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.