“That the Act entitled ‘An Act to incorporate the Washington and Georgetown Railroad Company,’ approved May 17, 1862, makes no distinction as to passengers over said road, or as to any of the privileges of said road, on account of the color of the passenger, and that, in the opinion of the Committee, colored persons are entitled to all the privileges of said road which any other persons have, and to all the remedies for any denial or breach of such privileges which belong to any other persons. The Committee, therefore, ask to be discharged from the further consideration of the premises.”
February 25th, Mr. Sumner called attention to this report, and moved to reconsider the vote accepting it. Mr. Grimes stated that “the Committee hold that every person has a right to ride in the cars, and that a colored person has the same remedies open to him for any infringement of his rights by the Company as anybody else.” Mr. Sumner then inquired, “whether it was the understanding of the Committee that the ejection of a colored person from a car was illegal.” Mr. Grimes replied, “As I understood it.” Mr. Sumner. “That the ejection was illegal?” Mr. Grimes. “Yes, Sir.” Mr. Reverdy Johnson united in this conclusion. Mr. Willey said: “The law is now full and perfect in all its provisions and adaptations to secure the colored persons in the enjoyment of the privileges of this railroad.” Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts, said: “I think in law he is right, but in practice it is an undeniable fact that the spirit of the old law and the old practices still lingers to some extent here in the District.” Mr. Saulsbury, of Delaware, followed: “I most heartily approve of the action of the officer on board that railroad-car. I think he deserved the thanks of the community. When these negroes go about sticking their heads into railroad-cars, and among white people, and into the Supreme Court Room, I think an officer is perfectly right in telling them they have no business there.” Mr. Sumner remarked as follows.
After the declarations made to-day, I am, at least for the present, satisfied, and shall not proceed further with my motion. I was particularly grateful to the Senator from Maryland for his very explicit statement of the law. I do not doubt he is entirely right. It has always been my opinion. I am glad to have it confirmed by that distinguished Senator and lawyer. I am also grateful to the Senator from West Virginia, who made the report, and who has so explicitly stated his own convictions, and, as I understand him, also the unanimous opinion of the Committee, to the effect that these people have legal rights precisely as white persons to the full enjoyment of all the privileges of the railroad in this District. If they have such legal rights, they are at this moment unquestionably exposed to what I must call outrage. If a white person were ejected from the cars on account of his skin, we should all feel that it was an outrage. Is it any less an outrage because the person ejected is simply guilty of a different skin? I confess, that, to my mind, it is a greater outrage, because obligations are greater in proportion to the humility and weakness of those with whom we deal.
But, Sir, I have no desire to proceed further in this question. I am for the present satisfied. My hope, however, is, that the railroad corporation will at once take notice, and act according to law.
Mr. Sumner then withdrew his motion.
In the face of this report, the exclusion of colored persons continued, often attended by intolerable outrage. Aged persons were thrust into the street. At last an opportunity occurred of bringing this question to a vote in the Senate.
March 16, 1864, the Senate had under consideration a bill to incorporate the Metropolitan Railroad Company in the District of Columbia, sometimes known as the F Street Road, when Mr. Sumner moved the following amendment:—
“Provided, That there shall be no regulation excluding any person from any car on account of color.”
A debate ensued, in which Mr. Saulsbury, of Delaware, and Mr. Reverdy Johnson, of Maryland, earnestly opposed the amendment. March 17th, the latter, while acknowledging that there was nothing in the bill giving “authority to exclude passengers at all,” insisted that colored persons so excluded should be remitted to the courts, and he did not see “why it is necessary to provide more special guaranties for the black man than are provided for the white man”; “if the black man is improperly excluded from one of these cars, … he has the right to go to the courts and seek his remedy there, and the white man has no greater right”; that Mr. Sumner “might just as well propose to pass a law providing that these black men and black women shall have the same right to visit the Presidential mansion on public occasions as the white men and the white women”; and he then discussed the questions of social and political equality, insisting that those just escaped from Slavery “are not the people to exercise the elective franchise, and to mix in society with the educated classes, of which and from which the public councils of the country should always be composed and taken.”