, Ralph P.. Buckland, James M. Ashley, Hezekiah S. Bundy, William E. Finck, Columbus Delano, Martin Welker, Tobias E. Plants, John A. Bingham, Ephraim R. Eckley, Rufus P. Spalding, James A. Garfield. Oregon-John H. D. Henderson. Pennsylvania-Samuel J. Randall, Charles O'Neill, Leonard Myers, William D. Kelley, M. Russell Thayer, B. Markley Boyer, John M. Broomall, Sydenham E. Ancona, Thaddeus Stevens, Myer Strouse, Charles Denison, Ulysses Mercur, George F. Miller, Adam J. Glossbrenner, William H. Koontz, Abraham A. Barker, Stephen F. Wilson, Glenni W. Schofield, Charles Vernon Culver, John L. Dawson, James K. Moorhead, Thomas Williams, George V. Law rence. Rhode Island-Thomas A. Jenckes, Nathan F. Dixon. Tennessee-Nathaniel G. Taylor, Horace Maguard, William B. Stokes, Edmund Cooper, William B. Campbell, S. M. Arnell, Isaac R. Hawkins, John W. Leftwich. Vermont-Frederick E. Woodbridge, Justin S. Morrill, Portus Baxter. West Virginia-Chester D. Hubbard, George R. Latham, Killian V. Whaley. Wisconsin-Halbert E. Paine, Ithamar C. Sloan, Amasa Cobb, Charles A. Eldridge, Philetus Sawyer, Walter D. McIndoe. Not admitted at this session. Alabama-C. C. Langdon, George C. Freeman, Cullen A. Battle, Joseph W. Taylor, B. T. Pope, T. J. Jackson. Arkansas--- -Byers, Lorenzo Gibson, J. M. Jackson. Florida-F. McLeod. Georgia-Solomon Cohen, Philip Cook, Hugh Buchanan, E. G. Cabaniss, J. D. Matthews, J. H. Christy, W. T. Wofford. Louisiana-Louis St. Martin, Jacob Barker, Robert C. Wickliffe, John E. King, John S. Young. Mississippi-A. E. Reynolds, B. A. Pinson, James T. Harrison, A. M. West, E. G. Peyton. North Carolina-Jesse R. Stubbs, Charles C. Clark, Thomas C. Fuller, Josiah Turner, Jr., Bedford Brown, S. H. Walkup, A. H. Jones. South Carolina-John D. Kennedy, William Aiken, Samuel McGowan, James Farrow. Virginia-W. H. B. Custis, Lucius H. Chandler, B. Johnson Barbour, Robert Ridgway, Beverly A. Davis, Alexander H. H. Stuart, Robert Y. Conrad, Daniel II. Hoge. Delegates from the Territories. Arizona-John N. Goodwin. paupers, insane persons, persons non compos mentis, and persons who have rendered themselves, by crime-treason, felony, or otherwise -infamous, and so not to be trusted in public affairs. Therefore, sir, as a definition, I say it is what may be called impartial restricted suffrage, as distinguished from universal and manhood suffrage, of which we hear so much in these days. These principles are attempted to be enforced by appropriate provisions in the bill, which make it really an election bill. "Sir, our power over the question of suffrage in this District is ample, unquestioned, and we have seen that the objections to its exercise are untenable; but the question returns, shall the right be extended to the negro, and if so, upon what principle, or upon the prescription of what particular formula? "It becomes important first to consider the right of suffrage, whether as an absolute right, or as incident to citizenship. On this question the public mind is divided between universal suffrage, manhood suffrage, and impartial suffrage, and perplexed with questions of sex as well as of race and color. "I glance only at each. Universal suffrage is affirmed by its advocates as among the absolute or natural rights of man, in the sense of mankind, extending to females as well as males, and susceptible of no limitation unless as opposed to child or infant. It is supposed to originate in rights independent of citizenship; like the absolute rights of liberty, personal security, and possession of property, it is natural to man. It exists, of course, independent of sex or condition, manhood or womanhood. To admit it in the adult and deny it to the youth would be to abridge the right and ignore the principle. Now, sir, in practice its extension to women would contravene all our notions of the family; 'put asunder' husband and wife, and subvert the fundamental principles of family government, in which the husband is, by all usage and law, human and divine, the representative head. Besides, it ignores woman, womanhood, and all that is womanly; all those distinctions of sex, whose objects are apparent in creation, essential in character, and vital to society; these all disappear in the manly and impressive demonstration of balloting at a popular election. Here maids, women, wives, men, and husbands promiscuously assemble to vindicate the rights of human nature. "Moreover, it associates the wife and mother with policies of state, with public affairs, with making, interpreting, and executing the laws, with police and war, and necessarily disseverates her from purely domestic affairs, peculiar care for and duties of the family; and, worst of all, assigns her duties revolting to her nature and constitution, and wholly incompatible with those which spring from womanhood. Besides, the ballot is the inseparable concomitant of the bayonet. Those who practise the one must be