SPEECH IN THE SENATE, ON THE BILL TO ENFORCE THE PROVISIONS OF THE
FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION, APRIL 13, 1871.
MR. PRESIDENT,--The questions presented in this debate have been
of fact and of Constitutional Law. It is insisted on one side that
a condition of things exists in certain States affecting life,
liberty, property, and the enjoyment of Equal Rights, which can be
corrected only by the national arm. On the other side this statement
is controverted, and it is argued also that such intervention is
inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States. On both
questions, whether of fact or law, I cannot hesitate. To my mind,
outrages are proved, fearful in character; nor can I doubt the power
under the Constitution to apply the remedy.
The evidence is cumulative. Ruffians in paint and in disguise seize
the innocent, insult them, rob them, murder them. Communities are
kept under this terrible shadow. And this terror falls especially
upon those who have stood by the Union in its bloody trial, and those
others of different color who have just been admitted to the blessings
of Freedom. To both of these classes is our nation bound by every
obligation of public faith. We cannot see them sacrificed without
apostasy. If the power to protect them fails, then is the National
Constitution a failure.
I do not set forth the evidence, for this has been amply done by
others, and to repeat it would be only to occupy time and to darken
the hour. The Report of the Committee, at least as regards one
State,[104] the testimony of the public press, the stories of violence
with which the air is laden, and private letters with their painful
narrations,--all these unite, leaving no doubt as to the harrowing
condition of things in certain States lately in rebellion,--not the
same in all these States or in all parts of a State, but such as to
show in many States the social fabric menaced, disturbed, imperilled in
its very foundations, while life, liberty, property, and the enjoyment
of Equal Rights are without that security which is the first condition
of civilization. This is the case simply stated. If such things can be
without a remedy, applied, if need be, by the national arm, then are we
little more than a bundle of sticks, but not a nation. Believing that
we are a nation, I cannot doubt the power and the duty of the National
Government. Thus on general grounds do I approach the true conclusion.
So long as Slavery endured a State was allowed to play the turtle, and,
sheltered within its shell, to escape the application of those master
principles which are truly national. The Declaration of Independence
with its immortal truths was in abeyance; the Constitution itself was
interpreted always in support of Slavery. I never doubted that this
interpretation was wrong,--not even in the days of Slavery; but it
is doubly, triply wrong now that the Declaration of Independence is
at last regarded, and that the Constitution not only makes Slavery
impossible, but assures the citizen in the enjoyment of Equal Rights.
I do not quote these texts, whether of the Declaration or the
Constitution. You know them by heart. But they are not vain words.
Vital in themselves, they are armed with all needful powers to carry
them into execution. As in other days Slavery gave its character to
the Constitution, filling it with its own denial of Equal Rights, and
compelling the National Government to be its instrument, so now do
I insist that Liberty must give its character to the Constitution,
filling it with life-giving presence, and compelling the National
Government to be its instrument. Once the Nation served Slavery, and in
this service ministered to State Rights; now it must serve Liberty with
kindred devotion, even to the denial of State Rights. All this I insist
is plain, according to rules of interpretation simple and commanding.
In other days, while the sinister influence prevailed, the States were
surrounded by a Chinese wall so broad that horsemen and chariots could
travel upon it abreast; but that wall has now been beaten down, and
the citizen everywhere is under the protection of the same Equal Laws,
not only without distinction of color, but also without distinction of
State.
What makes us a Nation? Not armies, not fleets, not fortifications, not
commerce reaching every shore abroad, not industry filling every vein
at home, not population thronging the highways; none of these make our
Nation. The national life of this Republic is found in the principle of
Unity, and in the Equal Rights of all our people,--all of which, being
national in character, are necessarily placed under the great safeguard
of the Nation. Let the National Unity be assailed, and the Nation will
spring to its defence. Let the humblest citizen in the remotest village
be assailed in the enjoyment of Equal Rights, and the Nation must do
for that humblest citizen what it would do for itself. And this is only
according to the original promises of the Declaration of Independence,
and the more recent promises of the Constitutional Amendments, the two
concurring in the same national principles.
Do you question the binding character of the Great Declaration? Then
do I invoke the Constitutional Amendments. But you cannot turn from
either; and each establishes beyond question the boundaries of national
power, making it coextensive with the National Unity and the Equal
Rights of All, originally declared and subsequently assured. Whatever
is announced in the Declaration is essentially National, and so also
is all that is assured. The principles of the Declaration, reinforced
by the Constitutional Amendments, cannot be allowed to suffer. Being
common to all, they must be under the safeguard of all. Nor can any
State set up its local system against the universal law. Equality
implies universality; and what is universal must be national. If each
State is left to determine the protection of Equal Rights, then will
protection vary according to the State, and Equal Rights will prevail
only according to the accident of local law. There will be as many
equalities as States. Therefore, in obedience to reason, as well as
solemn mandate, is this power in the Nation.
Nor am I deterred from this conclusion by any cry of Centralism, or it
may be of Imperialism. These are terms borrowed from France, where this
abuse has become a tyranny, subjecting the most distant communities,
even in the details of administration, to central control. Mark, if
you please, the distinction. But no such tyranny is proposed among
us,--nor any interference of any kind with matters local in character.
The Nation will not enter the State, except for the safeguard of rights
national in character, and then only as the sunshine, with beneficent
power, and, like the sunshine, for the equal good of all. As well
assail the sun because it is central, because it is imperial. Here
is a just centralism; here is a generous imperialism. Shunning with
patriotic care that injurious centralism and that fatal imperialism
which have been the Nemesis of France, I hail that other centralism
which supplies an equal protection to every citizen, and that other
imperialism which makes Equal Rights the supreme law, to be maintained
by the national arm in all parts of the land. Centralism! Imperialism!
Give me the centralism of Liberty! Give me the imperialism of Equal
Rights! And may this National Capitol, where we are now assembled, be
the emblem of our Nation! Planted on a hill-top, with portals opening
North and South, East and West, with spacious chambers, and with
arching dome crowned by the image of Liberty,--such is our imperial
Republic; but in nothing is it so truly imperial as in that beneficent
Sovereignty which rises like a dome crowned by the image of Liberty.
Nor am I deterred by any party cry. The Republican party must do
its work, which is nothing less than the regeneration of the Nation
according to the promises of the Declaration of Independence.
To maintain the Republic in its unity, and the people in their
rights,--such is this transcendent duty. Nor do I fear any political
party which assails these sacred promises, even if it falsely assume
the name of Democrat. How powerless their efforts against these
immortal principles! For myself, I know no better service than that
which I now announce. Here have I labored steadfastly from early life,
bearing obloquy and enmity; and here again I pledge the energies which
remain to me, even if obloquy and enmity survive.