Part 18

He took objection to the substitute.

“Pass that law at this session, and it becomes an issue in the next political campaign; and those who sustain it and pass it here will be committed to its support, and those who oppose it will strive to elect men in favor of its repeal. A majority of this Congress may believe in the constitutionality and expediency of such legislation; but another Congress, if a majority should happen to sympathize with the honorable Senator from Kentucky, would abrogate the law, and so the political rights of millions of people would be as varying as the capricious fortunes of the political parties of the country.”

In the intervening debate on the Reconstruction Resolution of the House of Representatives, Mr. Cowan, of Pennsylvania, made an elaborate speech on the pending Amendment, in which he pictured the compromise involved in it.

“This Committee proposes in this Amendment to sell out four million (radical count) negroes to the bad people of those States forever and ever. In consideration of what? I am asked. O shame, where is thy blush? I answer, in dust and ashes, For about sixteen members of Congress. Has there ever been before, Sir, in the history of this or any other country, such a stupendous sale of negroes as that? Never! never! It is saying to the Southern States, You may have these millions of human beings, whom we love so dearly, and about whom we have said so much, and for whom we have done so much,--you may do with them as you please in the way of legislative discrimination against them, if you will only agree not to count them at the next census, except as your sheep and oxen are counted; waive your right to sixteen members of Congress, and the great compromise is sealed, the long agony is over, the nation’s dead are avenged, the nation’s tears are dried, and the nation’s politics are relieved of the negro.”

March 7th, Mr. Sumner spoke at length in reply to Mr. Fessenden and others who had opposed his substitute. This speech appears in the present volume, according to its date.[199] He was followed by his colleague, Mr. Wilson, who was strenuous for the House Amendment.

“Mr. President, there are indications, not to be mistaken, that this Amendment is doomed to defeat. To me this result will be a subject of sincere and profound regret. My heart, my conscience, and my judgment approve of this Amendment, and I support it without qualification or reservation.”

March 9th, Mr. Fessenden spoke again, criticizing especially Mr. Yates and Mr. Sumner.

Mr. Sumner followed Mr. Fessenden in a brief reply, which will be found under its date.[200]

Mr. Wilson declared again his adhesion to the pending Amendment, saying: “I would go to the scaffold joyfully before the sun goes down, if I could put this proposed Amendment into the Constitution of my country; for, if it were there, there would be but one result and one end to it, and that is the enfranchisement of every black man within the bounds of the United States.”

The voting then commenced on the various substitutes for the Amendment adopted by the House of Representatives.

First came the counter proposition of Mr. Sumner, altered, in conformity with the original draught,[201] so as to be applicable only to States that had lapsed, being “lately declared to be in rebellion,” without republican government.

Mr. Henderson moved to strike out all of the counter proposition, and in lieu of it insert a Constitutional Amendment securing the suffrage to colored citizens:--

“ARTICLE 14. No State, in prescribing the qualifications requisite for electors therein, shall discriminate against any person on account of color or race.”

Mr. Henderson felt obliged to move his amendment as a substitute for the counter proposition of Mr. Sumner in order to compel a vote upon it.

Mr. Sumner stated that he was for this proposition, and that he should vote for it, and, on its failure, press his own.

The question, being taken by yeas and nays on Mr. Henderson’s amendment, resulted--Yeas 10, Nays 37--as follows:--

YEAS,--Messrs. Brown, Chandler, Clark, Henderson, Howe, Pomeroy, Sumner, Wade, Wilson, and Yates.

NAYS,--Messrs. Anthony, Buckalew, Conness, Cowan, Cragin, Creswell, Davis, Dixon, Doolittle, Fessenden, Foster, Grimes, Guthrie, Harris, Hendricks, Johnson, Kirkwood, Lane of Indiana, Lane of Kansas, McDougall, Morgan, Morrill, Nesmith, Norton, Nye, Poland, Ramsey, Riddle, Saulsbury, Sherman, Sprague, Stewart, Stockton, Trumbull, Van Winkle, Willey, and Williams.

ABSENT,--Messrs. Foot, Howard, and Wright.

So the amendment to the amendment was rejected.

The question then recurred on the substitute of Mr. Sumner, when the vote stood,--Yeas 8, Nays 39; so it was rejected. Those voting in the affirmative were Messrs. Gratz Brown, of Missouri, Chandler, of Michigan, Howe, of Wisconsin, Pomeroy, of Kansas, Sumner, Wade, of Ohio, Wilson, of Massachusetts, and Yates, of Illinois.