prepared to exercise the other. To introduce woman at the polls is to enroll her in the militia, to transfer her from the class of non-combatants to the class of combatants. "Manhood suffrage,' to define it, is simply to state the conditions of manhood, the state of an adult male grown to full size and strength. Its opposites are 'childhood,' 'womanhood.' In most nations, for purposes of war, it is a male person between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years. Among the civilians it was from fourteen to twenty-five. The condition of manhood, as defined by the lexicographers, is purely physical development, in distinction from moral and intellectual. In this sense the common law had no standard. It is impossible to conceive of a law that would meet in practice the individual cases, as they would arise, on the principle of physical development. The condition of manhood varies in individuals, and is developed at different periods. "The fatal objection to 'manhood suffrage' is that the right is based on physical develop ment, like arms-bearing, while the act itself necessarily implies intelligence, discretion, intellectual development. "The peculiar character, the genius of republicanism, is equality, impartiality of rights and remedies among all the citizens, not that the citizen shall not be abridged in any of his nat ural rights. The man yields that right to the nation when he becomes a citizen. The republican guaranty is that all laws shall bear upon all alike in what they enjoin and forbid, grant and enforce. This principle of equality before the law is as old as civilization, but it does not prevent the State from qualifying the rights of the citizen according to the public necessities. "The American principle favors the right of suffrage for the male citizen of full age, supposed to be based upon the law and usage that at this age he becomes free of the tutelage of family, and is free to manage his own affairs. The exceptions to the rule are of persons non compos mentis, persons deemed infamous from treason, felony, or other high crimes, persons supported at the public charge, and ignorant persons, and those of African descent. "The rule is in harmony with the idea of republican government and Christian civilization. Some of the exceptions are ill-timed, illogical, and unjust. Poverty is in no just sense a disqualifying fact. On the contrary, society may doubtless protect itself by depriving those of political power who have proved faithless to it, or made war upon it. In a country where the means of education are accessible to all, or should be, and a knowledge of the Government important, it cannot be a grievance that the State should impose the rule of intelligent suffrage. The exceptional fact which stands out in flagrant violation of the common rule of suffrage is that which denies the right to the citizen of African descent on account of his tion, in only one of the States was the negro excluded from the exercise of the right on account of his race or color. South Carolina excluded the negro; in the other States the exclusion was confined to condition, and the colored freeman was an elector. In most of the States the negro is now excluded; in some of them he is admitted upon exceptional terms; in others upon terms of impartiality with the whites. The proposition of the bill is to restore the American rule of suffrage at the national capital, to place it upon the republican principle, to make our legislation conform to the constitutions, laws, usages, sentiments, and opinions of the people of the States at the revolutionary era of the republic, when universal liberty was an aspiration alike of statesmen and people," Mr. Willey, of West Virginia, offered an amendment that all persons who were actual residents of the District, and qualified to vote therein in the elections held in the year 1865, under the status then in force, might vote. It was further moved to strike out the first section of the amendment reported by the committee, and in lieu of it to insert: That in all elections to be held hereafter in the District of Columbia, the following described persons, and those only, shall have the right to vote, to wit: All persons, residents of said District, who have been duly mustered into the military or naval service of the United States during the late rebellion, and have been, or shall hereafter be, honorably discharged therefrom. Male citizens of the United States who shall have attained the age of twenty-one years (excepting paupers, persons non compos mentis, or convicted of an infamous offence), and who, being residents of the ward or district in which they shall offer to vote, shall have resided in said District for the period of one year next preceding any election, and who shall bave paid the taxes assessed against them, and who can read and who can write their names. person shall have the right to vote who, in any