As there is still a quasi Rebellion, so is there still a quasi Slavery.
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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Nor can it be, until the Equal Rights of every person once claimed as a slave are placed under the safeguard of irreversible guaranties.
It is not enough to prostrate the master; you must also lift up the slave.
It is not enough to declare Emancipation; the whole Black Code, which is the supplement of Slavery, must give place to that Equality before the Law which is the very essence of Liberty.
And then again, where the reason of a law ceases, the law itself ceases.
So, also, where the principal falls to the ground, the incident falls also.
But all these unquestionable principles are fatal to the Black Code.
The Liberty that has been granted “cannot be,” if the Black Code exists.
The piece of land conveyed is useless without that right of way which is stopped up by the Black Code.
The reason for the Black Code is Slavery; and with the cessation of the reason, the whole Black Code itself must cease also.
The Black Code is the incident of Slavery, and as such it must fall with the principal.
Slavery begins by denying the right of a man to himself; and the Black Code continues this denial by its cruel exclusions.
Every freedman must be secured in this right by admission to the full panoply of citizenship.
Slavery sets at nought the relation of husband and wife.
Every freedman must be able to claim his wife as his own.
Every freedman must be assured in all the privileges of education.
Slavery takes from its victim the hard-earned fruits of his toil.
Every freedman must be protected in his industry.
Slavery denies justice to the colored man by cruelly rejecting his testimony.
Every freedman must enter the courts freely, as witness or as party.
Until all this is done, in every particular, and beyond possibility of question, it is vain to say that Emancipation has been accomplished.
In asking that we shall do likewise, I follow the plain suggestions of reason, whether we regard the interest of the freedmen or our own.
For justice to the freedmen is now intimately linked with the national security.
Be just, and you will erect a barrier against returning Rebellion.
Error proceeds oftener from ignorance than from malice.
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