This statement was prepared in March, shortly after the
debate in the Senate, but was withheld at that time, from
unwillingness to take part in the controversy, while able
friends regarded the question of principle involved as above
every personal issue. Yielding at last to various pressure, Mr.
Sumner concluded to present it at the recent called session of
the Senate, but the Treaty with Great Britain and the case of
the Newspaper Correspondents were so engrossing as to leave no
time for anything else.
WASHINGTON, June, 1871.