way, voluntarily gave aid and comfort to the rebels during the late rebellion. But no Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts, said: "I am against this qualification of reading and writing. I never did believe in it. I do not believe in it now. I voted against it in my own State, and I intend to vote against it here. There was a time when I would have taken it because I did not know that we could get any thing more in this contest; but I think the great victory of manhood suffrage is about achieved in this country. I think we are in a position where we can command it, and I am for commanding it; and I am for beginning now in this District, where we have the absolute control and power. For that reason I am opposed to this amend ment. "I would at one time have agreed to settle the question on the basis early promulgated by the New York Herald, of giving suffrage in the rebel States to those who served in the army, those who held a certain amount of property, those who could read and write, those who were members of Christian churches. These qualifications suggested early by that journal, I assented to then as a beginning; I believe we have gone beyond all beginnings now. During the last few months the country has gone an immeasurable distance in the right direction, and I believe to-day that the nation is prepared to demand manhood suffrage, and I am against any final adjustment or settlement of this question that does not demand it now. I think there are hundreds of thousands of men in the land who have been educated up to this great truth, that the poor men and the ignorant men of this country need the ballot for their protection, the protection of their property, their liberties, and their lives. I believe that there are hundreds of thousands of men who hold that opinion to-day who did not hold it six months ago. I think we are moving in the right direction. Time and circumstance are working in behalf of that great cause. 66 Now, we have before us a bill to extend the suffrage in the District of Columbia. There has been a great deal said about it, but the fact was, and we cannot deny it, that when the House bill was passed we had not the power to pass it and make it a law until the closing days of the last session. I speak, of course, on the assumption that its final passage would have required for it a two-thirds vote in this body. We have the power now to pass a clean bill, and the country demands it." Mr. Willey, of West Virginia, followed, saying: "Mr. President, this phrase 'manhood suffrage' sounds very well, and I am sure I have no objection to it; but I am particularly desirons that my amendment shall prevail so as to incorporate in this bill the qualification of intelligence. Sir, what is manhood suffrage? Does 'manhood,' considered in its political acceptation, consist simply in physical power, in arms and feet and hands and face? Does not the manhood that should be demanded as the basis of the right of suffrage mean something more than this? Does it not mean intelligence sufficient to appreciate the duty to be performed? Does it not mean some degree of moral character and standing? The pauper is a man, and yet you exclude him. The convict is a man, and yet you exclude him. Our sons under twenty-one years of age are a portion of the common brotherhood and manhood of the country, and yet you exclude them. Our wives and our daughters are in the same category, and yet they are excluded. So, then, the question involves some principle by which it shall be regulated; and it does seem to me that the true interests of a free government and the wise establishment of a free government require the great and fundamental qualification of intelligence, when we propose to extend the fundamental right of suffrage to any of our citizens. "I know how hard it is to provide any rule that shall operate equally. We have provided a rule as regards age, and how unequally does that operate! Yet it was necessary. Thou sands of our sons under twenty-one years of age are much better qualified to exercise the right of suffrage than thousands of our fellow-citizens fifty years of age. We must have some rule, and we have fixed twenty-one years of age in that respect as the wisest and best rule that could be propounded. "Now, it strikes me that, looking especially to the qualifications of the class of population in this district to whom it is proposed to extend the right of suffrage; looking to their antecedents; remembering who they are-but a short time taken from the worst and lowest type of barbarism in all the world; reflecting that they have been recently slaves; that they inherit and still have in them the instincts of slavery; that they are ignorant; that it is impossible for them (it is no fault of theirs, it is their misfortune) to have a correct appreciation of the duties devolving upon a man who exercises the right of suffrage to understand