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UNITED STATES. 



soldiers was saved from disruption, that, as this 

 country has made all free, the same country has de- 

 termined that every one should have in his hands 

 the ballot to protect that country. Opposedj as it 

 has been, in its progress to this final culmination, it 

 will live in all history as the Magna Charta of this 

 Republic of the United States. 



Senator Sumner, of Massachusetts, was then 

 waited upon, and, for the first time in his life, 

 appeared and responded on such an occasion. 

 He commenced by congratulating them on 

 the great results accomplished in securing 

 equal rights for all, which for years had been 

 his hope and object to see the promise of the 

 Declaration of Independence become a reality. 

 He would not say that it was entirely accom- 

 plished, for it was not. It was his nature to 

 think more of what remains to be done than 

 of what has been done more of duties than 

 of triumphs. He had only just heard from 

 Philadelphia of a decision in a court of justice 

 that a colored person of foreign birth could 

 not be naturalized in this country because of 

 color. This is in accordance with an old stat- 

 ute a relic of the days of slavery. He had 

 now a bill before the Judiciary Committee of 

 the Senate striking the word "white" from 

 our naturalization laws. It remains further 

 that equal rights shall be received in all the 

 public conveyances in the United States, that 

 no one be excluded therefrom by reason of 

 color. It also remains, he said, that you here 

 in "Washington shall complete this equality of 

 rights in your common schools. You all go 

 together to vote, and any person may find a 

 seat in the Senate of the United States, but 

 the child is shut out of the common school on 

 account of color. This discrimination must 

 be abolished. All schools must be open to all 

 without distinction of color. In accomplish- 

 ing this you will work, not only for your- 

 selves, but will set an example for all the land, 

 and most especially for the South. Only in 

 this way can your school system be extended 

 for the equal good of all; and now, as you 

 have at heart the education of your children, 

 that they should grow up in that knowledge 

 of equal rights, so essential for their protec- 

 tion to the world, it is your bounden duty here 

 in Washington to see that this is accomplished. 

 Your school system must be founded on equal 

 rights, so that no one shall be excluded on ac- 

 count of color. 



Subsequently, Chief-Justice Chase, in reply 

 to an invitation by the colored people of Cin- 

 cinnati to attend the celebration of the adoption 

 of the amendment, sent the following letter: 

 .WASHINGTON, March 30, 1870. 



Gentlemen : Accept my thanks for the invitation 

 you have tendered me, in behalf of the colored 

 people of Cincinnati, to attend their celebration of 

 the ratification of the fifteenth amendment. My 

 duties here will not permit me to be present except 

 by good-will and good wishes. 



Almost a quarter of a century has passed since 

 some of you, probably, heard me declare, on the 6th 

 of May, 1845, in an assembly composed chiefly of the 

 people whom you now represent, that all illegal dis- 

 tinctions between individuals of the same commu- 



nity founded on any such circumstances as color, 

 origin, and the like, are hostile to the genius of our 

 institutions and incompatible with the true theory of 

 American liberty ; " that true democracy makes no 

 inquiry about the color of the skin, or the place of 

 nativity, or any other similar circumstance ol condi- 

 tion ; and that the exclusion of the colored people as 

 a body from the elective franchise is incompatible 

 with true democratic principles." 



I congratulate you on the fact that these principles, 

 not then avowed by me for the first time, nor ever 

 since abandoned or compromised, have been at 

 length incorporated into the Constitution and made 

 part of the supreme law of the land. 



Many, no doubt, would have been glad, as I should 

 have been, if the great work consummated by the 

 ratification of the fifteenth amendment could have 

 been accomplished by the States through amend- 

 ment of State constitutions and through appropriate 

 State legislation ; but the delays and uncertainties, 

 prejudicial to every interest, inseparable from that 

 mode of proceeding seemed to necessitate the course 

 actually adopted. Nor does the amendment impair 

 the real rights of any State. It leaves the whole 

 regulation of suffrage to the whole people of each 

 State, subject only to the fundamental law, that the 

 right of no citizen to vote shall be denied or abridged 

 on account of color, race, or previous condition of 

 servitude. It is to be hoped that each State will 

 so conform its constitution and laws to this fun- 

 damental law that no occasion may be given to legis- 

 lation by Congress. 



But the best vindication of the wisdom as well as 

 justice of the amendment must be found in the con- 

 duct of that large class of citizens whom you repre- 

 sent. On the occasion to which I have referred I 

 ventured to say that "the best way to insure the 

 peaceful dwelling together of the different races is 

 the cordial reciprocation of benefits, not the mutual 

 infliction of injuries;" and I cannot now give you 

 better, counsel than I gave you then: "Go forward, 

 having perfect faith in your own manhood and in 

 God's providence, adding to your faith, virtue ; and 

 to virtue, knowledge ; and to knowledge, patience ; 

 and to patience, temperance ; and to temperance, 

 brotherly kindness ; and to brotherly kindness, 

 charity." 



Why not signalize your rejoicing in the rights se- 

 cured under the fifteenth amendment by urging upon 

 Congress the prompt removal of all political disabil- 

 ities imposed upon our fellow-citizens by the four- 

 teenth amendment? so that, through universal suf- 

 frage and universal amnesty, peace, good-will, and 

 prosperity, may be established throughout our coun- 

 try. 



Every good man must rejoice in the progress which 

 the colored citizens of the United States have made 

 in education, in religious culture, and in the general 

 improvement of their condition. Every good man 

 must earnestly desire their continued and accelerated 

 progress in the same direction. All public and all 

 private interests will be promoted by it 5 and it will 

 insure, at no distant day, cordial recognition of their 

 rights even from those of their fellow-citizens who 

 have most earnestly opposed them. 



No man can now be found who would restore 

 slavery ; a few years hence, if the colored men are 

 wise, it will be impossible to find a man who will 

 avow himself in favor of denying or abridging their 

 right to vote. Very respectfully yours. 



Messrs. PETEE H. CLARKE, etc., Committee. 



The sudden outbreak of the war between 

 Germany and France attracted attention to 

 the rights and duties of neutrals, and led the 

 President, on August 22d, to issue a proclama- 

 tion enjoining neutrality upon American citi- 

 zens during the contest, and declaring, so far 





