Volume 11 — NO PROPERTY IN MAN: UNIVERSAL EMANCIPATION WITHOUT COMPENSATION.

Speech in the Senate, on the Constitutional Amendment abolishing Slavery throughout the United States, April 8, 1864.

The property in horses was the gift of God to man at the creation of the world; the property in slaves is property held and acquired by crime, differing in no moral aspect from the pillage of a freebooter, and to which no lapse of time can give a prescriptive right—John Quincy Adams, Speech at Bridgewater, November 6, 1844.

The Christian religion is equal in its operation, and is accommodated to every nation on the globe. It robs no one of his freedom, violates none of his inherent rights, on the ground that he is a slave by nature, as pretended; and it well becomes your Majesty to banish so monstrous an oppression from your kingdoms in the beginning of your reign, that the Almighty may make it long and glorious.—Las Casas, Address before Charles V.: Prescott’s History of the Conquest of Mexico, Vol. I. p. 379, Note.

In a clause of his will Cortés expresses a doubt whether it is right to exact personal service from the natives, and commands that a strict inquiry shall be made into the nature and value of such services as he had received, and that in all cases a fair compensation shall be allowed for them. Lastly, he makes this remarkable declaration: “It has long been a question, whether one can conscientiously hold property in Indian slaves. Since this point has not yet been determined, I enjoin it on my son Martin and his heirs that they spare no pains to come to an exact knowledge of the truth, as a matter which deeply concerns the conscience of each of them, no less than mine.”—Cortés, his Testament: Ibid., Vol. III. p. 345.

Mais certes, s’il y a rien de clair et d’apparent en la nature, et en quoy il ne soit pas permis de faire l’aveugle, c’est cela que nature, le ministre de Dieu et la gouvernante des hommes, nous a tous faits de mesme forme, et, comme il semble, à mesme moule, afin de nous entrecognoistre tous pour compaignons, ou plus tost frères.—La Boëtie, De la Servitude Volontaire: Œuvres, ed. Feugère, (Paris, 1846,) p. 26.

Quand est-ce donc un homme de Dieu goûtera le plaisir de la liberté dans toute son étendue? Quand il ne la goûtera que dans ses frères affranchis.—Bossuet, Panégyrique de Saint Pierre Nolasque, Point II.

Et qu’on ne dise pas, qu’en supprimant l’esclavage, le Gouvernement violeroit la propriété des colons. Comment l’usage, ou même une loi positive, pourroit-elle jamais donner à un homme un véritable droit de propriété sur le travail, sur la liberté, sur l’être entier d’un autre homme innocent, et qui n’y a point consenti? En déclarant les nègres libres, on n’ôteroit pas au colon sa propriété; on l’empêcheroit de faire un crime, et l’argent qu’on a payé pour un crime n’a jamais donné le droit de le commettre.—Condorcet, Note 109 sur les Pensées de Pascal.

Allegiance to that Power that gives us the forms of men commands us to maintain the rights of men; and never yet was this truth dismissed from the human heart,—never in any time, in any age,—never in any clime where rude man ever had any social feeling, or where corrupt refinement had subdued all feelings; never was this one unextinguishable truth destroyed from the heart of man, placed as it is in the core and centre of it by his Maker, that man was not made the property of man.—Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Speech on the Trial of Warren Hastings, June 6, 1788: Moore’s Memoirs of Sheridan (London, 1825), Vol. I. p. 505.

In each of these cases [the United States and Russia] the slaves and the serfs are not ripe for freedom; no enslaved people ever are; and to wait, before you bestow liberty or political rights, till the recipients are fit to employ them aright, is to resolve not to go into the water till you can swim. You must make up your mind to encounter many very considerable evils at first, and for some time, while men are learning to use the advantages conferred on them.—Archbishop Whately, Annotations to Bacon’s Essays: Essay XXI., Of Delays.

Non-seulement ma liberté est à moi, par la seule grâce de Dieu, comme ma vie, et personne n’en peut disposer à ma place, mais je ne suis pas maître d’en disposer moi-même. Ce n’est pas assez de dire, que la liberté est un droit: la liberté est un devoir.—Jules Simon, La Liberté, Tom. I. p. 26.

The first public movement for an Amendment of the National Constitution, abolishing Slavery, was a resolution presented by the devoted Abolitionist, Henry C. Wright, and adopted by the American Antislavery Society at its anniversary meeting in Philadelphia, December 4, 1863. In a letter to Mr. Sumner, January 13, 1870, Mr. Wright recounted the history of this resolution, which he set forth, prefixing the original in the handwriting of Mr. Sumner:—

“That the voice of the people is heard through petitions to Congress, and this Convention earnestly recommend that this voice be raised in petitions for an Amendment of the Constitution, declaring that Slavery shall be forever prohibited within the limits of the United States.

