ADDRESS.
MR. PRESIDENT,—More than a year has passed since I last had the honor of addressing my fellow-citizens of Massachusetts. I then dwelt on what seemed the proper policy towards the States recently in rebellion,—insisting that it was our duty, while renouncing Indemnity for the past, to obtain at least Security for the future; and this security, I maintained, could be found only in exclusion of ex-Rebels from political power, and in irreversible guaranties especially applicable to the national creditor and the national freedman.[59] During intervening months, the country has been agitated by this question, which was perplexed by unexpected difference between the President and Congress. The President insists upon installing ex-Rebels in political power, and sets at nought the claim of guaranties and the idea of security for the future, while he denies to Congress any control over the question, taking it all to himself. Congress asserts control, and endeavors to exclude ex-Rebels from political power and establish guaranties, to the end that there may be security for the future. Meanwhile the States recently in rebellion, with the exception of Tennessee, are without representation. Thus stands the case.
The two parties are the President, on the one side, and the people of the United States in Congress assembled, on the other side,—the first representing the Executive, the second representing the Legislative. It is The One Man Power vs. Congress. Of course, each performs its part in the government; but until now it has always been supposed that the legislative gave law to the executive, and not that the executive gave law to the legislative. This irrational assumption becomes more astonishing, when it is considered that the actual President, besides being the creature of circumstance, is inferior in ability and character, while the House of Representatives is eminent in both respects. A President who has already sunk below any other President, even James Buchanan, madly undertakes to rule a House of Representatives which there is reason to believe is the best that has sat since the formation of the Constitution. Looking at the two parties, we are tempted to exclaim, Such a President dictating to such a Congress! It was said of Gustavus Adolphus, that he drilled the Diet of Sweden to vote or be silent at the word of command; but Andrew Johnson is not Gustavus Adolphus, and the American Congress is not the Diet of Sweden.
The question at issue is one of the vastest ever presented for practical decision, involving the name and weal of the Republic at home and abroad. It is not a military question; it is a question of statesmanship. We are to secure by counsel what was won by war. Failure now will make the war itself a failure; surrender now will undo all our victories. Let the President prevail, and straightway the plighted faith of the Republic will be broken,—the national creditor and the national freedman will be sacrificed,—the Rebellion itself will flaunt its insulting power,—the whole country, in length and breadth, will be disturbed,—and the Rebel region will be handed over to misrule and anarchy. Let Congress prevail, and all this will be reversed: the plighted faith of the Republic will be preserved; the national creditor and the national freedman will be protected; the Rebellion itself will be trampled out forever; the whole country, in length and breadth, will be at peace; and the Rebel region, no longer harassed by controversy and degraded by injustice, will enjoy the richest fruits of security and reconciliation. To labor for this cause may well tempt the young and rejoice the old.
And now, to-day, I again protest against any present admission of ex-Rebels to the great partnership of this Republic, and I renew the claim of irreversible guaranties, especially applicable to the national creditor and the national freedman,—insisting now, as I did a year ago, that it is our duty, while renouncing Indemnity for the past, to obtain at least Security for the future. At the close of a terrible war, wasting our treasure, murdering our fellow-citizens, filling the land with funerals, maiming and wounding multitudes whom Death had spared, and breaking up the very foundations of peace, our first duty is to provide safeguards for the future. This can be only by provisions, sure, fundamental, and irrepealable, fixing forever the results of the war, the obligations of the Government, and the equal rights of all. Such is the suggestion of common prudence and of self-defence, as well as of common honesty. To this end we must make haste slowly. States which precipitated themselves out of Congress must not be permitted to precipitate themselves back. They must not enter the Halls they treasonably deserted, until we have every reasonable assurance of future good conduct. We must not admit them, and then repent our folly. The verses in which the satirist renders the quaint conceit of the old Parliamentary orator, verses revived by Mr. Webster, and on another occasion used by myself, furnish the key to our duty:—
“I hear a lion in the lobby roar:
Say, Mr. Speaker, shall we shut the door,
And keep him there? or shall we let him in,
To try if we can turn him out again?”[60]
I am against letting the monster in, until he is no longer terrible in mouth or paw.
But, while holding this ground of prudence, I desire to disclaim every sentiment of vengeance or punishment, and also every thought of delay or procrastination. Here I do not yield to the President, or to any other person. Nobody more anxious than I to see this chasm closed forever.
There is a long way and a short way. There is a long time and a short time. If there be any whose policy is for the longest way or for the longest time, I am not of the number. I am for the shortest way, and also for the shortest time. And I object to the interference of the President, because, whether intentionally or unintentionally, he interposes delay and keeps the chasm open. More than all others, the President, by officious assumptions, has lengthened the way and lengthened the time. Of this there can be no doubt.
From all quarters we learn that after the surrender of Lee the Rebels were ready for any terms, if they could escape with life. They were vanquished, and they knew it. The Rebellion was crushed, and they knew it. They hardly expected to save a small fraction of property. They did not expect to save political power. They were too sensible not to see that participants in rebellion could not pass at once into the copartnership of government. They made up their minds to exclusion. They were submissive. There was nothing they would not do, even to the extent of enfranchising the freedmen and providing for them homesteads. Had the National Government taken advantage of this plastic condition, it might have stamped Equal Rights upon the whole people, as upon molten wax, while it fixed the immutable conditions of permanent peace. The question of Reconstruction would have been settled before it arose. It is sad to think that this was not done. Perhaps in all history there is no instance of such an opportunity lost. Truly should our country say in penitential supplication, “We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done.”
Do not take this on my authority. Listen to those on the spot, who have seen with their own eyes. A brave officer of our army writes from Alabama:—
“I believe the mass of the people could have been easily controlled, if none of the excepted classes had received pardon. These classes did not expect anything more than life, and even feared for that. Let me condense the whole subject. At the surrender, the South could have been moulded at will; but it is now as stiff-necked and rebellious as ever.”
In the same vein another officer testifies from Texas:—
“There is one thing, however, that is making against the speedy return of quietness, not only in this State, but throughout the entire South, and that is the Reconstruction policy of President Johnson. It is doing more to unsettle this country than people who are not practical observers of its workings have any idea of. Before this policy was made known, the people were prepared to accept anything. They expected to be treated as rebels,—their leaders being punished, and the property of others confiscated. But the moment it was made known, all their assurance returned. Rebels have again become arrogant and exacting; Treason stalks through the land unabashed.”
This testimony might be multiplied indefinitely. From city and country, from highway and by-way, there is but one voice. When, therefore, the President, in opprobrious terms, complains of Congress as interposing delay, I reply to him: “No, Sir, it is you, who, by unexpected and most perverse assumption, have put off the glad day of security and reconciliation, so much longed for. It is you who have inaugurated anew that malignant sectionalism, which, so long as it exists, will keep the Union divided in fact, if not in name. Sir, you are the Disunionist.”
Glance, if you please, at that Presidential policy—so constantly called “my policy”—now so vehemently pressed upon the country, and you will find that it pivots on at least two alarming blunders, as can be easily seen: first, in setting up the One Man Power as the source of jurisdiction over this great question; and, secondly, in using the One Man Power for the restoration of Rebels to place and influence, so that good Unionists, whether white or black, are rejected, and the Rebellion itself is revived in the new governments. Each of these assumptions is an enormous blunder. You see that I use a mild term to characterize such a double-headed usurpation.
Pray, Sir, where in the Constitution do you find any sanction of the One Man Power as source of this extraordinary jurisdiction? I had always supposed that the President was the Executive,—bound to see the laws faithfully executed, but not empowered to make laws. The Constitution expressly says: “The Executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.” But the Legislative power is elsewhere. According to the Constitution, “All Legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.” And yet the President has assumed legislative power, even to the extent of making laws and constitutions for States. You all know, that, at the close of the war, when the Rebel States were without lawful governments, he assumed to supply them. In this business of Reconstruction he assumed to determine who should vote, and also to affix conditions for adoption by the conventions. Look, if you please, at the character of this assumption. The President, from the Executive Mansion at Washington, reaches his long executive arm into certain States and dictates constitutions. Surely here is nothing executive; it is not even military. It is legislative, pure and simple, and nothing else. It is an attempt by the One Man Power to do what can be done only by the legislative branch of Government. And yet the President, perversely absorbing to himself all power over the reconstruction of the Rebel States, insists that Congress must accept his work without addition or subtraction. He can impose conditions: Congress cannot. He can determine who shall vote: Congress cannot. His jurisdiction is not only complete, but exclusive. If all this be so, then has our President a most extraordinary power, never before dreamed of. He may exclaim, with Louis the Fourteenth, “The State, it is I,” while, like this magnificent king, he sacrifices the innocent, and repeats that fatal crime, the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. His whole “policy” is “revocation” of all that has been promised and all we have a right to expect.
Here it is well to note a distinction, not without importance in the issue between the President and Congress. Nobody doubts that the President may, during war, govern any conquered territory as commander-in-chief, and for this purpose detail any military officer as military governor. But it is one thing to govern a State temporarily by military power, and quite another thing to create a constitution for a State which shall continue when the military power has expired. The former is a military act, and belongs to the President; the latter is a civil act, and belongs to Congress. On this distinction I stand; and this is not the first time that I have asserted it. Of course, governments set up in this illegitimate way are necessarily illegitimate, except so far as they acquire validity from time or subsequent recognition. It needs no learned Chief Justice of North Carolina solemnly to declare this. It is manifest from the nature of the case.
But this illegitimacy becomes still more manifest, when it is known that the constitutions which the President orders and tries to cram upon Congress have never been submitted to popular vote. Each is the naked offspring of an illegitimate convention called into being by the President, in the exercise of illegitimate power.
There is another provision of the Constitution, by which, according to a judgment of the Supreme Court of the United States, this question is referred to Congress, and not to the President. I refer to the provision that “the United States shall guaranty to every State in this Union a republican form of government.” On these words Chief Justice Taney, speaking for the Supreme Court, has adjudged, that “it rests with Congress to decide what government is the established one in a State; for, as the United States guaranty to each State a republican government, Congress must necessarily decide what government is established in the State, before it can determine whether it is republican or not”; and that “unquestionably a military government established as the permanent government of the State would not be a republican government, and it would be the duty of Congress to overthrow it.”[61] But the President sets at nought this commanding text, reinforced by the positive judgment of the Supreme Court, and claims this extraordinary power for himself, to the exclusion of Congress. He is “the United States.” In him the Republic is manifest. He can do all; Congress nothing.
And now the whole country is summoned by the President to recognize State governments created by constitutions thus illegitimate in origin and character. Without considering if they contain the proper elements of security for the future, or if they are republican in form, and without any inquiry into the validity of their adoption,—nay, in the very face of testimony showing that they contain no elements of security for the future, that they are not republican in form, and that they have never been adopted by the loyal people,—we are commanded to accept them; and when we hesitate, the President, himself leading the outcry, assails us with angry vituperation, blunted, it must be confessed, by coarseness without precedent and without bound. It is well that such a cause has such an advocate.
Thus setting up the One Man Power as a source of jurisdiction, the President has committed a blunder of Constitutional Law, proceeding from an immense egotism, in which the little pronoun “I” plays a gigantic part. It is “I” vs. The People of the United States in Congress assembled. On this unnatural blunder I might say more; but I have said enough. My present purpose is accomplished, if I make you see it clearly.
The other blunder is of a different character. It is giving present power to ex-Rebels, at the expense of constant Unionists, white or black, and employing them in the work of Reconstruction, so that the new governments continue to represent the Rebellion. This same blunder, when committed by one of the heroes of the war, was promptly overruled by the President himself; but Andrew Johnson now does what Sherman was not allowed to do. The blunder is strange and unaccountable.
Here the evidence is constant and cumulative. It begins with his proclamation for the reconstruction of North Carolina. Holden was appointed Provisional Governor,—an officer unknown to law, and for whom there was no provision,—although it was notorious that he had been a member of the Convention which adopted the Act of Secession, and that he signed it. Then came Perry, Provisional Governor of South Carolina, who, besides holding a judicial station under the Rebel Government, was one of its Commissioners of Impressments. I have a Rebel newspaper containing one of his advertisements in the latter character. There also was Parsons, Provisional Governor of Alabama, who in 1863 introduced into the Legislature of that State formal resolutions tendering to Jefferson Davis “hearty thanks for his good labors in the cause of our common country, together with the assurance of continued support,”—and afterwards, in 1864, denounced our national debt, exclaiming in the Legislature: “Does any sane man suppose we will consent to pay their [the United States] war debt, contracted in sending armies and navies to burn our towns and cities, to lay waste our country,—whose soldiers have robbed and murdered our peaceful inhabitants?” Such were the agents appointed by the President to institute loyal governments. But this selection becomes more strange and unaccountable, when it is considered that all this was done in defiance of law.
There is a recent enactment of Congress requiring that no person shall be appointed to any office of the United States, unless such office has been created by law.[62] And there is another enactment of Congress, providing that all officers, civil or military, before entering upon their official duties or receiving any salary or compensation, shall take an oath declaring that they have held no office under the Rebellion or given any aid thereto.[63] In face of these enactments, which are sufficiently explicit, the President began his work of Reconstruction by appointing civilians to an office absolutely unknown to law, when besides they could not take the required oath of office; and to complete the disregard of Congress, he fixed their salary, and paid it out of the funds of the War Department.
Of course such proceeding was an instant encouragement and license to all ex-Rebels, no matter how much blood was on their hands. Rebellion was at a premium. It was easy to see, that, if these men were good enough to be governors of States, in defiance of Congress, all others in the same political predicament would be good enough for inferior offices. And it was so. From top to bottom these States were organized by men who had been warring on their country. Ex-Rebels were appointed by the governors or chosen by the people everywhere. Ex-Rebels sat in Conventions and in Legislatures. Ex-Rebels became judges, justices of the peace, sheriffs, and everything else,—while the faithful Unionist, white or black, was rejected. As with Cordelia, his love was “according to his bond, nor more nor less”; but all this was of no avail. How often during the war have I pleaded for such patriots, and urged to every effort for their redemption!—and now, when our arms have prevailed, it is they who are cast down, while the enemies of the Republic are exalted. The pirate Semmes returns from his ocean cruise to be chosen Probate Judge,—leaping from the deck of the Ship Alabama to the judicial bench of the State Alabama. In New Orleans the Rebel mayor at the surrender to the national flag is once more mayor, and employs his regained power in the terrible massacre which rises in judgment against the Presidential policy. Persons are returned to Congress whose service in the Rebellion makes it impossible for them to take the oath of office,—as in the case of Georgia, which selects as Senators Herschel V. Johnson, a Senator of the Rebel Congress, and Alexander H. Stephens, Vice-President of the Rebellion. These are instances; but from these learn all.
There is nothing within reach of the President which he has not lavished on ex-Rebels. The power of pardon and amnesty, like the power of appointment, has been used for them, wholesale and retail. It would have been easy to affix a condition to every pardon, requiring, that, before it took effect, the recipient should carve out of his estate a homestead for every one of his freedmen, and thus secure to each what they all covet so much, a piece of land. But the President did no such thing, although, in the words of the old writ, “often requested so to do.” Such a condition would have helped the loyal freedmen, rather than the rebel master. In the same spirit, while undertaking to determine who shall be voters, all colored persons, howsoever loyal, were disfranchised, while all white persons, except certain specified classes, although black with rebellion, were constituted voters on taking a simple oath of allegiance, thus investing ex-Rebels with a prevailing power.
Partisans of the Presidential “policy” are in the habit of declaring it a continuation of the policy of the martyred Lincoln. This is a mistake. Would that he could rise from his bloody shroud to repel the calumny! Happily, he has left his testimony behind, in words which all who have ears to hear can hear. The martyr presented the truth bodily, when he said, in suggestive metaphor, that we must “build up from the sound materials”; but his successor insists upon building from materials rotten with treason and gaping with rebellion. On another occasion, the martyr said that “an attempt to guaranty and protect a revived State government, constructed in whole or in preponderating part from the very element against whose hostility and violence it is to be protected, is simply absurd.”[64] But this is the very thing the President is now attempting. He is constructing State governments, not merely in preponderating part, but in whole, from the hostile element. Therefore he departs openly from the policy of the martyred Lincoln.
The martyr says to his successor that the policy adopted is “simply absurd.” He is right, although he might say more. Its absurdity is too apparent. It is as if, in abolishing the Inquisition, the inquisitors had been continued under another name, and Torquemada had received a fresh license for cruelty. It is as if King William, after the overthrow of James the Second, had made the infamous Jeffreys Lord Chancellor. Common sense and common justice cry out against the outrage; and yet this is the Presidential “policy” now so passionately commended to the American people.
A state, according to Aristotle, is a “copartnership,” and I accept the term as especially applicable to our government. And now the President, in the exercise of the One Man Power, decrees that communities lately in rebellion shall be taken at once into our “copartnership.” I object to the decree as dangerous to the Republic. I am not against pardon, clemency, or magnanimity, except where they are at the expense of good men. I trust that they will always be practised; but I insist that recent rebels shall not be admitted, without proper precautions, to the business of the firm. And I insist also that the One Man Power shall not be employed to force them into the firm.
Such are two pivotal blunders. It is not easy to see how he has fallen into these, so strong were his early professions the other way. The powers of Congress he had distinctly admitted. Thus, as early as 24th July, 1865, he had sent to Sharkey, acting by his appointment as Provisional Governor of Mississippi, this despatch: “It must, however, be distinctly understood that the restoration to which your proclamation refers will be subject to the will of Congress.” Nothing could be more positive. And he was equally positive against the restoration of Rebels to power. You do not forget, that, in accepting his nomination as Vice-President, he rushed forward to declare that the Rebel States must be remodelled, that confiscation must be enforced, and that Rebels must be excluded from the work of Reconstruction. His language was plain and unmistakable. Announcing that “government must be fixed on the principles of eternal justice,” he declared, that, “if the man who gave his influence and his means to destroy the Government should be permitted to participate in the great work of reorganization, then all the precious blood so freely poured out will have been wantonly spilled, and all our victories go for nought.” True, very true. Then, in words of surpassing energy, he cried out, that “the great plantations must be seized and divided into small farms,” and that “traitors should take a back seat in the work of restoration.” Perhaps the true rule was never expressed with more homely and vital force than in this last saying, often repeated in different forms, “For Rebels, back seats.” Add that other saying, as often repeated, “Treason must be made odious,” and you have two great principles of just reconstruction, once proclaimed by the President, but now practically disowned by him.
You will ask how the President fell. This is hard to say, certainly, without much plainness of speech. Mr. Seward openly confesses that he counselled the present fatal “policy.” Unquestionably the Blairs, father and son, did the same. So also, I doubt not, did Mr. Preston King. It is easy to see that Mr. Seward was not a wise counsellor. This is not his first costly blunder. In formal despatches he early announced that “the rights of the States, and the condition of every human being in them, will remain subject to exactly the same laws and forms of administration, whether the revolution shall succeed or whether it shall fail.”[65] And now he labors for the fulfilment of his own prophecy. Obviously, from the beginning, he has failed to comprehend the Rebellion, while in nature he is abnormal and eccentric, jumping like the knight on the chess-board, rather than moving on straight lines. Undoubtedly the influence of such a man over the President has not been good. But the President himself is his own worst counsellor, as he is his own worst defender. He does not open his mouth without furnishing evidence against himself.
The brave words with which he accepted his nomination as Vice-President resounded through the country. He was elected. Then followed two scenes, each of which filled the people with despair. The first was of the new Vice-President taking the oath of office—in the presence of the foreign ministers, the judges of the Supreme Court, and the Senate—while in such a condition that his attempted speech became trivial and incoherent, and he did not know the name of the Secretary of the Navy, who is now the devoted supporter of his policy, as he has been his recent travelling companion. One month and one week thereafter President Lincoln was assassinated. The people, wrapt in affliction at the great tragedy, trembled as they beheld a drunken man ascend the heights of power. But they were generous and forgiving,—almost forgetful. He was our President, and hands were outstretched to welcome and sustain him. His early utterances as President, although commonplace, loose, and wordy, gave assurance that the Rebellion and its authors would find little favor. Treason was to be made odious.
At this time my own personal relations with him commenced. I had known him slightly while he was in the Senate; but I lost no time in seeing him after he became President. He received me kindly. I hope that I shall not err, if I allude briefly to what passed between us. You are my constituents, and I wish you to know the Presidential mood at that time, and also what your representative attempted.
Being in Washington during the first month of the new Administration, destined to fill such an unhappy place in history, I saw the President frequently, at the private house he then occupied, or at his office in the Treasury. He had not yet taken possession of the Executive Mansion. The constant topic was “Reconstruction,” which was considered in every variety of aspect. More than once I ventured to press the duty and renown of carrying out the principles of the Declaration of Independence, and of founding the new governments on the consent of the governed, without distinction of color. To this earnest appeal he replied, as I sat with him alone, in words which I can never forget: “On this question, Mr. Sumner, there is no difference between us; you and I are alike.” Need I say that I was touched to the heart by this annunciation, which seemed to promise a victory without a battle? Accustomed to controversy, I saw clearly, that, if the President declared himself for the Equal Rights of All, the good cause must prevail without controversy. Expressing to him my joy and gratitude, I remarked that there should be no division in the great Union party,—that no line should be run through it, on one side of which would be gentlemen calling themselves “the President’s friends,” but we should be kept all together as one seamless garment. To this he promptly replied, “I mean to keep you all together.” Nothing could be better. We were to be kept all together on the principle of Equal Rights. As I walked away, that evening, the battle of my life seemed ended, while the Republic rose before me, refulgent in the blaze of assured freedom, an example to the nations.
On another occasion, during the same period, the case of Tennessee was discussed. I expressed the earnest hope that the President would use his influence directly for the establishment of impartial suffrage in that State, saying that in this way Tennessee would be put at the head of the returning column and be made an example,—in one word, that all the other States would be obliged to dress on Tennessee. The President replied, that, if he were at Nashville, he would see this accomplished. I could not help rejoining, that he need not be at Nashville, for at Washington his hand was on the long end of the lever with which he could easily move all Tennessee,—referring, of course, to the powerful, but legitimate, influence the President might exercise in his own State by the expression of his desires. Let me confess that his hesitation disturbed me; but I attributed it to unnecessary caution, rather than to infidelity. He had been so positive with me, how could I suspect him?
At other times the conversation was renewed. Such was my interest in the question, that I could not see the President without introducing it. As I was about to return home, I said that I desired, even at the risk of repetition, to make some parting suggestions on the constant topic, and that, with his permission, I would proceed point by point, as was the habit of the pulpit in former days. He smiled, and observed pleasantly, “Have I not always listened to you?” I replied, “You have; and I am grateful.” After remarking that the Rebel region was still in military occupation, and that it was the plain duty of the President to use his temporary power for the establishment of correct principles, I proceeded to say: “First, see to it that no newspaper is allowed which is not thoroughly loyal, and does not speak well of the National Government and of Equal Rights”; and here I reminded him of the saying of the Duke of Wellington, that in a place under martial law an unlicensed press is as impossible as on the deck of a ship of war. “Secondly, let the officers that you send, as military governors or otherwise, be known for devotion to Equal Rights, so that their names alone will be a proclamation, while their simple presence will help educate the people”; and here I mentioned Major-General Carl Schurz, who still held his commission in the army, as such a person. “Thirdly, encourage the population to resume the profitable labors of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures without delay,—but for the present to avoid politics. Fourthly, keep the whole region under these good influences, and at the proper moment hand over the subject of Reconstruction, with the great question of Equal Rights, to the judgment of Congress, where it belongs.” All this the President received with perfect kindness, and I mention this with the more readiness because I remember to have seen in the papers a very different statement.
Only a short time afterwards there was a change, which seemed like a somersault or an apostasy; and then ensued a strange sight. Instead of faithful Unionists, recent Rebels thronged the Presidential antechambers, rejoicing in new-found favor. They made speeches at the President, and he made speeches at them. A mutual sympathy was manifest. On one occasion the President announced himself a “Southern man” with “Southern sympathies,” thus quickening that sectional flame which good men hoped to see quenched forever. Alas! if, after all our terrible sacrifices, we are still to have a President who does not know how to spurn every sectional appeal and make himself representative of all! Unhappily, whatever the President said or did was sectional. He showed himself constantly a sectionalist. Instead of telling the ex-Rebels who thronged the Presidential antechambers, as he should have done, that he was their friend, that he wished them well from the bottom of his heart, that he longed to see their fields yield an increase, with peace in all their borders, and that, to this end, he counselled them to pursue agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, and for the present to say nothing about politics,—instead of this, he sent them away talking and thinking of nothing but politics, and frantic for the reëstablishment of a sectional power. Instead of designating officers of the army as military governors, which I had supposed he would do, he appointed ex-Rebels, who could not take the oath required by Congress of all officers of the United States, and they in turn appointed ex-Rebels to office under them; so that participation in the Rebellion found reward, and treason, instead of being made odious, became the passport to power. Everywhere ex-Rebels came out of hiding-places. They walked the streets defiantly, and asserted their old domination. Under auspices of the President, a new campaign was planned against the Republic, and they who failed in open war now sought to enter the very citadel of political power. Victory, purchased by so much loyal blood and treasure, was little better than a cipher. Slavery itself revived in the spirit of Caste. Faithful men who had been trampled down by the Rebellion were trampled down still more by these Presidential governments. For the Unionist there was no liberty of the press or liberty of speech, and the lawlessness of Slavery began to rage anew.
Every day brought tidings that the Rebellion was reappearing in its essential essence. Amidst all professions of submission, there was immitigable hate to the National Government, and prevailing injustice to the freedman. This was last autumn. I was then in Boston. Moved by desire to arrest this fatal tendency, I appealed by letter to members of the Cabinet, entreating them to stand firm against a “policy” which promised nothing but disaster. As soon as the elections were over, I appealed directly to the President himself, by a telegraphic despatch, as follows:—
“Boston, November 12, 1865.
“To the President of the United States, Washington.
“As a faithful friend and supporter of your administration, I most respectfully petition you to suspend for the present your policy towards the Rebel States. I should not present this prayer, if I were not painfully convinced that thus far it has failed to obtain any reasonable guaranties for that security in the future which is essential to peace and reconciliation. To my mind, it abandons the freedmen to the control of their ancient masters, and leaves the national debt exposed to repudiation by returning Rebels. The Declaration of Independence asserts the equality of all men, and that rightful government can be founded only on the consent of the governed. I see small chance of peace, unless these great principles are practically established. Without this, the house will continue divided against itself.
