Resolved, That, in the changing condition of the relations between Mexico and the Allied Powers, and in the absence of precise information, it is impossible for the Senate to advise the President with regard to all the terms of a treaty with Mexico, so as to supersede the exercise of considerable discretion on the part of our Minister there, under instructions from the President, but that, in answer to the two several Messages of the President, the Senate expresses the following conclusions.
First. The Senate approves the terms of the instructions to our Minister at Mexico contained in the despatch bearing date September 2, 1861.
Secondly. The Senate does not advise a treaty in conformity with the project communicated by our Minister to Mexico in his despatch of November 29, 1861, as the same fails to secure in any way the application of the money to the demands of the Allied Powers, or either of them, and therefore can be in no respect satisfactory to them.
Thirdly. The Senate advises a treaty with Mexico providing for the assumption of the interest on the debt from Mexico to the Allied Powers during a limited period of time, and also for the payment of certain immediate claims by these Powers, the whole liability to be kept within the smallest possible sum; it being understood that the same shall be accepted by the Allied Powers in present satisfaction of their claims, so that they shall withdraw from Mexico.[206] And it shall be secured by such mortgage or pledge as is most practicable, without any territorial acquisition or dismemberment of Mexico.
The Resolution reported by the Committee was amended in the Senate by striking out all after the word “Resolved,” and inserting in lieu thereof as follows: “That, in reply to the two several Messages of the President with regard to a treaty with Mexico, the Senate express the opinion that it is not advisable to negotiate a treaty that will require the United States to assume any portion of the principal or interest of the debt of Mexico, or that will require the concurrence of European powers.”
Motion and Remarks in the Senate, February 25, 1862.
February 25th, the Senate having under consideration a bill, reported by Mr. Trumbull, of Illinois, to confiscate the property and free the slaves of Rebels, an incidental question arose on the recognition of the Fugitive Slave Bill, when Mr. Sumner spoke as follows.
I desire to move an amendment, which I believe will carry out the idea of the Senator from Kansas. I concur with that Senator in all he has said in relation to the Fugitive Slave Bill. I have never called it a law, hardly an act. I regard it simply as a bill, still a bill, having no authority under the Constitution. There is no unsoundness in that instrument out of which such excrescence can grow. That is my idea; I believe it is the idea of the Senator from Kansas. Therefore I concur with him in any criticism upon legislation seeming even in the most indirect way to recognize the existence of a thing which can have, thank God, under the Constitution, when properly interpreted, no legal existence. Therefore, if the language introduced in this bill has the effect which the Senator supposes, if it does in any way recognize the existence of that bill, certainly I am against it; and when I listened to the remarks of the Senator, and critically examined the language, I must say I feared that there was some implication or other on our part in favor of that bill. I therefore propose an amendment which shall remove all such implication or possibility of recognition on our part, while, at the same time, I believe it will carry out completely, adequately, in every respect, the idea of the Senator from Illinois in the measure now under consideration. The language here is as follows.
“And whenever any person claiming to be entitled to the service or labor of any other person shall seek to enforce such claim, he shall, in the first instance, and before any order for the surrender of the person whose service is claimed, establish not only his title to such service, as now provided by law, but also that he is, and has been, during the existing Rebellion, loyal to the Government of the United States.”
I propose to strike out all after the word “before,” in the sixteenth line, down to the word “that,” in the nineteenth line, being these words,—
“any order for the surrender of the person whose service is claimed, establish not only his title to such service, as now provided by law, but also”—
and instead thereof insert—
“proceeding with the trial of his claim, satisfactorily prove”—
so that the sentence will read,—
“he shall, in the first instance, and before proceeding with the trial of his claim, satisfactorily prove that he is, and has been, during the existing Rebellion, loyal to the Government of the United States.”