“Charles Sumner.

“On board of Steamboat Empire State.”

Mr. Wright adds:—

“This is in your hand. On the back, in my hand, are the words: ‘Saloon of Steamer Empire State, on Long Island Sound, Wednesday, A. M., December 2, 1863. Adopted by the American Antislavery Society, at its thirtieth anniversary or third decade meeting, held in Philadelphia, December 3d and 4th, 1863. Adopted December 4th, Friday. Presented by Henry C. Wright, of Boston, and adopted by the Society without a dissenting voice.’

“Henry C. Wright.”

Mr. Wright afterwards communicated these facts to the press.

December 14, 1863, in the House of Representatives, Mr. Ashley, of Ohio, introduced a Constitutional Amendment abolishing Slavery, in these terms:—

“Slavery is hereby forever prohibited in all the States of the Union, and in all Territories now owned or which may hereafter be acquired by the United States.”

On the same day, Mr. Wilson, of Iowa, introduced another, in these terms:—

“Slavery, being incompatible with a free Government, is forever prohibited in the United States, and involuntary servitude shall be permitted only as a punishment for crime.”

January 11, 1864, in the Senate, Mr. Henderson, of Missouri, proposed the following amendment:—

“Slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, shall not exist in the United States.”

This was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

February 8th, while the Committee had the question still under consideration, Mr. Sumner proposed an Amendment as follows:—

“Article —. Everywhere within the limits of the United States, and of each State or Territory thereof, all persons are equal before the law, so that no person can hold another as a slave.”

Mr. Sumner moved the reference of the joint resolution containing his Amendment to the Select Committee on Slavery and Freedmen, of which he was Chairman. Mr. Trumbull thought it had better go to the Committee on the Judiciary, to which the other proposition had been referred. Mr. Sumner remarked, that already petitions against the Fugitive Slave Act had been reported from the Committee on the Judiciary with the recommendation that they be referred to the other Committee, that the terms of the resolution raising this Committee were broad enough to cover every proposition relating to Slavery, and that, in fact, petitions relating to a Constitutional Amendment had already been referred to this Committee. If after this statement the Senator desired that the joint resolution should be referred to the Committee of which he was the honored head, Mr. Sumner consented with the greatest pleasure. Mr. Trumbull expressed the opinion that “the appropriate Committee for all propositions to change the Constitution was the Judiciary Committee,” and in this opinion Mr. Doolittle concurred. Mr. Sumner was perfectly willing to follow the suggestion made. His chief desire was that the Committee would “act upon it soon.”

Meanwhile Mr. Saulsbury, of Delaware, moved that the joint resolution be indefinitely postponed, which was lost,—Yeas 8, Nays 31. It was then referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

February 10th, Mr. Trumbull reported back the two joint resolutions, and the various petitions on the subject, with a substitute, as an amendment to the joint resolution of Mr. Henderson, in the following terms:—

“Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”

February 17th, Mr. Sumner, inferring from the report of the Committee a disposition to follow the Ordinance for the Northwest Territory, and also thinking it desirable to expel from the Constitution clauses alleged to concern Slavery, gave notice of the following substitute, the first clause of which is modelled precisely on the famous prohibition in the Ordinance.

“Article 13.

“Section 1. There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude anywhere in the United States, or within the jurisdiction thereof, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; and the Congress may make all laws which shall be necessary and proper to enforce this prohibition.

“Section 2. In the third paragraph of the second section of the first article, concerning the apportionment of Representatives, the following words shall be struck out, so as to be no longer a part of the Constitution, namely: ‘Which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other persons,’ except the words ‘excluding Indians not taxed,’ which shall be allowed to remain, so that the whole clause shall read: ‘Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union according to their respective numbers, excluding Indians not taxed.’

“Section 3. The whole of the third paragraph of the second section of the fourth article, in the words hereto appended, shall be struck out, so as to be no longer a part of the Constitution, namely: ‘No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.’”

