Charles Sumner

Not a Senator, loving Freedom, who did not feel on that day that a champion had come.

Who will array himself on the side of this wrong?

In my opinion these white oligarchs ought to have notice, and I give them notice now, that this outrage shall not be allowed to continue without remedy, if I can obtain it through Congress.

Their conduct, in its direct effect, degrades a long-suffering and deeply injured race; but it also degrades themselves.

I confess, Sir, that I cannot think of the medical profession at the National Capital engaged in this warfare on their colored brethren without sentiments which it is difficult to restrain.

This exclusion, besides its stigma on a race, is a practical injury to these gentlemen, and to their patients also, who are thus shut out from valuable opportunities and advantages.

There is no doubt that this was accomplished by an organized effort, quickened by color-phobia.

Augusta is guilty of a skin which is a shade different from that prevailing in the Medical Society, but nobody can impeach his character or his professional position.

Augusta, who had served as a surgeon in the Army of the United States and was brevetted as a Lieutenant-Colonel, who had enjoyed office and honor under the National Government, has been excluded from the Medical Society of the District of…

As all rivers are lost in the sea, which shows no sign of their presence, so will all peoples be lost in the widening confines of our Republic, with an ocean-bound continent for its unparalleled expanse, and one harmonious citizenship…

Would you conquer Nature, follow Nature; and here, would you conquer physical diversities, follow that moral law declared by our fathers, which is the highest law of Nature, and supreme above all men.

To those who find peril in the growing multitudes admitted to citizenship I reply, that our Republic assumed these responsibilities when it declared the equal rights of all men, and that just government stands only on the consent of the…

Whatever reason shows to be just cannot, when reduced to practice, produce other than good.

Justice is ever practical, ever politic; it is the best practice, the best policy.

Here, as always, the highest safety is in doing right.

Haply for I am black,” said Othello; “Haply for I am yellow,” repeats the Chinese: all of which may be ground for personal like or dislike, but not for any denial of rights, or any exclusion from that equal copartnership which is the…

And now I say that there can be no settlement here except in harmony with our declared principles and with universal truth.

How often have I said in other places that nothing can be settled which is not right!

It is important for our domestic peace, not to speak of our good name as a Republic, that this question should be settled.

Above all, Africa will feel it; and the surpassing duty which Civilization owes to this whole continent, where man has so long degraded his fellow-man, will begin to be discharged, while the voice of the Great Shepherd is heard among its…

Let Caste be trampled out, and there will be a triumph which will make this Republic more than ever an example.

The best interests of our country and the best interests of mankind are involved in the answer.

Give to the African only his due, and straightway the promised abundance will follow.

Because the world inclines to those who have, therefore must we study to serve those who have not, that we may counteract the worldly tendency.

God forbid that our nation should send through all time that defiance of human nature which is found in Caste!