“Resolved, That the resolution of the Senate, adopted the 5th of July last, limiting the business of the Senate, be, and hereby is, rescinded.”
In remarks that followed, he showed the character of the proceedings in the Twenty-Seventh Congress, which had been adduced as a precedent for the limitation of business. In reply to Mr. Fessenden, he said:—
I have simply done my duty, in calling attention to the past precedent which had been introduced into the discussion. When it was introduced by the Senator from Maine, I had no means of replying to it. I had not the Journal or the Globe with me, and I supposed, from the statement of the Senator, that it was a resolution practically adopted in this Chamber. I was not aware of what followed. I was not aware of the extent to which the whole spirit of the proposition was denounced. Nor was I aware that its original mover, Mr. Clay, was obliged to abandon his proposition,—that he magnanimously, justly, and considerately abandoned it. That is the true precedent in this body; and that is the precedent which, I submit, it would be better for the Senate to follow. Nothing, surely, could be lost by following it.
The resolution adopted by the Senate on Friday, while it remains, will only be of evil example. If hereafter quoted as a precedent, it may be at last for some purpose of oppression, when Senators will not all be as just as those I now have the honor of addressing. It may be seized then as an engine of tyranny. For one, Sir, I would leave no such weapon in this Chamber to be grasped hereafter by any hand.
The Senate refused to take up the resolution.
July 13th, Mr. Sumner made another attempt by the following resolution:—
“Resolved, That the rule of the Senate limiting business be suspended, so far as to allow the consideration of the bill (S. No. 124) to enforce the several provisions of the Constitution abolishing Slavery, declaring the immunities of citizens, and guarantying a republican form of government by securing the elective franchise to colored citizens.”
But he was not able to obtain a vote upon it, and the important bill was left on the table.