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CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



utterly groundless is this pretension. They 

 are on a par with the pretension itself. One is 

 that the question is of society and not of rights, 

 which is clearly a misrepresentation ; and the 

 other is that the separate arrangements pro- 

 vided for colored persons constitute a substi- 

 tute for equality in the nature of an equiva- 

 lent ; all of which is clearly a contrivance, if 

 not a trick, as if there .could be any equivalent 

 for equality. 



" Of this first excuse it is difficult to speak 

 with patience. It is a simple misrepresenta- 

 tion, and, wherever it shows itself, must be 

 treated as such. There is no colored person 

 who does not resent the imputation that he is 

 seeking to intrude himself socially anywhere. 

 This is no question of society ; no question of 

 social life ; no question of social equality, if 

 anybody knows what this means. The object 

 is simply equality before the law, a term 

 which explains itself. Now, as the law does 

 not presume to create or regulate social rela- 

 tions, these are, in no respect, affected by the 

 pending measure. Each person, whether Sen- 

 ator or citizen, is always free to choose who 

 shall be his friend, his associate, his guest. 

 And does not the ancient proverb declare that 

 a man is known by the company he keeps ? 

 But this assumes that he may choose for him- 

 self. His house is his ' castle ; ' and this very 

 designation, borrowed from the common law, 

 shows his absolute independence within its 

 walls ; nor is there any difference, whether it 

 be palace or hovel; but, when he leaves his 

 1 castle ' and goes abroad, this independence is 

 at an end. He walks the streets ; but he is 

 subject to the prevailing law of equality; nor 

 can he appropriate the sidewalk to his own 

 exclusive use, driving into the gutter all whose 

 skin is less white than his own. But nobody 

 pretends that equality in the highway, whether 

 on pavement or sidewalk, is a question of soci- 

 ety. And permit me to say that equality, in 

 all institutions created or regulated by law, is 

 as little a question of society. 



In the days of slavery, it was an oft-repeated 

 charge, that emancipation was a measure of 

 social equality, and the same charge became a 

 cry^at the successive efforts for the right to 

 testify and the right to vote. At each stage 

 the cry was raised, and now it makes itself 

 heard again, as you are called to assure this 

 crowning safeguard. 



" Then comes the other excuse, which finds 

 equality in separation. Separate hotels, sep- 

 arate conveyances, separate theatres, separate 

 schools, separate institutions of learning and 

 science, separate churches, and separate ceme- 

 teries these are the artificial substitutes for 

 equality ; and this is the contrivance by which 

 a transcendent right, involving a transcendent 

 duty, is evaded; for equality is not only a 

 right, but a duty. 



" How vain to argue that there is no denial 

 of equal rights when this separation is en- 

 forced! The substitute is invariably an in- 



ferior article. Does any Senator deny it ? 

 Therefore, it is not equality. At best, it is an 

 equivalent only ; but no equivalent is equality. 

 Separation implies one thing for a white per- 

 son, and another thing for a colored person ; 

 but equality is where all have the same alike. 

 There can be no substitute for equality ; noth- 

 ing but itself. Even if accommodations are 

 the same, as notoriously they are not, there is 

 no equality. In the process of substitution, 

 the vital elixir exhales and escapes. It is lost 

 and cannot be recovered ; for equality is found 

 only in equality. * Naught but itself can be its 

 parallel ; ' but Senators undertake to find par- 

 allels in other things. 



" Thus do I reject the two excuses. But I 

 do not leave the cause here. I go further and 

 show how consistent is the pending measure 

 with acknowledged principles, illustrated by 

 undoubted law. 



" The bill for Equal Eights is simply supple- 

 mentary to the existing Civil Rights Law, 

 which is one of our great statutes of peace, and 

 it stands on the same requirements of the Con- 

 stitution. If the Civil Rights Law is above 

 question, as cannot be doubted, then also is the 

 supplementary amendment, for it is only the 

 complement of the other, and necessary to its 

 completion. Without the amendment the 

 original law is imperfect. It cannot be said, 

 according to its title, that all persons are pro- 

 tected in their civil rights, so long as the out- 

 rages I expose continue to exist ; nor is slavery 

 entirely dead. 



"No doubt the supplementary LT\V must 

 operate, not only in natioual jurisdiction, but 

 also in the States, precisely as the Civil Rights 

 Law. Otherwise it will be of little value. 

 Its sphere must be coextensive with the Re- 

 public, making the rights of the citizen uniform 

 everywhere. But this can be only by one 

 uniform safeguard sustained by the nation. 



"An enlightened public opinion must be in- 

 voked. But this will not be wanting. The 

 country will rally in aid of the law, more 

 especially since it is a measure of justice and 

 humanity. But the law is needed now as a 

 help to public opinion. It is needed by the 

 very people whose present conduct makes it 

 necessary. Prompted by the law, leaning on 

 the law, they will recognize the equal rights 

 of all ; nor do I despair of hailing a public 

 opinion, which shall stamp the denial of these 

 rights as an outrage not unlike slavery itself. 

 Custom and patronage will then be sought in 

 obeying the law. 



"Mr. President, asking you to unite now in 

 an act of justice to a much-oppressed race, 

 being only a small instalment of that heavy 

 debt accumulated by generations of wrong, I 

 am encouraged by the pending measure of 

 amnesty, which has the advantage of being 

 recommended in the President's annual mes- 

 sage. I regretted, at the time, that the Presi- 

 dent signalized by his favor the removal of 

 disabilities imposed upon a few thousand rebels 