This language, as I believe, carries out completely the idea of the Senator from Illinois in the measure before us. I think it also carries out the idea of the Senator from Kansas. It gives all proper efficacy to the language of the statute; at the same time it does not compromise any of us, in this age of Christian light, by a new recognition, direct or indirect, of the Fugitive Slave Bill.
Mr. Cowan. How long will that provision last?
Mr. Sumner. As long as this statute lasts.
Mr. Cowan. Then a person claiming one hundred years from this time would open his cause by showing that he was loyal during this Rebellion!
Mr. Sumner. I hope so, certainly,—forever.
The amendment was agreed to. The bill never became a law. Another bill on the same subject from the House of Representatives was adopted, with the following title, “To suppress Insurrection, to punish Treason and Rebellion, to seize and confiscate the property of Rebels, and for other purposes,” and approved by the President, July 17, 1862.[207]
Letter to the German Republican Central Committee of New York, February 25, 1862.
Mr. Sumner’s letter is in reply to the following resolutions, communicated to him by the Secretary of the Committee.
“The German Republican Central Committee of the City and County of New York, at their regular monthly meeting, held at head-quarters, February 14th, 1862, unanimously
“Resolved, That the thanks of this Committee are hereby tendered to the Hon. Charles Sumner, United States Senator from Massachusetts, for the ‘Resolutions declaratory of the relations between the United States and the territory once occupied by certain States, and now usurped by pretended Governments without constitutional or legal right,’ introduced by him into the United States Senate.
“Resolved, That we consider these Resolutions as embodying sound constitutional doctrine, conclusive logical argumentation, and the only true basis upon which the Union can be permanently reconstructed.”
Senate Chamber, February 25, 1862.
SIR,—I have had the honor to receive the Resolutions unanimously adopted by the German Republican Central Committee of New York, declaring their adhesion to certain principles presented by me to the Senate on the relation between the United States and the territory once occupied by certain States, and now usurped by pretended Governments without constitutional or legal right.
I pray you to let the Committee know my gratitude for the prompt and generous support they have given to these principles. Our German fellow-citizens, throughout the long contest with Slavery, have not only been earnest and true, but have always seen the great question in its just character and importance. Without them our cause would not have triumphed at the last Presidential election. It is only natural, therefore, that they should continue to guard and advance this cause.
Where so many hesitate and fail, it is most gratifying to find a Committee so distinguished as yours ready again to enter into the contest for Human Rights.
Accept the assurance of the respect with which I have the honor to be, Sir,
Faithfully yours,
Charles Sumner.
Wm. M. Wermerskirch, Esq.,
Corresponding Secretary of the German
Republican Central Committee, New York.
Letter to a Public Meeting at the Cooper Institute, New York, March 6, 1862.
This meeting was in pursuance of the following call.
“All citizens of New York who rejoice in the downfall of treason, and are in favor of sustaining the National Government in the most energetic exercise of all the rights and powers of war, in the prosecution of its purpose to destroy the cause of such treason, and to recover the territories heretofore occupied by certain States recently overturned and wholly subverted as members of the Federal Union by a hostile and traitorous power calling itself ‘The Confederate States,’ and all who concur in the conviction that said traitorous power, instead of achieving the destruction of the Nation, has thereby only destroyed Slavery, and that it is now the sacred duty of the National Government, as the only means of securing permanent peace, national unity and well-being, to provide against its restoration, and to establish in said territories Democratic Institutions founded upon the principles of the Great Declaration, ‘That all Men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with the unalienable rights of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness,’ are requested to meet at the Cooper Institute, on the sixth day of March, at eight o’clock, p. m., to express to the President and Congress their views as to the measures proper to be adopted in the existing emergency.”
On the day of this great meeting the President communicated to Congress his Message on Compensated Emancipation, which was his first public step in the transcendent cause.
