January 3d, in the Senate, Mr. Sumner introduced the following
resolution:--
“_Resolved_, That the Committee on the Judiciary be
directed to consider if any further legislation is needed
to prevent the enslavement of Indians in New Mexico or
any system of peonage there, and especially to prohibit
the employment of the army of the United States in the
surrender of persons claimed as peons.”
Mr. Sumner then called attention to facts showing the necessity
of action. He said:--
I think you will be astonished, when you learn that the evidence is
complete, showing in a Territory of the United States the existence
of slavery which a proclamation of the President has down to this day
been powerless to root out. During the life of President Lincoln, I
more than once appealed to him, as head of the Executive, to expel this
evil from New Mexico. The result was a proclamation, and also definite
orders from the War Department; but, in the face of proclamation and
definite orders, the abuse has continued, and, according to official
evidence, it seems to have increased.
Mr. Sumner here read from the Report of the Commissioner on
Indian Affairs, also from the Report of a Special Agent,
containing the correspondence of army officers, including an
order from the Assistant Inspector General in New Mexico to aid
in the rendition of fugitive peons to their masters, and then
remarked:--
The special Indian agent who reports this correspondence very aptly
adds:--
“The aid of Congress is invoked to stop the practice.”
I hope the Department of War will communicate directly with General
Carleton, under whose sanction this order has been made, and I hope
that our Committee on the Judiciary will consider carefully if
further legislation is not needed to meet this case. A Presidential
proclamation has failed; orders of the War Department have failed; the
abuse continues, and we have a very learned officer in the army of the
United States undertaking to vindicate it.
The reference was changed to the Committee on Military Affairs,
and the resolution was adopted. Subsequently, Mr. Wilson, of
Massachusetts, Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs,
reported a bill to abolish and forever prohibit the system of
peonage in the Territory of New Mexico and other parts of the
United States, which became a law.[76]