They cannot in any way violate that fundamental right of all citizens, Equality before the Law.
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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Still further, they cannot brand a whole race with the stigma of inferiority and degradation, constituting them a Caste.
In the exercise of these powers they cannot put colored children to personal inconvenience greater than that of white children.
It is absurd to suppose that the Committee in general charge and superintendence of schools, and in determining the number and qualifications of scholars, may engraft upon the schools a principle of inequality, not only unknown to the…
From them no person will imply a power to defeat a cardinal principle of the Constitution.
The stream cannot rise higher than the fountain-head; and if there be nothing in these elevated sources from which this power can spring, it must be considered a nullity.
We revolt at the relation of Caste; but here is a Caste which is established under a Constitution declaring that all men are born equal.
We abjure all inequality before the law; but here is an inequality which touches not an individual, but a race.
We abjure all privileges of birth; but here is a privilege which depends solely on the accident whether an ancestor is black or white.
We abjure all hereditary distinctions; but here is an hereditary distinction, founded, not on the merit of the ancestor, but on his color.
We abjure nobility of all kinds; but here is a nobility of the skin.
But this distinction can furnish no ground for any discrimination before the law.
Where Caste is, there cannot be Equality; where Equality is, there cannot be Caste.
But the words Caste and Equality are contradictory.
Disguise it as you will, it is nothing but this hateful, irreligious institution.
Yes, we regard Caste as part and parcel of idolatry, and of all heathen abominations, because it is in many ways contrary to God's Word, and directly contrary to God himself.
It makes him despise all those that are lower than himself in regard to Caste, which is not the design of God.
Caste makes a man think that he is holier than another, and that he has some inherent virtue which another has not.
When God made man, his intention was, not that they should be divided, and hate one another, and show contempt, and think more highly of themselves than others.
Caste makes distinctions among creatures where God has made none.
If you admit Caste to be true, the whole fabric of Christianity must come down; for the nature of Caste and its associations destroy the first principles of Christianity.
I therefore regard Caste as opposed to the main scope, principles, and doctrines of Christianity; for either Caste must be admitted to be true and of divine authority, or Christianity must be so admitted.
Caste infuses itself into and forms the very essence of pride itself.
Caste is the stronghold of that principle of pride which makes a man think of himself more highly than he ought to think.
There is also the testimony of native Hindoos converted to Christianity, who denounce Caste as Jefferson denounced the despotism of Slavery.
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