The President of the meeting was Hon. James A. Hamilton, the venerable son of Alexander Hamilton, who agreed with Mr. Sumner in regard to the death of Slavery and the power of Congress. There was also a distinguished list of Vice-Presidents, with George Bancroft at the head. There were letters from Preston King, Senator of New York, Henry Wilson, Senator of Massachusetts, David Wilmot, Senator of Pennsylvania, George W. Julian, Representative in Congress from Indiana, and from Mr. Sumner. Among the orators were the President of the meeting, Mr. Martin F. Conway, Representative in Congress from Kansas, and Carl Schurz, who had recently returned from his Spanish mission.
The report in the New York Tribune has the caption, “The Suicide of Slavery.—New York for a Free Republic.”
Mr. Sumner’s letter was a vindication of his Resolutions.
Senate Chamber, March 5, 1862.
DEAR SIR,—Never, except when suffering from positive disability, have I allowed myself to be absent from my seat in the Senate for a single day, and now, amid the extraordinary duties of the present session, I am more than ever bound by this inflexible rule. If anything could tempt me to depart from it, I should find apology in the invitation with which you honor me.
The meeting called under such distinguished auspices is needed at this moment as a rally to those true principles by which alone this great Rebellion can be permanently suppressed. I should be truly happy to take part in it, and try to impart something of the strength of my own convictions.
It is only necessary that people should see things as they are, and they will easily see how to deal with them. This is the obvious condition of practical action. Now, beyond all question, Slavery is the great original malefactor and omnipresent traitor,—more deadly to the Union than all Rebel leaders, civil or military. Therefore, as you are in earnest against the Rebellion, you will not spare Slavery. And happily the way is plain, so that it cannot be mistaken.
Look throughout the whole Rebel territory, and you do not find a single officer legally qualified to discharge any function of Government. By the Constitution of the United States, “members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by oath or affirmation to support this Constitution.” But these functionaries have all renounced allegiance to the United States, and taken a new oath to support the Rebel Government, so that at this moment they cannot be recognized as constitutionally empowered to act. But a State is known only through its functionaries, constitutionally empowered to act; and since all these have ceased to exist, the State, with its unnatural institutions, has ceased to exist also, or it exists only in the lifeless parchments by which its Government was originally established. The action of these functionaries was impotent to transfer its territory to a pretended confederation. To destroy the State was all they could do.
In the absence of any legitimate authority in this territory, Congress must assume the necessary jurisdiction. Not to do so is abandonment of urgent duty. Some propose a temporary military government; others propose a temporary provisional government, with limited powers. These all concede to Congress jurisdiction over the territory; nor can such jurisdiction be justly questioned. But I cannot doubt that it is better to follow the authoritative precedents of our history, and proceed as Congress is accustomed to proceed in the organization and government of other territories. This is simple.
And as to Slavery, if there be any doubt that it died constitutionally and legally with the State from which it drew its malignant breath, it might be prohibited by the enactment of that same Jeffersonian ordinance which originally established Freedom throughout the great Northwest.
Accept my thanks for the honor you have done me, and believe me, dear Sir,
Faithfully yours,
Charles Sumner.
Among the resolutions adopted at the meeting was one calling for the overthrow of Slavery,—“because the supreme jurisdiction of the National Constitution over all the territories now occupied by the Rebel States must be held to be exclusive of the traitorous Rebel authorities therein established, by virtue of which alone Slavery now therein exists, and that wherever the Constitution has exclusive jurisdiction it ordains Liberty and not Slavery.”
These were forwarded to Mr. Sumner by one of the secretaries, with the following letter.
“I hand herewith a copy of Resolutions adopted, amid the wildest enthusiasm, and without a breath of dissent, by an assembly of some three thousand of our prominent citizens, last evening, at the Cooper Institute Mass Meeting. No such audience has been convened in this city (except only the Union Square meeting of last April) since your address in July, 1860. Nor has so demonstrative a gathering been seen here since that time. I say this to give you an idea of the character and popularity of the affair. I hand the Resolutions to you for personal presentation to the President (and to Congress, if your views are not opposed to such a course), preferring to secure their reaching the President through you as a medium of communication.”
