CONCKKSS, UNITED STATES. 





manufactory of new States and new State 

 :utioii;. ll denies l (In- people .if the 

 miially, nf t!i<i-c 

 .al and immemorial rights which ha\ 



!>y tlio people of tin- Static ever since 

 lion of our connection with ' 

 in. 



r, I cannot vote for any such doctrine as 

 I tin not believe that tills sweeping 

 principle, or rather claim, will ever meet the 

 n of the people of the United States. 

 w it will never meet the sanction of that 

 patriotic, and loyal party in the country 

 :i wo represent here. It is one of those 

 extreme ideas which cannot bo of any value 

 if placed in the form of legislation, and if in 

 that fonn, can produce nothing but mischief 

 lial continually. I said yesterday and I 

 !. it to-day, that under tho general terms 

 in which the power to admit new States is 

 granted in the Constitution, Congress may, if 

 it sees fit, annex conditions to the admission ; 

 that is, prescribe acts to be performed by the 

 people of the Territory before they become a 

 ; but after they have become a State they 

 ia\c the same power over their internal affairs 

 which li.!-< ever been possessed by the people 

 of any and all the other States of the Union. 

 We cannot take away from them the right of 

 reforming and amending their own fundamental 

 law in any manner they may see fit, not incon- 

 sistent with the Constitution of the United 



Mr. "Wade, of Ohio, said : " I hope the friends 

 of the bill will not vote for this amendment, 

 because it is equivalent to rejecting the constr- 

 tation. It will have to go back before the 

 people, and will be equivalent to making a new 

 constitution." 



Mr. Snrnner, of Massachusetts, followed, say- 

 ing : " The course of the Senate on this bill fills 

 me with anxiety. Since the unhappy perversity 

 of the President, nothing has occurred which 

 seems to me of such evil omen. It passes my 

 comprehension how we can require equal rights 

 in the rebel States, when wo deliberately sanc- 

 tion the denial of equal rights in a new State 

 which is completely within our jurisdiction, 

 and about to be fashioned by our hands. Others 

 may commit this inconsistency; but I will not. 

 Others may make the sacrifice; but I cannot. 

 ' No more States with the word white.' Such 

 is the rule I have adopted, and to this I shall 

 adhere. Let Congress adopt this rule, and the 

 future of the Kepublic will be secured forever. 



"It seems as if Providence presented this 

 occasion in order to give you an easy oppor- 

 tunity of asserting a principle which is of in- 

 finite value to the whole country. Only a few 

 persons are directly interested; but the deci-ion 

 of Congress now will determine a governing 

 rule for millions. Nebraska is a loyal commu- 

 nity, small in numbers, formed out of ourselves, 

 bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. In an 

 evil hour it adopted a constitution which is 

 bad in itself and worse still as an example. 



I Jut ih-it h.-r tho tie of blood nor the fellowship 

 of party -houM !,. p.-rmitt.-d to gave it from 

 judgment. At this moment Cnngreta cannot 

 atVord to -auction this wnuiir. OongreM must 

 elevate itself if it would 

 It niUHt be itself the example of jii-ti<-. 

 would make justice the universal rule. Itmufet 

 be itself the model which it recommends to 

 others. It must begin 'reconstruction 1 here 

 at home. 



Ky the enabling act it is provided that the 

 constitution, when formed, shall bo 'republi- 

 can, and not repugnant to the Constitution of 

 tho United States, and the principles of tho 

 Declaration of Independence.' Mark especially 

 these latter words, introduced for tho first time 

 into an enabling act. Here are essential con- 

 ditions which must be complied with: the 

 constitution must be 'republican.' Now, I in- 

 sist that a constitution which denies equality 

 of rights cannot be ' republican.' It may be 

 republican ' according to the imperfect notions 

 of an earlier period, or even according to the 

 standard of Montesquieu, but it cannot be ' re- 

 publican ' in a country which began its national 

 life in disregard of received notions, and the 

 standards of the past. In fixing for the first 

 time an authoritative definition of this require- 

 ment, you cannot forget the new vows to hu- 

 man rights uttered by our fathers ; you cannot 

 forget that our Kepublic is an example to man- 

 kind. Here is an occasion which must not be 

 lost, of acting not only for the present in time 

 and place, but for the distant also. 



"But there is another consideration, which, 

 if possible, is more decisive. I say nothing now 

 of the requirement that the new constitution 

 shall be ' not repugnant to the Constitution of 

 the United States ; ' but I call attention to the 

 positive condition that it must be ' not repug- 

 nant to the principles of tho Declaration of In- 

 dependence.' And yet, sir, in the face of this 

 plain requirement we have a new constitution 

 which disfranchises persons on account of color, 

 and establishes what is compendiously called 

 ' a white man's government.' This new con- 

 stitution sets at naught the great principles that 

 all men are equal, and that governments stand 

 on the consent of the governed. Therefore I 

 say confidently that this new constitution now 

 before us is not according to the 'principles 

 of the Declaration of Independence.' Is this 

 doubted? Can it be doubted? You must raze 

 living words, you must kill undying truths, be- 

 fore you can announce any such conformity. 

 As long as those words exist, as long as those 

 truths shine* forth in that declaration, you must 

 condemn this new constitution. I remember 

 gratefully the electric power with which the 

 Senator from Ohio (Mr. Wade) on a former 

 occasion, not many years ago, oonfronting the 

 representatives of slavery, bravely vindi. 

 these principles as ' self-evident truths ' ' There 

 was a. Brutus once who would brook the etern;.! 

 devil' as soon as any denial of these 'self-evi- 

 dent truths.' Would that lie would speak now 



