SPEECHES IN THE SENATE, ON HIS SUPPLEMENTARY CIVIL RIGHTS BILL, AS AN
AMENDMENT TO THE AMNESTY BILL, JANUARY 15, 17, 31, FEBRUARY 5, AND MAY
21, 1872.
Brave Theseus, they were MEN like all before,
And human souls in human frames they bore,
With you to take their parts in earthly feasts,
With you to climb one heaven and sit immortal guests.
STATIUS, _Thebaïd_, tr. Kennett, Lib. XI.
* * * * *
I was fully convinced, that, whatever difference there
is between the Negro and European in the conformation of
the nose and the color of the skin, there is none in the
genuine sympathies and characteristic feelings of our common
nature.--MUNGO PARK, _Travels in the Interior Districts of
Africa_, (London, 1816,) Vol. I. p. 80, Ch. 6.
* * * * *
The word MAN is thought to carry somewhat of dignity in its
sound; and we commonly make use of this, as the last and the
most prevailing argument against a rude insulter, “I am not
a beast, a dog, but I am a Man as well as yourself.” Since,
then, human nature agrees equally to all persons, and since
no one can live a sociable life with another who does not own
and respect him as a Man, it follows, as a command of the
Law of Nature, that _every man esteem and treat another as
one who is naturally his equal, or who is a Man as well as
he_.--PUFENDORF, _Law of Nature and Nations_, tr. Kennett, Book
III., Ch. 2, § 1.
* * * * *
Carrying his solicitude still farther, Charlemagne recommended
to the bishops and abbots, that, in their schools, “they should
take care to make no difference between the sons of serfs
and of freemen, _so that they might come and sit on the same
benches to study grammar, music, and arithmetic_.”--GUIZOT,
_History of France_, tr. Black, (London, 1872,) Vol. I. p. 239.