“Charles Sumner,
“Senator of the United States.”
Reaching Washington Saturday evening, immediately before the opening of the last session of Congress, I lost no time in seeing the President. I was with him that evening three hours. I found him changed in temper and purpose. How unlike that President who, only a few days after arrival at power, made me feel so happy in the assurance of agreement on the great question! No longer sympathetic, or even kindly, he was harsh, petulant, and unreasonable. Plainly, his heart was with ex-Rebels. For the Unionist, white or black, who had borne the burden of the day, he had little feeling. He would not see the bad spirit of the Rebel States, and insisted that the outrages there were insufficient to justify exclusion from Congress. The following dialogue ensued.
The President. Are there no murders in Massachusetts?
Mr. Sumner. Unhappily, yes,—sometimes.
The President. Are there no assaults in Boston? Do not men there sometimes knock each other down, so that the police is obliged to interfere?
Mr. Sumner. Unhappily, yes.
The President. Would you consent that Massachusetts, on this account, should be excluded from Congress?
Mr. Sumner. No, Mr. President, I would not.
And here I stopped, without remarking on the entire irrelevancy of the inquiry. I left the President that night with the painful conviction that his whole soul was set as flint against the good cause, and that by the assassination of Abraham Lincoln the Rebellion had vaulted into the Presidential chair. Jefferson Davis was then in the casemates at Fortress Monroe, but Andrew Johnson was doing his work.
“Ah! what avails it, …
If the gulled conqueror receives the chain,
And flattery subdues, when arms are vain?”
From this time forward I was not in doubt as to his “policy,” which asserted a condition of things in the Rebel region inconsistent with the terrible truth. It was, therefore, natural that I should characterize one of his messages, covering over the enormities there, as “whitewashing.” This mild term was thought by some too strong. Subsequent events have shown that it was too weak. The whole Rebel region is little better than a “whited sepulchre.” It is that saddest of all sepulchres, the sepulchre of Human Rights. The dead men’s bones are the remains of faithful Union soldiers, dead on innumerable fields, or stifled in the pens of Andersonville and Belle Isle,—also of constant Unionists, white and black, whom we are sacredly bound to protect, now murdered on highways and by-ways, or slaughtered at Memphis and New Orleans. The uncleanness is injustice, wrong, and outrage, having a loathsome stench; and the President is engaged in “whiting” over these things, so that they shall not be seen by the American people. To do this, he garbles a despatch of Sheridan, and abuses the hospitality of the country by a travelling speech, where every word, not foolish, vulgar, and vindictive, is a vain attempt at “whitewashing.”
Meanwhile the Presidential madness is more than ever manifest. It has shown itself in frantic effort to defeat the Constitutional Amendment proposed by Congress for adoption by the people. By this Amendment certain safeguards are established. Citizenship is defined, and protection is assured at least in what are called civil rights. The basis of representation is fixed on the number of voters, so that, if colored citizens are not allowed to vote, they will not by their numbers contribute to representative power, and one voter in South Carolina will not be able to neutralize two voters in Massachusetts or Illinois. Ex-Rebels who had taken an oath to support the Constitution are excluded from office, National or State. The National debt is guarantied, while the Rebel debt and all claim for slaves are annulled. All these essential safeguards are rudely rejected by the President.
The madness that would set aside provisions so essentially just, whose only error is inadequacy, has broken forth naturally in brutal utterance, where he has charged persons by name with seeking his life, and has stimulated a mob against them. It is difficult to surpass the criminality of this act. The violence of the President has provoked violence. His words were dragon’s teeth, which have sprung up armed men. Witness Memphis; witness New Orleans. Who can doubt that the President is author of these tragedies? Charles the Ninth of France was not more completely author of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew than Andrew Johnson is author of the recent massacres now crying out for judgment. History records that the guilty king was pursued in the silence of night by the imploring voices of murdered men, mingled with curses and imprecations, while ghosts stalked through his chamber, until he sweated blood from every pore; and when he came to die, his soul, wrung with the tortures of remorse, stammered out, “Ah, nurse, my good nurse! what blood! what murders! Oh, what bad counsels I followed! Lord God, pardon me! have mercy on me!” Like causes produce like effects. The blood at Memphis and New Orleans must cry out until heard, and a guilty President may suffer the retribution which followed a guilty king.
The evil he has done already is on such a scale that it is impossible to measure it, unless as you measure an arc of the globe. I doubt if in all history there is any ruler who in the same brief space of time has done so much. There have been kings and emperors, proconsuls and satraps, who have exercised tyrannical power; but facilities of communication now lend swiftness and extension to all evil influences, so that the President is able to do in a year what in other days would have taken a life. Nor is the evil confined to any narrow spot. It is coextensive with the Republic. Next to Jefferson Davis stands Andrew Johnson as its worst enemy. The whole country has suffered; but the Rebel region has suffered most. He should have sent peace; instead, he sent a sword. Behold the consequences!
In support of a cruel “policy” he has not hesitated to use his enormous patronage. President Lincoln said, familiarly, that, as the people had continued him in office, he supposed they meant that others should be continued also; and he refused to make removals. But President Johnson announces “rotation in office”; and then, warming in anger against all failing to sustain his “policy,” he roars that he will “kick them out.” Men appointed by the martyred Lincoln are to be “kicked out” by the successor, while he pretends to sustain the policy of the martyr. The language of the President is most suggestive. He “kicks” the friends of his well-loved predecessor; and he also “kicks” the careful counsel of that well-loved predecessor, that we must “build up from the sound materials.”
That I may give practical direction to these remarks, let me tell you plainly what must be done. In the first place, Congress must be sustained in its conflict with the One Man Power; and, in the second place, ex-Rebels must not be hurried back to power. Bearing in mind these two things, the way is easy. Of course, the Constitutional Amendment must be adopted. As far as it goes, it is well; but it does not go far enough. More is necessary. Impartial suffrage must be established. A homestead must be secured to every freedman, if in no other way, through the pardoning power. If to these is added education, there will be a new order of things, with liberty of the press, liberty of speech, and liberty of travel, so that Wendell Phillips may speak freely in Charleston or Mobile. There is an old English play under the name of “The Four P’s.” Our present desires may be symbolized by four E’s,—standing for Emancipation, Enfranchisement, Equality, and Education. Securing these, all else will follow.
I can never cease to regret that Congress hesitated by proper legislation to assume temporary jurisdiction over the whole Rebel region. To my mind the power was ample and unquestionable, whether in the exercise of belligerent rights or in the exercise of rights directly from the Constitution itself. In this way everything needful might have been accomplished. Through this just jurisdiction the Rebel communities might have been fashioned anew, and shaped to loyalty and virtue. The President lost a great opportunity at the beginning. Congress has lost another. But it is not too late. If indisposed to assume this jurisdiction by an Enabling Act constituting provisional governments, there are many things Congress may do, acting indirectly or directly. Acting indirectly, it may insist that Emancipation, Enfranchisement, Equality, and Education shall be established as conditions precedent to the recognition of any State whose institutions have been overthrown by rebellion.[66] Acting directly, it may, by Constitutional Amendment, or by simple legislation, fix all these forever.
You are aware that from the beginning I have insisted upon Impartial Suffrage as the only certain guaranty of security and reconciliation. I renew this persistence, and mean to hold on to the end. Every argument, every principle, every sentiment is in its favor. But there is one reason which at this moment I place above all others: it is the necessity of the case. You require the votes of colored persons in the Rebel States to sustain the Union itself. Without their votes you cannot build securely for the future. Their ballots will be needed in time to come much more than their muskets were needed in time past. For the sake of the white Unionists, and for their protection,—for the sake of the Republic itself, whose peace is imperilled, I appeal for justice to the colored race. Give the ballot to the colored citizen, and he will be not only assured in his own rights, but the timely defender of yours. By a singular Providence your security is linked inseparably with the recognition of his rights. Deny him, if you will: it is at your peril.
But it is said, Leave this question to the States; and State rights are pleaded against the power of Congress. This has been the cry: at the beginning, to prevent effort against the Rebellion; and now, at the end, to prevent effort against a revival of the Rebellion. Whichsoever way we turn, we encounter the cry. But yielding now, you will commit the very error of President Buchanan, when at the beginning he declared that we could not “coerce” a State. Nobody now doubts that a State in rebellion may be “coerced”; and to my mind it is equally clear that a State just emerging from rebellion may be “coerced” to the condition required by the public peace.
There are powers of Congress, not derived from the Rebellion, which are adequate to this exigency; and now is the time to exercise them, and thus complete the work. It was the Nation that decreed Emancipation, and the Nation must see to it, by every obligation of honor and justice, that Emancipation is secured. It is not enough that Slavery is abolished in name. The Baltimore platform, on which President Johnson was elected, requires the “utter and complete extirpation of Slavery from the soil of the Republic”; but this can be accomplished only by the eradication of every inequality and caste, so that all shall be equal before the law.
Be taught by Russia. The Emperor there did not content himself with naked Emancipation. He followed this glorious act with minute provisions for rights of all kinds,—as, to hold property, to sue and testify in court, to vote, and to enjoy the advantages of education. All this by the same power which decreed Emancipation.
Be taught also by England, speaking by her most illustrious statesmen, who solemnly warn against trusting to any local authorities for justice to the colored race. I begin with Burke, who saw all questions with the intuitions of the statesman, and expressed himself with the eloquence of the orator. Here are his words, uttered in 1792:—
“I have seen what has been done by the West Indian Assemblies [in reference to the improvement of the condition of the negro]. It is arrant trifling. They have done little; and what they have done is good for nothing,—for it is totally destitute of an executory principle.”[67]
Should we leave this question to the States, we, too, should find all they did “arrant trifling,” and wanting “an executory principle.”
Edmund Burke was followed shortly afterwards by Canning, who, in 1799, exclaimed:—
“There is something in the nature of the relation between the despot and his slave which must vitiate and render nugatory and null whatever laws the former might make for the benefit of the latter,—which, however speciously these laws might be framed, however well adapted they might appear to the evils which they were intended to alleviate, must infallibly be marred and defeated in the execution.”[68]
Then again he says:—
“Trust not the masters of slaves in what concerns legislation for slavery. However specious their laws may appear, depend upon it, they must be ineffectual in their application. It is in the nature of things that they should be so.… Their laws can never reach, will never cure the evil.… There is something in the nature of absolute authority, in the relation between master and slave, which makes despotism, in all cases and under all circumstances, an incompetent and unsure executor even of its own provisions in favor of the objects of its power.”[69]
The same testimony was repeated at a later day by Brougham, who, in one of his most remarkable speeches, while protesting against leaving to the colonies legislation for the freedmen, said,—
“I entirely concur in the observations of Mr. Burke, repeated and more happily expressed by Mr. Canning: that the masters of slaves are not to be trusted with making laws upon slavery; that nothing they do is ever found effectual; and that, if, by some miracle, they ever chance to enact a wholesome regulation, it is always found to want what Mr. Burke calls the executory principle,—it fails to execute itself.”[70]
Such is the concurring authority of three statesmen orators, whose eloquent voices unite to warn against trusting the freedmen to their old masters.
Reason is in harmony with this authoritative testimony. It is not natural to suppose that people who have claimed property in their brethren, God’s children,—who have indulged that “wild and guilty fantasy that man can hold property in man,”—will become at once the kind and just legislators of freedmen. It is unnatural to expect it. Even if they have made up their minds to Emancipation, they are, from inveterate habit and prejudice, incapable of justice to the colored race. There is the President himself, who once charmed the country and the age by announcing himself the “Moses” of their redemption; and yet he now exerts all his mighty power against the establishment of safeguards without which there can be no true redemption. In present discussion, the old proslavery spirit that was in him, with hostility to principles and to men, comes out anew,—as, on the application of heat, the old tunes frozen up in the bugle of Baron Munchausen were set a-going and broke forth freshly. People do not change suddenly or completely. The old devils are not all cast out at once. Even the best of converts sometimes backslide. From so grave a writer as Southey, in his History of Brazil, we learn that a woman accustomed to consider human flesh an exquisite dainty was converted to Christianity in extreme old age. The faithful missionary strove at once to minister to her wants, and asked if there was any particular food she could take, suggesting various delicacies; to all which the venerable convert replied: “My stomach goes against everything. There is but one thing which I think I could touch. If I had the little hand of a little tender Tapuya boy, I think I could pick the little bones. But, woe is me! there is nobody to go out and shoot one for me!”[71] In similar spirit our Presidential convert now yearns for a taste of those odious pretensions which were a part of Slavery.
Now, when a person thus situated, with great responsibilities to his country and to history, bound by public professions and by political associations, who has declared himself against Slavery, and has every motive for perseverance to the end,—when such a person openly seeks to preserve its odious pretensions, are we not admonished again how unsafe it must be to trust old masters, under no responsibility and no pledge, with the power of legislating for freedmen? I protest against it.
I claim this power for the Nation. If it be said that the power has never been employed, then I say that the time has come for its employment. I claim it on at least three several grounds.
1. There is the Constitutional Amendment, already adopted by the people, which invests Congress with plenary powers to secure the abolition of Slavery,—ay, its “extirpation,” according to the promise of the Baltimore platform,—including the right to sue and testify in court, and the right also to vote. The distinction attempted between what are called civil rights and political rights is a modern invention. These two words in their origin have the same meaning. One is derived from the Latin, and the other from the Greek. Each signifies what pertains to a city or citizen. Besides, if the elective franchise seem “appropriate” to assure the “extirpation” of Slavery, Congress has the same power to secure this right that it has to secure the right to sue and testify in courts, which it has already done. Every argument, every reason, every consideration, by which you assert the power for the protection of colored persons in what are called civil rights, is equally strong for their protection in what are called political rights. In each case you legislate to the same end,—that the freedman may be maintained in the liberty so tardily accorded; and the legislation is just as “appropriate” in one case as in the other.
2. There is also that distinct clause of the Constitution requiring the United States to “guaranty to every State in this Union a republican form of government.” Here is a source of power as yet unused. The time has come for its use. Let it be declared that a State which disfranchises any portion of its citizens by a discrimination in its nature insurmountable, as in the case of color, cannot be considered a republican government. The principle is obvious, and its practical adoption would ennoble the country and give to mankind a new definition of republican government.
3. Another reason with me is peremptory. There is no discrimination of color in the allegiance you require. Colored citizens, like white citizens, owe allegiance to the United States; therefore they may claim protection as an equivalent. In other words, allegiance and protection must be reciprocal. As you claim allegiance of colored citizens, you must accord protection. One is the consideration of the other. And this protection must be in all the rights of citizens, civil and political. Thus again do I bring home to the National Government this solemn duty. If this has not been performed in times past, it was on account of the tyrannical influence of Slavery, which perverted our Government. But, thank God! that influence is overthrown. Vain are the victories of the war, if this influence continues to tyrannize. Formerly the Constitution was interpreted always for Slavery. I insist, that, from this time forward, it shall be interpreted always for Freedom. This is the great victory of the war,—or rather, it is the crowning result of all the victories.
One of the most important battles in the world’s history was that of Tours, in France, where the Mahometans, who had come up from Spain, contended with the Christians under Charles the Hammer. On this historic battle Gibbon remarks, that, had the result been different, “perhaps the interpretation of the Koran would now be taught in the schools of Oxford, and her pulpits might demonstrate to a circumcised people the sanctity and truth of the revelation of Mahomet.”[72] Thus was Christianity saved; and thus by our victories has Liberty been saved. Had the Rebels prevailed, Slavery would have had voices everywhere, even in the Constitution itself. But it is Liberty now that must have voices everywhere, and the greatest voice of all in the National Constitution and the laws made in pursuance thereof.
In this cause I cannot be frightened by words. There is a cry against “Centralization,” “Consolidation,” “Imperialism,”—all of which are bad enough, when dedicated to any purpose of tyranny. As the House of Representatives is renewed every two years, it is inconceivable that such a body, fresh from the people and promptly returning to the people, can become a Tyranny, especially when seeking safeguards for Human Rights. A government inspired by Liberty is as wide apart from Tyranny as Heaven from Hell. There can be no danger in Liberty assured by central authority; nor can there be danger in any powers to uphold Liberty. Such a centralization, such a consolidation,—ay, Sir, such an imperialism,—would be to the whole country a well-spring of security, prosperity, and renown. As well find danger in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution itself, which speak with central power; as well find danger in those central laws which govern the moral and material world, binding men together in society and keeping the planets wheeling in their orbits.
Often during recent trials the cause of our country has assumed three different forms, each essential in itself and yet together constituting a unit, like the shamrock, or white clover, with triple leaf, originally used to illustrate the Trinity. It was Three in One. These three different forms were: first, the national forces; secondly, the national finances; and, thirdly, the ideas entering into the controversy. The national forces and the national finances have prevailed. The ideas are still in question, and even now you debate with regard to the great rights of citizenship. Nobody doubts that the army and navy fall plainly within the jurisdiction of the National Government, and that the finances fall plainly within this jurisdiction; but the rights of citizenship are as thoroughly national as army and navy or finances. You cannot without peril cease to regulate the army and navy, nor without peril cease to regulate the finances; but there is equal peril in abandoning the rights of citizens, who, wherever they may be, in whatever State, are entitled to protection from the Nation. An American citizen in a foreign land enjoys the protecting hand of the National Government. That protecting hand should be his not less at home than abroad.
Fellow-citizens, allow me to gather the whole case into brief compass. The President, wielding the One Man Power, has assumed a prerogative over Congress utterly unjustifiable, while he has dictated a fatal “policy” of Reconstruction, which gives sway to Rebels, puts off the blessed day of security and reconciliation, and leaves the best interests of the Republic in jeopardy. Treacherous to party, false to the great cause, and unworthy of himself, he has set his individual will against the people of the United States in Congress assembled. Forgetful of truth and decency, he has assailed members as “assassins,” and has denounced Congress itself as a revolutionary body, “called or assuming to be the Congress of the United States,” and “hanging upon the verge of the Government,”[73]—as if this most enlightened and patriot Congress did not contain the embodied will of the American people. To you, each and all, I appeal to arrest this madness. Your votes will be the first step. The President must be taught that usurpation and apostasy cannot prevail. He who promised to be Moses, and has become Pharaoh, must be overthrown. And may the Egyptians that follow him share the same fate, so that it shall be said now as aforetime, “And the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea!”
THE OCEAN TELEGRAPH BETWEEN EUROPE AND AMERICA.
Answer to Invitation to attend a Banquet at New York, in Honor of Cyrus W. Field, November 14, 1866.
On the 15th November, a banquet was given to Cyrus W. Field, at New York, to exchange congratulations on the happy result of his efforts in uniting by telegraph the Old and New World. Many distinguished guests were present. There were also communications from President Johnson, Chief Justice Chase, Secretary Seward, Secretary Welles, General Grant, Admiral Porter, Sir Frederick Bruce, the British Minister, Lord Moncke, Governor-General of Canada, and many others. Mr. Sumner wrote:—
Boston, November 14, 1866.
GENTLEMEN,—I regret much that it is not in my power to unite with you in tribute to Mr. Field, according to the invitation with which you have honored me.
There are events which can never be forgotten in the history of Civilization. Conspicuous among these was the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus. And now a kindred event is added to the list: the two worlds are linked together.
In this work Mr. Field has been pioneer and discoverer. As such his name will be remembered with that gratitude which is bestowed upon the world’s benefactors. Already his fame has begun.
Accept my thanks, and believe me, Gentlemen, faithfully yours,
Charles Sumner.
The Committee, &c.
ENCOURAGEMENT TO COLORED FELLOW-CITIZENS.
Letter to a Convention of Colored Citizens, December 2, 1866.
December 2, 1866.
DEAR SIR,—I am glad that our colored fellow-citizens are about to assemble in convention to consider how best to promote their welfare, and to secure those equal rights to which they are justly entitled.
You seek nothing less than a revolution. But you will succeed. The revolution must prevail. What are called civil rights have been accorded already; but every argument for these is equally important for political rights, which cannot be denied without the grossest wrong. Let the colored citizens persevere. Let them calmly, but constantly, insist upon those equal rights which are the promise of our institutions. They should appeal to Congress, and they should also appeal to the courts.
I cannot doubt the power and duty of Congress and of the courts to set aside every inequality founded on color. It will be the wonder of posterity that a constitution absolutely free from all discrimination of color was so perverted in its construction as to sanction this discrimination,—as if such a wrong could be derived from a text which contains no single word even to suggest it. The fountain-head is pure: the waters which flow from it must be equally pure.
Accept my best wishes, and believe me, dear Sir, faithfully yours,
Charles Sumner.
J. M. Langston, Esq.
THE TRUE PRINCIPLES OF RECONSTRUCTION.
ILLEGALITY OF EXISTING GOVERNMENTS IN THE REBEL STATES.
Resolutions and Remarks in the Senate, December 5, 1866.
Resolutions declaring the true principles of Reconstruction, the jurisdiction of Congress over the whole subject, the illegality of existing governments in the Rebel States, and the exclusion of such States, with such illegal governments, from representation in Congress, and from voting on Constitutional Amendments.
RESOLVED, (1.) That in the work of Reconstruction it is important that no false step should be taken, interposing obstacle or delay, but that, by careful provisions, we should make haste to complete the work, so that the unity of the Republic shall be secured on permanent foundations, and fraternal relations once more established among all the people thereof.
2. That this end can be accomplished only by following the guiding principles of our institutions as declared by our fathers when the Republic was formed, and that neglect or forgetfulness of these guiding principles must postpone the establishment of union, justice, domestic tranquillity, the general welfare, and the blessings of liberty, which, being the declared objects of the National Constitution, must therefore be the essential aim of Reconstruction itself.
3. That Reconstruction must be conducted by Congress, and under its constant supervision; that under the National Constitution Congress is solemnly bound to assume this responsibility; and that, in the performance of this duty, it must see that everywhere throughout the Rebel communities loyalty is protected and advanced, while the new governments are fashioned according to the requirements of a Christian commonwealth, so that order, tranquillity, education, and human rights shall prevail within their borders.
4. That, in determining what is a republican form of government, Congress must follow implicitly the definition supplied by the Declaration of Independence; and, in the practical application of this definition, it must, after excluding all disloyal persons, take care that new governments are founded on the two fundamental truths therein contained: first, that all men are equal in rights; and, secondly, that all just government stands only on the consent of the governed.
5. That all proceedings with a view to Reconstruction originating in Executive power are in the nature of usurpation; that this usurpation becomes especially offensive, when it sets aside the fundamental truths of our institutions; that it is shocking to common sense, when it undertakes to derive new governments from a hostile population just engaged in armed rebellion; and that all governments having such origin are necessarily illegal and void.
6. That it is the duty of Congress to proceed with Reconstruction; and to this end it must assume jurisdiction of the States lately in rebellion, except so far as that jurisdiction has been already renounced, and it must recognize only the Loyal States, or States having legal and valid legislatures, as entitled to representation in Congress, or to a voice in the adoption of Constitutional Amendments.
These resolutions were read and ordered to be printed. Mr. Sumner, after remarking that he saw “no chance for peace in the Rebel States until Congress does its duty by assuming jurisdiction over that whole region,” proposed to read a letter he had just received from Texas.
Mr. McDougall [of California]. Allow me to ask the Senator to read the signature. Let the name of the writer be given.
Mr. Sumner. I shall not read the signature——
Mr. McDougall. Ah! ha!
Mr. Sumner. And for a very good reason,—that I could not read the signature without exposing the writer to violence, if not to death.
Mr. Davis [of Kentucky]. Mr. President, I rise to a question of order. I ask if the reading of the letter by the Senator from Massachusetts is in order.
The President pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, a Senator, in making a speech to the Senate, has a right to read from a letter in his possession, if he deems proper.
Mr. Davis. I ask whether it is in order for the Senator from Massachusetts to make a speech at this time.
The President pro tempore. The Chair sees nothing disorderly in it.
Mr. Sumner then read the letter, and remarked:—
I should not read this letter, if I were not entirely satisfied of the character and intelligence of the writer. It is in the nature of testimony which the Senate cannot disregard. It points the way to duty. We must, Sir, follow the suggestions of this patriot Unionist, and erase the governments under which these outrages are perpetrated. The writer calls them “sham governments.” They are governments having no element of vitality. They are disloyal in origin, and they share the character of the Rebellion itself. We must go forth to meet them, and the spirit in which they have been organized, precisely as in years past we went forth to meet the Rebellion. The Rebellion, Sir, has assumed another form. Our conflict is no longer on the field of battle, but here in this Chamber, and in the Chamber at the other end of the Capitol. Our strife is civic, but it should be none the less strenuous.
FEMALE SUFFRAGE, AND AN EDUCATIONAL TEST OF MALE SUFFRAGE.
Speech in the Senate, on Amendments to the Bill conferring Suffrage without Distinction of Color in the District of Columbia, December 13, 1866.
December 10th, the Suffrage Bill for the District of Columbia, considered in the former session of Congress,[74] was again taken up for consideration, when Mr. Cowan, of Pennsylvania, moved to amend it by striking out the word “male,” so that there should be no limitation of sex. December 12th, after debate, this motion was rejected,—Yeas 9, Nays 37. The Senators voting in the affirmative were Mr. Anthony, of Rhode Island, Mr. Gratz Brown, of Missouri, Mr. Buckalew, of Pennsylvania, Mr. Cowan, of Pennsylvania, Mr. Foster, of Connecticut, Mr. Nesmith, of Oregon, Mr. Patterson, of Tennessee, Mr. Riddle, of Delaware, and Mr. Wade, of Ohio.
The following amendment was then moved by Mr. Dixon, of Connecticut:—
“Provided, That no person who has not heretofore voted in this District shall be permitted to vote, unless he shall be able, at the time of offering to vote, to read, and also to write his own name.”
December 13th, at this stage of the debate, Mr. Sumner said:—
MR. PRESIDENT,—I have already voted against the motion to strike out the word “male,” and I shall vote against the pending proposition to fix an educational test. In each case I am governed by the same consideration.