March 28th, the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, proceeded to consider the joint resolution, the pending question being the substitute of the Committee. Mr. Trumbull opened the debate by an elaborate speech, in which he said: “If we are to get rid of the institution of Slavery, we must have some more efficient way of doing it than by the Proclamations that have been issued or the Acts of Congress which have been passed.… Sir, in my judgment, the only effectual way of ridding the country of Slavery, and so that it cannot be resuscitated, is by an Amendment of the Constitution, forever prohibiting it within the jurisdiction of the United States. It is reasonable to suppose, that, if this proposed Amendment passes Congress, it will within a year receive the ratification of the requisite number of States to make it a part of the Constitution. That accomplished, and we are forever freed of this troublesome question.… We take this question entirely away from the politics of the country; we relieve Congress of sectional strifes; and, what is better than all, we restore to a whole race that freedom which is theirs by the gift of God, but which we for generations have wickedly denied them.” Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts, made an effective speech, whose character appears in its title, as published: “The Death of Slavery is the Life of the Nation.” Then followed, on successive days, speeches from Mr. Davis, of Kentucky, Mr. Saulsbury, of Delaware, Mr. McDougall, of California, Mr. Hendricks, of Indiana, and Mr. Powell, of Kentucky, all against the Amendment. Mr. Davis declared that “the most operative single cause of the pending war was the intermeddling of Massachusetts with the institution of Slavery,” and it was an “objection of overruling weight, that no revision of the Constitution, in any form, ought to be undertaken under the auspices of the party in power.” Mr. Saulsbury said: “Immediately after the Flood, the Almighty condemned a whole race to servitude. He said, ‘Cursed be Canaan!’” In behalf of the Amendment were able speeches by Mr. Clark, of New Hampshire, Mr. Howe, of Wisconsin, Mr. Reverdy Johnson, of Maryland, Mr. Harlan, of Iowa, Mr. Hale, of New Hampshire, and Mr. Henderson, of Missouri.

April 8th, the last day of debate, Mr. Sumner made the speech which follows this Introduction.

During the discussion there were several votes. Mr. Davis moved as a substitute, “No negro, or person whose mother or grandmother is or was a negro, shall be a citizen of the United States, or be eligible to any civil or military office or to any place of trust or profit under the United States.” This was lost,—Yeas 5, Nays 32. Mr. Davis then proposed to add to the first section of the proposed article: “But no slave shall be entitled to his or her freedom under this Amendment, if resident, at the time it takes effect, in any State the laws of which forbid free negroes to reside therein, until removed from such State by the Government of the United States.” This was rejected without a division. Mr. Davis further proposed to add at the end of the second section, that, “when this Amendment of the Constitution shall have taken effect by freeing the slaves, Congress shall provide for the distribution and settlement of all the population of African descent in the United States among the several States and Territories in proportion to the white population of each State and Territory.” This also was rejected without a division, as was another Amendment by him concerning the election of President and Vice-President. Mr. Powell moved to add to the first section: “No slave shall be emancipated by this article, unless the owner thereof shall be first paid the value of the slave or slaves so emancipated.” This was rejected,—Yeas 2, Nays 34.

Mr. Sumner offered his substitute in these terms:—

“All persons are equal before the law, so that no person can hold another as a slave; and the Congress may make all laws necessary and proper to carry this article into effect everywhere within the United States and the jurisdiction thereof.”

Concerning the Amendment of the Committee he remarked:—

“It starts with the idea of reproducing the Jeffersonian Ordinance. I doubt the expediency of reproducing that Ordinance. It performed an excellent work in its day, but there are words in it which are entirely inapplicable to our time. They are the limitation, ‘otherwise than in the punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.’ Now, unless I err, there is an implication from those words that men may be enslaved as a punishment of crimes whereof they shall have been duly convicted. There was a reason for that at the time; for I understand that it was the habit in certain parts of the country to doom persons as slaves for life as a punishment for crime, and it was not proposed to prohibit this habit. But Slavery in our day is something distinct, perfectly well known, requiring no words of distinction outside of itself. Why, therefore, add the words, ‘nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted’? To my mind they are entirely surplusage. They do no good there, but absolutely introduce a doubt.

“In placing a new and important text in our Constitution we cannot be too careful. We should consider well that the language adopted in this Chamber to-day will in all probability be adopted in the other House, and it must be adopted, also, by three fourths of the Legislatures of the States. Therefore we have every motive, the strongest inducement in the world, to make that language as perfect as possible. I do not hesitate to say, that I object to the Jeffersonian Ordinance, even if presented here in its original text. But now I am brought to the point that the proposition of the Committee is not the Jeffersonian Ordinance, except in its bad feature. In other respects, it discards the language of the Jeffersonian Ordinance, and also its collocation of words.”

Mr. Trumbull replied, that the Committee, upon discussion and examination, had come to their conclusion. “I do not know,” he said, “that I should have adopted these precise words, but a majority of the Committee thought they were the best words; they accomplish the object; and I cannot see why the Senator from Massachusetts should be so pertinacious about particular words.” He hoped Mr. Sumner would withdraw his proposition.