Mr. Clark, of New Hampshire, then moved to amend the House proposition by striking out the proviso and inserting these words, being an amplification of the proviso:--

“Whenever the elective franchise shall be denied or abridged in any State in the election of Representatives to Congress, or of any other officer, municipal, State, or national, on account of race, color, descent, or previous condition of servitude, or by any provision of law not equally applicable to all races and descents, all persons of such race, color, descent, and condition shall be excluded from the basis of representation, as prescribed in the second section of the first article of the Constitution.”

This amendment was adopted,--Yeas 26, Nays 20. It was afterwards withdrawn by the mover, with the unanimous consent of the Senate.

The next question was on a legislative substitute, not unlike that of Mr. Sumner, moved by Mr. Yates:--

“That no State or Territory of the United States shall, by any constitution, law, or other regulation whatever, heretofore in force or hereafter to be adopted, make, or enforce, or in any manner recognize, any distinction between citizens of the United States, or of any State or Territory, on account of race or color or previous condition of slavery; and that hereafter all citizens, without distinction of race, color, or previous condition of slavery, shall be protected in the full and equal enjoyment and exercise of all their civil and political rights, including the right of suffrage.”

This was rejected,--Yeas 7, Nays 38.

Mr. Davis, of Kentucky, then moved to amend the proposition of the House of Representatives by inserting after the word “legislatures” the words “next hereafter to be chosen in each State.” The motion was rejected,--Yeas 12, Nays 31.

Mr. Sumner then moved to strike out the proviso in the House proposition, as amended on the motion of Mr. Clark, and in lieu thereof insert,--

“And the elective franchise shall not be denied or abridged in any State on account of race or color.”

In moving this Constitutional Amendment, Mr. Sumner remarked that it was “a direct, positive proposition, slightly different from that [Mr. HENDERSON’S] on which the Senate had voted.” It was rejected,--Yeas 8, Nays 38.

Mr. Sumner then moved to add at the end of the House proposition the words, “And they shall be exempt from taxation of all kinds.”

Before the vote he remarked:--

“It is proposed, by a solemn provision of the Constitution, to declare that certain persons shall not be included in the basis of representation. I think, in justice to them, they should not be taxed. You ought not to repeat in the Constitution the tyranny of taxation without representation. In so many words, you are about to despoil fellow-citizens of representation, and I say, that, not to be inconsistent with your own institutions and with the principles upon which your government is founded, you must exempt them from taxation.”

The amendment was rejected.

The question then came on the passage of the House proposition, when the vote stood,--

YEAS,--Messrs. Anthony, Chandler, Clark, Conness, Cragin, Creswell, Fessenden, Foster, Grimes, Harris, Howe, Kirkwood, Lane of Indiana, McDougall, Morgan, Morrill, Nye, Poland, Ramsey, Sherman, Sprague, Trumbull, Wade, Williams, and Wilson.

NAYS,--Messrs. Brown, Buckalew, Cowan, Davis, Dixon, Doolittle, Guthrie, Henderson, Hendricks, Johnson, Lane of Kansas, Nesmith, Norton, Pomeroy, Riddle, Saulsbury, Stewart, Stockton, Sumner, Van Winkle, Willey, and Yates.

ABSENT,--Messrs. Foot, Howard, and Wright.

The Chair then declared: “On this question the Yeas are 25 and the Nays 22. Two thirds of the Senators present not having voted for the joint resolution, it is not agreed to.”

This vote showed the judgment of the Senate at that time. But, in order to keep the question open, it was, on motion of Mr. Henderson, reconsidered. Mr. Doolittle, of Wisconsin, then moved a substitute, basing representation on qualified voters, and also regulating direct taxes. Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, offered another substitute, founded on qualified voters, but with nothing on direct taxes. While these were pending, the subject was postponed on motion of Mr. Fessenden, and never resumed.

Much feeling was manifested by some of the supporters of the House attempt at amendment, when its defeat was known. Mr. Stevens, of Pennsylvania, took an early occasion to say:--

“It was slaughtered by a puerile and pedantic criticism, by a perversion of philological definition, which, if, when I taught school, a lad who had studied Lindley Murray had assumed, I would have expelled him from the institution as unfit to waste education upon.… The murderers must answer to the suffering race. I would not have been the perpetrator. A load of misery must sit heavy on their souls.… Let us again try and see whether we cannot devise some way to overcome the united forces of self-righteous Republicans and unrighteous Copperheads.”[202]

The Fourteenth Amendment followed, and was adopted by both Houses of Congress during the present session. While undertaking to regulate representation, this Amendment had no recognition of exclusion from the elective franchise on account of “race or color.” Though failing in directness, there was nothing in it to injure the text of the Constitution, or impair the idea of a republican form of government, always with Mr. Sumner a cardinal point. There were also other important clauses, defining citizenship, assuring for all “the equal protection of the laws,” disqualifying certain persons from office until the removal of such disability by a vote of two thirds of each House of Congress, protecting the public debt of the United States, and annulling all debts in aid of rebellion or on account of the loss or emancipation of any slave.