In voting against striking out the word “male,” I did not intend to express any opinion on the question, which has at last found its way into the Senate Chamber, whether women shall be invested with the elective franchise. That question I leave untouched, contenting myself with the remark, that it is obviously the great question of the future,—at least one of the great questions,—which will be easily settled, whenever the women in any considerable proportion insist that it shall be settled. And so, in voting against an educational test, I do not mean to say that under other circumstances such test may not be proper. But I am against it now.
The present bill is for the benefit of the colored race in the District of Columbia. It completes Emancipation by Enfranchisement. It entitles all to vote without distinction of color. The courts and the rail-cars of the District, even the galleries of Congress, have been opened. The ballot-box must be opened also. Such is my sense not only of the importance, but of the necessity of this measure, so essential does it appear to me for the establishment of peace, security, and reconciliation, which I so earnestly covet, that I am unwilling to see it clogged, burdened, or embarrassed by anything else. I wish to vote on it alone. Therefore, whatever the merits of other questions, I have no difficulty in putting them aside until this is settled.
The bill for Impartial Suffrage in the District of Columbia concerns directly some twenty thousand colored persons, whom it will lift to the adamantine platform of Equal Rights. If regarded simply in its influence on the District, it would be difficult to exaggerate its value; but when regarded as an example to the whole country, under the sanction of Congress, its value is infinite. In the latter character it becomes a pillar of fire to illumine the footsteps of millions. What we do here will be done in the disorganized States. Therefore we must be careful that what we do here is best for the disorganized States.
If the bill could be confined in influence to the District, I should have little objection to an educational test as an experiment. But it cannot be limited to any narrow sphere. Practically, it takes the whole country into its horizon. We must, therefore, act for the whole country. This is the exigency of the present moment.
Now to my mind nothing is clearer than the present necessity of suffrage for all colored persons in the disorganized States. It will not be enough, if you give it to those who read and write; you will not in this way acquire the voting force needed there for the protection of Unionists, whether white or black. You will not secure the new allies essential to the national cause. As you once needed the muskets of blacks, so now you need their votes,—and to such extent that you can act with little reference to theory. You are bound by the necessity of the case. Therefore, when asked to open suffrage to women, or when asked to establish an educational standard for our colored fellow-citizens, I cannot, on the present bill, simply because the controlling necessity under which we act will not allow it. By a singular Providence, we are constrained to this measure of Enfranchisement for the sake of peace, security, and reconciliation, so that loyal persons, white or black, may be protected, and that the Republic may live. Here, in the national capital, we begin the real work of Reconstruction, by which the Union will be consolidated forever.
The amendment of Mr. Dixon was rejected,—Yeas 11, Nays 34. The Senators voting in the affirmative were Mr. Anthony, Mr. Buckalew, Mr. Dixon, Mr. Doolittle, Mr. Fogg, Mr. Foster, Mr. Hendricks, Mr. Nesmith, Mr. Patterson, Mr. Riddle, and Mr. Willey.
The bill then passed the Senate,—Yeas 32, Nays 13. On the next day it passed the other House, and, being vetoed by President Johnson, it passed both Houses by a two-thirds vote, so that it became a law.[75]
PROHIBITION OF PEONAGE.
Resolution and Remarks in the Senate, January 3, 1867.
January 3d, in the Senate, Mr. Sumner introduced the following resolution:—
“Resolved, That the Committee on the Judiciary be directed to consider if any further legislation is needed to prevent the enslavement of Indians in New Mexico or any system of peonage there, and especially to prohibit the employment of the army of the United States in the surrender of persons claimed as peons.”
Mr. Sumner then called attention to facts showing the necessity of action. He said:—
I think you will be astonished, when you learn that the evidence is complete, showing in a Territory of the United States the existence of slavery which a proclamation of the President has down to this day been powerless to root out. During the life of President Lincoln, I more than once appealed to him, as head of the Executive, to expel this evil from New Mexico. The result was a proclamation, and also definite orders from the War Department; but, in the face of proclamation and definite orders, the abuse has continued, and, according to official evidence, it seems to have increased.
Mr. Sumner here read from the Report of the Commissioner on Indian Affairs, also from the Report of a Special Agent, containing the correspondence of army officers, including an order from the Assistant Inspector General in New Mexico to aid in the rendition of fugitive peons to their masters, and then remarked:—
The special Indian agent who reports this correspondence very aptly adds:—
“The aid of Congress is invoked to stop the practice.”
I hope the Department of War will communicate directly with General Carleton, under whose sanction this order has been made, and I hope that our Committee on the Judiciary will consider carefully if further legislation is not needed to meet this case. A Presidential proclamation has failed; orders of the War Department have failed; the abuse continues, and we have a very learned officer in the army of the United States undertaking to vindicate it.
The reference was changed to the Committee on Military Affairs, and the resolution was adopted. Subsequently, Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts, Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs, reported a bill to abolish and forever prohibit the system of peonage in the Territory of New Mexico and other parts of the United States, which became a law.[76]
PRECAUTION AGAINST THE REVIVAL OF SLAVERY.
Remarks in the Senate, on a Resolution and the Report of the Judiciary Committee, January 3 and February 20, 1867.
January 3, 1867, in the Senate, Mr. Sumner introduced the following resolution:—
“Resolved, That the Committee on the Judiciary be directed to consider if any action of Congress be needed, either in the way of legislation or of a supplementary Amendment to the Constitution, to prevent the sale of persons into slavery for a specified term by virtue of a decree of court.”
In its consideration, he called attention to cases like the following:—
“Public Sale. The undersigned will sell at the court-house door, in the city of Annapolis, at twelve o’clock, M., on Saturday, 8th December, 1866, a negro man named Richard Harris, for six months, convicted at the October term, 1866, of the Anne Arundel County Circuit Court, for larceny, and sentenced by the Court to be sold as a slave.
“Terms of sale, cash.
“Wm. Bryan,
“Sheriff Anne Arundel County.
“December 3, 1866.”
He then remarked:—
It seems to me, Sir, that these cases throw upon Congress the duty at least of inquiry; and I wish the Committee on the Judiciary, from which proceeded the Constitutional Amendment abolishing Slavery, would enlighten us on the validity of these proceedings, and the necessity or expediency of further action to prevent their repetition. I do not know that the Civil Rights Bill, which was afterward passed, may not be adequate to meet these cases; but I am not clear on that point.
When the Constitutional Amendment was under consideration, I objected positively to the phraseology. I thought it an unhappy deference to an original legislative precedent at an earlier period of our history. I regretted infinitely that Congress was willing, even indirectly, to sanction any form of slavery. But the Senate supposed that the phrase “involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,” was simply applicable to ordinary imprisonment. At the time I feared that it might be extended so as to cover some form of slavery. It seems now that it is so extended, and I wish the Committee to consider whether the remedy can be applied by Act of Congress, or whether we must not go further and expurgate that phraseology from the text of the Constitution itself.
After remarks by Mr. Reverdy Johnson and Mr. Creswell, of Maryland, Mr. Sumner said:—
The remarks of the Senator from Maryland [Mr. Johnson] seem to justify entirely the resolution I have brought forward. I have simply called attention to what was already notorious, but with a view to action. I am not sure, that, under the Constitutional Amendment, this abuse may not be justified, and I desire to have the opinion of the Committee after ample consideration.
This, Sir, is not the first time in which incidents like this have occurred. I remember, that, many years ago, when I first came into this Chamber, the good people whom I represent were shocked at reading that four colored sailors of Massachusetts had been sold into slavery in the State of Texas. I did what I could to obtain their liberation, but without success. I applied directly to the Senator from Texas at that time, who will be remembered by many as the able General Rusk, beside whom I sat on the other side of the Chamber. He openly vindicated the power of the court to make such a sale, and I have never heard anything of those poor victims from that time to this. Under the operation of the Constitutional Amendment I trust they are now emancipated; but I am not sure of that, since they are in Texas.
The resolution was adopted. Subsequently Mr. Creswell moved the printing of a bill, introduced by him at the preceding session, to protect children of African descent from being enslaved in violation of the Constitution of the United States.
February 20th, Mr. Poland, from the Committee on the Judiciary, to whom this bill had been referred, reported that its object was accomplished by the Civil Rights and the Habeas Corpus Acts, and that no further legislation was needed. In a conversation that ensued, Mr. Sumner said:—
It strikes me the practical question is, whether recent incidents have not admonished us that there is a disposition to evade the statute, and under the protection of State laws——
Mr. Trumbull [of Illinois]. That is the very thing the statute guards against.
Mr. Sumner. But the statute was not effective to prevent those incidents.
Mr. Trumbull. Will any statute, if it is not executed?
Mr. Sumner. But when apprised of an evasion, I ask whether it is not expedient to counteract that evasion specifically and precisely, so that there shall be no possible excuse? Liberty is won by these anxious trials. Those who represent her are accustomed to take case by case and difficulty by difficulty,—overcoming them, if they can. Secure first the general principle, as in the Constitutional Amendment,—then legislation as extensive or minute as the occasion requires. Let it be “precept upon precept, line upon line,” so long as any such outrage can be shown.
I would not seem pertinacious, though I do not know that I can err by any pertinacity on a question of Human Liberty. I feel that we are painfully admonished, by incidents occurring under our very eyes, that we ought to do something to tighten that great Constitutional Amendment. It contains in its text words which I regret. I regretted them at the time; I proposed to strike them out; and now they return to plague the inventor. There should have been no recognition in the Constitutional Amendment of any possibility of Slavery. The reply is, that the Amendment, if properly interpreted, does not recognize the possibility of Slavery being legal in any just sense. But it is misinterpreted,—has been so in an adjoining State; and who can tell that it will not be so now in every one of the Southern States? I am sorry that the Committee has not reported the bill.
The Senate last night passed a bill, on the report of my colleague, to prohibit slavery and peonage in New Mexico. Under the Constitutional Amendment, I take it, that bill was unnecessary, it was superfluous. But we have found a difficulty in that Territory. There has been outrage; slavery in some form exists there; and consequently my colleague was right, when he brought his Committee to the conclusion that they must meet it by specific enactment. Where the abuse appears, we must root it out. That is Radicalism. So long as a human being is held as a slave anywhere under this flag, from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast, there is occasion for your powerful intervention; and if there is ambiguity or failure in existing statutes, then you must supply another statute.
PROTECTION AGAINST THE PRESIDENT.
Speeches in the Senate, on an Amendment to the Tenure of Office Bill, January 15, 17, and 18, 1867.
This session of Congress was occupied by efforts to restrain and limit the appointing power of the President. The differences between the President and Congress increased daily. Among measures considered by Congress was a bill to regulate the tenure of offices, known as the Tenure of Office Bill.
January 15th, Mr. Sumner moved to amend this bill by adding a new section:—
“And be it further enacted, That all officers or agents, except clerks of Departments, now appointed by the President or by the head of any Department, whose salary or compensation, derived from fees or otherwise, exceeds one thousand dollars annually, shall be nominated by the President and appointed by and with the advice and consent of the Senate; and the term of all such officers or agents who have been appointed since the first day of July, 1866, either by the President or by the head of a Department, without the advice and consent of the Senate, shall expire on the last day of February, 1867.”
Mr. Edmunds, of Vermont, who reported the pending bill, opposed the amendment. Mr. Sumner followed.
MR. PRESIDENT,—The proposition I offer now I moved last week on another bill, in a slightly different form, but it was substantially the same. I did not then understand that there was objection to it in principle. It was opposed as not germane to the bill in hand; or, if germane, its adoption on that bill was supposed in some way to embarrass its passage. On that ground, as I understand, it was opposed,—not on its merits. Senators who spoke against it avowed their partiality for it, if I understood them aright,—declared, that, if they had an opportunity on any proper bill, they would vote for it.
Well, Sir, I move it on another bill, to which I believe all will admit it is entirely germane. There is no suggestion that it is not germane. It is completely in order. But the objection of the Senator from Vermont, if I understand, is, that it may interfere with the symmetry of his bill, and introduce an element which he, who has that bill in charge and now conducts it so ably, had not intended to introduce. Very well, Sir; that may be said; but I do not think it a very strong objection.
The Senator is mistaken, if he supposes that the amendment would endanger the bill. Just the contrary. It would give the bill strength.
Mr. Howe. Merit.
Mr. Sumner. It would give it both strength and merit,—because it is a measure which grows out of the exigency of the hour. His bill on a larger scale is just such a measure. It grows out of the present exigency, and this is its strength and its merit. We shall pass that, if we do pass it,—and I hope we shall,—to meet a crisis. We all feel its necessity. But the measure which I now move grows equally out of the present exigency. If ingrafted on the bill, it will be, like the original measure, to meet the demands of the moment. It will be because without it we shall leave something undone which we ought to do.
Now, I ask Senators, is there any one who doubts that under the circumstances such a provision ought to pass? Is there any one who doubts, after what we have seen on a large scale, that the President, for the time being at least, ought to be deprived of the extraordinary function he has exercised? He has announced in public speech that he meant to “kick out of office” present incumbents; and it was in this proceeding, that, on his return to Washington, he undertook to remove incumbents wherever he could. It cannot be doubted, Sir, that we owe protection to these incumbents, so far as possible. This is an urgent duty. If the Senator from Vermont will tell me any other way in which this can be promoted successfully, I shall gladly follow him; but until then I must insist that it shall share the fortunes of the bill, “pursue the triumph and partake the gale.” If the bill succeeds, then let this measure, which is as good as the bill.
But the suggestion is made, that the amendment should be matured in a committee. Why, Sir, it is very simple. Any one can mature it who applies his mind to it for a few moments. It has already been before the Senate for several days, discussed once, twice, three times, I think, not elaborately, but still discussed, so that its merits have become known; and beside its discussion in open Senate, I am a witness that it has been canvassed in conversation much. Many Senators have applied their minds to it, and I may say that in offering it now I speak not merely for myself, but for others, and the proposition, in the form in which I present it, is not merely my own, but it is that of many others, to whose careful supervision it has been submitted. Therefore I say that it is matured, so far as necessary, and there is no reason why the Senate should not act upon it. Why postpone what is in itself so essentially good? Why put off to some unknown future the chance of applying the remedy to an admitted abuse? Is there any one here who says that this is not an abuse, that here is not a tyrannical exercise of power? No one. Then, Sir, let us apply the remedy. This is the first chance we can get. Take it.
Mr. Fessenden was “not disposed to overturn a system which has recommended itself to the experience of the Government, recommended itself to the most approved mode of doing the business of the country for years, with which no fault whatever has been found in its practical operation, simply because at this time we are in this ‘muss’ with regard to appointments.” He was “opposed utterly to the amendment.” Mr. Sumner replied:—
It is very easy to answer an argument, when you begin by exaggerating consequences. Now, Sir, the Senator warns us against my proposition, because it would impose so much business upon the Senate. Is that true? He reminds us of the number of appointments we should be obliged to act upon in the Internal Revenue Department. How many? The assistant assessors. What others? Those can be counted.
Mr. Cragin. Inspectors under the internal revenue laws.
Mr. Sumner. Inspectors also: those can all be counted. He then reminds us of the officers in the custom-houses. They can all be counted. It would not act on clerks in the custom-houses; it acts only, if at all, on officers of the custom-houses, in a certain sense superior, some with considerable responsibility. They can all be counted. It is easy to say that we shall be obliged to deal with many thousands; but I say, nevertheless, they can all be counted.
But are we not obliged to deal with many thousand postmasters, and also with many thousand officers in the army? How have we carried this great war along? The Senate has acted always upon all the nominations of the Executive for the national army, beginning with the general and ending with a second lieutenant. Every one comes before the Senate; and what is the consequence? The Executive has a direct responsibility to the Senate with regard to every army appointment. But you are not disposed to renounce that responsibility because it brings into this Chamber many thousand nominations. Of the officers that I would bring into the Chamber, some you may consider as second lieutenants in the civil service, others as first lieutenants, others as captains. And why should we not act upon them?
The Senator says we had better follow the received system. One of the finest sentiments that have fallen from one of the most gifted of our fellow-countrymen is that verse in which he says,—
“New occasions teach new duties.”
We have a new occasion, teaching a new duty. That new occasion is the misconduct of the Executive of the United States; and the new duty is, that Congress should exercise all its powers in throwing a shield over fellow-citizens. The Executive is determined to continue this warfare upon the incumbents of office; shall we not, if possible, protect them? That is our duty growing out of this hour. It may not be our duty next year, or four years from now, as it was not our duty last year, or four years back. But because it may not be our duty next year, and was not our duty last year, it does not follow that it is not our duty now. I would act in the present according to the exigency; and if there is an abuse, as no one will hesitate, I think, to admit, I would meet it carefully, considerately, and bravely.
…
When to-morrow comes, if happily we see a clearer sky, I shall then hearken gladly to the Senator from Maine, and follow him in sustaining the old system; but meanwhile the old system has ceased to be applicable. It does not meet the case. It was good enough when we had a President in harmony with the Senate; but it is not good enough now. We owe it, therefore, to ourselves, and to those looking here for protection, to apply the remedy.
January 17th, after an earnest debate, Mr. Sumner spoke again.
Mr. President,—As the proposition on which the Senate is about to vote was brought forward by me, I hope that I may have the indulgence of the Senate for a few minutes. Had I succeeded in catching the eye of the Chair at the proper time, I should, perhaps, have said something in reply to the Senator from Indiana [Mr. Hendricks]; but he has already been answered by the Senator from California [Mr. Conness]. Besides, the topics which he introduced were political. He did not address himself directly to the proposition itself. I do not say that his remarks were irrelevant, but obviously he seized the occasion to make a political speech. The Senator is an excellent debater; he always speaks to the point as he understands it; and yet his point is apt to be political. Of course he speaks as one having authority with his party, in which he is an acknowledged leader. And now, Sir, you will please to remark, he comes forward as leader for the President of the United States. The Senator from Indiana, an old-school Democrat,—he will not deny the appellation,—presents himself as defender of the President. I congratulate the President upon so able a defender. Before this great controversy is closed, the President will need all the ability, all the experience, all the admirable powers of debate which belong to the distinguished Senator.
As I shall recall the Senate precisely to the question, I begin by asking the Secretary to read the amendment.
The Secretary read the amendment, when Mr. Sumner continued.
Now, Mr. President, I am unwilling to be diverted from that plain proposition into any general discussion of a merely political character. I ask your attention to the simple question on which you are to vote.
Here I meet objections brought against the amendment, so far as I have been able to comprehend them. They have chiefly found voice, unless I am much mistaken, in the Senator from Maine [Mr. Fessenden], who is as earnest as he is unquestionably able. The Senator began with a warning, and his beginning gave tone to all he said. He warned us not to forget the lessons of the past; and he warned us also not to fall under the influence of any animosity. When he warned us not to forget the lessons of the past, such was his earnestness that he seemed to me fresh from the study of Confucius. No learned Chinese, anxious that there should be no departure from the ancient ways, and filled with devotion for distant progenitors, could have enjoined that duty more reverently. We were to follow what had been done in the past. Now, Sir, I have a proper deference for the past; I recognize its lessons, and seek to comprehend them; but I am not a Chinese, to be swathed by traditions. I break all bands and wrappers, when the occasion requires. I trust that the Senator will do so likewise. The present occasion is of such a character that his lesson is entirely inapplicable. It is well to regard the past, and study its teachings. It is well also to regard the future, and seek to provide for its necessities. This is plain enough.
Then, Sir, we are not to act under the influence of animosity. Excellent counsel. But, pray, what Senator, on an occasion like this, when we strive to place in the statutes of the country an important landmark, can allow himself to act under such influence? Is the Senator from Maine the only one who can claim this immunity? I am sure he will not make exclusive claim. As he is conscious that he is free from such disturbing influence, so also am I. He is not more free from it than I am. Most sincerely from my heart do I disclaim all animosity. I have nothing of the kind. I see nothing but my duty.
And when I speak of duty, I speak of what I would emphatically call the duty of the hour. I tried the other day, in what passed between myself and the Senator from Maine, briefly to illustrate this idea. I said that we are not to act absolutely with reference to the past, nor absolutely with reference to the future, but we are to act in the present. Each hour has its duties, and this hour has duties such as few other hours in our history have ever presented. Is there any one who can question it? Are we not in the midst of a crisis? Sometimes it is said that we are in the midst of a revolution. Call it, if you will, simply a crisis. It is a critical hour, having its own peculiar responsibilities. Now, if you ask me in what this present duty specially centres, on what it specially pivots, I have an easy reply: it is in protection to the loyal and patriotic citizen, wherever he may be. I repeat it, protection to the loyal and patriotic citizen is the imminent duty of the hour. This duty is so commanding, so engrossing, so absorbing, so peculiar,—let me say, in one word, so sacred,—that to neglect it is like the neglect of everything. It is nothing less than a general abdication.
Such, I say emphatically, is the duty of the hour, in presence of which it is vain for the Senator to cite the experience of other times, when no such duty was urgent. He does not meet the case. What he says is irrelevant. All that was done in the past may have been well done; for it I have no criticism; but at this time it is absolutely inapplicable.
I return, then, to my proposition, that the duty of the hour is protection to the loyal and patriotic citizen. But when I have said this, I have not completed the proposition. You may ask, Protection against whom? I answer plainly, Against the President of the United States. There, Sir, is the duty of the hour. Ponder it well, and do not forget it. There was no such duty on our fathers, there was no such duty on recent predecessors in this Chamber, because there was no President of the United States who had become the enemy of his country.
Here Mr. Sumner was called to order by Mr. McDougall, a Democratic Senator from California, who insisted that no Senator had a right to make use of such words in speaking of the President. Confusion ensued, with various calls to order. There was question as to what Mr. Sumner really said. The presiding officer [Mr. Anthony, of Rhode Island] decided that Mr. Sumner was in order, from which decision Mr. McDougall appealed, but finally withdrew his appeal, when Mr. Sumner continued.
When interrupted in the extraordinary manner witnessed by the Senate, I was presenting reasons in favor of the measure on which we are to vote, and I insisted as strongly as I could that the special duty of the hour was protection to loyal and patriotic citizens against the President; I was replying to what fell from the Senator from Maine, who seems, if I may judge from his argument, to feel that there is no occasion for special safeguard, and that the system left by our fathers is enough. In this reply I used language which, according to the short-hand reporter, was as follows: I read from his notes:—
“There, Sir, is the duty of the hour. There was no such duty on our fathers, there was no such duty on our recent predecessors, because there was no President of the United States who had become the enemy of his country.”
These were my words when suddenly interrupted. By those words, Sir, I stand.
Mr. Doolittle [of Wisconsin]. I raise a question of order, whether these words are in order, as stated by the Senator.
The Presiding Officer. The Chair has already decided a similar point of order. The Chair will submit this question to the Senate.
The Presiding Officer decided that Mr. Sumner was in order. Mr. Doolittle appealed from this decision. Debate ensued on the appeal, when Mr. Lane, of Indiana, moved to lay the appeal upon the table. Amid much confusion, other motions were interposed. At last a vote was reached on the motion of Mr. Lane. The yeas and nays were ordered, and, being taken, resulted,—Yeas 29, Nays 10. So the appeal was laid upon the table. Mr. Sumner, who was in his seat, refrained from voting. The Senate then adjourned.
January 18th, Mr. Sumner, having the floor, continued.
It is only little more than a year ago that I felt it my duty to characterize a message of the President as “whitewashing.”[77] The message represented the condition of things in the Rebel States as fair and promising, when the prevailing evidence was directly the other way. Of course the message was “whitewashing,” and this was a mild term for such a document. But you do not forget how certain Senators, horror-struck at this plainness, leaped forward to vindicate the President. Yesterday some of these same Senators, horror-struck again, leaped forward again in the same task. Time has shown that I was right on the former occasion. If anybody doubts that I was right yesterday, I commend him to time. He will not be obliged to wait long. Meanwhile I shall insist always upon complete freedom of debate, and I shall exercise it. John Milton, in his glorious aspirations, said, “Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.”[78] Thank God, now that slave-masters are driven from this Chamber, such is the liberty of an American Senator. Of course there can be no citizen of a republic too high for exposure, as there can be none too low for protection. Exposure of the powerful, and protection of the weak,—these are not only invaluable liberties, but commanding duties.
At last the country is opening its eyes to the actual condition of things. Already it sees that Andrew Johnson, who came to supreme power by a bloody incident, has become the successor of Jefferson Davis in the spirit by which he is ruled and in the mischief he inflicts on his country. It sees the President of the Rebellion revived in the President of the United States. It sees that the violence which took the life of his illustrious predecessor is now by his perverse complicity extending throughout the Rebel States, making all who love the Union its victims, and filling the land with tragedy. It sees that the war upon faithful Unionists is still continued under his powerful auspices, without distinction of color, so that all, both white and black, are sacrificed. It sees that he is the minister of discord, and not the minister of peace. It sees, that, so long as his influence prevails, there is small chance of tranquillity, security, or reconciliation,—that the restoration of prosperity in the Rebel States, so much longed for, must be arrested,—that the business of the whole country must be embarrassed,—and that the conditions so essential to a sound currency must be postponed. All these things the country observes. But indignation assumes the form of judgment, when it is seen also that this incredible, unparalleled, and far-reaching mischief, second only to the Rebellion itself, of which it is a continuation, is created, invigorated, and extended through plain usurpation.
I know that the President sometimes quotes the Constitution, and professes to carry out its behests. But this pretension is of little value. A French historian, whose fame as writer is eclipsed by his greater fame as orator, who has held important posts, and now in advancing years is still eminent in public life, has used words which aptly characterize an attempt like that of the President. I quote from the History of M. Thiers, while describing what is known as the Revolution of the 18th Brumaire.
“When any one wishes to make a revolution, it is always necessary to disguise the illegal as much as possible,—to use the terms of a Constitution in order to destroy it, and the members of a Government in order to overturn it.”[79]
In this spirit the President has acted. He has bent Constitution, laws, and men to his arbitrary will, and has even invoked the Declaration of Independence for the overthrow of those Equal Rights it so grandly proclaims.
In holding up Andrew Johnson to judgment, I do not dwell on his open exposure of himself in a condition of intoxication, while taking the oath of office,—nor do I dwell on the maudlin speeches by which he has degraded the country as it was never degraded before,—nor do I hearken to any reports of pardons sold, or of personal corruption. This is not the case against him, as I deem it my duty to present it. These things are bad, very bad; but they might not, in the opinion of some Senators, justify us on the present occasion. In other words, they might not be a sufficient reason for the amendment which I have moved.