Mr. Sumner had pleasure in presenting them to the President.
Bill in the Senate, March 18, 1862, and Incidents.
March 18, 1862, Mr. Sumner asked, and by unanimous consent obtained, leave to introduce a bill to remove all disqualification of color in carrying the mails, which was read twice by its title and referred to the Committee on Post-Offices and Post-Roads.
The bill in its operative words was as follows.
That, from and after the passage of this Act, no person, by reason of color, shall be disqualified from employment in carrying the mails; and all Acts and parts of Acts establishing such disqualification, including especially the seventh section of the Act of March 3, 1825, are hereby repealed.
March 27th, the bill was reported to the Senate by Mr. Collamer, of Vermont, Chairman of the Committee, without amendment.
The existing law was as follows:—
“That no other than a free white person shall be employed in conveying the mail, and any contractor who shall employ or permit any other than a free white person to convey the mail shall for every such offence incur a penalty of twenty dollars.”[208]
This passed the Senate March 1, 1825, and the House March 2, without a division. The first suggestion of this measure was as early as 1802, by Gideon Granger, Postmaster-General, in a communication addressed to Hon. James Jackson, Senator from Georgia, which, it will be seen, was private in character.
“General Post-Office, March 23, 1802.
“Sir,—An objection exists against employing negroes, or people of color, in transporting the public mails, of a nature too delicate to ingraft into a report which may become public, yet too important to be omitted or passed over without full consideration. I therefore take the liberty of making to the Committee, through you, a private representation on that subject.…
“Everything which tends to increase their knowledge of natural rights, of men and things, or that affords them an opportunity of associating, acquiring, and communicating sentiments, and of establishing a chain or line of intelligence, must increase your hazard, because it increases their means of effecting their object.
“The most active and intelligent are employed as post-riders. These are the most ready to learn and the most able to execute. By travelling from day to day, and hourly mixing with people, they must, they will, acquire information. They will learn that a man’s rights do not depend on his color. They will in time become teachers to their brethren. They become acquainted with each other on the line. Whenever the body, or a portion of them, wish to act, they are an organized corps, circulating our intelligence openly, their own privately.”[209]
This communication, which Mr. Sumner laid before the Committee, was the argument on which he relied.
April 11th, the bill was considered in the Senate, on motion of Mr. Sumner, and passed without amendment or debate: Yeas 24, Nays 11.
A correspondent of the Boston Journal remarked at the time:—
“This is the first time, within the recollection of your correspondent, that any bill having the negro in it, directly or indirectly, has been passed by the Senate without debate. What a good time is coming, when the negro questions shall all have been legislated upon, and when the African race will no longer be a bone of contention in our legislative halls!”
The bill was less fortunate in the House of Representatives, where, May 20th, Mr. Colfax, of Indiana, reported it from the Post-Office Committee with the recommendation that it do not pass. In explaining the reasons for this report, he referred to the original Act of Congress establishing the disqualification, and said:—
“That law has been on the statute-book for more than a third of a century. Among all the petitions presented during that time to this House and the Senate, from people in all sections of the country, there has not been, so far as I have been able to discover, a single petition from any person, white or black, male or female, asking for a repeal or modification of this law. It has remained there by common consent until the present time; and therefore I think it unwise and inexpedient to pass the bill at the present time, not being demanded by public opinion.
“In the second place, the repeal of this bill does not affect exclusively the blacks of the country, as generally supposed. It will throw open the business of mail-contracting, and of thus becoming officers of the Post-Office Department, not only to blacks, but also to the Indian tribes, civilized and uncivilized, and to the Chinese, who have come in such large numbers to the Pacific coast.…
“By this bill, if it is to pass, you would allow all over the South the employment by the slaveholder of his slaves to carry the mail, and to receive compensation for the labor of such slaves out of the Federal Treasury. By the present law not a dollar is ever paid out of the Post-Office Treasury to any slaveholder for the labor of his slave.…
“Mr. Speaker, I am furthermore authorized by the Postmaster-General to say that he has not recommended the passage of this bill, nor does he regard it as promotive of the interests of the Department. I cannot find that it is asked for by any official or private citizen throughout the length and breadth of this land.”
