CHAPTER III.

TO PROTECT PERSONAL FREEDOM.

Mr. Wilson's bill.-Mr. Cowan's motion. Mr. Wilson's speech.-Speech of Mr. Johnson.-Speech of Mr. Cowan.-Speech of Mr. Wilson.-Remarks of Mr. Sherman, of Mr. Saulsbury, of Mr. Trumbull.-Speech of Mr. Sumner.-Remarks of Mr. Saulsbury.-Remarks of Mr. Cowan.Speech of Mr. Stewart.-Speech of Mr. Wilson.-Remarks of Mr. Stewart.-Speech of Mr. Wilson.-Speech of Mr. Saulsbury.

In the Senate, on the 1st day of the session, Mr. Wilson of Massachusetts introduced a bill to maintain the freedom of the inhabitants in the States declared in insurrection and rebellion, by the proclamation of the President of the 1st of July 1862. It provided "That all laws, statutes, acts, ordinances, rules and regulations, of any description whatsoever, heretofore in force or held valid in any of the States which were declared to be in insurrection and rebellion by the proclamation of the President of the first of July, eighteen hundred and sixtytwo, whereby or wherein any inequality of civil rights and immunities among the inhabitants of said States is recognized, authorized, established, or maintained, by reason or in consequence of any distinctions or differences of color, race, or descent, or by reason or in consequence of a previous condition or status of slavery or involuntary servitude of such inhabitants, be, and are hereby, declared null and void, and it shall be unlawful to institute,

make, ordain, or establish, in any of the aforesaid States declared to be in insurrection and rebellion, any such law, statute, act, ordinance, rule or regulation, or to enforce or to attempt to enforce the same."

On the 13th, the bill, on motion of Mr. Wilson, was taken up and Mr. Cowan of Penn. moved its reference to the Committee on the Judiciary, as he was opposed to its consideration at that time. Mr. Wilson desired immediate action. The bill he said was based upon the proclamation, declaring certain States in insurrection and rebellion, and the proclamation of emancipation which pledged the faith of the Government to maintain the freedom of the three and a half millions of persons declared free by that proclamation. He referred to the black codes of the rebel States, to the pending legislation in some of those States, and to the outrages perpetrated upon the freedmen, and called upon Congress as a matter of humanity, to protect those people by passing the bill and annulling those laws. "Let us," he said, "pass it at once, as an act of humanity and justice, and then we can calmly proceed to re-organize, re-construct, and bring into the Union these States; but while these cruelties and wrongs are being perpetrated, I feel that Congress and all the branches of Government are incurring the indignation of men and the judgments of Almighty God. I offer this bill as a measure imperatively demanded at our hands. I believe

if it should pass, it will receive the sanction of nineteen-twentieths of the loyal people of the country. Men may differ about the power or expediency of giving them the right of suffrage; but I cannot comprehend how any humane, just, and Christian man can for a moment permit the laws that are on the statute-books of the States in rebellion, and the laws that are now pending before their Legislatures, to be executed upon men whom we have declared to be free.

Mr. Johnson of Maryland advocated its reference to the Judiciary Committee. He was sure that no member of the Senate desired any injustice to be perpetrated which the laws of the United States could prevent, but he did not know that there was any more pressing need for extraordinary legislation to prevent outrages upon the black race in the Southern States than to prevent outrage in the loyal States. "Crimes," he said, "are being perpetrated every day in the very justly esteemed State from which the honorable member comes. Hardly a paper fails to give us an account of some most atrocious and horrible crime. Murders shock the sense of that community and the sense of the United States very often; and it is not peculiar to Massachusetts. Moral by her education, and loving freedom and hating injustice as much as the people of any other State, she yet is unable to prevent a violation of every principle of human rights, but we are not for that reason to legislate for her."

Mr. Cowan said he had not moved the reference because he did not sympathize with the design or desire the attainment of the end contemplated. He favored opening the courts of the country to everybody, Jews, Gypsies, Chinese, and Negroes, all men of every color and condition, but he doubted if it could be done by legislation. By an amendment to the Constitution it could be done, and he was in favor of that measure.

Mr. Wilson would neither cast imputations upon the people of the rebel States, nor indulge in harsh criticism upon them. "I have never entertained," he said, "a feeling of bitterness or of unkindness to the southern people; notwithstanding all that has taken place, I have always regarded those people as my countrymen deluded and wrong, but still my countrymen. Nor do I wish to impose upon them anything that would be degrading or unmanly; but I wish to protect all the people there, of every race, the poorest and the humblest; and while I would not degrade any of them neither would I allow them to degrade others.

To turn these freedmen over to the tender mercies of men who hate them for their fidelity to the country, is a crime that will bring the judgment of Heaven upon us.

The evidence is before us; we cannot shut our eyes to facts. The condition of the freedmen is worse to-day than on the day General Lee surrendered to General Grant. Their spirits are less buoy

the

purpose

ant; they are less hopeful, less confident of their future; and we ought in Congress to say that these laws shall never more be enforced, and that these States shall not have power to pass laws to oppress men whom we have declared free, and to whom we have given the plighted faith of the Republic." Mr. Sherman of Ohio sympathized heartily with of the bill, for he believed it to be the duty of Congress to give ample protection to the freedmen in all their natural rights. It was simply a question of time and manner. He believed it would be wiser to postpone all action upon the subject until the proclamation of the Secretary of State should announce that the Constitutional Amendment was a part of the Supreme law of the land. Then there would be no doubt of the power of Congress to pass the bill and make it general in its application.

Mr. Saulsbury of Delaware wished the country to note the extraordinary and alarming doctrines avowed in the debate. He denied that the adoption of the Constitutional Amendment gave Congress "power to enter the States and legislate for the people of the States." Mr. Trumbull of Illinois did not intend to discuss the bill; it was one of too much importance to be passed without reference to a committee. "I trust," he said, "this bill may be referred, because I think that a bill of this character should not pass without deliberate consideration and without going to some of the committees of the