Something has been said by different Senators of plighted faith. Sir, there is a faith that is plighted, and by that I will stand, God willing, to the end. It is nothing less than this: to secure the rights of all, without distinction of color, in the State of Virginia. When I can secure those rights, when I can see that they are firmly established beyond the reach of fraud, beyond the violence of opposition, then I am willing that that State shall again assume its independent position. But until then I say, Wait! In the name of Justice, in the name of Liberty, for the sake of Human Rights, I entreat the Senate to wait.
January 13th, in response to criticisms by Mr. Trumbull, of Illinois, Mr. Sumner said:—
It was in pursuance of the effort I made on the first day of this week that yesterday I presented a memorial from loyal citizens of Virginia here in Washington. I presented it as a memorial, and asked to have it read. The Senator from Nevada [Mr. Stewart], in the remarks which he so kindly made with regard to me later in the day, said that in asking to have it read I adopted it. I can pardon that remark to the Senator from Nevada, who is less experienced in this Chamber than the Senator from Illinois; but the latter Senator has repeated substantially the same remark. Sir, this is a new position, that in presenting a memorial one adopts it, especially when he asks to have it read. Why, Sir, what is the right of petition? Is it reduced to this, that no petition can be presented unless the Senator approves it, or that no petition can be read at the request of a Senator unless he approves it? Such a limitation on the right of petition would go far to cut it down to its unhappy condition in those pro-slavery days which some of us remember. Sir, I was right in presenting the memorial, and right in asking to have it read.
And now what is its character? It sets forth a condition of things in Virginia which might well make the Senate pause. I think no candid person can have listened to that memorial without seeing that it contains statements with regard to which the Senate ought to be instructed before it proceeds to a vote. Do you consider, Sir, that when you install this Legislature you consign the people of Virginia to its power? Do you consider that to this body belongs the choice of judges? The whole judiciary of the State is to be organized by it. This may be done in the interests of Freedom and Humanity, or in the ancient interests of the Rebellion. I am anxious that this judiciary should be pure and devoted to Human Rights. But if the policy is pursued which finds such strenuous support, especially from the Senator from Illinois, farewell then to such a judiciary!—that judiciary which is often called the Palladium of the Commonwealth, through which justice is secured, rights protected, and all men are made safe. Instead of that, you will have a judiciary true only to those who have lately been in rebellion. You will have a judiciary that will set its face like flint against those loyalists that find so little favor with the Senator from Illinois. You will have a judiciary that will follow out the spirit which the Senator has shown to-day, and do little else than pursue vindictively these loyalists.
There has been allusion to the Governor of Virginia. The Senator says I have made an assault upon him. Oh, no! How have I assaulted him? I said simply that I understood he was on the floor, as the member-elect from Richmond was on the floor. That is all that I said. But now there is something with regard to this Governor to which I should like to have an answer: possibly the Senator may be able to answer it. I have here a speech purporting to have been made by him at an agricultural fair in the southwest part of Virginia after the election, from which, with your permission, but, Sir, without adopting it at all or making myself in any way responsible for its contents, I will read.
Mr. Walker, addressing the audience, says:—
“A little talking sometimes does a great deal of good; and that expended in the late canvass I heard in a voice of thunder on the 6th of July, when the people of your noble old Commonwealth declared themselves against vandalism, fraud, and treachery. Virginia has freed herself from the tyranny of a horde of greedy cormorants and unprincipled carpet-baggers, who came to sap her very vitals. I have no other feeling but that of pity for the opposition party, who were deceived and led by adventurers having only their own personal aggrandizement and aims in view, with neither interest, character, nor self-respect at stake; for this a majority of them never had.”
Now, Sir, what are the operative words of this remarkable speech? That this very Governor Walker, who finds a vindicator—I may say, adopting a term of the early law, a compurgator—in the Senator from Illinois, announces that by this recent election Virginia has “declared against vandalism, fraud, and treachery,—has freed herself from the tyranny of a horde of greedy cormorants and unprincipled carpet-baggers, who came to sap her very vitals.”
Such is the language by which this Governor characterizes loyal people from the North, from the West, from all parts of the country, who since the overthrow of the Rebellion have gone there with their household gods, with their energies, with their character, with their means, to contribute to the resources of the State! Sir, what does all this suggest? To my mind unhappy days in the future; to my mind anything but justice for the devoted loyal people and Unionists of that State. And now, Sir, while I make this plea for them, again let me say I present no exclusive claim to represent them; I speak now only because others do not speak; and as in other days when I encountered the opposition of the Senator from Illinois I was often in a small minority, sometimes almost alone, I may be so now; but I have a complete conviction that the course I am now taking will be justified by the future. Sad enough, if it be so! I hope it may be otherwise.