But there is a reason which is ample. The President has usurped the powers of Congress on a colossal scale, and has employed these usurped powers in fomenting the Rebel spirit and kindling anew the dying fires of the Rebellion. Though the head of the Executive, he has rapaciously seized the powers of the Legislative, and made himself a whole Congress, in defiance of a cardinal principle of republican government, that each branch must act for itself, without assuming the powers of the other; and, in the exercise of these illegitimate powers, he has become a terror to the good and a support to the wicked. This is his great and unpardonable offence, for which history must condemn him, if you do not. He is a usurper, through whom infinite wrong is done to his country. He is a usurper, who, promising to be a Moses, has become a Pharaoh. Do you ask for evidence? No witnesses are needed to prove this guilt. It is found in public acts which are beyond question. It is already written in the history of our country. Absorbing to himself all the powers of the National Government, and exclaiming, with the French monarch, that he alone is “the Nation,” he assumes, without color of law, to set up new governments in the Rebel States, and, in the prosecution of this palpable usurpation, places these governments of his own creation in the hands of traitors, to the exclusion of patriot citizens, white and black, who, through his agency, are trampled again under the heel of the Rebellion. Thus a power plainly illegitimate is wielded to establish governments plainly illegitimate, which are nothing but engines of an intolerable oppression, under which peace and union are impossible; and this monstrous usurpation is continued in constant efforts by every means to enforce the recognition of these illegitimate governments, so tyrannical in origin and so baneful in the influence they are permitted to exert. And now, in the maintenance of this usurpation, the President employs the power of removal from office. Some, who would not become the partisans of his tyranny, he has, according to his own language, “kicked out.” Others are spared, but silenced by this menace and the fate of their associates. Wherever any vacancy occurs, whether in the Loyal or the Rebel States, it is filled by the partisans of his usurpation. Other vacancies are created to provide for these partisans. I need not add, that, just in proportion as we sanction such nominations or fail to arrest them, according to the measure of our power, we become parties to his usurpation.
Here I am brought directly to the practical application of this simple statement. I have already said that the duty of the hour is in protection to the loyal and patriotic citizen against the President. This cannot be doubted. The first duty of a Government is protection. The crowning glory of a Republic is, that it leaves no human being, however humble, without protection. Show me a man exposed to wrong, and I show you an occasion for the exercise of all the power that God and the Constitution have given you. It will not do to say that the cases are too numerous, or that the remedy cannot be applied without interfering with a system handed down from our fathers, or, worse still, that you have little sympathy with this suffering. This will not do. You must apply the remedy, or fail in duty. Especially must you apply it, when, as now, this wrong is part of a huge usurpation in the interest of recent Rebellion.
The question, then, recurs, Are you ready to apply the remedy, according to your powers? The necessity for this remedy may be seen in the Rebel States, and also in the Loyal States, for the usurpation is felt in both.
If you look at the Rebel States, you will see everywhere the triumph of Presidential tyranny. There is not a mail which does not bring letters without number supplicating the exercise of all the powers of Congress against the President. There is not a newspaper which does not exhibit evidence that you are already tardy in this work of necessity. There is not a wind from that suffering region which is not freighted with voices of distress. And yet you hesitate.
I shall not be led aside to consider the full remedy, for it is not my habit to travel out of the strict line of debate. Therefore I confine myself to the bill before us, which is applicable alike to Loyal and Rebel States.
This bill has its origin in what I have already called the special duty of the hour, which is protection of loyal and patriotic citizens against the President. I have shown the necessity of this protection. But the brutal language the President employs shows the spirit in which he acts. The Senator from Indiana [Mr. Hendricks], whose judgment could not approve this brutality, doubted if the President had used it. Let me settle this question. Here is the “National Intelligencer,” always indulgent to the President. In its number for the 13th of September last it thus reports what the Chief Magistrate said at St. Louis:—
“I believe that one set of men have enjoyed the emoluments of office long enough, and they should let another portion of the people have a chance. [Cheers.] How are these men to be got out [A voice, ‘Kick ’em out!’—cheers and laughter], unless your Executive can put them out,—unless you can reach them through the President? Congress says he shall not turn them out, and they are trying to pass laws to prevent it being done. Well, let me say to you, if you will stand by me in this action [cheers],—if you will stand by me in trying to give the people a fair chance,—to have soldiers and citizens to participate in these offices,—God being willing, I will kick them out,—I will kick them out just as fast as I can. [Great cheering.]”
Such diction as this is without example. Proceeding from the President, it is a declaration of “policy” which you must counteract; and in this duty make a precedent, if need be.
The bill before the Senate, which the Senator from Vermont [Mr. Edmunds] has shaped with so much care and now presses so earnestly, arises from this necessity. Had Abraham Lincoln been spared to us, there would have been no occasion for any such measure. It is a bill arising from the exigency of the hour. As such it is to be judged. But it does not meet the whole case. Undertaking to give protection, it gives it to a few only, instead of the many. It provides against the removal of persons whose offices, according to existing law and Constitution, are held by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. Its special object is to vindicate the power of the Senate over the offices committed to it according to existing law and Constitution. Thus vindicating the power of the Senate, it does something indirectly to protect the citizen. In this respect it is beneficent, and I shall be glad to vote for it.
The amendment goes further in the same direction. It provides that all agents and officers appointed by the President or by the head of a Department, with salaries exceeding $1,000, shall be appointed only by and with the advice and consent of the Senate; and it further proceeds to vacate all such appointments made since 1st July last past, so as to arrest the recent process of “kicking out.” The proposition is simple; and I insist that it is necessary, unless you are willing to leave fellow-citizens without protection against tyranny. Really the case is so plain that I do not like to argue it, and yet you will pardon me, if I advert to certain objections which have been made.
We have been told that the number of persons it would bring before the Senate is such that it would clog and embarrass the public business,—in other words, that we have not time to deal with so many cases. This is a strange argument. Because the victims are numerous, therefore we are to fold our hands and let the sacrifice proceed. But I insist that just in proportion to the number is the urgency of your duty. Every victim has a voice; and when these voices count by thousands, you have no right to turn away and say, “They are too numerous for the Senate.” This is my answer to the objection founded on numbers.
But this is not all. You did not shrink, during the war, from the numerous nominations of military officers, counting by thousands; nor did you shrink from the numerous nominations of naval officers, counting by thousands. The power over all these you never relaxed, and I know well you never will relax. You know, that, even if unable to consider carefully every case, yet the power over them enables you to interpose a veto on any improper nomination. The power of the Senate is a warning against tyranny in the Executive. But it is difficult to see any strong reason for this power in the case of the army and navy which is not applicable also to civil officers. This I should say in tranquil times; but there is another reason peculiar to the hour. Even if in tranquil times I were disposed to leave the appointing power as it is, I am not disposed to do so now.
Then, again, we are told that we must not abandon the system of our fathers. I have already answered this objection precisely, in saying, that, whatever may have been the system of the Fathers, it is inadequate to the present hour. But I am not satisfied that the proposition moved by me is inconsistent with the system of the Fathers. The officers of the Internal Revenue did not exist then, and the inferior officers of the customs were few in number and with small emoluments. But all district attorneys and marshals, even if their salary was no more than two hundred dollars, were subject to the confirmation of the Senate.
Mr. Edmunds. And so they are yet.
Mr. Sumner. And so they are yet. But can the Senator doubt, that, if, at the time when those officers were made subject to the confirmation of the Senate, weighers and gaugers and inspectors had been as well paid as they are now, they, too, would have been brought under the control of this body? I cannot.
Mr. Edmunds. I do not think they would.
Mr. Sumner. But even if the Senator does not accept the view which I present on the probable course of our fathers, he cannot resist the argument, that, whatever may have been the old system, we must act now in the light of present duties. I repeat, a system good for our fathers may not be good for this hour, which is so full of danger.
Then, again, we are told, with something of indifference, if not of levity, that it is not the duty of the Senate to look after the “bread and butter” of officeholders. This is a familiar way of saying that these small cases are not worthy of the Senate. Not so do I understand our duties. There is no case so small as not to be worthy of the Senate, especially if in this way you can save a citizen from oppression and weaken the power of an oppressor.
Something has been said about the curtailment of the Executive power, and the Senator from Maine [Mr. Fessenden] has even argued against the amendment as conferring upon the President additional powers. This is strange. The effect of the amendment is, by clear intendment, to take from the President a large class of nominations and bring them within the control of the Senate. Thus it is obviously a curtailment of Executive power, which I insist has become our bounden duty. The old resolution of the House of Commons, moved by Mr. Dunning, is applicable here: “The influence of the Crown has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished.” In this spirit we must put a curb on the President, now maintaining illegitimate power by removals from office.
Mr. President, I have used moderate language, strictly applicable to the question. But it is my duty to remind you how much the public welfare depends upon courageous counsels. Courage is now the highest wisdom. Do not forget that we stand face to face with an enormous and malignant usurper, through whom the Republic is imperilled,—that Republic which, according to our oaths of office, we are bound to save from all harm. The lines are drawn. On one side is the President, and on the other side is the people of the United States. It is the old pretension of prerogative, to be encountered, I trust, by that same inexorable determination which once lifted England to heroic heights. The present pretension is more outrageous, and its consequences are more deadly; surely the resistance cannot be less complete. An American President must not claim an immunity denied to an English king. In the conflict he has so madly precipitated, I am with the people. In the President I put no trust, but in the people I put infinite trust. Who will not stand with the people?
Here, Sir, I close what I have to say at this time. But before I take my seat, you will pardon me, if I read a brief lesson, which seems written for the hour. The words are as beautiful as emphatic.
“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.”
These are the words of Abraham Lincoln.[80] They are as full of vital force now as when he uttered them. I entreat you not to neglect the lesson. Learn from its teaching how to save our country.
Mr. Edmunds and Mr. Reverdy Johnson replied. Mr. Howe, of Wisconsin, and Mr. Lane, of Indiana, favored the amendment. Mr. Johnson suggested that the expression of opinion adverse to the President would disqualify a Senator to sit on his impeachment. Mr. Sumner interrupted him to say:—
What right have I to know that the President is to be impeached? How can I know it? And let me add, even if I could know it, there can be no reason in that why I should not argue the measure directly before the Senate, and present such considerations as seem to me proper, founded on the misconduct of that officer.
Mr. Sumner here changed his amendment by striking out the limitation of $1,000 and inserting $1,500. He then said:—
I make the change in deference to Senators about me, and especially yielding to the earnest argument of the Senator from Vermont [Mr. Edmunds], who was so much disturbed by the idea that the Senate would be called to act upon inspectors. My experience teaches me not to be disturbed at anything. I am willing to act on an inspector or a night watchman; and if I could, I would save him from Executive tyranny. The Senator would leave him a prey, so far as I can understand, for no other reason than because he is an inspector, an officer of inferior dignity, and because, if we embrace all inspectors, we shall have too much to do.
Sir, we are sent to the Senate for work, and especially to surround the citizen with all possible safeguards. The duty of the hour is as I have declared. It ought not to be postponed. Every day of postponement is to my mind a sacrifice. Let us not, then, be deterred even by the humble rank of these officers, or by their number, but, whether humble or numerous, embrace them within the protecting arms of the Senate.
The amendment was rejected,—Yeas 16, Nays 21. After further debate, the bill passed the Senate,—Yeas 29, Nays 9. It then passed the House with amendments. To settle the difference between the two Houses, there was a Committee of Conference, when the bill agreed upon passed the Senate,—Yeas 22, Nays 10,—and passed the House,—Yeas 112, Nays 41. March 2d, the bill was vetoed, when, notwithstanding the objections of the President, it passed the Senate,—Yeas 35, Nays 11,—and passed the House,—Yeas 138, Nays 40,—and thus became a law.[81]
DENUNCIATION OF THE COOLIE TRADE.
Resolution in the Senate, from the Committee on Foreign Relations, January 16, 1867.
The following resolution was reported by Mr. Sumner, who asked the immediate action of the Senate upon it.
Whereas the traffic in laborers transported from China and other Eastern countries, known as the Coolie trade, is odious to the people of the United States as inhuman and immoral;
And whereas it is abhorrent to the spirit of modern international law and policy, which have substantially extirpated the African slave-trade, to permit the establishment in its place of a mode of enslaving men different from the former in little else than the employment of fraud instead of force to make its victims captive: Therefore
Be it resolved, That it is the duty of this Government to give effect to the moral sentiment of the Nation through all its agencies, for the purpose of preventing the further introduction of coolies into this hemisphere or the adjacent islands.
The resolution was adopted.
CHEAP BOOKS AND PUBLIC LIBRARIES.
Remarks in the Senate, on Amendments to the Tariff Bill reducing the Tariff on Books, January 24, 1867.
The Senate having under consideration the bill to provide increased revenue from imports, Mr. Edmunds, of Vermont, moved to retain the following articles on the free list:—
“Books, maps, charts, and other printed matter, specially imported in good faith for any public library or society, incorporated or established for philosophical, literary, or religious purposes, or for the encouragement of the fine arts.”
Mr. Sumner said:—
MR. PRESIDENT,—By the existing law, public libraries and literary societies receive books, maps, charts, and engravings free of duty. It is now proposed to change the law, so that public libraries and literary societies shall no longer receive books, maps, charts, and engravings free of duty. It is a little curious that the present moment is seized for this important change, which I must call retrogressive in character. It seems like going back to the Dark Ages. We made no such change during the war. We went through all its terrible trials and the consequent taxation without any such attempt. Now that peace has come, and we are considering how to mitigate taxation, it is proposed to add this new tax.
Mr. Hendricks. Will the Senator allow me to ask whether he regards this bill as a mitigation of the taxes upon goods brought from foreign countries?
Mr. Sumner. I am not discussing the bill as a general measure.
Mr. Hendricks. I thought the Senator spoke of the present effort to mitigate taxation.
Mr. Sumner. I believe I am not wrong, when I say there is everywhere a disposition to reduce taxation, whether on foreign or domestic articles. Such is the desire of the country and the irresistible tendency of things. But what must be the astonishment, when it appears, that, instead of reducing a tax on knowledge, you augment it!
I insist, that, in imposing this duty, you not only change the existing law, but you depart from the standing policy of republican institutions. Everywhere we have education at the public expense. The first form is in the public school, open to all. But the public library is the complement or supplement of the public school. As well impose a tax on the public school as on the public library.
I doubt if the Senate is fully aware of the number of public libraries springing into existence. This is a characteristic of our times. Nor is it peculiar to our country. Down to a recent day, public libraries were chiefly collegiate. In Europe they were collegiate or conventual. There were no libraries of the people. But such libraries are now appearing in England and in France. Every considerable place or centre has its library for the benefit of the neighborhood. But this movement, like every liberal tendency, is more marked in the United States. Here public libraries are coming into being without number. The Public Library of Boston and the Astor Library of New York are magnificent examples, which smaller towns are emulating. In my own State there are public libraries in Lowell, Newburyport, New Bedford, Worcester, Springfield,—indeed, I might almost say in every considerable town. But Massachusetts is not alone. Public libraries are springing up in all the Northern States. They are now extending like a belt of light across the country. They are a new Zodiac, in which knowledge travels with the sun from east to west. Of course these are all for the public good. They are public schools, where every book is a schoolmaster. To tax such institutions now, for the first time, is a new form of that old enemy, a “tax on knowledge.” Such is my sense of their supreme value that I would offer them bounties rather than taxes.
In continuation of this same hospitality to knowledge, I wish to go still further, and relieve imported books of all taxes, so far as not inconsistent with interests already embarked in the book business. For instance, let all books, maps, charts, and engravings printed before 1840 take their place on the free list. Publications before that time cannot come in competition with any interests here. The revenue they afford will be unimportant. The tax you impose adds to the burdens of scholars and professional men who need them. And yet every one of these books, when once imported, is a positive advantage to the country, by which knowledge is extended and the public taste improved. I would not claim too much for these instructive strangers belonging to another generation. I think I do not err in asking for them a generous welcome. But, above all, do not tax them.
It is sometimes said that we tax food and clothes, therefore we must tax books. I regret that food or clothes are taxed, because the tax presses upon the poor. But this is no reason for any additional tax. Reduce all such taxes, rather than add to them. But you will not fail to remember the essential difference between these taxes. In New England education from the beginning was at the public expense; and this has been for some time substantially the policy of the whole country, except so far as it was darkened by Slavery. Therefore I insist, that, because we tax food and clothes for the body, this is no reason why we should tax food and clothes for the mind.
The question, being taken by yeas and nays, resulted,—Yeas 22, Nays 13; so the amendment was adopted.
Mr. Sumner then moved to exempt “maps, charts, and engravings executed prior to 1840.” He said that this amendment was naturally associated with that on which the Senate had just acted; that there could be no competition with anything at home.
In reply to Mr. Williams, of Oregon, Mr. Sumner again spoke.
Mr. President,—There is no question of the exemption of those who are best able to pay these duties; it is simply a question of a tax on knowledge. The Senator by his system would shut these out from the country, and would say, “Hail to darkness!” I do not wish to repeat what I have so often said; but the argument of the Senator has been made here again and again, and heretofore, as often as made, I have undertaken to answer it. He says we put a tax on necessaries now,—on the food that fills the body, on the garments that clothe the body. I regret that we do. I wish we were in a condition to relieve the country of such taxation. But does not the Senator bear in mind that he proposes to go further, and to depart from the great principle governing our institutions from the beginning of our history? We have had education free: in other words, we have undertaken to fill the mind and to clothe the mind at the public expense. We never did undertake to fill the body or to clothe the body at the public expense. Sir, as a lover of my race, I should be glad, could the country have clothed the body and filled the body at the public expense. I should be glad, had society been in such a condition that this vision could be accomplished; but we all know that it is not, and I content myself with something much simpler and more practical. I would aim to establish the principle which seems to have governed our fathers, and which is so congenial with republican institutions, that education and knowledge, so far as practicable, shall be free.
To make education and knowledge free, you must, so far as possible, relieve all books from taxation. I have already said that I did not propose to interfere with any of the practical interests of the book trade; but, where those interests are out of the way, I insist that the great principle of republican institutions should be applied. This is my answer to the Senator from Oregon. I fear he has not adequately considered the question. He has not brought to it that knowledge, that judgment, which always command my respect, as often as he addresses the Senate. He seems to have spoken hastily. I hope that he will withdraw, or at least relax, his opposition, and, revolving the subject hereafter, range himself, as he must, with his large intelligence, on the side of human knowledge.
Then, again, in reply to Mr. Conness, of California, Mr. Sumner remarked:—
It is because I hearken to the needs of my country that I make this proposition. I am not to be led aside by the picture of other necessities. I respect all the necessities of the people; but among the foremost are those of public instruction, and it is of those I am a humble representative on this floor. The Senator from California may, if he chooses, treat that representation with levity; he may announce himself an opponent of the policy which I would establish for my country; he may set himself against what I insist is a fundamental principle of republican institutions, that knowledge should not be taxed; he may go forth and ask for taxation on books and on public libraries, and, if he chooses, carry the principle still further, and tax the public school. He will then be consistent with himself. I hope that he will allow me to speak for what I believe the true need of the country.
The motion to exempt maps, charts, and engravings was rejected.
Mr. Sumner then moved to place on the free list “books printed prior to 1840.” It being objected, that “the duty as already laid was very low, only 15 per cent.,”—that “we have to look to revenue,”—and that it was desirable “to have all the interests of the country taxed,”—Mr. Sumner replied:—
Every argument for making the duty low is equally strong against having any duty on the subject. There is no reason that could have influenced the Committee in favor of reducing the duty which is not equally strong in favor of removing the duty. The Senator declares that the object is revenue. But the revenue that will come from this source is very small; it is not large enough to compensate for the mischief it will cause. Sir, I believe all the conclusions of the best experienced in taxation are, that we should seek as much as possible to diminish the objects of taxation. Just in proportion as nations become experienced in imposing taxes do they limit the objects to which the taxes are applied. It seems to me we are strangely insensible to that lesson of history. We seem to be groping about and seizing hold of every little object, every filament, if I may so express myself, which we can grasp, in order to drag it into the sphere of taxation.
I think we should be better employed, if we declined to tax a large number of articles which it is proposed to tax, and brought our taxation to bear on a few important articles, which we should make contribute substantially to the resources of the country. The tax that is now proposed will contribute nothing of any real substance to the resources of the country, while to my view it is not creditable. I say it frankly, it is not creditable to the civilization of our age, and least of all is it creditable to the civilization of a republic.
Such is my conviction. As often as I have thought of this question, I cannot see it in any other light; and I do think that money derived from a tax on books can be vindicated only on the principle of the Roman emperor, “Money from any quarter, no matter what, for money does not smell.”[82] Now it were better, if, instead of hunting up these several articles for taxation, running them down like game, to bag them in the public treasury, we should confine ourselves to the great subjects, and make them productive. There are enough of them, and in this way we can have revenue enough. I would have all the revenue we want; but, having it, be hospitable to literature, to knowledge, to art; and now let me say, be hospitable to books, because through books you will obtain what you desire in literature, in knowledge, and in art.
Mr. Kirkwood, of Iowa, thought Mr. Sumner ought to be content with what was done. “If he gets the rate reduced from 25 to 15 per cent., when the taxes on everything we eat and wear are being raised 20, 30, 40, or 50 per cent., I think that he ought to be content.”
Mr. Sumner. Personally I am content with anything. I am trying to do what I think best for the people. I may be mistaken in my judgment; and when I see so many distinguished Senators so earnestly differing from me, I am led to call in question my conclusions; and yet considerable reflection and some experience in dealing with this question have always brought me more strongly than before to the same unalterable conclusion. I feel, that, in imposing this tax, you make a great mistake; because it is a bad example, and just to the extent of its influence keeps knowledge out of the country.
The motion of Mr. Sumner was rejected,—Yeas 5, Nays 32. Another motion by him, to exempt mathematical instruments and philosophical apparatus imported for societies, shared the same fate.
CHEAP COAL.
Speech in the Senate, on an Amendment to the Tariff Bill, January 29, 1867.
January 29th, the Senate having under consideration the bill to provide increased revenue from imports, known as the Tariff Bill, Mr. Sumner moved the following:—
“On all bituminous coal mined and imported from any place not more than thirty degrees of longitude east of Washington, fifty cents per ton of twenty-eight bushels, eighty pounds to the bushel.”
The effect of this amendment would be to reduce the duty from $1.50 to 50 cents a ton.
MR. PRESIDENT,—The object of the amendment is to bring the bill back where it was at first. The Senate will remember that in committee a motion prevailed by which the duty of 50 cents per ton on the coal mentioned was raised to $1.50. I am at a loss to understand the precise object of this increased tax on coal. There are strong reasons against any tax on coal; and the reasons are stronger still against this increased tax. Its movers must have an object. What is it?
It seems that there are imported into the United States about 500,000 tons, being 350,000 from the British Provinces and 150,000 from Great Britain; and this coal is to be taxed at the rate of $1.50 a ton in gold. If the same amount of importation continued, this tax would yield $750,000 in gold,—a handsome addition to the revenue. But I am sure the tax is not imposed on this account. It is imposed with some vague hope of benefit to the coal interest. But here, as we look at it, we are mystified. Is it supposed that the price of coal throughout the country will be raised to this extent? The idea is monstrous. There are some 22,000,000 tons now produced, which, if raised in price according to this tax, will cost the country 33,000,000 gold dollars in addition to the present price. This might be advantageous to certain proprietors, but it must be damaging to the country. Nobody can expect this. The object, then, is something else. I will not say that it is merely to take advantage of the States that do not produce coal, for this would be sheer oppression. I suppose that it must be to exclude foreign coal, and to that extent open the market for domestic coal.
But this tax will be positively oppressive to coal-purchasers in New England, to say nothing of New York. Nature has denied coal to this region of country,—or rather, Nature has placed the natural supply for this region outside our political jurisdiction. It is in Nova Scotia, on the other side of our boundary line. Coal in abundance is there, easily accessible by water, and therefore transported at comparatively small cost. Another part of our country has a different supply. On the other side of the mountain-ridge separating the sea-coast from the valleys of the West is an infinite coal-field, the source of untold wealth, which, beginning in the mountains and filling West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania, stretches through the valley of the Ohio, enriching the States that border upon it, and then, crossing the Mississippi, extends through other States beyond, even to Colorado. This is the greatest coal-field, as it is also the greatest corn-field, in the world. It is magnificent beyond comparison. This is the natural resource for the immense region west of the Alleghanies. But why should New England, which has a natural resource comparatively near at home, be compelled at great sacrifice to drag her coal from these distant supplies?
I hear of complaint at Pittsburg, where the price of coal is only two dollars a ton, currency. But imported coal in New England costs at the mine two dollars a ton, gold. Add three or four dollars a ton for freight. And now it is proposed to pile on this a duty of more than two dollars, currency. If Pittsburg complains of coal at two dollars a ton, what must Boston say, when you make it nine dollars? Is this just? Is it practically wise? But I forget: there can be no wisdom without justice.
If it be said that the interests of New England are protected even by the bill before the Senate, I have to say in reply, that no interest of hers is protected at the expense of the rest of the country. All that we ask is fair play. Let it be shown that there is any part of the country which will suffer from the favor accorded to New England as her coal-purchasers must suffer from the favor accorded to the distant coal-owners of the mountains, and I will do what I can to see justice done. I ask nothing but that justice which I am always willing to accord. We constitute parts of one country with common interests, and the prosperity of each is bound up in the prosperity of all.
It is said that this proposed tax will be of advantage to the Cumberland coal in the mountains of Maryland. Perhaps; but not to any considerable extent. I understand that not more than 60,000 tons of Nova Scotia coal are imported in competition with that of Cumberland. This is mainly at Providence, where it is used in the manufacture of iron. But the Cumberland coal is so completely adapted to glassworks, railways, ocean steamships, blacksmiths’ forges, that it may be said to command the market exclusively. Nature has given to it this monopoly. Why not be content?