Mr. Howard, of Michigan, wished as much as Mr. Sumner to use significant language that cannot be mistaken or misunderstood; but he preferred to dismiss all reference to French constitutions or French codes, and “go back to the good old Anglo-Saxon language employed by our fathers in the Ordinance of 1787, an expression which has been adjudicated upon repeatedly, which is perfectly well understood both by the public and by judicial tribunals.”

Mr. Sumner withdrew his proposition, which he called a “suggestion” only, and also “a sincere effort to contribute as much as he could to improve the proposition in form,” but could not resist the appeal of his friend, the Chairman of the Committee. He forbore to press any amendment.

Mr. Sumner often regretted that he had not insisted upon a vote on striking out the clause giving implied sanction to slavery or involuntary servitude as “a punishment for crime.”

April 8th, on the passage of the joint resolution, the vote stood, Yeas 38, Nays 6, when the Vice-President announced that the joint resolution, having received the concurrence of two thirds of the Senators present, was passed.

May 31st, the joint resolution was taken up in the House of Representatives. Mr. Holman, of Indiana, objected to its second reading, and the Speaker stated the question, “Shall the joint resolution be rejected?” On this question the vote stood, Yeas 55, Nays 76; and the joint resolution was not rejected. An excited debate occupied several days.

June 15th, the vote was taken, and it stood, Yeas 95, Nays 66, not voting 21. So the joint resolution failed, two thirds not voting in its favor. Mr. Ashley, of Ohio, a most strenuous supporter of the Constitutional Amendment, changed his vote from the affirmative to the negative, so as to move a reconsideration, which motion he made in the evening, and it was duly entered on the Journal, thus holding the joint resolution in suspense. The session of Congress closed without further action.

At the next session the President in his Annual Message reminded Congress of the pending Constitutional Amendment, and recommended its “reconsideration and passage,” adding, that by the recent election the will of the majority was “most clearly declared in favor of such Constitutional Amendment.” January 6, 1865, on motion of Mr. Ashley, the House of Representatives took up his motion to reconsider the vote of rejection. The debate, which was opened by him in an earnest speech, proceeded, with some interruptions, until January 31st, when he called the previous question on the motion. Mr. Stiles, of Pennsylvania, moved to lay the motion to reconsider on the table, which was lost,—Yeas 57, Nays 111. The previous question was then ordered. On the motion to reconsider, the vote stood, Yeas 112, Nays 57, not voting 13; but, a majority being sufficient for this purpose, the motion to reconsider was agreed to. The question then recurred on the passage of the joint resolution, when, on motion of Mr. Ashley, the previous question was ordered. Before this was done, he stated that to hasten a vote he had declined speaking. Mr. Brown, of Wisconsin, asked him to yield, so that he might “offer a substitute for the joint resolution.” Mr. Ashley could not yield; he had a substitute himself, which he should much prefer to the original joint resolution, but he did not offer it. On its final passage the vote stood, Yeas 119, Nays 56, not voting 8. So the two thirds required by the Constitution having voted in its favor, the joint resolution was passed.

All possible preparation had been made for the vote, and the attendance was unusually large, both of Representatives and spectators. The people throughout the country awaited the result with profound interest. The announcement by the Speaker was received with an outburst of enthusiasm in the Chamber. The Republican Representatives sprang to their feet and applauded with cheers and clapping of hands. The spectators in the crowded galleries followed the example, and for several minutes the Chamber was a scene of joy and congratulation. Mr. Ingersoll, of Illinois, then said, “In honor of this immortal and sublime event, I move that the House do now adjourn”; and the House adjourned.

The joint resolution submitting the Constitutional Amendment bears date February 1, 1865. It now remained that the Amendment should be ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, there being at the time thirty-six. A certificate, announcing that this had been done, was issued by the Secretary of State, December 18, 1865, and from this date the Amendment became part of the Constitution. President Lincoln, who had watched this event with absorbing interest, did not live to witness the final result.

Mr. Sumner saw so clearly the delay incident to a Constitutional Amendment, and even the uncertainty with regard to its passage by Congress and adoption by the States, that, while supporting it cordially, he did not relax meanwhile his efforts for Congressional legislation against Slavery. Even if Congress could not be induced, in the exercise of its powers, to decree the death of the public enemy, he hoped that at least it would not hesitate to use all other powers to limit and weaken it, so that, should the Constitutional Amendment fail, or be postponed, Slavery would be in a condition from which it could not recover. His main postulate, that Slavery was contrary to Nature, and an outlaw, was important in sustaining action against it, whether by Constitutional Amendment or Congressional legislation. In the course of debate on another question, Mr. Sherman spoke incidentally of the Constitutional Amendment as “the main proposition,” when Mr. Sumner at once remarked:—

