That all might free and equal all remain.
Lucan, Pharsalia, tr. Rowe, Book IX. 336.
Upon what principle is it that the slaves shall be computed in the representation? Are they men? Then make them citizens, and let them vote.—Gouverneur Morris: Debates in the Federal Convention, August 8, 1787: Madison Papers, Vol. III. p. 1264.
He took his ground carefully, and propounded only what he felt sure that Hardy himself would at once accept,—what no man of any worth could possibly take exception to. He meant much more, he said, than this, but for the present purpose it would be enough for him to say, that, whatever else it might mean, Democracy in his mouth always meant that every man should have a share in the government of his country.—Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, Vol. II. Chap. XIX.
The Equal Rights of the colored race occupied the constant attention of Congress in different forms. One measure was known as the Civil Rights Bill, securing the right to sue and testify in court, introduced by Mr. Trumbull January 5, and passed April 9, 1866. Others were intended to secure suffrage for colored citizens in the District of Columbia and generally in the Rebel States. The efforts of Mr. Sumner were applicable to all these measures. He insisted always upon the equal title of all to rights of white citizens, whether civil or political, and he wished to act directly. Not doubting the plenary powers of Congress to provide for the equal rights of all, political as well as civil, especially since the Constitutional Amendment prohibiting Slavery, he pressed action by “appropriate legislation.”