Senate Chamber, April 8, 1870.
GENTLEMEN,—You propose to celebrate the triumph of Equal Rights at the ballot-box, and at the same time to abandon that famous shibboleth by which you once rallied the country against Slavery.
It was said of Wolfe, the conqueror at Quebec, that he died in the arms of Victory; and such will be the fortune of your noble Society. “They run!” was the voice that fell on the ears of the expiring General. “Who run?” he exclaimed. “The enemy,” was the answer. “Now, God be praised, I shall die in peace,” said he, and his battle ended.
The Antislavery Society may now die in peace. Slavery is ended. But I do not doubt that the same courage and fidelity which through long years warred against this prodigious Barbarism will continue determined to the end in protecting and advancing the work begun.
I do not think the work finished, so long as the word “white” is allowed to play any part in legislation,—so long as it constrains the courts in naturalization,—so long as it rules public conveyances, steamboats, and railroads,—so long as it bars the doors of houses bound by law to receive people for food and lodging, or licensed as places of amusement,—so long as it is inscribed on our common schools;—nor do I think the work finished until the power of the Nation is recognized, supreme and beyond question, to fix the definition of a “republican government,” and to enforce the same by the perfect maintenance of rights everywhere throughout the land, according to the promises of the Declaration of Independence, without any check or hindrance from the old proslavery pretension of State Rights. It must be understood that every State, while perfectly free in its local administration, is subject to the supremacy of the Nation, whenever it touches the Rights of Man,—so that, according to the ancient words of Demosthenes, the law shall be “a general ordinance, equal and alike to all.”[21] Let there be Equality before the Law, and all rights are assured. In this cause count me always as your devoted and grateful fellow-worker.
Accept my thanks for the invitation with which you have honored me, and believe me sincerely yours,
Charles Sumner.
To the Committee of the Antislavery Society.