And on the same day it appears that he submitted the following Amendment to the Constitution, which, had it been adopted then, would have cured many of the difficulties that have since occurred, entitled—
“Amendment of the Constitution, securing Equality before the Law and the Abolition of Slavery.”
It is as follows:—
“All persons are equal before the law, so that no person can hold another as a slave; and the Congress shall have power to make all laws necessary and proper to carry this declaration into effect everywhere within the United States and the jurisdiction thereof.”[244]
There, Sir, was the beginning of Civil-Rights Bills and Political-Rights Bills. On the same day it appears that Mr. Sumner introduced into the Senate “A bill to secure equality before the law in the courts of the United States.”[245]
The debate went on. On the 25th of February, 1865, a resolution of the Judiciary Committee was pending, recognizing the State Government of Louisiana. Mr. Sumner on that day introduced resolutions thus entitled:—
“Resolutions declaring the duty of the United States to guaranty Republican Governments in the Rebel States on the basis of the Declaration of Independence, so that the new governments”—
that is, the reconstructed governments—
“shall be founded on the consent of the governed and the equality of all persons before the law.”