To these objections he added, that it was necessary to have testimony by which you can convict mail depredators; and “in some of the States Indians and negroes, and in California and Oregon the Chinese also, are not allowed by the statutes of the State to give testimony in the courts against white persons.”
Mr. Dawes, of Massachusetts, inquired of Mr. Colfax, “whether he supposes depredators upon the mails are tried in the State courts, or whether they are tried in the United States courts, and if the latter, whether he and I do not make the laws of the United States and the courts of the United States, prescribing who shall testify and who shall not?”
“Mr. Colfax. Not being a lawyer, and not understanding, therefore, all the rules which govern the proceedings of the courts, I, however, say that I am informed by those who are lawyers that the rules of evidence in force in the States respectively are adopted by the United States courts in such States. And the gentleman from Massachusetts, who is a lawyer, ought to have known the fact, and, knowing it, ought not to have asked me such a question.
“Mr. Dawes. The gentleman from Indiana has not quite answered me.”[210]
Mr. Colfax moved to lay the bill on the table, which was ordered, May 21st: Yeas 82, Nays 45. So the bill was lost.
In the next Congress it was again introduced by Mr. Sumner.
A letter from William C. Nell, of Boston, well known for his volume on “The Colored Patriots of the Revolution,” shows how a single individual suffered under this discrimination of color.
“Please accept my sincere thanks for your efforts to remove the disqualification of color in mail-carrying.
“Mr. Phillips conveyed to me the substance of information imparted by you, to wit, the postponement of the bill in the House. To me the disappointment is heavy, presuming said action to be a finality, at least for this session, and the next one is not likely to be as liberal.
“I never had more desire or more need of chances to earn money than now, and never were my opportunities so small.”
The existing law was general, and Mr. Nell could not be a letter-carrier in Boston.
Speech in the Senate, on the Bill for the Abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia, March 31, 1862.
And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you.
St. Paul, 2 Corinthians, XII. 15.
Ornatus sacramentorum redemtio captivorum est.
St. Ambrose, De Officiis Ministrorum, Lib. II. Cap. 28.
Thy ransom paid, which man from death redeems.
Milton, Paradise Lost, Book XII. 424.
Let me observe, fellow-citizens, that this enterprise of unparalleled magnitude and importance, the extirpation of Slavery from the face of the earth, of which the Abolition of Slavery throughout this Union is the principal branch, and the Abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia a minute ramification, is an effort to purify and redeem the human race from the sorest evil with which they are afflicted in the mortal stage of their existence.—John Quincy Adams, Speech at Bridgewater, Mass., November 6, 1844.
In activity against Slavery Mr. Sumner did not confine himself to public effort. By writing and personal appeal he was always doing. The letter to Governor Andrew, already given,[211] not only shows his exertion in that important quarter, but affords a glimpse of his relations with the President, whom he reports as saying that there was a difference between them of a month or six weeks only. In point of fact, Mr. Sumner found the difference much greater.
On his arrival at Washington, previously to the opening of Congress, he lost no time in seeing the President, who read to him the draught of his Annual Message. Mr. Sumner was disheartened by the absence of any recommendation or statement on Emancipation, and especially by what the President told him of his striking from Mr. Cameron’s Report a strong passage on this subject. But he was entirely satisfied that the President was really against Slavery, and was determined to do his duty. From that time Mr. Sumner saw him constantly, never missing an opportunity of pressing action. Not a week passed without one or more interviews. At the same time, Mr. Chase was pressing, also, and the two interchanged reports with regard to his state of mind. During this time he was watching the Border States, and communicating with friends in Kentucky. For Mr. Sumner this was an anxious period.
