As early as January 15th, Mr. Trumbull reported from the Judiciary Committee a bill to confiscate the property and free the slaves of Rebels, which was considered from time to time and debated at length, many Senators speaking. Amendments were made, among which was one moved by Mr. Sumner, February 25th, requiring, that, whenever any person claimed another as slave, he should, before proceeding with his claim, prove loyalty.[1] Then came motions for reference of the pending bill and all associate propositions to a Select Committee. That of Mr. Clark prevailed. In a speech which will be found in the Congressional Globe[2] sustaining the reference, Mr. Sumner said:—
“Such are the embarrassments in which we are involved, such is the maze into which we have been led by these various motions, that a committee is needed to hold the clew. Never was there more occasion for such a committee than now, when we have all these multifarious propositions to be considered, revised, collated, and brought into a constitutional unit,—or, if I may so say, changing the figure, passed through an alembic, to be fused into one bill on which we can all harmonize.”
Mr. Clark reported from the Select Committee a bill “to suppress Insurrection and punish Treason and Rebellion,” which, on the 16th of May, was taken up for consideration. Mr. Sumner was among those who thought the bill inadequate, and on the day it was taken up he introduced a substitute in ten sections, which was printed by order of the Senate. The title was, “For the Confiscation of Property and the Liberation of Slaves belonging to Rebels.” The sections relating to Liberation were these.
“Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, That, if any person within any State or Territory of the United States shall, after the passage of this Act, wilfully engage in armed rebellion against the Government of the United States, or shall wilfully aid or abet such rebellion, or adhere to those engaged in such rebellion, giving them aid or comfort, every such person shall thereby forfeit all claim to the service or labor of any persons commonly known as slaves; and all such slaves are hereby declared free, and forever discharged from such servitude, anything in the laws of the United States, or of any State, to the contrary notwithstanding. And whenever thereafter any person claiming the labor or service of any such slave shall seek to enforce his claim, it shall be a sufficient defence thereto that the claimant was engaged in the said rebellion, or aided or abetted the same, contrary to the provisions of this Act.
“Sec. 7. And be it further enacted, That, whenever any person claiming to be entitled to the service or labor of any other person shall seek to enforce such claim, he shall, in the first instance, and before any order shall be made for the surrender of the person whose service or labor is claimed, establish not only his claim to such service or labor, but also that such claimant has not in any way aided, assisted, or countenanced the existing Rebellion against the Government of the United States. And no person engaged in the military or naval service of the United States shall, under any pretence whatever, assume to decide on the validity of the claim of any person to the service or labor of any other person, or deliver up any such person to the claimant, on pain of being dismissed from the service.”
May 19th, Mr. Sumner made the following speech, vindicating the powers of Congress.
A debate ensued, turning on the inadequacy of the pending bill, in which Mr. Sumner likened it to a glass of water with a bit of orange-peel, which, according to a character in one of Dickens’s novels, by making believe very hard, would be a strong drink, and said: “At a moment when the life of the Republic is struck at, Senators would proceed by indictment in a criminal court.” Mr. Wade said: “I do not know that we shall get anything; but if we only get this bill, we shall get next to nothing.”
In the course of the debate, Mr. Davis departed from the main question to say that he understood the Senators from Massachusetts sympathized with the mob in Boston, and its resistance to the Fugitive Slave Act. He never knew that Mr. Wilson had appeared “to back the Marshal of the United States in the execution of that law.” Then ensued a brief colloquy.
“Mr. Davis. I never heard that he did, or that either of them did, perform or attempt to perform that high, patriotic duty.
“Mr. Sumner. I was in my seat here.