Senate Chamber, May 1, 1866.
DEAR SIR,—It will not be in my power to take part at the approaching anniversary of the Antislavery Society. My duty keeps me here.
I trust that the Society, which has done so much for human rights, will persevere until these rights are established throughout the country on the impregnable foundation of the Declaration of Independence. This is not the time for relaxation of the old energies. Slavery is abolished only in name. The Slave Oligarchy still lives, and insists upon ruling its former victims.
Believing, as I do, that the National Government owes protection to the freedmen, so that they shall not suffer in rights, I insist on its plenary power over this great question, and that it may do anything needful to assure these rights. In this conviction I shall not hesitate at all times to invoke its intervention, whether to establish what are called civil rights, or that pivotal right of all, the right to elect the government which they support by taxes and by arms.
Accept my best wishes, and believe me, dear Sir, faithfully yours,
Charles Sumner.
The President of the American Antislavery Society.