A republic, like a democracy, cannot tolerate inequality.
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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Color cannot be a “qualification,” any more than size, or quality of hair.
To every freedman the ballot is the light of day.
Receiving them into our embattled lines, the Republic is estopped against all denial of their Equal Rights.
If that “more perfect union” proclaimed in the National Constitution as a primary object has been obtained at last, it is through them.
They have raged against us in the name of Slavery: we send them back the benediction of justice for all.
Where justice is supreme, nothing can be wanting.
It is a noble declaration, but a simple declaration,--a paper bullet, that kills no one, and fixes and maintains the rights of no one.
The partisan sneers of demagogues cannot prevail against it.
The best minds believe in it; the best hearts take courage from it.
The Equal Rights of All is the only sure guaranty for the present and future of mankind.
Though it might accomplish one desirable object, it was a concession to prejudice against color.
In God’s name, in the name of Justice and Freedom, and in behalf of the millions of God’s outraged poor, I thank you for your noble speech.
Congress must legislate impartial suffrage into all the States by direct statute.
If argument could avail, the veto is already lost, even without a vote.
In all the annals of the Supreme Court there is no decision more carefully considered or wrought with a finer skill.
And yet the proposition before the Senate gives the palm of power and honor to the rebel class, and fixes this preëminence in the National Constitution.
In every representative body properly constituted the people are practically present.
I say that the government which it constitutes is not a republican government.
Some of the more prosperous, in order to secure education for their children, have sent them to distant parts of the country, to repair the wrong done by this churlish and unjust community.
The law passed in 1864, signed by Governor Evans, deprived colored citizens of the right, at the very time when appealing to them to help save the country.
I may remind you that the President, to whom the question was naturally submitted, has expressly stated in a message to the Senate that in his opinion the new constitution was not formed in pursuance of the Enabling Act.
It is like an obsolete statute, which we read in the statute-book, but never adduce for authority.
It stands as a monument, showing what Congress required, and showing also what this community failed to perform.
Let us at all hazards prevent the extension of Slavery and the increase of the Slave Power.
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