Had Slavery never existed among us, there would have been no such prejudice as that of which the Senator makes himself the representative.
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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Far better would it be for that Senator, who comes into this Chamber as the representative of a new-born free State, had he surrendered generously to the sentiment in which West Virginia had its birth.
But, instead, he comes forward and labors with unwonted earnestness to perpetuate at the national capital an odious feature derived from Slavery.
If he has not used the word, he has vindicated the thing, in one of its most odious features.
He seeks to blast a whole race merely on account of color.
Would he ever have proposed such injustice, but for the prejudices nursed by Slavery?
Had not Slavery existed, would any such idea have found place in a Senator naturally so generous and humane?
No, Sir,--he spoke with the voice of Slavery, which he cannot yet forget.
He spoke under the unhappy and disturbing influences which Slavery has left in his mind.
Now, Sir, I am against Slavery, wherever it shows itself, whatever form it takes.
I am against Slavery, when compelled to meet it directly; and I am against Slavery in all its products and its offspring.
I am against Slavery, when encountering the beast outright, or only its tail.
The prejudices of which the Senator makes himself the representative to-day, permit me to say, are nothing but the tail of Slavery.
Unhappily, while we have succeeded in abolishing Slavery in this District, we have not yet abolished the tail; and the tail has representatives in the Senate Chamber, as the beast once had.
This is too true; and now, as that conflict lowers, I invoke the spirit of our fathers.
They went forth to battle with the Declaration of Independence on their lips, solemnly declaring that all men are born equal, entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
They introduced no discrimination of color into that sacred text, nor into the contemporary Articles of Confederation, nor into the Constitution of the United States, which was the work of their hands.
I had not intended to say a word on this occasion; but I could not listen to the remarks of the Senator, so harsh and unfeeling toward a whole race, belonging to the human family, like himself, without interposing a solemn protest.
Nor do I think that any of us on this floor can feel humbled, if our judgment is postponed to that of Judge Gaston of North Carolina, who did not hesitate to declare positively the constitutional law of human rights, by virtue of which…
And if they are citizens, how can you deny them the electoral franchise?
I am content to leave the question here, adding, that, as I understand it, I shall deem it my duty to vote against all propositions creating any discrimination of color.
At this moment of revolution, when our country needs the blessing of Almighty God and the strong arms of all her children, this is not the time for us solemnly to enact injustice.
In duty to our country, and in duty to God, I plead against any such thing.
We must be against Slavery in its original shape, and in all its brood of prejudice and error.
Now, Sir, I cannot sanction any such rule directly or indirectly.
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