Individuals entering into society must give up a share of liberty to preserve the rest.
Charles Sumner
The Public Record
Charles Sumner was an American lawyer and statesman who represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate from 1851 until his death in 1874. Before and during the American Civil War, he was a leading American advocate for the abolition of slavery, and after the war he was a key figure in the Reconstruction era, during which he and other Radical Republicans successfully fought to end slavery and ensure basic rights for Black Americans. He continued advocating for racial equality until his death, lobbying in his final days for a civil rights bill that served as a model for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Historians credit Sumner with coining the phrase "equality before the law," which he first used as part of an early attempt to integrate Boston's public school system.
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That of the President is derived from the war powers; but these are not sealed to Congress.
Whatever shows itself dangerous to a republican form of government must be removed without delay or hesitation; and if the evil be Slavery, our action will be bolder when it is known that the danger was foreseen.
The necessity of this principle is apparent as a restraint upon the lawless vindictiveness and inhumanity of the Rebel States, whether against Union men or against freedmen.
Plainly interpreted, it calls George the Third “tyrant,” and announces that the sceptre has been snatched from his hands.
Who that has not forgotten God can doubt the result?
Am I not right, that a fixed sum for exemption imposes a tax upon honest poverty and a premium upon wealth?
I put aside the idea, except in the general sense, that the draft itself is a tax, and the amendment simply aims to equalize that tax.
And yet, Sir, by the law as it now stands, you compel the poor to pay the same as the rich.
Its single and exclusive object is to equalize the burden of the draft.
It is simply this: Will the Senate obey an existing statute?
Clearly, the Senate will not disobey an existing statute.
If there be doubt on the Constitution, there is none on the statute.
There have been many in Congress from the Slave States, but he was the first in our history inspired to bring in a bill for the abolition of Slavery in a State.
Do not all great thoughts come from the heart?
I challenge any Senator to mention a single word in that statute authorizing any such exclusion.
Will the Senator contend that the commissioned officers of colored regiments might be drawn from the colored troops themselves, after the passage of the law of 1862?
On that account I am induced to look critically at the proposition before us, to see whether this affords any measure of justice.
The Senator knows something of the law’s delay and the law’s expense; and I ask him whether it is just to subject an oppressed people to this additional oppression, when, by a few words, Congress, now in session, can overturn the wrong.
At last the law was recognized, and from that date all the street-cars of Washington have been open to colored persons.
Rejected or neglected in one generation, they revive in another; nor can they be impaired by any desuetude.
The Slave-Masters got all they could: if possible, they would have got more.
Thus, accidentally, Congress assumed the odious power to organize slave-hunting.
There is nothing in the clause itself, there is nothing in any other clause, applicable to this pretended power.
Let us at all hazards prevent the extension of Slavery and the increase of the Slave Power.
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