Speech #450108048

Suppose the President of the United States should issue a proclamation tomorrow to the effect that from and after the lst day of March next there should be a sixteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States. that that amendment should provide that from and after that day. by virtue of that amendment of the Constitution. all Chinese male persons tientyone years of age. whether naturalized or otherwise. should be entitled to vote in the United States. and suppose that for five years the three Pacific States. for instance. where these Chinese principally live should accept that as part of the Constitution of the United States. make no question about it. raise no objection to the right of Chinese persons to vote. would that acquiescence bind those States or bind other States at the expiration of those five years? Would that. in other words. make this sixteenth amendment of the Constitution a part of the Constitution ? And if not. wherein is the difference between that case and the one suggested by the Senator?