Remarks in the Senate, July 2 and 4, 1870.
July 2, 1870, the Senate having under consideration a bill “to amend the Naturalization Laws and to punish crimes against the same,” which had been reported from the Committee on the Judiciary as a substitute for one from the House,—the particular object of both bills being the prevention of the election frauds perpetrated through the instrumentality of unnaturalized or illegally naturalized aliens,—Mr. Sumner moved to add, as a new section, a bill previously introduced by himself, and reported favorably from the same Committee, providing—
“That all Acts of Congress relating to naturalization be, and the same are hereby, amended by striking out the word ‘white’ wherever it occurs, so that in naturalization there shall be no distinction of race or color.”
The motion was strenuously resisted, as ill-timed and out of place,—Mr. Edmunds, of the Judiciary Committee, remarking, that, although he reported the bill in question, and believed in it so far as he now understood, yet, under existing circumstances, he should vote against it as an amendment to the pending bill.
Mr. Sumner briefly responded:—
MR. PRESIDENT,—The remark of the Senator from Vermont [Mr. Edmunds] renders it necessary for me to make a brief statement. Some time during the last Congress I had the honor of introducing a bill to strike the word “white” from our Naturalization Laws. I tried to have it put on its passage. I was resisted then by the Senator from Vermont, who moved its reference to the Committee on the Judiciary. There it remained until near the expiration of that Congress, and was then reported adversely, too late for further action. During the third week of the present Congress, now more than a year ago, I introduced the same bill again. It remained in the room of the Judiciary Committee from March, 1869, until very recently, when it was reported favorably.
Such, Sir, have been my efforts to bring the Senate to a vote on this question. Never till this moment has it been in my power to have a vote on a question which I deem of vital importance. I have here on my table letters from different States,—from California, from Florida, from Virginia,—all showing a considerable number of colored persons—shall I say of African blood?—aliens under our laws, who cannot be naturalized on account of that word “white.”
Now, Sir, here is a practical grievance which needs a remedy. This is the first time that I have been able to obtain a vote upon it; and I should be unworthy of my seat here, if, because Senators rise and say they will vote it down on the ground that it is out of place, I should hesitate to persevere. Senators will vote as they please; I shall vote for it. The Senator from Illinois [Mr. Trumbull] properly says it is in place. Never was there a bill to which it was more germane. You are now revising the naturalization system, and I propose to strike out from that system a requirement disgraceful to this country and to this age. I propose to bring our system into harmony with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. The word “white” cannot be found in either of these two great title-deeds of this Republic. How can you place it in your statutes?
The motion was lost,—Yeas 22, Nays 23.