“It was slaughtered by a puerile and pedantic criticism, by a perversion of philological definition, which, if, when I taught school, a lad who had studied Lindley Murray had assumed, I would have expelled him from the institution as unfit to waste education upon.… The murderers must answer to the suffering race. I would not have been the perpetrator. A load of misery must sit heavy on their souls.… Let us again try and see whether we cannot devise some way to overcome the united forces of self-righteous Republicans and unrighteous Copperheads.”[202]
The Fourteenth Amendment followed, and was adopted by both Houses of Congress during the present session. While undertaking to regulate representation, this Amendment had no recognition of exclusion from the elective franchise on account of “race or color.” Though failing in directness, there was nothing in it to injure the text of the Constitution, or impair the idea of a republican form of government, always with Mr. Sumner a cardinal point. There were also other important clauses, defining citizenship, assuring for all “the equal protection of the laws,” disqualifying certain persons from office until the removal of such disability by a vote of two thirds of each House of Congress, protecting the public debt of the United States, and annulling all debts in aid of rebellion or on account of the loss or emancipation of any slave.
The original object of the clause relating to representation was accomplished directly, before its ratification as part of the Constitution. After much debate, Congress yielded to the claim of power, and took jurisdiction of the elective franchise in the Rebel States, requiring, that, in voting on any State constitution in the reconstruction of the Rebel States, there should be no exclusion on account of race or color, and that this prohibition should be embodied in the new State constitutions.[203] The Fifteenth Constitutional Amendment on equal suffrage followed.
Unquestionably the establishment of the equal rights of colored citizens at the ballot-box was one of the most important events in our political history. With few supporters at first, the cause grew in interest and strength until final success in the Acts of Reconstruction, and then in the Constitutional Amendment. This great result was accomplished by discussion and the gradual recognition of the national exigency.
PRESS AND CORRESPONDENCE.
Mr. Sumner’s speech was extensively circulated, and awakened much attention. The response of the country will be seen in the contemporary press and in letters addressed to him, which, while illustrating the speech, reflect light on the times.
The Washington correspondents concurred in accounts of the speech, and of the interest it created.
Henry C. Bowen, proprietor of the New York Independent, then on a visit to Washington, wrote to his paper of the first day of the speech:—
“Senate Chamber, Monday Afternoon.