SPEECHES IN THE SENATE, ON THE BILL FOR THE ADMISSION OF THE STATE OF
COLORADO INTO THE UNION, MARCH 12 AND 13, APRIL 17, 19, AND 24, AND MAY
21, 1866.
March 12th, in the Senate, the bill for the admission of the
State of Colorado was taken up for consideration, when Mr.
Sumner commenced an opposition, in which he persevered. The
question was, in his judgment, of peculiar importance, as
involving the true principle of Reconstruction; so that, while
insisting upon equal rights in Colorado, he was contributing to
the same cause.
In a speech of some length he set forth “three distinct
objections at this moment to the admission of Colorado as
a State,” which he considered in their order: first, the
irregularity of the proceedings, ending in the seeming adoption
of the Constitution; secondly, the smallness of the population;
and, thirdly, that its Constitution was not republican in form,
and consistent with the Declaration of Independence, according
to the requirement of the Enabling Act. In the course of his
remarks on the two latter heads, he said:--
I have here a table of the total vote at the elections in different
years. In August, 1861, it was 10,580; in December, 1861, 9,354; in
October, 1862, 8,224; in September, 1864, 5,769; in September, 1865,
5,895: so that you will perceive from 1861 to 1865 the vote constantly
diminishing, being at the beginning upward of 10,000, and at the end
less than 6,000. And when the Constitution was submitted, only 3,025
voted for it, while 2,870 voted against it. The present question is,
whether 5,895 voters shall be invested with the powers of a State;
whether they shall send into this Chamber two Senators, whose votes
shall be equal to the vote of New York, of Pennsylvania, of Ohio, or of
Massachusetts. Is that just? Is it fair? When a State is once admitted
into the Union, we all know, that, under the National Constitution,
it is on a footing of perfect equality; therefore, in advance, before
we receive a State into that high equality, we should well consider
whether it is in its population entitled to such eminence.
It is no answer to say that Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, and
Massachusetts have large political weight in the other House, which
this new State, if received, will not have. The question is, whether in
the Senate it will not have a weight to which such a number of voters
cannot be justly entitled. This leads me to consider for one moment the
functions of the Senate. The Senate of the United States is a peculiar
body, utterly without precedent or parallel in the history of any
other constitutional government, differing from the upper House of the
English Parliament, from the upper House of the French Chambers, from
the upper House in Prussia, from the upper House in Italy, inasmuch
as it has three functions,--one legislative, one diplomatic, and one
executive. By its legislative function, it acts, in coöperation with
the other House, in the making of laws; by its diplomatic function,
it acts, without coöperation with the other House, on treaties with
foreign powers; and by its executive function, it acts, without the
other House, on the nominations of the President. A preponderance of
power possessed by the larger States in the House of Representatives
cannot affect the last two functions, the diplomatic and the executive;
and the precise question is, whether a few voters, not numbering six
thousand, in a distant Territory, shall be organized so as to enter
this Chamber, and on questions of diplomacy and on executive questions
to neutralize the vote of a large State. Even conceding that on
legislative questions, through the preponderance of the large States
in the other House, there may be a certain remedy to this disorder,
there is no such remedy in the exercise of these two other important
functions of the Senate. I submit, therefore, that it is not advisable
at this moment to invest this small number of voters with these vast
political powers. They must wait a little longer,--wait until they are
more numerous,--at least until entitled to one Representative in the
other House. At the proper time we shall gladly welcome them; but the
time has not come.
* * * * *
There is another objection, which stands forth on the face of their
constitution. It is not republican in form, or in harmony with the
Declaration of Independence. The requirement of the Enabling Act, under
which they pretend to proceed, but which, as I have shown, was already
exhausted before they entered upon these proceedings, has these words:--
“That the Constitution, when formed, shall be republican, and
not repugnant to the Constitution of the United States and the
principles of the Declaration of Independence.”[272]
Look now at this Constitution. Article III., entitled “Suffrage and
Elections,” begins as follows:--
“SECTION 1. Every _white male citizen_ of the age of
twenty-one years and upwards, who is by birth, or has become
by naturalization or by treaty, or shall have declared his
intention to become, a citizen of the United States according
to the laws thereof, and who shall have resided in the State
of Colorado for six months preceding any election, and shall
have been a resident for ten days of the precinct or election
district where he offers to vote, shall be deemed a qualified
elector, and entitled to vote at the same.”