“The main proposition, Sir, is to strike Slavery wherever you can hit it; and I tell the Senator he will not accomplish his purpose, if he contents himself merely with a Constitutional Amendment. I am for a Constitutional Amendment; I have made the proposition in several forms: but how long will it take to carry that Amendment through both Houses of Congress, and then carry it to its final consummation in the votes of the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, according to the requirements of the Constitution? Are we to postpone action on all these questions until that possibly distant day? No, Sir!”[273]

The speech which follows was published originally under the title, “Universal Emancipation without Compensation.” In the edition of the Loyal Publication Society of New York the title was “No Property in Man.” These two titles present fundamental principles of special significance at that time. They were in the nature of answer to the clamor for compensation.

SPEECH.

MR. PRESIDENT,—If an angel from the skies or a stranger from another planet were permitted to visit this earth and to examine its surface, who can doubt that his eyes would rest with astonishment upon the outstretched extent and exhaustless resources of this republic, young in years, but already rooted beyond any dynasty in history? In proportion as he considered and understood all that enters into and constitutes the national life, his astonishment would increase, for he would find a numerous people, powerful beyond precedent, without king or noble, but with the schoolmaster instead. And yet the astonishment he confessed, as all these things unrolled before him, would swell into marvel, as he learned that in this republic, arresting his admiration, where is neither king nor noble, but the schoolmaster instead, there are four million human beings in abject bondage, degraded to be chattels, under the pretence of property in man, driven by the lash like beasts, despoiled of all rights, even the right to knowledge and the sacred right of family, so that the relation of husband and wife is impossible and no parent can claim his own child, while all are condemned to brutish ignorance. Startled by what he beheld, the stranger would naturally inquire by what authority, under what sanction, and through what terms of law or constitution, this fearful inconsistency, so shocking to human nature itself, continues to be upheld. His growing wonder would know no bound, when he was pointed to the Constitution of the United States, as final guardian and conservator of this peculiar and many-headed wickedness.

“And is it true,” the stranger would exclaim, “that, in laying the foundations of this republic dedicated to human rights, all these wrongs were positively established?” He would ask to see that Constitution, and to know the fatal words by which the sacrifice was commanded. The trembling with which he began its perusal would be succeeded by joy as he finished; for he would find nothing in that golden text, not a single sentence, phrase, or word even, to serve as origin, authority, or apology for the outrage. And then his wonder, already knowing no bound, would break forth anew, as he exclaimed, “Shameful and irrational as is Slavery, it is not more shameful or irrational than the unsupported interpretation which makes your Constitution final guardian and conservator of this terrible and unpardonable apostasy.”

Such a stranger, coming from afar, with eyes that no local bias had distorted, and with understanding no local custom had disturbed, would naturally see the Constitution in its precise text, and would interpret it in its true sense, without prepossession or prejudice. Of course he would know, what all jurisprudence teaches and all reason confirms, that human rights cannot be taken away by any indirection, or by any vain imagining of something intended, but not said, and, as a natural consequence, that Slavery exists, if exist it can at all, only by virtue of positive text, and that what is true of Slavery is true also of all its incidents; and the enlightened stranger would insist, that, in every interpretation of the Constitution, that cardinal principle must never for a moment be out of mind, but must be kept ever forward as guide and master, that Slavery cannot stand on inference, nor can any support of Slavery stand on inference. Thus informed, and in the light of pervasive principle,—

he would peruse the Constitution from beginning to end, from its opening Preamble to its final Amendment, and then the joyful opinion would be given.

There are three things he must observe: first and foremost, that the dismal words “Slave” and “Slavery” do not appear in the Constitution; so that, if the unnatural pretension of property in man lurk anywhere in that text, it is under a feigned name, or an alias, which is cause of suspicion, while an imperative rule renders its recognition impossible. Next, he would consider the Preamble, which is the key to open the whole succeeding instrument; but here no single word is found which does not open the Constitution to Freedom and close it to Slavery. The object of the Constitution is announced to be “in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity”; all of which, in every particular, is absolutely inconsistent with Slavery. And, thirdly, he would observe those time-honored, most efficacious, chain-breaking words in the Amendments: “No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” Scorning all false interpretations and glosses fastened upon the Constitution in support of Slavery, and with these three things before him, he would naturally declare that there was nothing in the original text on which this appalling wrong could be founded anywhere within the sphere of its operation. With wonder he would ask again by what strange delusion or hallucination the reason had been so far overcome as to recognize Slavery in the Constitution, when plainly it is not there, and cannot be there. The answer is humiliating, but easy.