There are peculiar reasons why coal should be cheap, whether viewed as a necessary or as a motive power. As a necessary, it enters into the comforts of life; as a motive power, it is the substitute for water-power. What reason can you give for a tax on motive power from coal which is not equally strong for a tax on motive power from water, unless it be that one is “black” and the other is “white”? I plead that you shall not needlessly add to the public burden in a particular portion of the country. I have alluded to the cheapness of coal at Pittsburg. In other places it is cheaper still. At Pomeroy, in Ohio, it is $1.40 a ton, and at Cumberland itself it is $1.50 a ton, always currency; and yet New England is to pay $1.50 tax, gold, being more than the coal is worth to its producer, besides the large cost of transportation.
Next after the industry of a people is cheap coal, as an element of national prosperity. Without it, even industry will lose much of its activity and variety. It is coal that has vitalized and quickened all the mighty energies of England. From coal have come all the various products of her manufactories, and these again have furnished the freights for her ships, so that she has become not only a great manufacturing nation, but also a great commercial nation. Coal is the author of all this. Coal is the fuel under the British pot which makes it boil. It ought to do the same for us, and even more, if you will let it. Therefore I end as I began,—tax coal as little as possible.
In reply especially to Mr. Reverdy Johnson, of Maryland, and Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, Mr. Sumner said:—
…
Now, without following the Senator from Kentucky [Mr. Davis] in that proposition, I do insist, that, on articles of prime necessity, we should reduce taxation where we can. Therefore, when the Senator from Ohio tells me, that, if my proposition is adopted, we shall lose a certain amount of revenue derived from coal, I have an easy reply. Very well,—let us lose that amount of revenue derived from coal. You ought not to obtain it; coal ought not to be one of your taxed articles. So far as possible, coal should be cheap. That is the proposition with which I began and ended; and if I do not impress that upon the Senate, I certainly fail in what I attempted.
Mr. Grimes [of Iowa]. Why should it be cheap?
Mr. Sumner. Because it enters into the necessaries of life, and because it is a motive power that works our manufactories.
…
I say that the article is necessary to us in New England. It enters into our daily life,—into the economies of every house, into the expenses of every citizen. It enters, therefore, into the welfare of the community; and you cannot tax coal without making the whole community feel it, whether rich or poor. Every poor man feels it. If I said the rich man felt it, you would reply, “That makes no difference; let him feel it.” I insist that every poor man feels it; and I insist further, that all who are interested in the manufactures of the country necessarily feel it,—not only producers and owners, but all who use the products of their looms. I say, that, as a motive power, it should be made cheap and kept cheap. Now the apparent policy is, to make it dear and keep it dear.
Mr. Hendricks [of Indiana]. I like the Senator’s argument just where he is now; but I wish to ask him whether, if by a tariff you raise the price of every yard of cheap woollen goods and cheap cotton goods, it is not a direct tax on the labor of the poor man of the West, who has to buy them?
Mr. Creswell [of Maryland, to Mr. Sumner]. That is the application of your argument.
Mr. Sumner. The Senator from Maryland says that is the application of my argument. Pardon me, not at all; because the tax on cotton and on woollen goods—I have had very little to do with imposing any such tax—is not oppressive on any part of the country, nor does it bear hard on the constituents of the Senator, or on the constituents of any Senator on this floor; whereas the increase of the tax on coal will bear hard upon a whole community, and upon all its interests; and that is the precise difference between the two cases.
The Senator from Ohio seemed to speak of this with perfect tranquillity, as if there were nothing in it oppressive, or even open to criticism. He thought we might tax coal as we tax any other article. I differ from him. I do not think you should tax coal as you tax other articles; and, further, I do not think you should impose any tax bearing with special hardship, so as to be something akin to injustice, on any particular part of our country. That is my answer to the argument of the Senator from Maryland, and to the inquiry of the Senator from Indiana.
Mr. Creswell replied warmly, criticizing Mr. Sumner, saying, among other things,—
“The distinguished Senator from Massachusetts has treated us to a Free-Trade speech in the Senate of the United States. The commentary of the Senator from Indiana was just and correct; it was a deduction that he had a right logically to make; and I tell the Senator from Massachusetts that his course in the Senate to-day is in its effects a better Free-Trade speech than has ever been made in any of the Middle States during the last ten years.”
Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts, united with Mr. Sumner.
The amendment was lost,—Yeas 11, Nays 25.
A SINGLE TERM FOR THE PRESIDENT, AND CHOICE BY DIRECT VOTE OF THE PEOPLE.
Remarks in the Senate, on an Amendment of the National Constitution, February 11, 1867.
The Senate had under consideration an Amendment to the National Constitution, reported by the Judiciary Committee, as follows:—
“No person elected President or Vice-President, who has once served as President, shall afterward be eligible to either office.”
Mr. Fessenden, of Maine, thought that the words “who has once served as President” should be struck out. Mr. Williams, of Oregon, suggested: “No person who has once served as President shall afterward be eligible to either office.” Mr. Poland, of Vermont, moved, as a substitute, the following:—
“The President and Vice-President of the United States shall hereafter be chosen for the term of six years; and no person elected President or Vice-President, who has once served as President, shall afterward be eligible to either office.”
Mr. Sumner said:—
I agree with the Senator from Maryland [Mr. Johnson], so far as I was able to follow his remarks. It seems to me it would be better, if the term of the President were six years rather than four. I regretted that the report of the Committee did not embody such a change. I am therefore thankful to the Senator from Vermont, who by his motion gives us an opportunity to vote on that proposition.
But allow me to go a little further, and there I should like the attention of my friend opposite [Mr. Johnson]. If the term of the President is to be six years, should we not abolish the office of Vice-President? Are you willing to take the chance of a Vice-President becoming President a few weeks after the beginning of the six years’ term, and then serving out that full term? We all know, in fact, that the Vice-President is nominated often as a sort of balance to the President. It is too much with a view to certain political considerations, and possibly to aid the election of the President, rather than to secure the services of one in all respects competent to be President. Suppose, therefore, we have a President only, and leave to Congress the provision for a temporary filling of the office, as now on the disability of the President and Vice-President.
I throw out these views without making any motion. I submit that we do not meet all the difficulties of the present hour, unless we go still further and provide against abnormal troubles from the nomination of a Vice-President selected less with reference to fitness than to transient political considerations. As my friend says, he is thrown in for a make-weight, and then, in the providence of God, the make-weight becomes Chief Magistrate. It seems to me important, that, if possible, we should provide against the recurrence of such difficulties.
But suppose the proposition of the Committee to stand as reported, I am brought then to the question raised by the Senator from Maine [Mr. Fessenden], whether it should be applicable to a Vice-President in the providence of God called to be President. On that point I am obliged to go with the Committee. It seems to me that the evil we wish to guard against in the case of the President naturally arises in the case of a Vice-President who becomes President. I say this on the reason of the case, and then I say it on our melancholy experience. The three cases in our history which distinctly teach the necessity of the Amendment before us are of three Vice-Presidents who in the providence of God became Presidents. But for these three cases, nobody would have thought of change. It is to meet the difficulties found to arise from a Vice-President becoming President, and then hearkening to the whisperings and temptations which unhappily visit a person in his situation, that we have been led to contemplate the necessity of change. I hope, therefore, if the proposition of the Senator from Vermont [Mr. Poland] is not taken as a substitute, that the words of the Committee will be preserved.
I am disposed to go still further. I would have an additional Amendment,—one that has not appeared in this discussion, though not unknown in this Chamber, for distinguished Senators who once occupied these seats have more than once advocated it,—I mean an Amendment providing for the election of President directly by the people, without the intervention of Electoral Colleges. Such an Amendment would give every individual voter, wherever he might be, a positive weight in the election. It would give minorities in distant States an opportunity of being heard in determining who shall be Chief Magistrate. Now they are of no consequence. Such an Amendment would be of peculiar value. It would be in harmony, too, with those ideas, belonging to the hour, of the unity of the Republic. I know nothing that would contribute more to bring all the people, to mass all the people, into one united whole, than to make the President directly eligible by their votes. But no such proposition is before us, nor is there any such proposition as I have alluded to with regard to the office of Vice-President. I hope, however, that these subjects will not be allowed to pass out of mind, and that some time or other we shall be able to act on them in a practical way.
After debate, the question was dropped without any vote.
RECONSTRUCTION AT LAST WITH COLORED SUFFRAGE AND PROTECTION AGAINST REBEL INFLUENCE.
Speeches in the Senate, on the Bill to provide for the more Efficient Government of the Rebel States, February 14, 19, and 20, 1867.
The subject of Reconstruction was uppermost during the present session, sometimes in Constitutional Amendments and sometimes in measures of legislation.
February 13th, the Senate received from the House of Representatives a bill “to provide for the more efficient government of the Insurrectionary States,” which, after various changes, was finally passed under the title of “An Act to provide for the more efficient government of the Rebel States,” being the most important measure of legislation in the history of Reconstruction. As this bill came from the House it was a military bill, creating five military districts in the South, without any requirement with regard to suffrage, and with no exclusion of Rebels. Mr. Bingham, of Ohio, and Mr. Blaine, of Maine, announced in the House amendments requiring in the new constitutions “that the elective franchise shall be enjoyed by all male citizens of the United States twenty-one years old and upward, without regard to race, color, or previous condition of servitude, except such as may be disfranchised for participating in the late Rebellion or for felony at Common Law.” But they had not been able to obtain a direct vote; nor was there any exclusion of Rebels in their propositions. Mr. Stevens, of Pennsylvania, said:—
“The amendment of the gentleman from Maine [Mr. Blaine] lets in a vast number of Rebels and shuts out nobody. All I ask is, that, when the House comes to vote upon that amendment, it shall understand that the adoption of it would be an entire surrender of those States into the hands of the Rebels.”
About this time the House passed what was known as the Louisiana Bill, being a bill providing for the reconstruction of that State, with all necessary machinery, not unlike the bill introduced on the first day of the preceding session, “to enforce the guaranty of a republican form of government in certain States whose governments have been usurped or overthrown.”[83] The two bills together would have made a complete system of Protection, and the second, when extended to all the States, a complete system of Reconstruction.
February 14th, Mr. Sumner said:—
I am in favor of each of these bills. Each is excellent. One is the beginning of a true Reconstruction; the other is the beginning of a true Protection. Now in these Rebel States there must be Reconstruction and there must be Protection. Both must be had, and neither should be antagonized with the other. The two should go on side by side,—guardian angels of the Republic. Never was Congress called to consider measures of more vital importance. I am unwilling to discriminate between the two. I accept them both with all my heart, and am here now to sustain them by my constant presence and vote.
But, Sir, what we know as the Louisiana Bill came into this Chamber first; it was first made familiar to us; it has precedence. On that account it seems to me it ought to come up first, it ought to lead the way. I am not going to say that this is better than the other, or that the other is better than this. Each is good; and yet, I doubt not, each is susceptible of amendment. The Senator from Maine [Mr. Fessenden] has already foreshadowed an important amendment on the bill reported by the Committee of which he is Chairman; I have already sent to the Chair an amendment which at the proper time I may move on the other bill. But I desire to make one remark with regard to amendments. I am so much in earnest for the passage of these bills, that I shall cheerfully forego any amendment of my own, if I find it to be the general sentiment of those truly in earnest for the bills that we ought not to attempt amendments. If, however, amendments seem to be preferable, then I shall propose those I have sent to the Chair.
February 15th, the Senate began the consideration of the Military Bill, continuing in session until three o’clock in the morning of the next day. Speeches and motions showed great differences on the subject. Some were content with a purely military bill, contemplating simply the protection of the people in the Rebel States. Others wished to add measures of Reconstruction; and here again there were differences. Some were content with the requirement of suffrage without distinction of color in the new constitutions, making no provision for the exclusion of Rebels, leaving the organization in the hands of the existing electors, and providing, that, on the adoption of the Constitutional Amendment, and of a State constitution securing equal suffrage, any such State should be entitled to representation in Congress.
In the hope of putting an end to these differences, a caucus of Republican Senators was held the next forenoon, when a committee was appointed, as follows: Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, Mr. Fessenden, of Maine, Mr. Howard, of Michigan, Mr. Harris, of New York, Mr. Frelinghuysen, of New Jersey, Mr. Trumbull, of Illinois, and Mr. Sumner, to consider the pending bill and amendments and report to the caucus. The committee withdrew from the Senate, leaving a Senator making a long and elaborate speech, and proceeded with their work. The House bill was taken as the basis, and amended in several particulars, to which Mr. Sumner afterwards alluded in the Senate. An effort by Mr. Sumner to require equal suffrage found no favor; nor did what was known as the Louisiana Bill, which he proposed as a substitute; nor an effort to exclude Rebels. He felt it his duty to say to the committee, that, on the making of the report, he should appeal to the caucus, which he did. The caucus, by 15 Yeas to 13 Nays,—Senators standing to be counted,—voted to require equal suffrage in the choice of the constitutional conventions; also in the new constitutions, and in their ratification. But the bill was left without any exclusion of Rebels, and with the declaration, that, doing these things and ratifying the Amendment to the National Constitution, a State should be entitled to representation in Congress. In these latter respects it seemed to Mr. Sumner highly objectionable.
The vote of the caucus to require suffrage without distinction of color seemed a definitive settlement of that question for the Rebel States. At that small meeting, and by those informal proceedings, this great act was accomplished. For Mr. Sumner it was an occasion of especial satisfaction, as his long-continued effort was crowned with success. These volumes show how, by letter, speech, resolution, and bill, he had constantly maintained this duty of Congress. His bill, introduced on the first day of the preceding session, “to enforce the guaranty of a republican form of government in certain States whose governments have been usurped or overthrown,” contained the specific requirement now adopted, while the debates on the Louisiana Bill,[84] the Colorado Bill,[85] the Nebraska Bill,[86] and the Constitutional Amendment,[87] attested his endeavor to apply this requirement.
During the evening session, Mr. Sherman, chairman of the caucus committee, moved the bill accepted by the caucus, as a substitute for the House bill. It was understood that it would receive the support of the Republican Senators without further amendment, and, as they constituted a large majority, its passage was sure. Under these circumstances, Mr. Sumner left the Chamber at midnight. The vote was taken a little after six o’clock, Sunday morning,—Yeas 29, Nays 10.
In the other House, the substitute of the Senate was the occasion of decided differences, not unlike those in the Senate on the House bill. Many felt that the Unionists were left without adequate protection. Mr. Stevens, of Pennsylvania, after saying that the Senate had sent “an amendment which contains everything else but protection,” exclaimed: “Pass this bill and you open the flood-gates of misery,—you disgrace, in my judgment, the Congress of the United States.” Mr. Boutwell, of Massachusetts, said: “My objection to the proposed substitute of the Senate is fundamental, it is conclusive. It provides, if not in terms, at least in fact, by the measures which it proposes, to reconstruct those State governments at once through the agency of disloyal men.” Mr. Williams, of Pennsylvania, said: “We sent to the Senate a proposition to meet the necessities of the hour, which was Protection without Reconstruction, and it sends back another, which is Reconstruction without Protection.” At length, on motion of Mr. Stevens, the House refused to concur in the amendment of the Senate, and asked a committee of conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses.
February 19th, the excitement of the House was again transferred to the Senate, where Mr. Williams, of Oregon, moved that the Senate insist upon its amendment, and agree to the conference. An earnest debate ensued, in which Mr. Sumner favored the conference committee, and also explained what he wished to accomplish by the bill. Mr. Williams withdrew his motion, when Mr. Sherman moved that the Senate insist on its amendment to the House bill and that the House be informed thereof. Mr. Trumbull sustained the motion. Mr. Sumner followed.
Mr. President,—In what the Senator from Illinois [Mr. Trumbull] has said of the failure by the President to discharge his duties under existing laws I entirely agree. He touches the case to the quick. It is impossible not to see that the special difficulty of the present moment springs from the bad man who sits in the executive chair. He is the centre of our woes. More than once before I have recalled the saying of Catholic Europe, “All roads lead to Rome.” So now, among us, do all roads lead to the President. We attempt nothing which does not bring us face to face with him, precisely as during the Rebellion we attempted nothing which did not bring us face to face with Jefferson Davis. I mention this, not to deter, but for encouragement. We have already conquered the chief of the Rebellion. I doubt not that we shall conquer his successor also. But this can be only by strenuous exertion. It is no argument against legislation that the President will not execute it. We must do our duty, and insist always that he shall do his.
Therefore I am in favor of some measure of Reconstruction, the best we can secure, the more thorough the better. And I ask you to take such steps as will best accomplish this result. There is a difference between the two Houses, and at this stage the customary proceeding is a conference committee. But the Senator from Illinois is against any such committee in a case of such magnitude. To my mind his argument should be directed against the rule of Parliamentary Law which provides a conference committee at this precise stage of parliamentary proceedings. Let him move to change the Parliamentary Law, so that in cases of peculiar importance the common rule shall cease to be applicable. Let this be his thesis. But, so long as the Lex Parliamentaria exists, I submit that it is hardly reasonable to resist its application, especially when the House has asked a conference committee on a bill of theirs which you have amended.
…
I differ from the Senator [Mr. Sherman, of Ohio] radically, when he intimates that the bill needs only “slight” amendments. With this opinion I can understand that he should urge a course which I fear may cut off amendments to me essential.
Mr. President, I would speak frankly of this measure, which has in it so much of good and so much of evil. Rarely have good and evil been mixed on such a scale. Look at the good, and you are full of grateful admiration. Look at the evil, and you are impatient at such an abandonment of duty. Much is gained, but much is abandoned. You have done much, but you have not done enough. You have left undone things which ought to be done. The Senator from Maine [Mr. Fessenden] was right in asking more. I agree with him. I ask more. All the good of the bill cannot make me forget its evil. It is very defective. It is horribly defective. Too strong language cannot be used in characterizing a measure with such fatal defects. But nobody recognizes more cordially than myself the good it has. Pardon me, if I do my best to make it better.
This is the original House bill for the military government of the Rebel States, revised and amended by the Senate in essential particulars. As it came from the House it was excellent in general purpose, but imperfect. It was nothing but a military bill, providing protection for fellow-citizens in the Rebel States. Unquestionably it was improved in the Senate. It is easy to mention its good points, for these are conspicuous and seem like so many monuments.
Throughout the bill, in its title, in its preamble, and then again in its body, the States in question are designated as “Rebel States.” I like the designation. It is brief and just. It seems to justify on the face any measure of precaution or security. It teaches the country how these States are to be regarded for the present. It teaches these States how they are regarded by Congress. “Rebel States”: I like the term, and I am glad it is repeated. God grant that the time may come when this term may be forgotten! but until then we must not hesitate to call things by their right names.
More important still is the declaration in the preamble, that “no legal State governments” now exist in the enumerated Rebel States. This is a declaration of incalculable value. For a long time, too long, we have hesitated; but at last this point is reached, destined to be “the initial point” of a just Reconstruction. For a long time, again and again, I have insisted that those governments are illegal. Strangely, you would not say so. The present bill fixes this starting-point of a true policy. If the existing governments are “illegal,” you have duties with regard to them which cannot be postponed. You cannot stop with this declaration. You must see that it is carried out in a practical manner. In other words, you must brush away these illegal governments, the spawn of Presidential usurpation, and supply their places. The illegal must give place to the legal; and Congress must supervise and control the transition. The bill has a special value in the obligations it imposes upon Congress. Let it find a place in the statute-book, and your duties will be fixed beyond recall.
Another point is established which in itself is a prodigious triumph. As I mention it, I cannot conceal my joy. It is the direct requirement of universal suffrage, without distinction of race or color. This is done by Act of Congress, without Constitutional Amendment. It is a grand and beneficent exercise of existing powers, for a long time invoked, but now at last grasped. No Rebel State can enjoy representation in Congress, until it has conferred the suffrage upon all its citizens, and fixed this right in its constitution. This is the Magna Charta you are about to enact. Since Runnymede, there has been nothing of greater value to Human Rights.
To this enumeration add that the bill is in its general purposes a measure of protection for loyal fellow-citizens trodden down by Rebels. To this end, the military power is set in motion, and the whole Rebel region is divided into districts where the strong arm of the soldier is to supply the protection asked in vain from illegal governments.
Look now at the other side, and you will see the defects. By an amendment of the Senate, the House bill, which was merely a military bill for protection, has been converted into a measure of Reconstruction. But it is Reconstruction without machinery or motive power. There is no provision for the initiation of new governments. There is no helping hand extended to the loyal people seeking to lay anew the foundations of civil order. They are left to grope in the dark. This is not right. It is a failure on the part of Congress, which ought to preside over Reconstruction and lend its helping hand, by securing Education and Equal Rights to begin at once, and by appointing the way and the season in which good citizens should proceed in creating the new governments.
I cannot forget, also, that there is no provision by which the freedmen can be secured a freehold for themselves and their families, which has always seemed to me most important in Reconstruction.
But all this, though of the gravest character, is dwarfed by that other objection which springs from the present toleration of Rebels in the copartnership of government. Here is a strange oblivion, showing a strange insensibility.
The Senator from Illinois [Mr. Trumbull] argued that the bill would put the new governments into loyal hands. Has he read it? My precise objection is, that it does not put the government into loyal hands. Look at it carefully, and you will see this staring you in the face at all points. While requiring suffrage for all, without distinction of race or color, it leaves the machinery and motive power in the hands of the existing governments, which are conducted by Rebels. Therefore, under this bill, Rebels will initiate and conduct the work of Reconstruction, while loyal citizens stand aside. The President once said, “For the Rebels back seats.” This bill says, “For the loyal citizens back seats.” Nobody is disfranchised. There is no traitor, red with loyal blood, who may not play his part and help found the new government. The bill excepts from voting only “such as may be disfranchised for participation in the Rebellion.” It does not require that any body shall be disfranchised, but leaves this whole question to the existing government, who will, of course, leave the door wide open.
Looking at this feature, I cannot condemn it too strongly. It is true that suffrage is at last accorded to the colored race; but their masters are left in power to domineer, and even to organize. With experience, craft, and determined purpose, there is too much reason to fear that all safeguards will be overthrown, and the Unionist continue the victim of Rebel power. This must not be. And you must interfere in advance to prevent it. You must exercise a just authority in disfranchising dangerous men. On this point there must be no uncertainty, no “perhaps.” It is not enough to say that Rebels may be disfranchised; you must say must. Without this is surrender.
Such a surrender Congress cannot make. Therefore do I rejoice with my whole heart that the House of Representatives has given to the Senate the opportunity of reconsidering its action and taking the proper steps for amending the bill. The new governments must be on a loyal basis. Loyal people must be protected against Rebels. Here I take my stand. I plead for those good people, who have suffered as people never suffered before. I appeal to you as Senators not to miss this precious opportunity. Take care that the bill is amended, so that it may be the fountain of peace, and not the engine of discord and oppression.
Mr. Sherman followed in an earnest speech, in the course of which the following passage occurred.
Mr. Sherman. The Senator from Massachusetts now for the first time in the Senate has stated his opposition to this bill.
Mr. Sumner. Allow me to correct the Senator. The Senator was not here, when, at two o’clock in the morning, I denounced this amendment as I have, to-day, and much more severely.
Mr. Sherman. He now states that the ground of his opposition is, that the bill does not disfranchise the whole Rebel population of the Southern States.
Mr. Sumner. I beg the Senator’s pardon. I take no such ground. I say it does not provide proper safeguards against the Rebel population. I have not opened the question to what extent the disfranchisement should go.
The motion of Mr. Sherman was agreed to, and the bill, with the Senate amendment, was returned to the House, which proceeded promptly to its consideration. The substitute of the Senate was concurred in, with a further amendment,—(1.) excluding from the conventions, and also from voting, all persons excluded from holding office under the recent Constitutional Amendment; (2.) declaring civil governments in the Rebel States provisional only and subject to the paramount authority of the United States; (3.) conferring the elective franchise upon all, without distinction of color, in elections under such provisional governments; and (4.) disqualifying all persons from office under provisional government who are disqualified by the Constitutional Amendment. The vote of the House was,—Yeas 128, Nays 46.
February 20th, in the Senate, Mr. Williams moved concurrence with the House amendments. After brief remarks by Mr. Sherman, Mr. Sumner said:—
I differ from the Senator [Mr. Sherman], when he calls this a small matter. It is a great matter.
I should not say another word but for the singular speech of the Senator yesterday. He made something like an assault on me, because I required the very amendments the House have now made; and yet he is to support them. I am glad the Senator has seen light; but he must revise his speech of yesterday. The Senator shakes his head. What did I ask? What did I criticize? It was, that the bill failed in safeguard against Rebels. I did not say how many to exclude. I only said some must be excluded, more or less. None were excluded. That brought down the cataract of speech we all enjoyed, when the Senator protested with all the ardor of his nature, and invoked the State of Ohio behind him to oppose the proposition of the Senator from Massachusetts. And now, if I understand the Senator from Ohio, he is ready to place himself side by side with the Senator from Massachusetts in support of the amendment from the House embodying this very proposition. I am glad the Senator is so disposed. I rejoice that he sees light. To-morrow I hope to welcome the Senator to some other height.
Mr. Cowan [of Pennsylvania]. Excelsior!
Mr. Sumner. And I hope the word may be applicable to my friend from Pennsylvania also. [Laughter.]
But there was another remark of the Senator which struck me with astonishment. He complained that I demanded these safeguards now, and said that I had already in the bill all that I had ever demanded before,—that universal suffrage, without distinction of race or color, was secured; and, said he, “the Senator from Massachusetts has never asked anything but that.” Now I can well pardon the Senator for ignorance with regard to what I have said or asked on former occasions. I cannot expect him to be familiar with it. And yet, when he openly arraigns me with the impetuosity of yesterday, I shall be justified in showing how completely he was mistaken.
Here Mr. Sumner referred to his speech before the Massachusetts Republican State Convention, September 14, 1865, entitled “The National Security and the National Faith, Guaranties for the National Freedman and the National Creditor,” and showed how completely at that time he had anticipated all present demands.[88] He then continued:—
And yet, when I simply insisted upon some additional safeguard against the return of Rebels to power, the Senator told us that I was asking something new. Thank God, the other House has supplied the very protection which I desired; it has laid the foundation of a true peace. That foundation can be only on a loyal basis.
Two Presidents—one always to be named with veneration, another always most reluctantly—have united in this sentiment. Abraham Lincoln insisted that the new governments should be founded on loyalty; that, if there were only five thousand loyal persons in a State, they were entitled to hold the power. His successor adopted the same principle, when, in different language, he compendiously said, “For the Rebels back seats.” What is now required could not be expressed better. “For the Rebels back seats,” until this great work of Reconstruction is achieved.
