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MR. SUMNER. That certainly will not justify my friend in his argument, for on the face of it this is permanent. It is as permanent as anything else in the existing charter. Its title is, "A Resolution to amend the charter of the city of Washington." When this is done, what assurance has my friend that anything else will be done? There is a bill on our tables. How many other bills are there on other matters which we may not reach during this session, or, if we reach, on which we cannot expect harmonious votes in the two Houses!

Here Mr. Sumner was interrupted by the Tax Bill, which was the order of the day.

May 27th, Mr. Sumner resumed.

I WAS interrupted yesterday by other business, called up while I was replying to my friend from Ohio [Mr. WADE]. I did not propose any extended reply.

It is with pain that I differ from friends. But with me there is no choice. Here is a measure which opens the whole question of suffrage in the national capital, and assumes the form of amendment to the charter of the city of Washington. It provides that certain persons shall be registered, including even those who cannot speak English; but in positive terms it continues and keeps alive the old rule founded on color. Now, Sir, I cannot sanction any such rule directly or indirectly.

But it is said, that, in pressing my amendment, the original proposition may be lost. This I shall regret much; for I desire its passage sincerely. But I can see no reason why a discrimination of color should be made in the bill, or in our proceedings. If white persons are kept out of their rights, so are colored persons; and I

would ask my friend from Ohio, Which has been kept out the longest? I am for the rights of both, to the end that we may have at last in the national capital Equality before the law.

We are shocked daily by the report of outrages upon colored persons. In Tennessee a colored woman has been murdered under the lash. Near Fortress Monroe another colored woman has been cruelly treated under the lash. This must be stopped. But I know no way so effective as to set an example of justice and humanity. If we sanction slave-hunting, if we disregard the rights of colored persons, if we treat them as inferior in condition, unhappily, Sir, there are others who will follow our example, and add a vindictive cruelty.

Therefore, insisting upon the rights of colored persons here, I insist upon their rights everywhere. Nor do I see how I can abandon their rights here without abandoning them everywhere. We are Senators of the United States, bound to consider the whole country in all its extent, and to do nothing here which shall do mischief elsewhere; nor can we yield to any local pressure, or any imagined local interests, and thus forget the cause of justice.

It is vain to say that this measure is temporary; for, in plain terms, it undertakes to amend the charter of Washington. It is vain to say, also, that there is another bill now on your calendar regulating this whole question. Who can say that this bill will become a law? Ay, Sir, who can say, that, in the hurried hours of these closing days of a weary session, the bill will even be considered again? And yet on these grounds we are asked to abandon the present assertion of the rights of colored persons. If the bill conferring these

rights can pass, so also can the present measure.

If

it be practical to assert these rights on one bill, it is equally practical to assert them on another, where such assertion is germane. It only remains that Senators should stand firm.

For myself, I will not sanction injustice; nor will I miss any opportunity of asserting the rights of an oppressed race. I may be alone; but, to the extent of my powers, I mean to be right.

Mr. Morrill appealed to Mr. Sumner to withdraw his opposition, saying: “Now, as a question of practical statesmanship, I submit to my honorable friend whether it is not the part of wisdom to say we will do this now and we will consider the other question when it comes up." Mr. Harlan moved to amend by adding, "who have borne arms in the military service of the United States, and have been honorably discharged therefrom." This amendment, limiting Mr. Sumner's proposition, was agreed to, - Yeas 26, Nays 12.

May 28th, Mr. Sumner spoke again, and adduced the details of the recent outrage in Tennessee, saying, in conclusion :

WE all feel, Sir, the brutality of this act. It was done by a white man on the person of a colored woman. Would he have been the author of such a brutality, had the woman been white? No; because she was black, he thus insulted human nature, and performed an act never to be read without a blush that he is a member of the human family. And how are we to discountenance such acts? Is it by keeping alive this odious discrimination of color, by imparting to it the sanction of law, by investing it with the authority of this Chamber? I appeal to you, Senators, as men of humanity, do not continue a discrimination, which, proceeding from this Chamber, must exercise a far-reaching influence. It is not simply the question of a few voters more or less in the District, but it is a question of human rights

everywhere throughout this land, involving the national character and its good name forevermore.

Again, in reply to Mr. Reverdy Johnson, Mr. Sumner said:

BUT the Senator thinks that I am not logical, because I quote an outrage in Tennessee having its origin in the prejudice of color, and insist that here in this Chamber we shall not found legislation on a prejudice of color. Sir, I submit the question to the judgment of the Senate: Am I illogical, or is the Senator so? I insist, Sir, that you cannot sanction injustice here, especially you cannot sanction a prejudice founded on color, without quickening that prejudice, and sustaining it, wherever it now unhappily exists throughout our whole country.

At the next stage of the joint resolution, the question recurred on concurring with the amendment in Committee of the Whole :

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"Provided, That there shall be no exclusion of any persons from the register, on account of color, who have borne arms in the military service of the United States, and have been honorably discharged therefrom."

And it was rejected, Yeas 18, Nays 20.

was then passed.

The joint resolution

And so this second battle for colored suffrage was lost.

VOTE OF BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS NECESSARY TO

READMISSION OF REBEL STATES.

RESOLUTION IN THE SENATE, MAY 27, 1864.

THE Senate having under consideration the credentials of certain claimants as Senators from Arkansas, Mr. Sumner offered the following resolution:

RESO

:

ESOLVED, That a State pretending to secede from the Union, and battling against the National Government to maintain this pretension, must be regarded as a Rebel State, subject to military occupation, and without title to representation on this floor, until it has been readmitted by a vote of both Houses of Congress; and the Senate will decline to entertain any application from any such Rebel State, until after such vote of both Houses of Congress.

June 13th, on motion of Mr. Sumner, the resolution was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, at the same time with a joint resolution by Mr. Lane, of Kansas, recognizing the existing government of Arkansas, and also the credentials of the claimants as Senators.

June 27th, Mr. Trumbull from the Committee reported adversely on all these references.

The requirement of this resolution was affirmed by the Senate, when it adopted the amendment of Mr. Gratz Brown to the Reconstruction Bill of the House, July 1st,1 and it became a corner-stone of Reconstruction.

1 Post, Vol. IX. pp. 47, 48.

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