The Senator from New Hampshire severely criticizes the Supreme Court,
which he reminds us has decided that the rights of citizenship, being
rights that white men are bound to respect, and all the rights which
make human life worth anything, are dead to colored persons; and he
then proceeds forthwith to sustain a principle every way as bad. He
condemns Chief-Justice Taney for declaring that colored persons are not
citizens, and then, with marvellous logic, proceeds to say that he will
not interfere to overturn the rule by which the testimony of colored
persons is excluded from the national courts. Sir, I do not know which
is most open to condemnation, the Supreme Court or the Senator. I am
against the decision of the Supreme Court. The Senator knows it well.
I am not one whit behind him in condemnation of that judgment, which
must forever stand forth among the inhumanities of this generation. But
permit me to remind the Senator that the rule he sustains is not less
inhuman. There is not a word he can launch against the Court that must
not rebound upon himself. To me it is unintelligible as painful that
the Senator should interfere to save any such inhumanity. I use strong
language, but it is only in this way that I can fitly characterize the
doctrines of the Supreme Court and of the Senator. The Supreme Court
has erred infinitely and wretchedly, but the Senator now errs in the
same way.
The Senator is entirely mistaken, when he says that the rule which I
seek to overturn proceeds from the Supreme Court. It is no such thing;
and if I can have his attention one moment, I can make him understand
it. The rule against the testimony of colored persons stands on the
local law of the States, and not on any decision of the Supreme Court
of the United States. The Court cannot interfere with it one way or
the other. Congress alone, when legislating for its own courts, can
interfere with it; and I entreat the Senate now, as it is about to
legislate for the national courts, to interfere with it. The amendment
of the Senator from Connecticut, which I have in my hand, is as
follows:--
“That _the laws of the several States_, except where the
Constitution, treaties, or statutes of the United States shall
otherwise require or provide, shall be regarded as _rules of
decision in all trials at Common Law_ in the courts of the
United States, in cases where they apply.”
That is, the laws of the several States shall be rules of decision
in the United States courts. That is what we declare. I simply
propose to add, that those laws shall not be rules of decision in the
United States courts, so far as they exclude witnesses on account
of color. The Senator from New Hampshire opposes this just, humane,
and irresistible proposition; and his argument is, that, instead of
reaching the result by legislation, we must overturn the Supreme Court.
Sir, permit me to say, his argument is entirely inapplicable, his
whole philippic against the Supreme Court is out of place. Whether I
agree with him or not, it is plain that this is not the time for it;
and I must confess that I like to see things in their proper place.
The question now is much more simple, more direct. Why enter upon
the ample, illimitable debate which the Senator opens? Why review
the Supreme Court and its relations to the country, and whether it
shall be overturned, whether it shall be reformed, whether it shall
be modified? All this has nothing to do with the question, and the
Senator, when he introduced it, simply diverted attention from the
business before us. I do not know that he did it purposely. Indeed, I
rather suspect the ardor of his nature, which has led him into this
strange diversion with its irrelevant amplification.
But the Senator says that the cases in which colored persons are
interested arise in the State courts, and not in the United States
courts, and that therefore my amendment is entirely inapplicable. The
Senator is entirely mistaken again. The United States courts have
jurisdiction of crimes without reference to color. They also have civil
jurisdiction in other cases which do not depend upon citizenship.
The Senator, as a lawyer, knows this well; and yet, deliberately, by
vote, and now by speech, he upholds the barbarous rule of exclusion
on account of color. Sir, I do not know which was worse, the vote or
the speech, although the latter was in harmony with the former. I was
astonished at the vote. I am now astonished at the speech, which,
pardon me, is as illogical in argument as bad in principle. Most
kindly, but most earnestly, do I dissent from it. Sir, I do not wish
to take up time, but the subject is of transcendent importance. You
will bear with my frankness, if I add, that sanctioning this exclusion
can do no honor to Congress. I am sure it must be recorded in judgment
against us, and deservedly too. Civilization will blush at the record.
God save us!