At last, early in the morning of March 6th, he received a request from the President to come to him as soon as convenient after breakfast. Mr. Sumner hastened, and on his arrival the President said that he had something to read; and he then read the draught of the Special Message of that date, proposing Compensated Emancipation.
Mr. Sumner never had strong faith in the practicability of Compensated Emancipation on a large scale, and was always against Gradual Emancipation; but he welcomed any step towards Emancipation, being assured, that, when once begun in any way, it must proceed to the complete establishment of Freedom. In the conversation that ensued he began with a mild protest against gradualism in dealing with wrong, but said nothing against compensation. Taking the draught into his hands, and reading it over slowly and carefully, he could not but object to a certain brief paragraph, which he thought might be turned against us by the other side, and he asked permission to rewrite it, so as to remove the ground of possible objection. While occupied in this attempt with his pencil, the President said: “Don’t trouble yourself; I will strike it all out”: and it was struck out. As Mr. Sumner continued for some time studying the paper, the President at length interrupted him in a familiar, pleasant way, saying: “Enough; you must go, or the boys[212] won’t have time to copy it.” He then said that he should communicate the Message to the Senate that day. It was communicated accordingly.
Before he left, Mr. Sumner told the President, that, though knowing that the Message was coming, he should stand aside and leave to others the making of the proper motion with regard to it. As he anticipated, nothing was ever done under it beyond the adoption by the two Houses of the joint resolution recommended: “That the United States ought to coöperate with any State which may adopt gradual abolishment of Slavery, giving to such State pecuniary aid, to be used by such State in its discretion, to compensate for the inconveniences, public and private, produced by such change of system.” But the Message gave public assurance that the President was occupied with the great question, and its concluding words sank into the popular heart. “In full view,” he said, “of my great responsibility to my God and to my country, I earnestly beg the attention of Congress and the people to the subject.” Many breathed freer.
Meanwhile a bill was introduced into the Senate by Mr. Wilson, providing for Emancipation in the District of Columbia. This was entitled, “For the release of certain persons held to service or labor in the District of Columbia.” It provided for a commission to appraise the claims on account of the slaves liberated, limiting their allowance in the aggregate to an amount equal to three hundred dollars a slave, and appropriated one million dollars to pay loyal owners; to which was added, on motion of Mr. Doolittle, one hundred thousand dollars for the colonization of slaves who desired to emigrate to Hayti or Liberia.
This bill was introduced December 16th, referred to the Committee on the District of Columbia December 20th, reported with amendments by Mr. Morrill of Maine February 13th, taken up for consideration March 12th, and proceeded with to its final passage April 3d: Yeas 29, Nays 14.
April 11th, it passed the House: Yeas 94, Nays 44.
April 16th, it was approved by the President, who sent a Message expressing gratification that “the two principles of compensation and colonization are both recognized and practically applied in the Act.”[213]
In the interval between the passage of the bill and its approval by the President there was concern with many lest it should fail in his hands. During this painful suspense, Mr. Sumner visited the President, and said: “Do you know who at this moment is the largest slave-holder in this country? It is Abraham Lincoln; for he holds all the three thousand slaves of the District, which is more than any other person in the country holds.” He then expressed astonishment that the President could postpone the approval a single night.
Mr. Sumner spoke, March 31st, treating the case as of ransom rather than compensation. He was willing to vote money for Emancipation, but would not recognize the title of the master implied in compensation. The distinction facilitated a bolder dealing with the question, which was needed in the Rebel States.
This method was noticed especially by the New York Tribune.