Mr. Sherman, and Mr. Stewart, of Nevada, spoke especially in reply to Mr. Sumner, congratulating him upon his acceptance of the result. Mr. Sumner followed.
I am sorry to say another word; and yet, if silent, I might expose myself to misunderstanding. I accept the amendments from the other House as the best that can be had now; but I desire it distinctly understood that I shall not hesitate to insist at all times upon applying more directly and practically the true principles of Reconstruction. There is the Louisiana Bill on our table. The time, I presume, has passed for acting on it at this session; but in the earliest days of the next session I shall press that subject as constantly as I can. I believe you owe it to every one of these States to supply a government in place of that you now solemnly declare illegal. In such a government you will naturally secure a true loyalty, and I wish to be understood as not in any way circumscribing myself by the vote of to-day.
It may be that it will be best to require of every voter the same oath required of all entering Congress, which we know as the test oath. At least something more must be done; there must be other safeguards than those supplied by this very hasty and crude act of legislation. I accept it as containing much that is good, some things infinitely good, but as coming short of what a patriotic Congress ought to supply for the safety of the Republic.
Let it be understood, then, that I am not compromised by this bill, or by blandishments of Senators over the way [Messrs. Sherman and Stewart]. I listen to them of course with pleasure, and to all their expressions of friendship I respond with all my heart. I like much to go with them; but I value more the safety of my country. When Senators, even as powerful as the Senator from Ohio and the Senator from Nevada, take a course which seems to me inconsistent with the national security, they must not expect me to follow.
After further debate, late in the evening of February 20th the vote was reached, and the House amendments were concurred in,—Yeas 35, Nays 7. The effect of this was to pass the bill.
March 2d, the bill was vetoed. The House, on the same day, by 138 Yeas to 51 Nays, and the Senate, by 38 Yeas to 10 Nays, passed the bill by a two-thirds vote, notwithstanding the objections of the President, so that it became a law.[89]
THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION.
Remarks in the Senate, on the Bill to establish a Department of Education, February 26, 1867.
MR. PRESIDENT,—I am unwilling that this bill should be embarrassed by any question of words. I am for the bill in substance, whatever words may be employed. Call it a bureau, if you please, or call it a department; I accept it under either designation. The Senator from Connecticut [Mr. Dixon] has not too strongly depicted the necessity of the case. We are to have universal suffrage, a natural consequence of universal emancipation; but this will be a barren sceptre in the hands of the people, unless we supply education also. From the beginning of our troubles, I have foreseen this question. Through the agency and under the influence of the National Government education must be promoted in the Rebel States. To this end we need some central agency. This, if I understand it, is supplied by the bill before us.
Call it a bureau or a department; but give us the bill, and do not endanger it, at this moment, in this late hour of the session, by unnecessary amendment. Sir, I would, if I could, give it the highest designation. If there is any term in our dictionary that would impart peculiar significance, I should prefer that. Indeed, I should not hesitate, could I have my way, to place the head of the Department of Education in the Cabinet of the United States,—following the practice of one of the civilized governments of the world. I refer to France, which for years has had in its Cabinet a Minister of Education. But no such proposition is before us. The question is simply on a name; and I hope we shall not take up time with regard to it.
The bill passed both Houses of Congress, and became a law.[90]
MONUMENTS TO DECEASED SENATORS.
Remarks in the Senate, on a Resolution directing the Erection of such Monuments, February 27, 1867.
Mr. Poland, of Vermont, introduced a resolution directing the Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate to see that monuments were placed in the Congressional burial-ground, in memory of Senators who had died at Washington since July 4, 1861. On the question of taking up this resolution for consideration, Mr. Sumner remarked:—
Originally there was a reason for these monuments. Senators and Representatives dying here found their last home in the Congressional burial-ground, and these monuments covered their remains. At a later day, with increasing facilities of transportation, the custom of burial here has ceased; but the monuments, being only cenotaphs, were continued until 1861, when this custom was suspended. Meantime Death has not been less busy here, and the question is, whether the former custom shall be revived, and cenotaphs be placed in an unvisited burial-ground, to mark the spot where the remains of a Senator might have been placed, had they not been transported to repose among his family, kindred, and neighbors.
I cannot but think that the suspension of this custom of monuments, which occurred at the beginning of the war, was notice or indication that the occasion for them had passed; and I doubt sincerely the expediency of reviving the custom, unless where an associate is actually buried here. If those dying here, but buried elsewhere, are to be commemorated by Congress in any monumental form, it seems to me better that it should be a simple tablet of stone or brass in the Capitol, where it would be seen by the visitors thronging here, and perhaps arrest the attention of their successors in public duty, teaching how Death enters these Halls. But why place an unsightly cenotaph in a forlorn burial-ground,—I may add, at considerable cost? I cannot doubt that the time has come for this expense to cease.
The resolution was referred to the Committee on the Contingent Expenses of the Senate.
A VICTORY OF PEACE.
Speech in the Senate, on a Joint Resolution giving the Thanks of Congress to Cyrus W. Field, March 2, 1867.
By a joint resolution introduced by Mr. Morgan, of New York, the President was requested “to cause a gold medal to be struck, with suitable emblems, devices, and inscription, to be presented to Mr. Field,” and to “cause a copy of this joint resolution to be engrossed on parchment, and transmit the same, together with the medal, to Mr. Field, to be presented to him in the name of the people of the United States of America.”
March 2d, the joint resolution was considered. After a speech from Mr. Morgan, Mr. Sumner said:—
MR. PRESIDENT,—I rejoice in every enterprise by which human industry is quickened and distant places are brought near together. In ancient days the builders of roads were treated with godlike honor. I offer them my homage now. The enterprise which is to complete the railroad connection between the Pacific and the Atlantic belongs to this class. But this is not so peculiar and exceptional as that which has already connected the two continents by a telegraphic wire. It is not so historic. It is not itself so great an epoch.
It is not easy to exaggerate the difficulty or the value of the new achievement.
The enterprise was original in its beginning and in every stage of its completion. It began by a telegraph line connecting St. John’s, the most easterly port of America, with the main continent. This was planned at the house of Cyrus W. Field, by a few gentlemen, among whom were Peter Cooper, Moses Taylor, Marshall O. Roberts, and David Dudley Field. New York and St. John’s are about twelve hundred miles apart. When these two points were brought into telegraphic association, the first link was made in the chain destined to bind the two continents together. Out of this American beginning sprang efforts which ended in the oceanic cable.
In other respects our country led the way. The first soundings across the Atlantic were by American officers in American ships. The United States ship Dolphin first discovered the telegraphic plateau as early as 1853, and in 1856 the United States ship Arctic sounded across from Newfoundland to Ireland, a year before Her Majesty’s ship Cyclops sailed the same course.
It was not until 1856 that this American enterprise showed itself in England, where it was carried by Mr. Field. Through his energies the Atlantic Telegraphic Company was organized in London, with a board of directors composed of English bankers and merchants, among whom was an American citizen, George Peabody. By conjoint exertions of the two countries the cable was stretched from continent to continent in 1858. Messages of good-will traversed it. The United States and England seemed to be near together, while Queen and President interchanged salutations. Then suddenly the electric current ceased, and the cable became a lifeless line. The enterprise itself hardly lived. But it was again quickened into being, and finally carried to a successful close. British capital, British skill, contributed largely, and the society had for its president an eminent Englishman, the Right Honorable James Stuart Wortley; but I have always understood that our countryman was the mainspring. His confidence never ceased; his energies never flagged. Twelve years of life and forty voyages across the Atlantic were woven into this work. He was the Alpha and the Omega of a triumph which has few parallels in history.
Englishmen who took an active part in this enterprise have received recognition and honor from the sovereign. Some have been knighted, others advanced in service. Meanwhile Cyrus W. Field, who did so much, has remained unnoticed by our Government. He has been honored by the popular voice, but it remains for Congress to embody this voice in a national testimonial. If it be said that there is no precedent for such a vote, then do I reply that his case is without precedent, and we must not hesitate to make a precedent by this expression of national gratitude. Thanks are given for victories in war: give them now for a victory of peace.
The joint resolution passed both Houses without a division, and was approved by the President.[91]
FURTHER GUARANTIES IN RECONSTRUCTION.
LOYALTY, EDUCATION, AND A HOMESTEAD FOR FREEDMEN; MEASURES OF RECONSTRUCTION NOT A BURDEN OR PENALTY.
Resolutions and Speeches in the Senate, March 7 and 11, 1867.
March 7th, the following resolutions were introduced by Mr. Sumner, and on his motion ordered to lie on the table and be printed.
“Resolutions declaring certain further guaranties required in the Reconstruction of the Rebel States.
“Resolved, That Congress, in declaring by positive legislation that it possesses paramount authority over the Rebel States, and in prescribing that no person therein shall be excluded from the elective franchise by reason of race, color, or previous condition, has begun the work of Reconstruction, and has set an example to itself.
“Resolved, That other things remain to be done, as clearly within the power of Congress as the elective franchise, and it is the duty of Congress to see that these things are not left undone.
“Resolved, That among things remaining to be done are the five following.
“First. Existing governments, now declared illegal, must be vacated, so that they can have no agency in Reconstruction, and will cease to exercise a pernicious influence.
“Secondly. Provisional governments must be constituted as temporary substitutes for the illegal governments, with special authority to superintend the transition to permanent governments republican in form.
“Thirdly. As loyalty beyond suspicion must be the basis of permanent governments republican in form, every possible precaution must be adopted against Rebel agency or influence in the formation of these governments.
“Fourthly. As the education of the people is essential to the national welfare, and especially to the development of those principles of justice and morality which constitute the foundation of republican government, and as, according to the census, an immense proportion of the people in the Rebel States, without distinction of color, cannot read and write, therefore public schools must be established for the equal good of all.
“Fifthly. Not less important than education is the homestead, which must be secured to the freedmen, so that at least every head of a family may have a piece of land.
“Resolved, That all these requirements are in the nature of guaranties to be exacted by Congress, without which the United States will not obtain that security for the future which is essential to a just Reconstruction.”
March 11th, on motion of Mr. Sumner, the Senate proceeded to consider the resolutions. Mr. Williams, of Oregon, was not prepared to vote on these resolutions until they had received the consideration of some committee, and he moved their reference to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Mr. Sumner said:—
MR. PRESIDENT,—The Senator from Oregon has made no criticism on the resolutions, but nevertheless he objects to proceeding with them now; he desires reference, he would have the aid of a committee, before he proceeds with their consideration. If I can have the attention of the Senator, it seems to me that this will be as good as a committee. The resolutions are on the table; they are plain; they are unequivocal; they are perfectly intelligible; and they make a declaration of principle and of purpose which at this moment is of peculiar importance.
Congress has undertaken to provide for the military government of the Rebel States, and has made certain requirements with regard to Reconstruction, and there it stops. It has presented no complete system, and it has provided no machinery. From this failure our friends at the South are at this moment in the greatest anxiety. They are suffering. Former Rebels, or persons representing the Rebellion, are moving under our bill to take a leading part. Already the Legislature of Virginia, packed by Rebels, full of the old Rebel virus, has undertaken to call a convention under our recent Act. Let that convention be called, and what is the condition of those friends to whom you owe protection? Unless I am misinformed by valued correspondents, the position of our friends will be very painful. I have this morning a letter from Mr. Botts,—I mention his name because he is well known to all of us, and I presume he would have no objection to being quoted on this floor,—in which he entreats us to provide some protection for him and other Unionists against efforts already commenced by Rebels or persons under Rebel influence.
I am anxious for practical legislation to that end; but, to pave the way for such legislation, I would have Congress, at the earliest possible moment, make a declaration in general terms of its purposes. The Senator says these resolutions do not propose practical legislation. I beg the Senator’s pardon: they do not propose what we call legislation, but they announce to these Rebel States what we propose to do; they foreshadow the future; they give notice; they tell the Rebels that they are not to take part in Reconstruction; and they tell our friends and the friends of the Union that we mean to be wakeful with regard to their interests. Such will be their effect. They are in the nature of a declaration. At the beginning of the war there was a declaration, which has been often quoted in both Houses, with regard to the purposes of the war. Very often in times past declarations of policy were made in one House or the other, and sometimes by concurrent resolutions of the two Chambers. If the occasion requires, the declaration ought to be made. In common times and under ordinary circumstances there would be no occasion for such a declaration, but at this moment there seems peculiar occasion; you must give notice; and the failure of our bill to meet the present exigency throws this responsibility upon us.
The next question is as to the character of the notice. It begins in its title by declaring that certain further guaranties are required in the Reconstruction of the Rebel States. Can any Senator doubt that such guaranties are required? I submit that on that head there can be no question. I am persuaded that my excellent friend from Oregon will not question that general statement.
Mr. Sumner then took up the several points of the resolutions in order and explained them. Coming to that declaring the necessity of a homestead for the freedman, he proceeded:—
I believe that all familiar with the processes of Reconstruction have felt that our work would be incomplete, unless in some way we secured to the freedman a piece of land. Only within a few days, gentlemen fresh from travel through these States have assured me, that, as they saw the condition of things there, nothing pressed upon their minds more than the necessity of such a provision. The more you reflect upon it, and the more you listen to evidence, the stronger will be your conclusion as to this necessity.
Do you ask as to the power of Congress? Again I say, you find it precisely where you found the power to confer universal suffrage. To give a homestead will be no more than to give a vote. You have done the one, and now you must do the other. We are told that to him that hath shall be given; and as you have already given the ballot, you must go further, and give not only education, but the homestead. Nor can you hesitate for want of power. The time for hesitation has passed.
Mr. Fessenden [of Maine]. I should like to ask my friend a question, with his permission.
Mr. Sumner. Certainly.
Mr. Fessenden. The Senator put the granting of the ballot on the ground that without it the Government would not be republican in form, as I understood his argument.
Mr. Sumner. Yes.
Mr. Fessenden. Now I should like to know if he puts the possession by every man of a piece of land on the same ground.
Mr. Sumner. I do not.
Mr. Fessenden. The Senator assimilated the two, and said, that, having done the one, we must do the other. I supposed, perhaps, the same process of reasoning applied to both.
Mr. Sumner. No; the homestead stands on the necessity of the case, to complete the work of the ballot.
Mr. Grimes [of Iowa]. Have we not done that under the Homestead Law?
Mr. Sumner. The freedmen are not excluded from the Homestead Law; but I would provide them with a piece of land where they are.
Mr. Fessenden. That is more than we do for white men.
Mr. Sumner. White men have never been in slavery; there is no emancipation and no enfranchisement of white men to be consummated. I put it to my friend, I ask his best judgment, can he see a way to complete and crown this great and glorious work without securing land? My friend before me [Mr. Grimes] asks, “How are we to get the land?” There are several ways. By a process of confiscation we should have had enough; and I have no doubt that the country would have been better, had the great landed estates of the South been divided and subdivided among the loyal colored population. That is the judgment of many Unionists at the South. I say nothing on that point; but clearly there are lands through the South belonging to the United States, or that have fallen to the United States through the failure to pay taxes. It has always seemed to me that in the exercise of the pardoning power it would have been easy for the President to require that the person who was to receive a pardon should allot a certain portion of his lands to his freedmen. That might have been annexed as a condition. A President properly inspired, and disposed to organize a true Reconstruction, could not have hesitated in such a requirement. That would have been a very simple process. I am aware that Congress cannot affect the pardoning power; but still I doubt not there is something that can be done by Congress. Where Congress has done so much, I am unwilling to believe it cannot do all that the emergency requires. Let us not shrink from the difficulties. With regard to the homestead there may be difficulties, but not on that account should we hesitate. We must assure peace and security to these people, and, to that end, consider candidly, gently, carefully, the proper requirements, and then fearlessly provide for them.
There is still another, which I have not named in these resolutions, though I have employed it in the careful and somewhat extended Reconstruction Bill which I have laid on the table of the Senate, and which some time I may try to call up for discussion,—and that is, the substitution of the vote by ballot for the vote viva voce. Letters from Virginia, and also from other parts of the South, all plead for this change. They say, that, so long as the vote viva voce continues, it will be difficult for the true Union men to organize; they will be under check and control from the Rebels. I have a letter, received only this morning, from a Unionist, from which I will read a brief passage.
…
Now does my excellent friend from Oregon, who wishes to bury this effort in a committee, doubt the concluding resolution? Can he hesitate to say that every one of these requirements is in the nature of a guaranty, without which we shall not obtain that complete security for the future which our country has a right to expect? There they are. That the illegal governments must be vacated. Who can doubt that? That provisional governments must be constituted as temporary substitutes for the illegal governments. Who can doubt that? That the new governments must be founded on an unalterable basis of loyalty, and to that end no Rebels must be allowed to exert influence or agency in the formation of the new governments. Who can doubt that? Then, again, education: who can doubt? Certainly not my friend from Oregon: he will not doubt the importance of education as a corner-stone of Reconstruction. It is a golden moment. We have the power. Let us not fail to exercise it. Exercising it now, we can shape the destinies of that people for the future. There remains the homestead. I see the practical difficulties; but I do not despair. Let us apply ourselves to them, and I do not doubt that we can secure substantially to every head of a family among the freedmen a piece of land, and we may then go further, and, in the way of machinery, provide a vote by ballot instead of a vote viva voce.
Now I insist that all these are in the nature of guaranties of future peace, and we should not hesitate in doing all within our power to secure them. I hope, therefore, that Senators will act on these resolutions without reference to a committee. I see no occasion for a reference. There is one objection, at least, on the face: it will cause delay. Let these resolutions be adopted and go to the country, and you will find that the gratitude of the American people, and of all Union men at the South, will come up to Congress for your act.
Mr. Dixon, of Connecticut, deprecated the adoption of the resolutions. The bill recently passed “purported to be final.… It provided certain terms, harsh and severe in the extreme, upon which the States formerly in rebellion should be restored to the Union.” He then remarked: “These resolutions come from the right quarter. Whatever may be my opinion of his [Mr. Sumner’s] political views, I will say for that Senator, that for the last two years he has been prophetic; what he has announced, what he has declared, what he has said must be law, has become law upon many subjects.… Let us know what is coming; let us see the worst.… While I was very glad to find—if I understood them correctly—that the Senator from Maine [Mr. Fessenden] and some other Senators about me did not coincide with the views of the Senator from Massachusetts, I could not forget that two years ago I heard a Senator on this floor say that upon another subject there was not a single Senator here who agreed with the Senator from Massachusetts; and yet upon that very subject I believe every Senator on the majority side of the Senate now, if not at heart concurring with him, acts and votes with him.”
Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, opposed the resolutions. It seemed to him “not exactly fair or just or ingenuous to the Southern people to add new terms, or require of them additional guaranties, as conditions to the admission of representation.”
Mr. Reverdy Johnson, of Maryland, voted for the recent bill because he thought he saw in opinions of Mr. Sumner, “and a few others who concur with him, that, if the measure then before the Senate was not adopted, harsher, much harsher, measures would in the end be exacted of the South.”
Mr. Frelinghuysen, of New Jersey, thought the resolutions “unfair to Congress and unfair to the country.”
Mr. Sumner said in reply:—
The objects which I seek in Reconstruction are regarded in very different lights by myself and by Senators who have spoken. The Senator from New Jersey, the Senator from Maryland, and the Senator from Ohio all regard these requirements as in the nature of burdens or penalties. Education is a burden or penalty; a homestead is a burden or penalty. It is a new burden or penalty which I am seeking—so these distinguished Senators argue—to impose upon the South. Are they right, or am I right? Education can never be burden or penalty. Justice in the way of a homestead can never be burden or penalty. Each is a sacred duty which the nation owes to those who rightfully look to us for protection.
Now, at this moment, in the development of events, the people at the South rightfully look to us for protection. They rightfully look to us, that, in laying the foundation-stone of future security, we shall see that those things are done which will make the security real, and not merely nominal. And yet, when I ask that the security shall be real, and not merely nominal, I am encountered by the objection that I seek to impose new burdens,—that I am harsh. Sir, if I know my own heart, I would not impose a burden upon any human being. I would not impose a burden even upon those who have trespassed so much against the Republic. I do not seek their punishment. Never has one word fallen from my lips asking for their punishment, for any punishment of the South. All that I ask is the establishment of human rights on a permanent foundation. Is there any Senator who differs from me? I am sure that my friend from Ohio seeks the establishment of future security; but he will allow me to say, that to my mind he abandons it at the beginning,—he fails at the proper moment to require guaranties without which future security will be vain.
This is not the first time that the Senator from Ohio has set himself against fundamental propositions of Reconstruction. When, now more than four years ago, I had the honor of introducing into this Chamber a proposition declaring the jurisdiction of Congress over this whole question, and over the whole Rebel region, I was met by the Senator, who reminded me that I was alone, and did not hesitate to say that my position was not unlike that of Jefferson Davis.
Here Mr. Sumner sent to the desk the speech of Mr. Sherman, April 2, 1862, and the Secretary read what he said of Mr. Sumner’s position.
I have not called attention to these remarks in any unkind spirit, for I have none for the Senator; I have no feeling but kindness and respect for him; but as I listened to him a few minutes ago, remonstrating against the position I now occupy, I was carried back to that early day when he remonstrated, if possible, more strenuously against the position I then occupied. I had the audacity then to assert the paramount power of Congress over the whole Rebel region. That was the sum and substance of my argument; and you have heard the answer of the Senator. And now, in the lapse of time, the Senator has ranged himself by my side, voting for that measure of Reconstruction which is founded on the jurisdiction of Congress over the whole Rebel region.
As time passed, the subject assumed another character. It was with regard to the suffrage. A year ago I asserted on this floor that we must give the suffrage to all colored persons by Act of Congress and without Constitutional Amendment, founding myself on two grounds. One was the solemn guaranty in the Constitution of a republican form of government; and I undertook to show that any denial of rights on account of color was unrepublican to such extent that the government sanctioning it could not be considered in any just sense republican. I then went further, and insisted, that, from the necessity of the case, at the present moment, Congress must accord the suffrage to all persons at the South, without distinction of color. I argued that the suffrage of colored citizens was needed to counterbalance the suffrage of the Rebels.[92] One year has passed, and now, by Act of Congress, you have asserted the very power which the Senator from Ohio, and other distinguished Senators associated with him, most strenuously denied. That Senator and other Senators insisted that it could be only by Constitutional Amendment. I insisted that it could be under the existing text of the Constitution; nay, more, that from the necessity of the case it must be in this way. And in this way it has been done.
But, in doing it, you have unhappily failed to make proper provision for enforcing this essential security. You have provided no machinery, and you have left other things undone which ought to be done. And now, urging that these things should be done, I am encountered again by my friend from Ohio, whom I had encountered before on these other cardinal propositions; and he now, just as strenuously as before, insists that it is not within our power or province at this moment to make any additional requirements of the Rebel States. He is willing that the bill in certain particulars shall be amended. I do not know precisely to what extent he would go; but he will make no additional requirements, as he expresses it, in the nature of burdens. Sir, I make no additional requirements in the nature of burdens. I have already said, I impose no burdens upon any man; but I insist upon the protection of rights. And now, at this moment, as we are engaged in this great work of Reconstruction, I insist that the work shall be completely done. It will not be completely done, if you fail to supply any safeguards or precautions that can possibly be adopted.
A great orator has told us that he had but one lamp by which his feet were guided, and that was the lamp of experience.[93] There is one transcendent experience, commanding, historic, which illumines this age. It is more than a lamp; it is sunshine. I mean the example afforded by the Emperor of Russia, when he set free twenty million serfs. Did he stop with their freedom? He went further, and provided for their education, and also that each should have a piece of land. And now, when I ask that my country, a republic, heir of all the ages, foremost in the tide of time, should do on this question only what the Emperor of Russia has done, I am met by grave Senators with the reproach that I am imposing new burdens. It is no such thing. I am only asking new advantages for all in that distracted region, with new securities for my country, to the end that it may be safe, great, and glorious.
After remarks by Mr. Howard, of Michigan, the resolutions, on motion of Mr. Frelinghuysen, were laid on the table,—Yeas 36, Nays 10.
March 12th, the resolutions were again considered, when Mr. Morton, of Indiana, spoke in favor of education, and Mr. Howe, of Wisconsin, sustained the resolutions generally.
July 3d, Mr. Sumner made another attempt to have them considered, speaking specially upon the importance of a homestead for freedmen.
GENEROSITY FOR EDUCATION.
Speech in the Senate, on a Joint Resolution giving the Thanks of Congress to George Peabody, March 8, 1867.
March 5th, Mr. Sumner asked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leave to bring in the following joint resolution, which was read twice and ordered to be printed.
“Joint Resolution presenting the thanks of Congress to George Peabody.
“Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the thanks of Congress be, and they hereby are, presented to George Peabody, of Massachusetts, for his great and peculiar beneficence in giving a large sum of money, amounting to two million dollars, for the promotion of education in the more destitute portions of the Southern and Southwestern States, the benefits of which, according to his direction, are to be distributed among the entire population, without any distinction, except what may be found in needs or opportunities of usefulness.
“Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the President to cause a gold medal to be struck, with suitable devices and inscriptions, which, together with a copy of this resolution, shall be presented to Mr. Peabody in the name of the people of the United States.”
March 8th, on motion of Mr. Sumner, the joint resolution was taken up for consideration, when the latter said:—
MR. PRESIDENT,—I hope sincerely that there can be no question on this resolution. It expresses the thanks of Congress for an act great in itself, and also great as an example.
I recall no instance in history where a private person during life has bestowed so large a sum in charity. Few after death have done so much. The bequest of Smithson, which Congress accepted with honor, and made the foundation of the institution bearing his name and receiving our annual care, was much less than the donation of Mr. Peabody for purposes of education in the South and Southwestern States, to be distributed among the whole population, without any distinction other than needs or opportunities of usefulness to them.
I hail this benefaction as of especial value now: first, as a contribution to education, which is a sacred cause never to be forgotten in a republic; secondly, as a charity to a distressed part of our country which needs the help of education; and, thirdly, as an endowment for the equal benefit of all, without distinction of caste. As it is much in itself, so I cannot but think it will be most fruitful as an example. Individuals and communities will be moved to do more in the same direction, and impartial education may be added to recent triumphs.
