The speech of Mr. Sumner was followed by a succession of
speeches extending over a month, with considerable variation
by a concurrent resolution from the House of Representatives
involving the same questions.
Mr. Fessenden, of Maine, on the day after Mr. Sumner, spoke at
length. In the course of his remarks he said:--
“I take it no one contends, I think the honorable Senator
from Massachusetts himself, who is the great champion of
Universal Suffrage, would hardly contend, that now, at this
time, the whole mass of the population of the recent Slave
States is fit to be admitted to the exercise of the right
of suffrage.”