“The speech of Mr. Sumner in the Senate on the Bill for the Abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia is a statesmanlike view of the subject, which should commend it to the impartial consideration of the country. He addressed himself, not to a discussion of the character of Slavery itself, but simply to its recognition in the national capital, and advocates its removal because it is not in accordance with the Constitution. On this point his reasoning is conclusive, and is an appeal to the national self-respect which ought not to be disregarded. Not less forcible is the ground he takes on the question of compensation. Viewing it rather in the light of ransom for the slave than compensation to the master for a right surrendered, he upholds it as a duty springing from the complicity of the whole country in the existence heretofore of the system in the domain exclusively under national jurisdiction. Common sense and a sense of justice to all parties alike commend such a treatment of the subject.”
Lewis Tappan, the early and most watchful Abolitionist, wrote from New York:—
“I have just read the speech again in pamphlet form. Your able efforts in procuring the passage of this bill add another link to the golden chain by which you are bound to the good people of my native State, and, as I believe, to posterity.”
Orestes A. Brownson, able and indefatigable with his pen, recognized the idea of ransom.
“I thank you for your able speech on the Ransom of the Slaves in the District of Columbia. The term Ransom is happily chosen, and meets many scruples.”
Frederick Douglass wrote with the effusion of a freeman once a slave.
“I want only a moment of your time to give you my thanks for your great speech in the Senate on the Bill for the Abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia. I trust I am not dreaming; but the events taking place seem like a dream. If Slavery is really dead in the District of Columbia, and merely waiting for the ceremony of ‘Dust to dust’ by the President, to you more than to any other American statesman belongs the honor of this great triumph of justice, liberty, and sound policy. I rejoice for my freed brothers,—and, Sir, I rejoice for you. You have lived to strike down in Washington the power that lifted the bludgeon against your own free voice. I take nothing from the good and brave men who have coöperated with you. There is, or ought to be, a head to every body; and whether you will or not, the slaveholder and the slave look to you as the best embodiment of the Antislavery idea now in the councils of the nation. May God sustain you!”
The speech, while addressed to the particular circumstances of the District of Columbia, presented considerations applicable to Slavery everywhere. It was a blow at Slavery outside the District, as well as inside, while it illustrated the power and duty of Congress over this subject.
Before Mr. Sumner began, Mr. Davis, of Kentucky, read the following interrogatories.
“It may be that the speech which the honorable Senator intends to pronounce may cover the points which I have embodied in some questions to him. If not, I should take it very kindly, if the honorable Senator will answer the questions. I will read them.
“1. Are slaves in the District of Columbia, and in the slaveholding States, legally the subject of property?
“2. Has Congress the power to deprive the owners of lands and houses and lots situated in the District of Columbia of that property?
“3. What law or laws give the owners of real estate in the District of Columbia their right to such property? Inform us where such law or laws may be found and read.
“4. What law or laws give a different right and title to slaves and to real estate? Where can such law or laws be found?
“5. Is or not the Constitution, and the laws of the United States made in pursuance thereof, and all the treaties made under the authority of the United States, the supreme law of the land, which all persons, without any exception whatever, are bound to obey?
“6. Is or not the Supreme Court of the United States the proper and final tribunal to judge and determine all questions, whether in law or equity, under the Constitution and laws of the United States?”
The answers to these interrogatories, so far as they bear on the main question, will be found in the course of the speech.
MR. PRESIDENT,—With unspeakable delight I hail this measure and the prospect of its speedy adoption. Though only a small instalment of that great debt to an enslaved race which we all owe, yet will it be recognized in history as a victory of humanity. At home, throughout our own country, it will be welcomed with gratitude, while abroad it will quicken the hopes of all who love Freedom. Liberal institutions will gain everywhere by the abolition of Slavery at the national capital. Nobody can read that slaves were once sold in the markets of Rome, beneath the eyes of the Sovereign Pontiff, without confessing the scandal to religion, even in a barbarous age; and nobody can hear that slaves are now sold in the markets of Washington, beneath the eyes of the President, without confessing the scandal to liberal institutions. For the sake of the national name, if not for the sake of justice, let the scandal cease.