People find in texts of Scripture the support of their own religious opinions or prejudices; and, in the same way, they find in texts of the Constitution the support of their political opinions or prejudices. And this may not be in either case because Scripture or Constitution, when truly interpreted, supports such opinions or prejudices, but because people are apt to find in texts simply a reflection of themselves. Most clearly and indubitably, whoever finds support of Slavery in the National Constitution has first found such support in himself: not that he will hesitate, perhaps, to condemn Slavery in words of approved gentleness, but because, from unhappy education, or more unhappy insensibility to the wrong, he has already conceded to it a certain traditional foothold of immunity, which he straightway transfers from himself to the Constitution. In dealing with this subject, it is not the Constitution, so much as human nature itself, which is at fault. Let the people change, and the Constitution will change also; for the Constitution is but the shadow, while the people are the substance.

Thank God, under influence of the struggle for national life, and in obedience to its incessant exigencies, the people have changed, and in nothing so much as on Slavery. Old opinions and prejudices have dissolved, and that traditional foothold Slavery once possessed is gradually weakening, until now it scarcely exists. Naturally this change must sooner or later show itself in the interpretation of the Constitution. But it is already visible even there, in the concession of powers over Slavery formerly denied. The time, then, has come when the Constitution, so long interpreted for Slavery, may be interpreted for Freedom. This is one stage of triumph. Universal emancipation, which is at hand, can be won only by complete emancipation of the Constitution itself, which has been so long degraded to wear chains that its real character is scarcely known.

Sometimes the concession is made on the ground of military necessity. The capacious war powers of the Constitution are invoked, and it is said that in their legitimate exercise Slavery may be destroyed. There is much in this concession,—more even than is imagined by many from whom it proceeds. It is war, say they, which puts these powers in motion; but they forget, that, wherever Slavery exists, there is perpetual war,—that Slavery itself is a state of war between two races, where one is for the moment victor,—pictured accurately by Jefferson as “permitting one half the citizens to trample on the rights of the other, transforming those into despots and these into enemies.”[274] Therefore, wherever Slavery exists, even in seeming peace, the war powers may be invoked to terminate a condition which is internecine, and to overthrow pretensions hostile to every attribute of the Almighty.

It is not on military necessity alone that the concession is made. Many, as they read the Constitution now, see its powers over Slavery more clearly than before. The old superstition is abandoned; and they join with Patrick Henry, when, in the Virginia Convention, he declared the power of manumission accorded to Congress. He did not hesitate to argue against the adoption of the Constitution, because it accorded this power. And shall we be less perspicacious for Freedom than this Virginia statesman for Slavery? Discerning the power, he confessed his dismay: let us confess our joy.

We have already seen that Slavery finds no support in the Constitution. Glance now at positive provisions by which it is brought completely under control of Congress.

1. First among the powers of Congress, and associated with the power to lay and collect taxes, is that to “provide for the common defence and general welfare.” It is questioned whether this is a substantive power, or simply incident to that with which it is associated. But it is difficult, if not absurd, to insist that Congress has not this substantive power. Shall it not provide for the common defence? Shall it not regard the general welfare? If powerless to do these things in a great crisis, it had better abdicate. In the Virginia Convention, Mr. George Mason, a most decided opponent of the Constitution, said: “That Congress should have power to provide for the general welfare of the Union I grant.”[275] The language of Patrick Henry, to which allusion has just been made, was more explicit. He foresaw that this power would be directed against Slavery, and did not hesitate to declare:—

“Slavery is detested. We feel its fatal effects. We deplore it with all the pity of humanity. Let all these considerations, at some future period, press with full force on the minds of Congress; let that urbanity which, I trust, will distinguish America, and the necessity of national defence,—let all these things operate on their minds; they will search that paper [the Constitution] and see if they have power of manumission. And have they not, Sir? Have they not power to provide for the general defence and welfare? May they not think that these call for the abolition of slavery? May they not pronounce all slaves free? And will they not be warranted by that power? This is no ambiguous implication or logical deduction. The paper speaks to the point. They have the power in clear, unequivocal terms, and will dearly and certainly exercise it.”[276]

Language could not be more positive. To all who ask for the power of Congress over Slavery, here is a sufficient answer; and remember that this is not my speech, but the speech of Patrick Henry, who says that the Constitution “speaks to the point.”