fully the principles of our free Government; I say, under all these circumstances, it does seem to me that wisdom dictates to us the propriety, if possible, of fixing some rule by which that great right shall be protected from abuse, some rule by which we shall confine its exercise to those who are competent to use it judiciously. Mr. Pomeroy, of Kansas, said: "I regard this bill as important, in the second place, because it is a sort of model, to be copied and patterned after by the States. In the Northwest I know there are States that have not hitherto given suffrage to colored men, but they are moving in that direction, and will copy this very statute, if we make it one, for their law. That is a reason why I think we ought to have the statute perfect here. "I agree with what the Senator from Massachusetts has said in regard to the requirements of reading and writing as a qualification for voting. That might be entertained in a State where all the people were allowed to go to school and learn to read and write; but it seems to me monstrous to apply it to a class of persons in this community who were legislated away from school, to whom every avenue of learning was shut up by law. "When the vote comes to be taken I shall vote to give the ballot to every man of the prescribed age and of the proper residence who has not been guilty of a crime, I care not for his complexion or his nationality. I have found that there are Americans who were not born here. A man is an American if he has got an American heart in him. Those of us who were born here could not help it. The man who is an American from choice deserves a little something in addition to those who are Americans from necessity. Therefore, I say I would not disfranchise those who come here joyfully to yield themselves to the moulding influence of American civilization." The amendment of Mr. Willey was rejected -yea, 1; nays, 41. Mr. Cowan, of Pennsylvania, moved that the word "male" be struck out of the bill. He said: "The proposition now before the Senate is to confer on the colored people of this district the right of franchise; that is, the advocates of the bill say that that will be safe and prudent and proper, and will contribute, of course, to the happiness of the mass of the inhabitants of the District; and they further say that no reason can be given why a man of one color should not vote as well as a man of another color, especially when both are equally members of the same society, equally subjected to its burdens, equally to be called upon to defend it in the field, and all that. I agree to a great portion of that. I do not know and never did know any very good reason why a black man should not vote as well as a white man, except simply that all the white men said, 'We do not like it.' I do not know of any very good reason why a black woman should not marry a white man, but I suppose the white man would give about the same reason-he does not like to do it. There are certain things in which we do not like to go into partnership, with the people of different races, and between whom and ourselves there are tribal antipathies. It is now proposed to break down that barrier, so far as political power may be concerned, and admit both equally to share in this privilege; and since the barrier is to be broken down, and since there is to be a change, I desire another change, for which I think there is quite as good a reason, and a little better, perhaps, than that offered for this. I propose to extend this privilege not only to males, but to females as well; and I should like to hear even the most astute and learned Senator upon this floor give any better reason for the exclusion of females from the right of suffrage than there is for the exclusion of negroes. I want to hear that reason. I should like to know it. Mr. Anthony, of Rhode Island, said: "I do not contend for female suffrage on the ground that it is a natural right, because I believe that suffrage is a right derived from society, and that society is competent to impose upon the exercise of that right whatever conditions it chooses. I hold that the suffrage is a delegated trust-a trust delegated to certain designated classes of society-and that the whole body politic has the same right to withdraw any part of that trust that we have to withdraw any part of the powers of the trusts that we have imposed upon any executive officer, and that it is no more a punishment to restrict the suffrage and thereby deprive certain persons of the exercise of that right who have heretofore exercised it, than it is a punishment on the Secretary of the Treasury if we should take from him the appointment of certain persons whose appointment is now vested in him. The power that confers in each case has the right to withdraw. "The true basis of suffrage of course is intelligence and virtue; but as we cannot define those, as we cannot draw the line that shall |