The original object of the clause relating to representation was accomplished directly, before its ratification as part of the Constitution. After much debate, Congress yielded to the claim of power, and took jurisdiction of the elective franchise in the Rebel States, requiring, that, in voting on any State constitution in the reconstruction of the Rebel States, there should be no exclusion on account of race or color, and that this prohibition should be embodied in the new State constitutions.[203] The Fifteenth Constitutional Amendment on equal suffrage followed.

Unquestionably the establishment of the equal rights of colored citizens at the ballot-box was one of the most important events in our political history. With few supporters at first, the cause grew in interest and strength until final success in the Acts of Reconstruction, and then in the Constitutional Amendment. This great result was accomplished by discussion and the gradual recognition of the national exigency.

PRESS AND CORRESPONDENCE.

Mr. Sumner’s speech was extensively circulated, and awakened much attention. The response of the country will be seen in the contemporary press and in letters addressed to him, which, while illustrating the speech, reflect light on the times.

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The Washington correspondents concurred in accounts of the speech, and of the interest it created.

Henry C. Bowen, proprietor of the New York _Independent_, then on a visit to Washington, wrote to his paper of the first day of the speech:--

“SENATE CHAMBER, Monday Afternoon.

“Whatever may be said in regard to the political opinions of Hon. Charles Sumner, no one can deny his eminent ability as an orator and scholar, and to-day this world-renowned friend of the poor and the oppressed is speaking in the Senate,--I had almost said as orator and scholar never spoke before. His theme is the Rights of Man. The floor and galleries of the Senate Chamber are crowded with most attentive listeners, and such a spectacle as it is now my unspeakable privilege to witness is worthy of a thousand miles’ journey.… Never before have I heard in these halls such solemn appeals, never such noble and eloquent utterances. May the great Author of truth and justice continue to inspire the great Senator now speaking to do His will to the glory of His name!”

So also the correspondent of the Boston _Daily Advertiser_:--

“The finest audience of the session came out to-day to hear Mr. Sumner’s great speech on the Amendment to the Constitution. Many persons were in the galleries before the Senate was called together at noon, and long before one o’clock, the hour at which the proposition was to be taken up, they were crowded to their utmost capacity. The morning hour was occupied with minor business, and it was a quarter past one when Mr. Fessenden called for the special order. He of course was entitled to open the debate, but, being unwell to-day, he yielded the floor to Mr. Sumner.

“The scene, when he rose to speak, was one that could not fail to touch the most indifferent heart. One fourth of the gentlemen’s gallery was filled with colored soldiers, and the other seats and aisles of the remaining part of the galleries were closely packed with an intent and appreciative auditory, while on the floor were a large number of members from the House and several members of the foreign delegations resident in the city.”

So also the correspondent of the Pittsburg _Commercial_:--

“The great event of the day and of the session in the Senate was Mr. Sumner’s speech. The galleries were crowded to excess, as they have not been on any occasion before in a long time. Frederick Douglass was in the gallery, one of the most attentive listeners, and evidently the best-pleased man in the Chamber, as he heard the distinguished champion of his race plead so eloquently in its behalf. Nearly every member of the Senate listened with rapt attention to Mr. Sumner.”

So also the correspondent of the Boston _Commonwealth_:--

“Mr. Sumner’s great speech upon what constitutes a republican government is now being delivered in the Senate. It is the most powerful oration of his life,--the crowning glory of his scholarship and statesmanship. Never yet has any American statesman swept so wide a range of learning, so complete a circle of public law, history, philosophy, and jurisprudence, in support of so noble a principle as the one underlying republican government. Mr. Sumner spoke two hours yesterday, and will occupy about the same time to-day. The galleries were filled to overflowing. The Senatorial chairs were all occupied, while the floor was thronged by Representatives and others having the _entrée_.”

