“Sixthly, These provisions shall be perpetual, not to be
abolished or changed hereafter.”[263]
Nor is this all. On the same day I introduced “A Bill supplying
appropriate legislation to enforce the Amendment to the Constitution
prohibiting Slavery,”[264] of which I will read the third section:--
“That, in further enforcement of the provision of the
Constitution prohibiting Slavery, and in order to remove all
relics of this wrong from the States where this constitutional
prohibition takes effect, it is hereby declared that all laws
or customs in such States, establishing any oligarchical
privileges, and any distinction of rights on account of race
or color, are hereby annulled, _and all persons in such States
are recognized as equal before the law_; and the penalties
provided in the last section are hereby made applicable to any
violation of this provision, which is made in pursuance of the
Constitution of the United States.”[265]
Still further, on the same day I introduced “Resolutions declaratory of
the duty of Congress in respect to guaranties of the national security
and the national faith in the Rebel States.” One of these guaranties
which I proposed to establish was as follows:--
“The complete suppression of all oligarchical pretensions, and
the complete enfranchisement of all citizens, _so that there
shall be no denial of rights on account of color or race_; but
justice shall be impartial, and all shall be equal before the
law.”
I added also a provision which I was unable to carry,--it was lost by a
tie vote,--as follows:--
“The organization of an educational system for the equal
benefit of all, without distinction of color or race.”[266]
Such, Sir, were the measures which I had the honor of bringing forward
at the very beginning of the session. During the same session, in an
elaborate effort which occupied two days, February 5 and 6, 1866, and
is entitled “The Equal Rights of All: the great Guaranty and present
Necessity, for the sake of Security, and to maintain a Republican
Government,” I vindicated the necessity of the colored suffrage in
order to obtain peace and reconciliation, and I placed it on the
foundations of Constitutional Law as well as natural justice. Here is a
passage from this speech:--
“And here, after this long review, I am brought back to more
general considerations, and end as I began, by showing the
necessity of Enfranchisement for the sake of public security
and public faith. I plead now for the ballot, as the great
guaranty, and _the only sufficient guaranty_,--being in itself
peacemaker, reconciler, schoolmaster, and protector,--to which
we are bound by every necessity and every reason; and I speak
also for the good of the States lately in rebellion, as well
as for the glory and safety of the Republic, that it may be an
example to mankind.”