244 



CONGKESS, U. S. 



our part for the society of those whom we 

 deem God lias created our equals. 



" Now, I remember, and it must be fresh in 

 the recollection of the honorable member from 

 Massachusetts I do not think I can be mis- 

 taken in my recollection I remember that 

 when Major-General Dix, who was at that 

 time in the command of the department in- 

 cluding Fortress Monroe, was overburdened 

 with these 'contrabands,' who were coming to 

 the post and claiming protection, and he pro- 

 posed to send five or six hundred of them to 

 Massachusetts, the Governor of that State re- 

 fused to receive them, on the ground, I think, 

 that he thought the climate would not agree 

 with them. If it be so, and I do not say it is 

 not so I will not dispute such high authority 

 as the Governor of Massachusetts that of it- 

 self proves that there is a natural distinction 

 between the two races. The honorable mem- 

 ber from Massachusetts, and every other man 

 that I ever saw from Massachusetts who was 

 white, looked as if the climate agreed with 

 him ; and, if there be any thing in the climate 

 that is detrimental to this particular class, it 

 only proves that nature has made a difference 

 between us. Let us not try to improve upon 

 nature. I do not think we are equal to it. 



" The condition of this class is now such I 

 do not mean those who have been free for 

 years that it would be very perilous, as I 

 think, to adopt this political and social equal- 

 ity. I do not know how many have escaped 

 from the South where our armies have gone ; 

 but I suppose hundreds of thousands. . Thou- 

 sands and thousands are here from Virginia, 

 and from the other slave States. Are they fit 

 to take part in the great political questions 

 which are now distracting the country? Are 

 they fit companions for ourselves and our wives 

 and our daughters ? The question is not 

 whether they can be fit, not whether nature 

 has not endowed them with a mental capacity 

 equal to that of the white. Upon that point 

 differences of opinion are entertained. I have 

 seen some of them who, as I thought, had as 

 much natural capacity as any white man I ever 

 saw ; but apparently those instances were excep- 

 tions. 



"But however that may be, one thing is 

 certain, and he who has eyes to see must have 

 seen it, that, speaking of those who have just 

 escaped from slavery, they are not the people 

 to exercise the elective franchise, and to mix 

 in society with the educated classes of which, 

 and from which, the public councils of the 

 country should always be composed and taken. 

 Just imagine some five or six or more of them 

 holding a balance of power in this Senate, hav- 

 ing seats in this body, and any of the great 

 topics were presented for discussion and for 

 action. How would you manipulate them so 

 as to get them to go with either party ? By 

 reason ? No ; they know not what it is, except 

 to a very limited degree. By persuasion ? Yes. 

 Persuasion, founded upon what, and appealing 



to what? Founded upon ignorance, and ap 

 pealing to ignorance. It might happen thai 

 the vote of one of these men, if not bereft of 

 reason, bereft of all the qualities fitted for this 

 Chamber, would outweigh, or weigh at least 

 as much as the opinion and vote of the honor- 

 able Senator from Massachusetts. "What would 

 he think if a measure was carried by a vote of 

 that description as against his own intelligent 

 voice ? "Would he think the country was bene- 

 fited? 



" Let me refer to this idea of social equality 

 in another aspect, and I shall do so certainly 

 with no invidious purpose. There may be 

 some few men deranged enough to be willing 

 to go to that extent, but I am sure that no 

 white educated man in the United States could 

 be induced to contract a contract of marriage 

 with a black woman. He could still less be 

 willing to see any white woman, bound to him 

 by any of those ties which bind woman to 

 man in the domestic circle, contract that con- 

 tract with a black man. He would hide his 

 head in very shame, and his life would be em- 

 bittered to its very end, if he could see the 

 daughter of his heart wedded to a man of that 

 description, and a progeny growing up the re- 

 sult of that marriage. He would feel that to 

 him it would be a kindness to take his life, be- 

 cause such a measure to him would be infin- 

 itely worse than a calamity of that description. 

 A man can meet death, if he be a man, in a 

 just cause, without feeling even the sensation 

 of fear ; but no man can meet a calamity such 

 as I suppose that would be felt by every man, 

 with any thing but a continued, trembling, anx- 

 ious, depressing, harassing, crushing fear. 



"It may be in the providence of Heaven, 

 that in some hundreds of years the problem 

 which is now before us, of social and political 

 equality, may be solved, particularly the first ; 

 but as it is, as we now are, he who hopes to see 

 it solved so as to produce at once such equality, 

 sins, as I think, against all the signs of the 

 times, and wars, as I believe, against all the 

 natural feelings of the human race. 



" I conclude, Mr. President, by saying that I 

 trust upon reflection the honorable member 

 from Massachusetts will see that there is no 

 necessity for his amendment. 



Mr. Sumner replied : " Mr. President, the 

 question before the Senate is very simple ; it is 

 as plain as one of the ten commandments ; but 

 the Senator from Maryland, with that nimble- 

 ness of speech which belongs to him, while 

 undertaking to discuss it, has ranged over a 

 very extensive field. He has treated the Sen- 

 ate to a discourse on almost every subject and 

 something else also : the electoral franchise, 

 social privileges at the presidential mansion, 

 the equality of races, the intermarriage of dif- 

 ferent races, the state of slavery in Maryland, 

 also in some other States, and then the state of 

 slavery generally. Now, sir, I do not propose 

 to follow the Senator on any of those topics. 

 My desire is to bring the discussion to the pre- 