2. Next comes the fountain, “Congress shall have power to declare war, to raise and support armies, to provide and maintain a navy.” A power like this is from its nature unlimited. In raising and supporting an army, in providing and maintaining a navy, Congress is not restricted to any particular class or color. It may call upon all, and authorize that contract which the Government makes with an enlisted soldier. But such contract would be in itself an act of manumission; for a slave cannot make a contract. And if the contract be followed by actual service, who can deny its completest efficacy in enfranchising the soldier-slave and his whole family? Shakespeare, immortal teacher, gives expression to an instinctive sentiment, when he makes Henry the Fifth, on the eve of the victory at Agincourt, encourage his men by promising,—

3. There is still another clause: “The United States shall guaranty to every State in this Union a republican form of government.” Here again is a plain duty. But the question recurs, What is a republican form of government? John Adams, in the correspondence of his old age, says:—

“The customary meanings of the words republic and commonwealth have been infinite. They have been applied to every government under heaven,—that of Turkey and that of Spain, as well as that of Athens and of Rome, of Geneva and San Marino.”[277]

But the guaranty of a republican form of government must have a meaning congenial with the purposes of the Constitution. If a government like that of Turkey, or even that of Venice, could come within the scope of this guaranty, it would be of little value; it would be words, and nothing more. Evidently, it must be construed so as to uphold the Constitution, according to all the promises of its Preamble; and Mr. Madison has left a record, first published to the Senate by the distinguished Senator from Vermont [Mr. Collamer], of the Committee on the Library, showing that it was originally suggested in part by the fear of Slavery,[278] so that in construing it we must not forget the disturbing influence. The Preamble and the record are important, disclosing the real intention. But no American need be at loss to designate some of the distinctive elements of a republic, according to the idea of American institutions. These are found, first, in the Declaration of Independence, by which it is solemnly announced “that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” And they are found, secondly, in that other guaranty and prohibition of the Constitution, in harmony with the Declaration: “No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” Such are essential elements of “a republican form of government,” which cannot be disowned without disowning the very muniments of our liberties; and these the United States are bound to guaranty. But all these, when set in motion, make Slavery impossible. It is idle to say that this result was not anticipated. It would be, then, only another illustration that our fathers “builded better than they knew.”

4. Independent of the guaranty, there is the other clause just quoted, in itself a source of power: “No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” This was part of the Constitutional Amendments proposed by the First Congress, under the popular demand for a Bill of Rights. Though brief, it is a whole Bill of Rights. Liberty can be lost only by “due process of law,”—words borrowed from the ancient liberty-loving Common Law, illustrated by our master in law, Lord Coke, but best explained by the late Mr. Justice Bronson, of New York, in a judicial opinion:—

“The meaning of the section, then, seems to be, that no member of the State shall be disfranchised, or deprived of any of his rights or privileges, unless the matter shall be adjudged against him upon trial had according to the course of the Common Law.… The words ‘due process of law,’ in this place, cannot mean less than a prosecution or suit instituted and conducted according to the prescribed forms and solemnities for ascertaining guilt or determining the title to property.”[279]

Such is the protection thrown by the Constitution over every “person,” without distinction of race or color, class or condition. There can be no doubt about the universality of the protection. All, without exception, come within its scope. The natural meaning is plain; but there is an incident of history which makes it plainer still, excluding all possibility of misconception. A clause of this character was originally recommended as an Amendment by two Slave States, Virginia and North Carolina, and by a slave-trading State, Rhode Island; but it was restricted by them to freemen, thus: “No freeman ought to be deprived of his life, liberty, or property, but by the law of the land.”[280] When the recommendation came before Congress, the word “person” was substituted for “freeman,” and the more searching phrase “due process of law” was substituted for “the law of the land.” In making this change, rejecting the recommendation of slave-owning and slave-trading States, the authors of this Amendment revealed their purpose, that no person wearing the human form should be deprived of liberty without due process of law; and the proposition was adopted by the votes of Congress, and then of the States, as part of the Constitution. Clearly, on its face, it is an express guaranty of personal liberty, and an express prohibition of its invasion anywhere.

In the face of this guaranty and prohibition,—for it is both,—how can any “person” be held as slave? Sometimes it is argued that this provision must be restricted to places within the exclusive jurisdiction of the National Government. Such formerly was my own impression, often avowed in this Chamber; but I never doubted its complete efficacy to render Slavery unconstitutional in all such places, so that “no person” could be held as a slave at the national capital or in any national territory. Constitutionally, Slavery has always been an outlaw, wherever that provision of the Constitution was applicable. Nobody doubted that it was binding on the national courts; and yet it was left unexecuted, a dead letter, killed by the predominant influence of Slavery, until at last Congress was obliged by legislative act to do what the courts failed to do, and to terminate Slavery in the national capital and national territories.

