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I repeat, the condition of the South in this respect would be shameful to any semi-civilized people, and is such as to render a republican government, resting upon the intelligent judgment of the people, an impossibility." It is worthy of remark that the question so cogently presented and enforced by Mr.Donnelly--that of the connection between education and suffrage--disclosed the general fact that even among Republicans there was no disposition at this period to confer upon the negro the right to vote.

Even so radical a Republican as Mr.Fessenden, during the debate in the Senate on this question, said, "I take it that no one contends--I think the Honorable Senator from Massachusetts himself (Mr.
Sumner), who is the great champion of universal suffrage, would hardly contend--that now, at this time, the whole of the population of the recent slave States is fit to be admitted to the exercise of the right of suffrage.