The correspondent of the Boston _Journal_ wrote of the second day:--

“Senator Sumner was honored to-day by such an audience as is rarely seen in the Senate Chamber. The Senators, wheeling around their chairs so as to face the speaker, listened with marked attention. Scores of Representatives filled the sofas or the floor and stood in groups, and the galleries were literally packed with earnest men and women, who drank in every word as the gifted orator proceeded. When he closed, the galleries applauded loudly, until Senator Pomeroy, who occupied the chair, secured order, while those on the floor crowded around Senator Sumner to offer earnest congratulations.”

So also the correspondent of the New York _Tribune_:--

“Senator Sumner concluded his great effort at fifty-five minutes past two, having commenced at one. Diplomats, two Cabinet Ministers, and a much larger number of Congressmen than yesterday were on the floor, while all the galleries and approaches were densely packed with attentive listeners. As the argument of the speaker culminated, he became grandly eloquent, and his elaborate plea, which might rather be denominated an essay than a speech, for negro enfranchisement, unquestionably made a profound impression upon every intelligent listener. At its conclusion the floor and galleries broke forth in applause.”

A few days later, the correspondent of the New York _Tribune_, after mentioning President Johnson’s interview with the delegation of colored people headed by Frederick Douglass and George T. Downing, wrote:--

“As to Mr. Sumner’s grand vindication of the fundamental principles underlying republicanism, it is unnecessary to repeat what has been said of the immediate effect it produced upon those who listened to it,--of the overcrowded galleries, the silent attention of the Senate, the members of the House who had left their own seats and eagerly thronged the floor of the Senate Chamber.… And even now, since the sound has died away and there has been ample time for searching criticism, you can hear men who are not in the habit of following Mr. Sumner’s views of policy say with heartfelt satisfaction, it was a grand speech, worthy of the Senate, worthy of the cause it defended, worthy of this Republic. I have hardly seen a Republican here who was not as proud of it as if he had made it himself. Even Mr. Sumner’s opponents, the Democrats of the Senate and the House, yielded to it the tribute of their respect. That respect will go all over this country, and even beyond its boundaries; and while no thinking man in this Republic will take it up without feeling the irresistible weight of its logic and the ennobling power of its sentiments, it will abroad do more honor to American republicanism than any public act since the decree of Emancipation.”

The correspondent of the New Orleans _Tribune_ wrote:--

“You will of course give to your readers the great speech of Senator Sumner. His speech is one of the best ever delivered in the Senate, and it was delivered in the greatest of causes,--that of Human Liberty. It differs from the tone so common among so-called ‘Democratic’ orators for years past, both North and South, inasmuch as it contained neither abusive, personal, nor vindictive language. But it was calm, manly, dignified,--full of the subject in hand, treating it with frankness,--alluding to the opposite view with fairness, and even respect, while showing up their errors and weaknesses as one would those of a wayward child. For historical and legal research, critical analysis, and logical argument, it is unsurpassed. Concise, pithy, full of effective and happy illustrations, it was admirably conceived and presented.”

The correspondent of the Richmond _Republic_, with equal appreciation, but less faith, wrote:--

“In the Senate, the day was devoted to Sumner. He began speaking about one o’clock, and concluded his exhaustive argument in an hour and forty minutes. The burden of the whole of it was the absolute political and civil equality of all men, and his peroration was a loftier flight of majestic eloquence than the Senate has heard since the best days of Clay and Webster. While very few agree with Sumner in the present practicability of his ideas, and still fewer indorse them at all as tenets of political faith, yet there is but one opinion of the speech he has been making for two days,--that, simply as a monument of laborious research and good English, it is unsurpassed. When he concluded to-night, the densely crowded galleries could not be restrained, and burst out into vehement applause; but it was a tribute to the grandly classical language in which his ideas were clothed, and not to the ideas themselves. Charles Sumner may possibly be a patriot, but he is certainly a political philanthropist, and as such there is no probability that he will live to see his tenets practically enforced in the legislation of the country.”

The correspondent of the New York _Times_ wrote:--

“He exhausted ancient and modern history in gathering maxims and examples for the illustration of the points which he made. Portions of the speech were marked by great felicity of language and beauty of imagery. It exhibited, perhaps, more of the speculative theorist than of the practical statesman. Though he took pains to disavow everything of this character, and to present his views as the basis and guide of practical action, it was by far the most elaborate and comprehensive speech made in Congress for many years, and was heard with great attention by the Senate and crowded galleries.”

A few extracts from newspapers will show how the speech was received at a distance.

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The _Independent_, of New York, in printing the speech, thus noticed it:--