I am not led to consider the difference between the widow’s mite and the rich man’s endowment, except to remark, that, when a charity is so large as to become historic, it is necessarily taken out of the category of common life. Standing apart by itself, it challenges attention and fills the mind, receiving homage and gratitude. Such, I am sure, has been the prevailing sentiment of our country toward Mr. Peabody. In voting this resolution, Congress will only give expression to the popular voice.
I should be sorry to have it understood that the thanks of Congress can be won only in war. Peace also has victories deserving honor. A public benefactor is a conqueror in the perpetual conflict with evil. He, too, meets the enemy face to face. Let him also have the reward of victory.
Already in England our benefactor has signalized himself by a generous endowment of the poor. The sum he gave was large, but not so large as he has given for education in our country. The sentiments of the British people found expression through the Queen, who honored him with a valuable present, her own portrait, and an autograph letter declaring her grateful sense of his beneficence. Kindred sentiments may justly find expression through Congress, which is empowered to write the autograph of the American people.
If it be said that such a vote is without precedent, I reply that this is a mistake. You voted thanks to Mr. Vanderbilt for the present of a steamer, and to Mr. Field for generous enterprise in establishing the telegraphic cable between the two continents. But even if there were no precedent, then, do I say, make a precedent. Your vote will be less unprecedented than his generosity.
At this moment, when we are engaged in the work of Reconstruction, this endowment for education in the Southern and Southwestern States is most timely. Education is the foundation-stone of that Republican Government we seek to establish. On this account, also, I would honor the benefactor.
I have not asked a reference to a committee, because it seemed that the resolution was of such a character that the Senate would be glad to act upon it directly. The thanks we offer will be of more value, if promptly offered.
The joint resolution was adopted by the Senate,—Yeas 36, Nays 2. March 13th it passed the House unanimously, was approved by the President, and became a law.[94]
RECONSTRUCTION AGAIN.
THE BALLOT AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS OPEN TO ALL.
Speeches in the Senate, on the Supplementary Reconstruction Bill, March 15 and 16, 1867.
To counteract the malign influence of President Johnson, and to protect the public interest jeopardized by his conduct, Congress provided for a session to commence March 4, 1867, immediately after the expiration of its predecessor. The new Congress was signalized by a second Reconstruction Bill, “supplementary to an Act to provide for the more efficient government of the Rebel States,” passed March 2, 1867, which was promptly introduced into the House of Representatives and passed.
As early as March 13th, the House bill was reported to the Senate from the Judiciary Committee, with a substitute, and for several days thereafter it was considered. Among the various amendments moved was one by Mr. Drake, of Missouri, providing that the registered electors should declare, by their votes of “Convention” or “No Convention,” whether a convention to frame a constitution should be held, which was rejected,—Yeas 17, Nays 27.
March 15th, Mr. Fessenden, of Maine, moved an amendment, that the commanding general should furnish a copy of the registration to the Provisional Government of the State; and whenever thereafter the Provisional Government should by legal enactment provide that a convention should be called, the commanding general should then direct an election of delegates. In the debate on this proposition, Mr. Sumner said:—
MR. PRESIDENT,—In voting on the proposition of the Senator from Maine, I ask myself one question: How would the Union men of the South vote, if they had the privilege? They are unrepresented. We here ought to be the representatives of the unrepresented. How, then, would the Union men of the South vote on the proposition of the Senator? I cannot doubt, that, with one voice, they would vote No. They would not trust their fortunes in any way to the existing governments of the Rebel States. Those governments have been set up in spite of the Union men, and during their short-lived existence they have trampled upon Union men and upon their rights. That region might be described as bleeding at every pore, and much through the action of the existing governments, owing their origin to the President. So long as they continue, their influence must be pernicious. I hear, then, the voice of every Union man from every one of the Rebel States coming up to this Chamber and entreating us to refuse all trust, all power, to these Legislatures. I listen to their voice, and shall vote accordingly.
But I feel, nevertheless, that something ought to be done in the direction of the proposition of the Senator from Maine. I listened to his remarks, and in their spirit I entirely concur; but it seems to me that his argument carried us naturally to the proposition of the Senator from Missouri. To my mind, that proposition is founded in good sense, in prudence, in a just economy of political forces. It begins at the right end. It begins with the people. The Senator proposes that the new governments, when constituted, shall stand on that broad base. The proposition of the Committee stands the pyramid on its apex. I am therefore for the proposition of the Senator from Missouri, and I hope that at the proper time he will renew it, and give us another opportunity of recording our votes in its favor.
The amendment of Mr. Fessenden was rejected,—Yeas 14, Nays 33.
March 16th, Mr. Sumner moved to insert “all” before “electors,” and to substitute “registered” for “qualified,” so as to read, “ratified by a majority of the votes of all the electors registered as herein specified.” After debate, the amendment was rejected,—Yeas 19, Nays 25.
Mr. Drake subsequently renewed his rejected amendment, with a modification that the result should be determined by a majority of those voting, and it was adopted. Mr. Conkling, of New York, moved to reconsider the last vote, so as to provide that the result should be determined by a majority of all the votes registered, instead of a majority of all the votes given. On this motion, Mr. Sumner remarked:—
I said nothing, when the question was up before; but I cannot allow the vote to be taken now without expressing in one word the ground on which I shall place my vote.
We have just come out from the fires of a terrible Rebellion, and our special purpose now is to set up safeguards against the recurrence of any such calamity, and also for the establishment of peace and tranquillity throughout that whole region. There is no Senator within the sound of my voice who is not anxious to see that great end accomplished. How shall it be done? By founding government on a majority or on a minority? If these were common times, then I should listen to the argument of the Senator from Missouri [Mr. Drake], and also of the Senator from Indiana [Mr. Morton], to the effect that the government might be founded on a majority of those who actually vote, although really a minority of the population; but at this moment, when we are seeking to recover ourselves from the Rebellion, and to guard against it in future, I cannot expose the country to any such hazard. I would take the precaution to found government solidly, firmly, on a majority,—not merely a majority of those who vote, but a majority of all registered voters. Then will the government be rooted and anchored in principle, so that it cannot be brushed aside. How was it when the Rebellion began? Everything was by minorities. A minority in every State carried it into rebellion. I would have the new government planted firmly on a majority, so that it can never again be disturbed. I can see no real certainty of security for the future without this safeguard.
The motion to reconsider prevailed,—Yeas 21, Nays 18; but the amendment of Mr. Conkling was rejected,—Yeas 17, Nays 22,—when Mr. Drake’s amendment was again adopted. Then, on motion of Mr. Edmunds, of Vermont, it was provided “that such convention shall not be held, unless a majority of all such registered voters shall have voted on the question of holding such convention,”—Yeas 21, Nays 18.
Mr. Drake then moved to require in the new constitutions, “that, at all elections by the people for State, county, or municipal officers, the electors shall vote by ballot,” and this was adopted,—Yeas 22, Nays 19. Mr. Trumbull, of Illinois, at once moved to reconsider the last vote, and was sustained by Mr. Williams, of Oregon, Mr. Stewart, of Nevada, and Mr. Morton, of Indiana. Mr. Sumner sustained the amendment.
Mr. President,—The argument of the Senator from Oregon proceeds on the idea that this is a small question. He belittles it, and then puts it aside. He treats it as of form only, and then scorns it. Sir, it may be a question of form, but it is a form vital to the substance, vital to that very suffrage which the Senator undertakes to vindicate. Does the Senator know that at this moment the special question which tries British reformers is the ballot? To that our heroic friend, John Bright, has dedicated his life. He seeks to give the people of England vote by ballot. He constantly looks to our country for the authority of a great example. And now the Senator is willing to overturn that example. I will not, by my vote, consent to any such thing. I would reinforce the liberal cause, not only in my own country, but everywhere throughout the world; and that cause, I assure you, is staked in part on this very question.
No, Sir,—it is not a small question. It cannot be treated as trivial. It is a great question. Call it, if you please, a question of form; but it is so closely associated with substance that it becomes substance. I hope the Senate will not recede from the generous and patriotic vote it has already given. I trust it will stand firm. Ask any student of republican institutions what is one of their admitted triumphs, and he will name the vote by ballot. There can be no doubt about it. Do not dishonor the ballot, but see that it is required in the constitutions of these Rebel States. The Senator from Oregon raises no question of power. Congress has the power. That is enough. You must exercise it.
Mr. Drake then modified his amendment, so that, instead of “all elections by the people for State, county, or municipal officers,” it should read, “all elections by the people,” and it was rejected,—Yeas 17, Nays 22. Mr. Sumner then remarked:—
The Senate has been occupied for two days in the discussion of questions, many merely of form. I propose now to call attention to one of substance, with which, as I submit, the best interests of the Rebel States and of the Republic at large are connected. I send to the Chair an amendment, to come in at the end of section four.
The Secretary read the proposed amendment, as follows:—
“Provided, That the constitution shall require the Legislature to establish and sustain a system of public schools open to all, without distinction of race or color.”
Mr. Sumner proceeded to say:—
Mr. President,—I shall vote for this bill,—not because it is what I desire, but because it is all that Congress is disposed to enact at the present time. I do not like to play the part of Cassandra,—but I cannot forbear declaring my conviction that we shall regret hereafter that we have not done more. I am against procrastination. But I am also against precipitation. I am willing to make haste; but, following the ancient injunction, I would make haste slowly: in other words, I would make haste so that our work may be well done and the Republic shall not suffer. Especially would I guard carefully all those who justly look to us for protection, and I would see that the new governments are founded in correct principles. You have the power. Do not forget that duties are in proportion to powers.
I speak frankly. Let me, then, confess my regret that Congress chooses to employ the military power for purposes of Reconstruction. The army is for protection. This is its true function. When it undertakes to govern or to institute government, it does what belongs to the civil power. Clearly it is according to the genius of republican institutions that the military should be subordinate to the civil. Cedant arma togæ is an approved maxim, not to be disregarded with impunity. Even now, a fresh debate in the British Parliament testifies to this principle. Only a fortnight ago, the Royal Duke of Cambridge, cousin to the Queen, and commander of the forces, used these words:—
“The practice of calling out troops to quell civil disturbances is exceedingly objectionable; but it must not be forgotten that the initiative in such cases is always taken by the civil authorities themselves.”[95]
This declaration, though confined to a particular case, embodies an important rule of conduct, which to my mind is of special application now.
By the system you have adopted, the civil is subordinate to the military, and the civilian yields to the soldier. You accord to the army an “initiative” which I would assure to the civil power. I regret this. I am unwilling that Reconstruction should have a military “initiative.” I would not see new States born of the bayonet. Leaving to the army its proper duties of protection, I would intrust Reconstruction to provisional governments, civil in character and organized by Congress. You have already pronounced the existing governments illegal. Logically you should proceed to supply their places by other governments, while the military is in the nature of police, until permanent governments are organized, republican in form and loyal in character. During this transition period, permanent governments might be matured on safe foundations and the people educated to a better order of things. As the twig is bent the tree inclines: you may now bend the twig. These States are like a potter’s vessel: you may mould them to be vessels of honor or of dishonor.
From the beginning I have maintained these principles. Again and again I have expressed them in the Senate and elsewhere. At the last session I insisted upon the Louisiana Bill in preference to the Military Bill. In the earliest moments of the present session I introduced a bill of my own, prepared with the best care I could bestow, in which was embodied what seemed to me a proper and practical system of Reconstruction, with provisional governments to superintend the work and pave the way for permanent governments. This measure, which I now hold in my hand, is entitled “A Bill to guaranty a republican form of government in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas, and to provide for the restoration of these States to practical relations with the Union.” Its character is seen in its title. It is not a military bill, or a bill to authorize Reconstruction by military power; but it is a bill essentially civil from beginning to end.
The principles on which this bill proceeds appear in its preamble, which, with the permission of the Senate, I will read.
“Whereas in the years 1860 and 1861 the inhabitants of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas changed their respective constitutions so as to make them repugnant to the Constitution of the United States;
“And whereas the inhabitants of these States made war upon the United States, and after many battles finally surrendered, under the rules and usages of war;
“And whereas the inhabitants of these States, at the time of their surrender, were without legal State governments, and, as a rebel population, were without authority to form legal State governments, or to exercise any other political functions belonging to loyal citizens, and they must so continue until relieved of such disabilities by the law-making power of the United States;
“And whereas it belongs to Congress, in the discharge of its duties under the Constitution, to secure to each of these States a republican form of government, and to provide for the restoration of each to practical relations with the Union;
“And whereas, until these things are done, it is important that provisional governments should be established in these States, with legal power to protect good citizens in the enjoyment of their rights, and to watch over the formation of State governments, so that the same shall be truly loyal and republican: Therefore”——
With this preamble, exhibiting precisely the necessity and reasons of Reconstruction, the bill begins by declaring that the provisional governments shall convene on the fourth Monday after its passage, and shall continue until superseded by permanent governments, created by the people of these States respectively, and recognized by Congress as loyal and republican. It then establishes an executive power in each State, vested in a governor appointed by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and not to be removed except by such advice and consent. The legislative power is vested in the governor and in thirteen citizens, called a legislative council, appointed by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and not to be removed except by such advice and consent. All these, being officers of the United States, must take the test oath prescribed already by Act of Congress; and the bill adds a further oath to maintain a republican form of government, as follows:—
“I do hereby swear (or affirm) that I will at all times use my best endeavors to maintain a republican form of government in the State of which I am an inhabitant and in the Union of the United States; that I will recognize the indissoluble unity of the Republic, and will discountenance and resist any endeavor to break away or secede from the Union; that I will give my influence and vote to strengthen and sustain the National credit; that I will discountenance and resist every attempt, directly or indirectly, to repudiate or postpone, in any part or in any way, the debt which was contracted by the United States in subduing the late Rebellion, or the obligations assumed to the Union soldiers; that I will discountenance and resist every attempt to induce the United States or any State to assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; that I will discountenance and resist all laws making any distinction of race or color; that I will give my support to education and the diffusion of knowledge by public schools open to all; and that in all ways I will strive to maintain a State government completely loyal to the Union, where all men shall enjoy equal protection and equal rights.”
I know well the whole history of oaths, and how often they are the occasion of perjury by the wholesale. But I cannot resist the conclusion that at this moment, when we are taking securities for the future, we ought to seize the opportunity of impressing upon the people fundamental principles on which alone our Government can stand. You may exclude Rebels; but their children, who are not excluded, have inherited the Rebel spirit. The schools and colleges of the South have been nurseries of Rebellion. I would exact from all seeking the public service, or even the elective franchise, a pledge to support a republican government; and to make this pledge perfectly clear, so that all may understand its extent, I would enumerate the points which are essential. If a citizen cannot give this pledge, he ought to have no part in Reconstruction. He must stand aside.
From this requirement the bill proceeds to enumerate certain classes excluded from office and also from the elective franchise. This is less stringent than what is known as the Louisiana Bill. It does not exclude citizens who have not held office, unless where they have left their homes within the jurisdiction of the United States and passed within the Rebel lines to give aid and comfort to the Rebellion,—or where they have voluntarily contributed to any loan or securities for the benefit of any of the Rebel States or the central government thereof,—or where, as authors, publishers, editors, or as speakers or preachers, they have encouraged the secession of any State or the waging of war against the United States.
The bill then provides for executive and judicial officers, and for their salaries, under the provisional government; also for grand and petit juries; also for a militia. But all officers, jurors, and militiamen must take the oath that they are not in the excluded classes, and also the oath to support a republican form of government.
The bill then annuls existing legislatures; also the acts of conventions which framed ordinances of secession, and the acts of legislatures since, subject to certain conditions; and it provides that the judgments and decrees of court, which have not been voluntarily executed, and which have been rendered subsequently to the date of the ordinance of secession, shall be subject to appeal to the highest court in the State, organized after its restoration to the Union. Safeguards like these seem essential to the protection of the citizen.
The bill does what it can for education by requiring—
“That it shall be the duty of the governor and legislative council in each of these States to establish public schools, which shall be open to all, without distinction of race or color, to the end, that, where suffrage is universal, education may be universal also, and the new governments find support in the intelligence of the people.”
Such are the provisional governments.
The bill then provides for permanent governments republican and truly loyal. For this purpose the governor must make a registration of male citizens twenty-one years of age, of whatever color, race, or former condition, and, on the completion of this register, invite all to take the oath that they are not in the excluded classes, and also the oath to maintain a republican form of government; and if a majority of the persons duly registered shall take these oaths, then he is to order an election for members of a convention to frame a State constitution. Nobody can vote or sit as a member of the convention except those who have taken the two oaths; but no person can be disqualified on account of race or color. All qualified as voters are eligible as members of the convention.
The constitution must contain in substance certain fundamental conditions, never to be changed without consent of Congress:—
First, That the Union is perpetual;
Secondly, That Slavery is abolished;
Thirdly, That there shall be no denial of the elective franchise, or of any other right, on account of race or color, but all persons shall be equal before the law;
Fourthly, That the National debt, including pensions and bounties to Union soldiers, shall never be repudiated or postponed;
Fifthly, That the Rebel debt, whether contracted by a Rebel State or by the central government, shall never be recognized or paid; nor shall any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave, or any pension or bounty for service in the Rebellion, be recognized or paid;
Sixthly, That public schools shall be established, open to all without distinction of race or color;
Seventhly, That all persons excluded from office under this Act shall be excluded by the constitution, until relieved from disability by Act of Congress.
The constitution must be ratified by the people and submitted to Congress. If Congress shall approve it as republican in form, and shall be satisfied that the people of the State are loyal and well-disposed to the Union, the State shall be restored to its former relations and the provisional government shall cease.
Such is the bill which I should be glad to press upon your attention, creating provisional governments and securing permanent governments. It is not a military bill; and on this account, in spirit and form, if not in substance, it might be preferred to that which you have begun to sanction. Besides, it contains abundant safeguards. I regret much that something like this cannot be adopted. It is with difficulty that I renounce a desire long cherished to see Reconstruction under the supervision of Congress, according to the forms of civil order, without the intervention of military power. I am sure that such a bill would be agreeable to the Unionists of the Rebel States; and this with me is a rule of conduct which I am unwilling to disregard. They are without representation in Congress. Let us be their representatives. I hear their voices gathered into one prayer. I cannot refuse to listen.
If this bill cannot be adopted, then I ask that you shall take at least one of its provisions. Require free schools as an essential condition of Reconstruction. But I am met by the objection, that we are already concluded by the Military Bill adopted a few days ago, so that we cannot establish any new conditions. This is a mistake. There is no word in the Military Bill which can have this interpretation. Besides, the bill is only a few days old; so that, whatever its character, nothing is as yet fixed under its provisions. It contains no compact, no promise, no vested right, nothing which may not be changed, if the public interests require. There are some who seem to insist that it is a strait-jacket. On the contrary, this very bill asserts in positive terms “the paramount authority of the United States.” Surely this is enough. In the exercise of this authority, it is your duty to provide all possible safeguards. To adopt a familiar illustration, these States must be “bound to keep the peace.” Nothing is more common after an assault and battery. But this can be only by good laws, by careful provisions, by wise economies, and securities of all kinds.
Sometimes it is argued that it is not permissible to make certain requirements in the new constitutions, although, when the constitutions are presented to Congress for approval, we may object to them for the want of these very things. Thus it is said that we may not require educational provisions, but that we may object to the constitutions, when formed, if they fail to have this safeguard. This argument forgets the paramount power of Congress over the Rebel States, which you have already exercised in ordaining universal suffrage. Who can doubt, that, with equal reason, you may ordain universal education also? And permit me to say that one is the complement of the other. But I do not stop with assertion of the power. The argument that we are to wait until the constitution is submitted for approval is not frank. I wish to be plain and explicit. We have the power, assured by reason and precedent. Exercise it. Seize the present moment. Grasp the precious privilege. There are some who act on the principle of doing as little as possible. I would do as much as possible, believing that all we do in the nature of safeguard must redound to the good of all and to the national fame. It is in this spirit that I now move to require a system of free schools, open to all without distinction of caste. For this great safeguard I ask your votes.
You have prescribed universal suffrage. Prescribe now universal education. The power of Congress is the same in one case as in the other. And you are under an equal necessity to employ it. Electors by the hundred thousand will exercise the franchise for the first time, without delay or preparation. They should be educated promptly. Without education your beneficent legislation may be a failure. The gift you bestow will be perilous. I was unwilling to make education the condition of suffrage; but I ask that it shall accompany and sustain suffrage.
Mr. President, I plead now for Education. Nothing more beautiful or more precious. Education decorates life, while it increases all our powers. It is the charm of society, the solace of solitude, and the multiple of every faculty. It adds incalculably to the capacity of the individual and to the resources of the community. Careful inquiry establishes what reason declares, that labor is productive in proportion to its education. There is no art it does not advance. There is no form of enterprise it does not encourage and quicken. It brings victory, and is itself the greatest of victories.
In a republic education is indispensable. A republic without education is like the creature of imagination, a human being without a soul, living and moving blindly, with no just sense of the present or the future. It is a monster. Such have been the Rebel States,—for years nothing less than political monsters. But such they must be no longer.
It is not too much to say, that, had these States been more enlightened, they would never have rebelled. The barbarism of Slavery would have shrunk into insignificance, without sufficient force to break forth in blood. From the returns before the Rebellion[96] we learn that in the Slave States there were not less than 493,026 native white persons over twenty years of age who could not read and write,—while in the Free States, with double the native white population, there were but 248,725 native whites over twenty years of age thus blighted by ignorance. In the Slave States the proportion was 1 in 5; in the Free States it was 1 in 22. The number in Free Massachusetts, with an adult native white population of 470,375, was 1,055, or 1 in 446; the number in Slave South Carolina, with an adult native white population of only 120,136, was 15,580, or 1 in 8. The number in Free Connecticut was 1 in 256, in Slave Virginia 1 in 5; in Free New Hampshire 1 in 192, and in Slave North Carolina 1 in 3. In this prevailing ignorance we may trace the Rebellion. A population that could not read and write naturally failed to comprehend and appreciate a republican government.
This contrast between the Rebel States and the Loyal States appeared early. It was conspicuous in two Colonies, each of which exercised a peculiar influence. Massachusetts began her existence with a system of free schools. The preamble of her venerable statute deserves immortality. “That learning may not be buried in the grave of our fathers,” her founders enacted that every township of fifty householders should maintain a school for reading and writing, and every town of a hundred householders a school to fit youths for the University.[97] This statute was copied in other Colonies. It has spread far, like a benediction. At the same time Virginia set herself openly against free schools. Her Governor, Sir William Berkeley, in 1671, in a reply to the Lords Commissioners of Plantations on the condition of the Colony, made this painful record: “I thank God there are no free schools, nor printing, and I hope we shall not have these hundred years; for learning has brought disobedience and heresy and sects into the world, and printing has divulged them.… God keep us from both!”[98] Thus spoke Massachusetts, and thus spoke Virginia, in that ancient day. The conflict of ideas had already begun. Can you hesitate to adopt the statute so well justified by time? It began in an infant colony. Let it be the law of a mighty republic.
The papers of the day mention an incident, showing how the original spirit of the Virginia Governor still animates these States. A motion to print two hundred copies of the Report of the State Superintendent of Public Education was promptly voted down in the Senate of Louisiana, while a Senator, in open speech, “denounced the public education scheme as an unmitigated oppression, an electioneering device, an imposition, which he intended to bring in a bill to abolish, if they were allowed to go on legislating.” With such brutality is this beautiful cause now encountered. It is as if a savage rudely drove an angel from his tent.
Be taught by this example, and do not hesitate, I entreat you. Remember how much is now in issue. You are to fix the securities of the future, and especially to see that a republican government is guarantied in an the Rebel States. I call them “Rebel,” for such they are in spirit still, and such is their designation in your recent statute. But I ask nothing in vengeance or unkindness. All that I propose is for their good, with which is intertwined the good of all. I would not impose any new penalty or bear hard upon an erring people. Oh, no! I simply ask a new safeguard for the future, that these States, through which so much trouble has come, may be a strength and a blessing to our common country, with prosperity and happiness everywhere within their borders. I would not impose any new burden; but I seek a new triumph for civilization. For a military occupation bristling with bayonets I would substitute the smile of peace. But this cannot be without Education. As the soldier disappears, his place must be supplied by the schoolmaster. The muster-roll will be exchanged for the school-register, and our headquarters will be a school-house.
Do not forget the grandeur of the work in which you are engaged. You are forming States. Such a work cannot be done hastily or carelessly. The time you give will be saved to the country hereafter a thousand-fold. The time you begrudge will rise in judgment against you. It is a law of Nature, that, just in proportion as the being produced is higher in the scale and more complete in function, all the processes are more complex and extended. The mature liberty we seek cannot have the easy birth of feebler types. As man, endowed with reason and looking to the heavens, is above the quadruped that walks, above the bird that flies, above the fish that swims, and above the worm that crawls, so should these new governments, republican in form and loyal in soul, created by your care, be above those whose places they take. The Old must give way to the New, and the New must be worthy of a Republic, which, ransomed from Slavery, has become an example to mankind. Farewell to the Old! All hail to the New!
Mr. Frelinghuysen, of New Jersey, Mr. Stewart, of Nevada, and Mr. Conness, of California, joined in criticism of Mr. Sumner’s opposition to the employment of the military arm in Reconstruction, protesting particularly against the declaration that States are “about to be born of the bayonet.” To the proposed requirement of a system of free schools in the Rebel States Mr. Frelinghuysen objected: “For us to undertake now to add new conditions to the Reconstruction measure which the Thirty-Ninth Congress adopted I hold to be bad faith.… That is not the way to do business.… Let this nation keep its faith. I hope, Mr. President, that the amendment will not be adopted.” Mr. Patterson, of New Hampshire, would “be glad to have such a requisition laid on all the States of the Union, if it were not unconstitutional. But he wished to ask him [Mr. Sumner] this question: Does he think it possible to establish a system of common schools in these Southern States corresponding to the common-school system of New England, unless he first confiscates the large estates and divides them into small homesteads, so that there may be small landholders who shall support these schools by the taxation which is laid upon them?”
Mr. Sumner. I do.
Mr. Patterson. You think it is possible?
Mr. Sumner. I do, certainly,—most clearly.