Note well the text, “every white male citizen”: in other words, nobody
who is not “white,” under this constitution, is recognized as entitled
to the elective franchise. Now, Sir, I insist--and I here challenge
reply from any Senator on this floor--that such a constitution does
not comply with the requirement of the Enabling Act, that it is
not republican, and that it is repugnant to the principles of the
Declaration of Independence. I say that it is not republican; for the
first principle of republican government is equality. Let that be
denied, and you fail in republican government.
MR. MCDOUGALL [of California]. In what age of the world was
there a republic where there was equality? Please answer me
that.… I would like to have the single instance where it
existed in ancient times, in the middle ages, or in the modern
ages.
MR. SUMNER. Speaking on that subject lately, I took occasion to show
that there was no such case. The Senator is nearly right. There had
been no such case. It was for our fathers, it was left to them, when
they undertook to constitute a new government, to declare equality the
essential and cardinal principle of a republic. My answer is precise:
there had been no such case. But the true idea of a republican
government began with our fathers, and its definition is found in their
Declaration of Independence. Were they not sufficiently explicit? Is
their language vague? Call it “a glittering generality,”--but there it
is, in immortal text, whose truth will be recognized more and more as
time advances. You may not recognize it now, but others after you will
do it reverence.
I say, therefore, that this constitution is repugnant to the principles
of the Declaration of Independence. I say that the government which
it constitutes is not a republican government. And now the question
is, how that difficulty shall be met. I know well that Senators may
say, But there are States in the Union with the same discrimination.
Connecticut has it; New York also. But permit me to say, these
instances do not at all touch the argument. We are not called now to
review the constitution of Connecticut or New York, but we are called
at this moment, in the discharge of a solemn duty, to review the
constitution of this proposed State. If called in this Chamber, under
the responsibilities of official position, to review the constitution
of Connecticut or New York, my course would be clear to say that it was
not republican in form; but there is no such occasion, and therefore
we have no such responsibility. There are other States with regard
to which we have at this moment that responsibility, and I allude to
them for illustration: I mean the States lately in rebellion. Their
constitutions have been overthrown or subverted; new constitutions have
been set up, which it becomes the solemn duty of Congress to examine,
to see whether they are republican in form, and not repugnant to the
principles of the Declaration of Independence. We have, in relation
to those States, the very responsibility now pressing upon us with
regard to this new candidate, distant Colorado. We must examine the
constitutions, and see whether or not they are in conformity with those
sublime principles which enter into the true idea of a republican
government.
Again, Sir, I would urge, that, at this moment, when the whole
country is agitated by the great question, What shall be done for the
protection of the colored race?--to what extent we shall exercise
the high powers of Congress to carry that protection into the Rebel
States,--it will be hardly decent for us, in reviewing the constitution
of a new State, not to apply the highest possible test. It will not do
for us now to recognize this constitution of Colorado as republican
in form. We owe it to ourselves to set an example, and to require
that in a State organized under our influence a good example shall
prevail. How many of us heard with regret the result last autumn in
Connecticut, and again in Wisconsin, by which suffrage to the colored
race was denied! We felt that by those two votes Liberty had suffered,
that an enfranchised race was placed in jeopardy, that its rights were
dishonored by those who ought to have upheld them; and now, Sir, you
have cast upon you in this Chamber that same identical responsibility.
You are, with reference to the constitution of Colorado, in the
precise position of the people of Connecticut with regard to their
own constitution, and the people of Wisconsin with regard to theirs.
Some of us have regretted poignantly the policy of those two States:
I hope there will be no occasion to regret any similar policy in this
Chamber. And now, Sir, in order to bring the Senate to a vote on that
question, I send to the Chair an amendment to the bill.