Unquestionably the Constitution supplies the machinery by which these great rights are maintained. I say it supplies the machinery; but I insist, against the Senator, and against all others, that every word in the Constitution must be interpreted by these primal, self-evident truths,—not merely in a case that is doubtful, as the Senator says, but constantly and always, so that the two shall perpetually go together, as the complement of each other; but the Declaration has a supremacy grander than that of the Constitution, more sacred and inviolable, for it gives the law to the Constitution itself. Every word in the Constitution is subordinate to the Declaration.
Before the war, when Slavery prevailed, the rule was otherwise, naturally; but, as I have already said, the grandest victory of the war was the establishment of the new rule by which the Declaration became supreme as interpreter of the Constitution. Take, therefore, any phrase in the Constitution, take any power, and you are to bring it all in subordination to those supreme primal truths. Every power is but the agent by which they are maintained; and when you come to those several specific powers abolishing slavery, defining citizenship, securing citizens in their privileges and immunities, guarding them against any denial of the equal protection of the laws, and then again securing them the right to vote, every one of these safeguards must be interpreted so as best to maintain Equal Rights. Such I assert to be Constitutional Law.
Sir, I cannot see it otherwise. I cannot see this mighty Magna Charta degraded to the level of a casual letter or an item of history. Why, Sir, it is the baptismal vow of the Republic; it is the pledge which our fathers took upon their lips when they asked the fellowship of mankind as a free and independent nation. It is loftier than the Constitution, which is a convenience only, while this is a guide. Let no one smile when it is invoked. Our fathers did not smile on the great day. It was with them an earnest word, opening the way to victory, and to that welcome in the human family with which our nation has been blest. Without these words what would have been the National Declaration? How small! Simply a dissolution of the tie between the Colonies and the mother country; a cutting of the cord,—that is all. Ah! it was something grander, nobler. It was the promulgation of primal truths, not only for the good of our own people, but for the good of all mankind. Such truths can never die. It is for us to see that they are recognized without delay in the administration of our own Government.
Mr. Carpenter replied at some length. Mr. Sumner followed.
SECOND REPLY TO MR. CARPENTER.
The Senator insists that I am willing to disregard the Constitution. On what ground can the Senator make any such assertion? Does he suppose that his oath is stronger with him than mine with me?
Mr. Carpenter. Will the Senator allow me to answer him?
Mr. Sumner. Certainly.
Mr. Carpenter. I assume that, for the reason that when we come here to discuss a constitutional question, the power of Congress to do a certain thing, the Senator flies from the Constitution and goes to the Declaration of Independence, and says that is the source of power.