In early discussions of this question many topics were introduced that obtain little attention now. It was part of the tactics of Slavery to claim absolute immunity. Indeed, without such immunity it had small chance to exist. Such a wrong, so utterly outrageous, could find safety only where protected from inquiry. Therefore Slave-Masters always insisted that petitions against its maintenance at the national capital were not to be received, that it was unconstitutional to touch it even here within the exclusive jurisdiction of Congress, and that, if it were touched, it should be only under the auspices of the neighboring States of Virginia and Maryland. On these points elaborate arguments were constructed, useless to consider now. Whatever the opinions of individual Senators, the judgment of the country is fixed. The right of petition, first vindicated by the matchless perseverance of John Quincy Adams, is now beyond question, and the constitutional power of Congress is hardly less free from doubt. It is enough to say on this point, that, if Congress cannot abolish Slavery here, then there is no power anywhere to abolish it here, and this wrong will endure always, lasting as the capital itself.
As the moment of justice approaches, we are called to meet a different objection, inspired by generous sentiments. It is urged, that, since there can be no such thing as property in man, especially within the exclusive jurisdiction of Congress, therefore all held as slaves at the national capital are justly entitled to freedom without price or compensation of any kind,—or, at least, that any money paid should be distributed according to an account stated between master and slave. If this question were determined according to divine justice, so far as we may be permitted to contemplate such a judgment, it is obvious that nothing can be due to the master, and that any money paid belongs rather to the slave, who for generations has been despoiled of every right and possession. If we undertake to audit this fearful account, pray what sum shall be allowed for the prolonged torments of the lash? what treasure shall be voted to the slave for wife ravished from his side, for children stolen, for knowledge shut out, and for all the fruits of labor wrested from him and his fathers? No such account can be stated. It is impossible. Once begin the inquiry, and all must go to the slave. It only remains for Congress, anxious to secure this great boon, and unwilling to embarrass or jeopard it, to act practically, according to its finite powers, in the light of existing usage, and even existing prejudice, under which these odious relations have assumed the form of law; nor can we hesitate at any forbearance or sacrifice, provided Freedom is established without delay.
Testimony and eloquence have been accumulated against Slavery; but on this occasion I shall confine myself precisely to the argument for the ransom of slaves at the National Capital; although such is Slavery that it is impossible to consider it in any single aspect without confronting its whole many-sided wickedness, while the broad, diversified field of remedy is naturally open to review. At some other time the great question of emancipation in the States may be more fitly considered, together with those other questions where the Senator from Wisconsin [Mr. Doolittle] has allowed himself to take sides so earnestly,—whether there is an essential incompatibility between the two races, so that they cannot live together except as master and slave? and whether the freedmen shall be encouraged to exile themselves to other lands, or rather continue their labor here at home? Enough for the present to consider Slavery at the National Capital. And here we are met by two inquiries, so frankly addressed to the Senate by the clear-headed Senator from Kansas [Mr. Pomeroy]: first, Has Slavery any constitutional existence at the national capital? and, secondly, Shall money be paid to secure its abolition? The answer to these two inquiries will make our duty clear. If Slavery has no constitutional existence here, then more than ever is Congress bound to interfere, even with money; for the scandal must be peremptorily stopped, without any postponement, or any consultation of the people on a point which is not within their power.
It may be said, that, whether Slavery be constitutional or not, nevertheless it exists, and therefore this inquiry is superfluous. True, it exists as a monstrous fact; but it is none the less important to consider its origin, that we may understand how, assuming the form of law, it was able to shelter itself beneath the protecting shield of the Constitution. When we see clearly that it is without any such just protection, that the law which declares it is baseless, and that in all its pretensions it is essentially and utterly brutal and unnatural, we shall have less consideration for the Slave Tyranny, which, in satisfied pride, has thus far—not without compunction at different moments—ruled the national capital, reducing all things here, public opinion, social life, and even the administration of justice, to its own degraded standard, so as to fulfil the curious words of an old English poet:—