Mr. Morton said: “The proposition is fundamental in its character; its importance cannot be overestimated; and I hope that it will be placed as a condition, upon complying with which they shall be permitted to return.” Mr. Cole, of California, declared himself “warmly in favor of the amendment.” Mr. Hendricks, of Indiana, and Mr. Buckalew, of Pennsylvania, both Democrats, spoke against it. The latter thought Mr. Sumner “not open to criticism for the sentiments which he has expressed upon this occasion, nor for the position which he has assumed.” In a humorous vein, he said: “The propositions which the Senator from Massachusetts makes one year, and which are criticized by his colleagues as extreme, inappropriate, and untimely, are precisely the propositions which those colleagues support with greater zeal and vehemence, if possible, than he, the year following. In short, Sir, we can foresee at one session of Congress the character of the propositions and of the arguments with which we are to be favored at the next in this Chamber, by looking to the pioneer man, who goes forward in advance, his banner thrown out, his cause announced, the means by which it shall be carried on and the objects in view proclaimed with force and frankness.”
Mr. Sumner replied:—
Mr. President,—The question of power, I take it, must be settled in this Chamber. You have already most solemnly voted to require in every new constitution suffrage for all, without distinction of race or color or previous condition. But the greater contains the less. If you can do that, you can do everything. If you can require that Magna Charta of human rights, you can require what is smaller. It is already fixed in your statutes, enrolled in your archives, that Congress has this great power. I do not say whether it has this power over other States; that is not the question; but it has the power over the Rebel States. That power is derived from several sources,—first, from the necessity of the case, because the State governments there are illegal, and the whole region has passed, as in the case of Territories, under the jurisdiction of Congress: no legal government exists there, except what Congress supplies. There is another source in the military power now established over that region; then, again, in that great clause of the National Constitution by which you are required to guaranty to every State a republican form of government. Here is enough. Out of these three sources, these three overflowing fountains, springs ample authority. You have exercised it by prescribing in their constitutions Suffrage for all. I ask you to go one step further, and to prescribe Education for all.
I am met here by personal objections; I am asked why I have not brought this forward before. Sir, I have brought it forward in season and out of season. I have on the table before me a speech of mine in 1865, where, in laying down the great essential guaranties, I declared them as follows: First, the unity of the Republic; secondly, Enfranchisement; thirdly, the guaranty of the National debt; fourthly, the repudiation of the Rebel debt; fifthly, Equal Suffrage; and, sixthly, Education of the people.[99] Therefore from the beginning I have asked this guaranty, believing, as I do most clearly, that under the National Constitution you may demand it. If you may demand it, if you have the power, then do I insist it is your duty so to do. Duties are in proportion to powers. These great powers are not merely for display or idleness, but for employment, to the end that the Republic may be advanced and fortified.
Then I have been reminded very earnestly by Senators that I have used strong language in saying that these governments will be open to the imputation of being born of the bayonet. This is not the first time I have used that language in this Chamber. From the beginning I have protested against Reconstruction by military power. Again and again I have asserted that it is contrary to the genius of republican institutions, and to a just economy of political forces. I have not been hearkened to. Others have pressed the intervention of military power; and now, as I am about to record my vote in favor of the pending proposition, I cannot but express my sincere and unfeigned regret that Congress did not see its way to a generous measure of Reconstruction purely civil in character, having no element of military power. Such you had before you at the last session in the Louisiana Bill, which I sought to press day by day; and when, at the last moment, the Military Bill was passed, I, from my place here, declared that I should deem it my duty at the earliest possible moment in this session to press the Louisiana Bill, or some kindred measure not military in character.
I was early tutored in the principles of Jefferson. I cannot forget his Inaugural Address, where he lays down among the cardinal principles, or what he calls “the essential principles of our Government,” and consequently those which ought to shape its administration, “The supremacy of the civil over the military authority.” Imbued with this principle, I hoped that Congress would see the way to establish at once civil governments in all those States, and not subject them to military power, except so far as needed for purposes of protection. This is the true object of the army. It is to protect the country,—not to make constitutions, or to superintend the making of constitutions. At least, so I have read the history of republican institutions, and such are the aspirations that I presume to express for my country.
The vote on Mr. Summer’s proposition stood, Yeas 20, Nays 20, being a tie, so that the amendment was lost. Any one Senator changing from the negative would have carried it.
The bill passed the Senate,—Yeas 38, Nays 2. On the amendments of the Senate there was a difference between the two Houses, which ended in a committee of conference, whose report was concurred in without a division.
March 23d, the bill was vetoed by the President. On the same day it was passed again by the House,—Yeas 114, Nays 25,—and by the Senate,—Yeas 40, Nays 7,—being more than two thirds; so that it became a law, notwithstanding the objections of the President.[100]
PROHIBITION OF DIPLOMATIC UNIFORM.
Speech in the Senate, on a Joint Resolution concerning the Uniform of Persons in the Diplomatic Service of the United States, March 20, 1867.
March 20th, Mr. Summer, from the Committee on Foreign Relations, reported the following joint resolution:—
“Resolved, &c., That all persons in the diplomatic service of the United States are prohibited from wearing any uniform or official costume not previously authorized by Congress.”
He then stated that it was reported from the Committee unanimously, and that perhaps the Senate would be willing to consider it at once. The resolution was proceeded with by unanimous consent, when Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, remarked: “I do not see what right we have to prevent a minister abroad from wearing the uniform of our army, if he chooses.” Mr. Sumner replied:—
The Senator is aware that a habit exists among our ministers in Europe of wearing uniforms of other countries in the nature of court costumes or dresses; and this is often required before they are presented. The Committee on Foreign Relations, after careful consideration, have unanimously come to the conclusion that it is expedient to prohibit any such uniform or official costume, unless sanctioned previously by Act of Congress. It seems clear that our ministers abroad should not be required by any foreign government to wear a uniform, costume, or dress unknown to our own laws. This is very simple, and not unreasonable.
This question is perhaps more important than it appears. On its face it is of form only, or rather of dress, proper for the learned in Carlyle’s “Sartor Resartus.” But I am not sure that it does not concern the character of the Republic. Shall our ministers abroad be required by any foreign government to assume a uniform unknown to our laws? Ministers of other countries appear at foreign courts in the dress they would wear before the sovereign at home. What is good enough for the sovereign at home is, I understand, good enough for other sovereigns. And surely the dress in which one of our ministers would appear before the President of the United States ought to be sufficient anywhere. Its simplicity is to my mind no argument against it.
It is sometimes said, gravely enough, that, if our ministers appear in the simple dress of a citizen, according to the requirement of Mr. Marcy’s famous circular, they may be mistaken for “upper servants.” If such be the case, they will have little of the stamp of fitness. I am not troubled on this head. Their simplicity would be a distinction, and it would be typical of the republican government they represent. Amidst the brilliant dresses and fantastic uniforms of European courts a simple dress would be most suggestive. A British minister appearing at the Congress of Vienna in simple black, with a single star on his breast, so contrasted with the bedizened crowd about him as to awaken the admiration of an illustrious prince, who exclaimed, “How distinguished!”
This is an old subject, which I trust may be disposed of at last. Mr. Marcy enjoined simplicity in the official dress of our foreign representatives, and dwelt with pride on the well-known example of Benjamin Franklin. But his instructions were not sufficiently explicit, and they were allowed to die out. Some appeared in simple black, and were not mistaken for “upper servants.” But gold lace at last carried the day, and our representatives now appear in a costume peculiar to European courts. A simple prohibition by Congress will put an end to this petty complication, and make it easy for them to follow abroad the simple ways to which they have been accustomed at home.
Mr. Sherman. All I wish to know is, whether General Dix, or any other minister, could wear the uniform of our army, if he chose. The rule, if I understand it, in some foreign countries, is, that a person must appear at court in some kind of uniform. If none is provided by his government, or authorized by his government, then he adopts a certain uniform according to the custom of the country to which he is accredited. Perhaps, however, I am not correct.
Mr. Sumner. The object of the pending measure is to encounter that precise requirement of foreign governments, and to put our ministers on an equality with those of other countries. I have already said that ministers of other countries may appear at the courts to which they are addressed as they would appear before their own sovereign. I take it the Turkish ambassador is not obliged to assume in Paris or London any official costume peculiar to France or England; but he appears, as at a reception by his own sovereign, with the fez on his head. And so the Austrian ambassador appears in his fantastic Hungarian jacket. But I see no reason why there should be one rule for these ambassadors, and another for the representatives of the American Republic. Here, as elsewhere, there should be equality. The equality of nations is a first principle of International Law. But this is offended by any requirement of a foreign government which shall not leave our representative free to appear before the sovereign of the country to which he is accredited as he would before the Chief Magistrate of the American people,—in other words, in the simple dress of an American citizen. This is the whole case.
Mr. Sherman. The Senator does not yet answer my question: Will this prevent an American minister abroad from wearing the uniform of an officer of the army of the United States, such as he would be entitled to wear under our laws, if here?
Mr. Sumner. If entitled under our laws, there could be no difficulty.
Mr. Sherman. We have a law which authorizes a volunteer officer who has attained the rank of a brigadier-general, for instance, always on state occasions to wear that uniform.
Mr. Sumner. There can be no misunderstanding. The ministers are simply to follow Congress; and as Congress has not authorized any uniform or official costume, they can have none, unless they come within the exceptional case to which the Senator has alluded. Certain persons who have been in the military service are authorized, under an existing Act of Congress, to wear their military uniform on public occasions. This resolution cannot interfere in any way with that provision. It leaves the Act of Congress in full force, and is applicable only to those not embraced by that Act.
The joint resolution passed the Senate without a division. March 25th, it passed the House without a division, and was approved by the President, so that it became a law.[101] It was promptly communicated to our ministers abroad by a circular from the Department of State.
VIGILANCE AGAINST THE PRESIDENT.
Remarks in the Senate, on Resolutions adjourning Congress, March 23, 26, 28, and 29, 1867.
March 23d, Mr. Trumbull, of Illinois, offered a resolution adjourning the two Houses on Tuesday, March 26th, at twelve o’clock, noon, until the first Monday of December, at twelve o’clock, noon. Mr. Drake, of Missouri, moved to amend by striking out “the first Monday of December,” and inserting “Tuesday, the 15th day of October.” This amendment was rejected,—Yeas 19, Nays 28. Mr. Morrill, of Vermont, then moved to amend by inserting “first Monday of November,” and this amendment was rejected,—Yeas 18, Nays 27. Mr. Sumner then moved the adjournment of the two Houses on Thursday, the 28th day of March, at twelve o’clock, noon, until the first Monday of June, and that on that day, unless then otherwise ordered by the two Houses, until the first Monday of December. This was rejected,—Yeas 14, Nays 31. The question then recurred on the resolution of Mr. Trumbull. A debate ensued, in which Mr. Sumner said:—
I am against the resolution. In my opinion, Congress ought not to adjourn and go home without at least some provision for return to our post. As often as I think of this question, I am met by two controlling facts. I speak now of facts which stare us in the face.
You must not forget that the President is a bad man, the author of incalculable woe to his country, and especially to that part which, being most tried by war, most needed kindly care. Search history, and I am sure you will find no elected ruler who, during the same short time, has done so much mischief to his country. He stands alone in bad eminence. Nobody in ancient or modern times can be his parallel. Alone in the evil he has done, he is also alone in the maudlin and frantic manner he has adopted. Look at his acts, and read his speeches. This is enough.
Such is the fact. And now I ask, Can Congress quietly vote to go home and leave such a man without hindrance? These scenes are historic. His conduct is historic. Permit me to remind you that your course with regard to him will be historic. It can never be forgotten, if you keep your seats and meet the usurper face to face,—as it can never be forgotten, if, leaving your seats, you let him remain master to do as he pleases. Most of all, he covets your absence. Do not indulge him.
Then comes the other controlling fact. There is at this moment a numerous population, counted by millions,—call it, if you please, eight millions,—looking to Congress for protection. Of this large population, all the loyal people stretch out their hands to Congress. They ask you to stay. They know by instinct that so long as you remain in your seats they are not without protection. They have suffered through the President, who, when they needed bread, has given them a stone, and when they needed peace, has given them strife. They have seen him offer encouragement to Rebels, and even set the Rebellion on its legs. Their souls have been wrung as they beheld fellow-citizens brutally sacrificed, whose only crime was that they loved the Union. Sometimes the sacrifice was on a small scale, and sometimes by wholesale. Witness Memphis; witness New Orleans; ay, Sir, witness the whole broad country from the Potomac to the Rio Grande.
With a Presidential usurper menacing the Republic, and with a large population, counted by millions, looking to Congress for protection, I dare not vote to go home. It is my duty to stay here. I am sure that our presence here will be an encouragement and a comfort to loyal people throughout these troubled States. They will feel that they are not left alone with their deadly enemy. Home is always tempting. It is pleasant to escape from care. But duty is more than home or any escape from care. As often as I think of these temptations, I feel their insignificance by the side of solemn obligations. There is the President: he must be watched and opposed. There is an oppressed people: it must be protected. But this cannot be done without effort on the part of Congress. “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” Never was there more need for this vigilance than now.
An admirable and most suggestive engraving has been placed on our tables to-day, in “Harper’s Weekly,”[102] where President Johnson is represented as a Roman emperor presiding in the amphitheatre with imperatorial pomp, and surrounded by trusty counsellors, among whom it is easy to distinguish the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Navy, looking with complacency at the butchery below. The victims are black, and their sacrifice, as gladiators, makes a “Roman holiday.” Beneath the picture is written, “Amphitheatrum Johnsonianum—Massacre of the Innocents at New Orleans, July 30, 1866.” This inscription tells the terrible story. The bloody scene is before you. The massacre proceeds under patronage of the President. His Presidential nod is law. At his will blood spurts and men bite the dust. But this is only a single scene in one place. Wherever in the Rebel States there is a truly loyal citizen, loving the Union, there is a victim who may be called to suffer at any moment from the distempered spirit which now rules. I speak according to the evidence. This whole country is an “Amphitheatrum Johnsonianum,” where the victims are counted by the thousand. To my mind, there is no duty more urgent than to guard against this despot, and be ready to throw the shield of Congress over loyal citizens whom he delivers to sacrifice.
The resolution of Mr. Trumbull was agreed to,—Yeas 29, Nays 16.
March 25th, on motion of Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts, the resolution was returned from the House of Representatives for reconsideration. Meanwhile the House adopted the following resolution, which was laid before the Senate:—
“That the Senate and House of Representatives do hereby each give consent to the other that each House of Congress shall adjourn the present session from the hour of twelve o’clock, meridian, on Thursday next, the 28th day of March instant, to assemble again on the first Wednesday of May, the first Wednesday of June, the first Wednesday of September, and the first Wednesday of November, of this year, unless the President of the Senate pro tempore and the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall by joint proclamation, to be issued by them ten days before either of the times herein fixed for assembling, declare that there is no occasion for the meeting of Congress at such time.”
On motion of Mr. Fessenden, this resolution was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
March 26th, the House resolution was reported by Mr. Trumbull, with a substitute adjourning the two Houses “on the 28th instant, at twelve o’clock, meridian.” Debate ensued, when Mr. Howe, of Wisconsin, moved an adjournment on the 29th of March until the first Monday of June, and on that day, unless then otherwise ordered by the two Houses, until the first Monday of December. After debate, this amendment was rejected,—Yeas 17, Nays 25. Mr. Morrill, of Vermont, moved to amend the substitute of the Committee by adding “to meet again on the first Monday of November next,” which was rejected,—Yeas 16, Nays 25. Mr. Sumner then moved to amend the substitute by adding:—
“Provided, That the President of the Senate pro tempore and the Speaker of the House of Representatives may by joint proclamation, at any time before the first Monday of December, convene the two Houses of Congress for the transaction of business, if in their opinion the public interests require.”
Here he said:—
I am unwilling to doubt that Congress may authorize their officers to do that. I cannot doubt it. Assuming that we have the power, is not this an occasion to exercise it? I do not wish to be carried into the general debate. I had intended to say something about it; but it is late.… I will not, therefore, go into the general question, except to make one remark: I do think Congress ought to do something; we ought not to adjourn as on ordinary occasions,—for this is not an ordinary occasion, and there is the precise beginning of the difference between myself and the Senator from Maine, and also between myself and the Senator from Illinois.
The Senator from Illinois said, Why not, as on ordinary occasions, now go home? Ay, Sir, that is the very question. Is this an ordinary occasion? To my mind, it clearly is not. It is an extraordinary occasion, big with the fate of this Republic.
The amendment of Mr. Sumner was rejected,—Yeas 15, Nays 26. Mr. Howe then moved to insert “Friday, the 29th,” instead of “Thursday, the 28th,” which was rejected. Mr. Drake then moved an amendment, 28th March until 5th June, when, unless a quorum of both Houses were present, the presiding officers should adjourn until 4th September, when, unless a quorum of both Houses were present, they should adjourn until the first Monday of December. This also was rejected,—Yeas 14, Nays 27. The substitute reported by Mr. Trumbull was then agreed to,—Yeas 21, Nays 17. The other House then adopted a substitute, adjourning March 28th to the first Wednesday of June, and to the first Wednesday of September, unless the presiding officers, by joint proclamation ten days before either of these times, should declare that there was no occasion for the meeting of Congress at that time. In the Senate, March 28th, Mr. Edmunds, of Vermont, moved a substitute, adjourning March 30th to the first Wednesday of July, and then, unless otherwise ordered by both Houses, on the next day adjourning without day.
Mr. Sumner said:—
The Senate seems to have arrived at a point where the difference is one of form rather than substance. We have been occupied almost an hour in discussing the phraseology of the resolution. We have reached the great point which was the subject of such earnest discussion two or three days ago, that Congress ought in some way or other to secure to itself the power of meeting during the long period between now and next December. I understand Senators are all agreed on that. I am glad of it. Only by time and discussion we have reached that harmony. The House has given us three opportunities. The old story is repeated. The Senate, so far as I can understand, is ready to adopt the proposition of the House,—substantially I mean, for this proposition, as I understand it, is simply to secure for Congress an opportunity of coming together during the summer and autumn. Now the practical question is, How shall this be best accomplished? I am ready to accept either of the forms. I am willing to accept the form last adopted by the House. I do not see that that is objectionable. I am ready, if I can get nothing better, to accept the form proposed by the Senator from Vermont; but I must confess that the form proposed by the Senator from Missouri seems briefer, clearer, better. If I could have my own way, I would set aside the proposition of the Senator from Vermont, and fall back upon that of the Senator from Missouri, as better expressing the conclusion which I am glad to see at last reached.
I believe it is settled that we shall not adjourn to-morrow. Am I right?
Mr. Edmunds. Yes, Sir.
Mr. Sumner. I am glad of it. That is the gain of a day. We were to adjourn to-day at twelve o’clock, and then again to-morrow at twelve o’clock, and now it is put off until Saturday. I cannot doubt that the Senate would do much better, if it put off the adjournment until next week. There is important business on your table, which ought to be considered.
Mr. Sumner then called attention to measures deserving consideration, and continued:—
Here is another measure, which I once characterized as an effort to cut the Gordian knot of the suffrage question. It is a bill introduced by myself to carry out various constitutional provisions securing political rights in all our States, precisely as we have already secured civil rights. The importance of this bill cannot be exaggerated. There is not a Senator who does not know the anxious condition of things in the neighboring State of Maryland for want of such a bill. Let Congress interfere under the National Constitution, and exercise a power clearly belonging to it, settling this whole suffrage question, so that it shall no longer agitate the politics of the States, no longer be the occasion of dissension, possibly of bloodshed, in Maryland or in Delaware, or of difference in Ohio. Let us settle the question before we return home.
When I rose, I had no purpose of calling attention to these measures. My special object was to express satisfaction that the Senate at last is disposed to harmonize with the other House on the important question of securing to Congress the power of meeting during the summer and autumn. That is a great point gained for the peace and welfare of the country. Without it you will leave the country a prey to the President; you will leave our Union friends throughout the South a sacrifice to the same malignant usurper.
The substitute proposed by Mr. Edmunds was agreed to,—Yeas 25, Nays 14. The House non-concurring, it was referred to a committee of conference.
March 29th, another resolution having been meanwhile adopted by the House, providing for an adjournment to the first Wednesday of June, and then, if a quorum of both Houses were not present, to the first Wednesday of September, and then, in the absence of a quorum, to the first Monday of December, Mr. Edmunds moved the following substitute:—
“The President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives are hereby directed to adjourn their respective Houses on Saturday, March 30, 1867, at twelve o’clock, meridian, to the first Wednesday of July, 1867, at noon, when the roll of each House shall be immediately called, and immediately thereafter the presiding officer of each House shall cause the presiding officer of the other House to be informed whether or not a quorum of its body has appeared; and thereupon, if a quorum of the two Houses respectively shall not have appeared upon such call of the rolls, the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall immediately adjourn their respective Houses without day.”
Mr. Sumner said:—
I am against the amendment on two grounds: first, that it proposes to adjourn too soon; and, secondly, that it superfluously and unnecessarily makes a new difference with the House of Representatives. In the first place, it proposes to adjourn too soon,—that is, to-morrow at twelve o’clock. The business of the country will suffer by adjournment at that time. We are now in currents of business that recall the last days of regular sessions, or the rapids that precede a cataract. Senators are straggling for the floor, and perhaps are not always amiable, if they do not obtain it. We ought to give time for all this important business, so that there be no such unseemly struggle.
The calendar of the Senate shows one hundred and fifteen bills now on your table from the Senate alone, of which only a small portion have been considered; and looking at the House calendar, I find one of their late bills numbered one hundred and two, showing that very large number, of which you have considered thus far only a very small proportion. I do not ask attention to these numerous bills, but unquestionably among them are many of great importance. There are two especially to which I have already referred, and to which I mean to call your attention, so long as you sit as a Congress, and down to the last moment, unless they shall be acted on. I mean, in the first place, the bill providing for a change in the time of electing a mayor and other officers in the city of Washington. Congress ought not to go home leaving this question unsettled.
You have bestowed the suffrage upon the colored people here, and they are about to exercise it in choosing aldermen and a common council; but those aldermen and common councilmen will find themselves presided over by a mayor chosen by a different constituency, and hostile to them in sentiment, one possessing sometimes the veto power, and always a very considerable influence, which he will naturally exercise against this new government. Will you leave Washington subject to such discord? Will you consent that the votes of the colored people shall be thus neutralized the first time they are called into exercise? I trust Congress will not adjourn until this important bill is acted upon. It is very simple; it need not excite discussion; it is practical. Let it be read at the table, and every Senator will understand it, and will be ready to vote upon it without argument. Thus far I have not been able to bring it before the Senate, though I have tried day by day. I have not yet been able to have it read.
Mr. Sumner then referred again to the bill securing the elective franchise throughout the country, vindicating its constitutionality and necessity.
Mr. Wilson then moved to amend by making the day of adjournment the 10th of April; but this was rejected,—Yeas 13, Nays 28. Mr. Sumner then moved to amend by inserting “five o’clock, Saturday afternoon,” instead of “twelve o’clock, noon,” saying, “so that we shall have five hours more for work”; but this, modified by the substitution of four o’clock, was likewise rejected.
The substitute of Mr. Edmunds was then adopted,—Yeas 28, Nays 12,—Mr. Sumner voting in the negative. The House concurred, and the adjournment took place accordingly.
In this episode began the differences with regard to President Johnson. To protect good people against him was the object of the earnest effort to prolong the session and to provide for an intermediate session before the regular meeting of Congress. Among those who voted for the adjournment were distinguished Senators who afterwards voted for his acquittal, when impeached at the bar of the Senate.
LOYALTY AND REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENT CONDITIONS OF ASSISTANCE TO THE REBEL STATES.
Remarks in the Senate, on a Joint Resolution authorizing Surveys for the Reconstruction of the Levees of the Mississippi, March 29, 1867.
March 29th, on motion of Mr. Sprague, of Rhode Island, the Senate proceeded to consider a joint resolution directing an examination and estimate to be made of the cost of reconstructing the levees of the Mississippi. Mr. Sumner remarked that he was not against making this exploration and inquiry,—that he welcomed anything of the kind,—but he was anxious that Congress should not commit itself to the expenditure involved. He therefore moved the following amendment:—
“Provided, That it is understood in advance that no appropriations for the levees of the Mississippi River shall be made in any State until after the restoration of such State to the Union, with the elective franchise and free schools without distinction of race or color.”
On this he remarked:—
I am unwilling that Congress should seem in any way to commit itself to so great an expenditure in one of these States, except with the distinct understanding that it shall not be until after the restoration of the State to the Union on those principles without which the State will not be loyal or republican. We are all seeking to found governments truly loyal and truly republican. Will any Rebel State be such until it has secured in its constitution the elective franchise to all, and until it has opened free schools to all? The proposition is a truism. A State which does not give the elective franchise to all, without distinction of color, is not republican in form, and cannot be sanctioned as such by the Congress of the United States. Now I am anxious, so far as I can, to take a bond in advance, and to hold out every temptation, every lure, every seduction to tread the right path,—in other words, to tread the path of loyalty and of republicanism. Therefore I seize the present opportunity to let these States know in advance, that, if they expect the powerful intervention of Congress, they must qualify themselves to receive it by giving evidence that they are truly loyal and truly republican.
This is no common survey of a river or harbor. The Senator from Maine [Mr. Morrill] has already pointed out the difference between the two cases. They are wide apart. It is an immense charity, a benefaction, from which private individuals are to gain largely. Thus far these levees have always been built, as I understand,—I am open to correction,—by the owners of the lands, and by the States.
Mr. Stewart [of Nevada]. And principally by the swamp lands donated by Congress.
Mr. Sumner. Now it is proposed, for the first time, that the National Government shall intervene with its powerful aid. Are you ready to embark in that great undertaking? I do not say that you should not, for I am one who has never hesitated, and I do not mean hereafter to hesitate, in an appropriation for the good of any part of the country, if I can see that it is constitutional; and on the question of constitutionality I do not mean to be nice. I mean always to be generous in interpretation of the Constitution, and in appropriations for any such object; but I submit that Congress shall not in any respect pledge itself to this undertaking, involving such a lavish expenditure, except on the fundamental condition that the States where the money is to be invested shall be truly loyal and republican in form; and I insist that not one of those States can be such, except on the conditions stated in my amendment.
No vote was reached, and the joint resolution was never considered again.