In this transcendent guaranty and prohibition there are no words of exclusive jurisdiction. All is broad and general as the Constitution itself; and since this provision is in support of human rights, it cannot be restricted by any interpretation. There is no limitation in it, and nobody can supply any such limitation, without encountering the venerable maxim of law, Impius et crudelis qui Libertati non favet,—“Impious and cruel is he who does not favor Liberty.” Long enough have courts and Congress merited this condemnation. The time has come when they should merit it no longer. The Constitution should become a living letter under the predominant influence of Freedom. This conviction has brought petitioners to Congress, during the present session, asking that the Constitution shall be simply executed against Slavery, and not altered. Ah, Sir, it would be a glad sight to see that Constitution, which we have all sworn to support, interpreted generously, nobly, gloriously for Freedom, so that everywhere within its influence the chains should drop from the slave! If it be said that this was not anticipated at its adoption, I remind you of Patrick Henry, when, at the time, he said, “The paper speaks to the point.” No doubt, it does speak to the point, especially with the Amendments immediately thereafter adopted. Cicero preferred to err with Plato rather than to think right with other men. And pardon me, if, when my country is in peril from Slavery, and human rights are to be rescued, I prefer to err with Patrick Henry, in assuming power for Freedom, rather than to think right with Senators who hesitate in such a cause.

Mr. President, thus stands the case. There is nothing in the Constitution on which Slavery can rest, or find any the least support. Even on the face of that instrument it is an outlaw; but if we look further into its provisions, we find at least four distinct sources of power, which, if executed, must render Slavery impossible, while the Preamble makes them all vital for Freedom: first, the power to provide for the common defence and general welfare; secondly, the power to raise armies and maintain navies; thirdly, the power to guaranty a republican form of government; and, fourthly, the power to secure Liberty against all restraint without due process of law. But all these provisions are something more than powers; they are duties also. And yet we are constantly and painfully reminded that pending measures against Slavery are unconstitutional. Sir, this is an immense mistake. Nothing against Slavery can be unconstitutional. It is hesitation that is unconstitutional.

And yet Slavery still exists, in defiance of all these requirements; nay, more, in defiance of reason and justice, which can never be disobeyed with impunity, it exists, the perpetual spoiler of human rights and disturber of the public peace, degrading master as well as slave, corrupting society, weakening government, impoverishing the very soil itself, and impairing the natural resources of the country. Such an outrage, so offensive in every respect, not only to the Constitution, but also to the whole system of order by which the universe is governed, can be nothing but a national nuisance, which, for the general welfare, and in the name of justice, ought to be abated. But at this moment, when it menaces the national life, it is not enough to treat Slavery merely as a nuisance, for it is much more. It is a public enemy and traitor, wherever it shows itself, to be subdued, in the discharge of solemn guaranties of Government, and in the exercise of unquestionable and indefeasible rights of self-defence. All now admit that in the Rebel States it is a public enemy and traitor, so that the Rebellion is seen in Slavery, and Slavery is seen in the Rebellion. But Slavery throughout the country, everywhere within the national limits, is a living Unit, one and indivisible,—and thus even outside the Rebel States it is the same public enemy and traitor, lending succor to the Rebellion, and holding out “blue lights” to encourage and direct its operations. But whether national nuisance or public enemy and traitor, it is obnoxious to the same judgment, and must be abolished.

If, in abolishing Slavery, injury were done to the just interests of any human being, or to rights of any kind, there might be something to “give us pause,” even against these irresistible requirements. But nothing of the kind can ensue. No just interests and no rights can suffer. It is the rare felicity of such an act, as well outside as inside the Rebel States, that, while striking a blow at the Rebellion, and assuring future tranquillity, so that the Republic shall be no longer a house divided against itself, it will add at once to the value of the whole fee simple wherever Slavery exists, will secure individual rights, and will advance civilization itself.

There is another motive at this time. Embattled armies stand face to face, one side fighting for Slavery. The gauntlet that has been flung down we have taken up in part only. Abolishing Slavery entirely, we take up the gauntlet entirely. Then can we look with confidence to Almighty God for His blessing upon our arms. “Till America comes into this measure,” said John Jay during the Revolution, “her prayers to Heaven for Liberty will be impious.”[281] So long as we sustain Slavery, so long as we hesitate to strike at Slavery, the heavy battalions of our armies will fail. Sir Giles Overreach, attempting to draw his sword, found it “glued to the scabbard with wronged orphans’ tears.” God forbid that our soldiers shall find their swords “glued” with the tears of the slave!

One question, and only one, rises in our path,—and this simply because the national representatives have been so long drugged and drenched with Slavery, which they have taken in all forms, whether of dose or douche, that, like a long-suffering patient, they are still sunk under its influence. I refer, of course, to the talk of compensation, under the shameful assumption that there can be property in man. Sir, there was a moment when I was willing to pay for Emancipation largely, or at least to any reasonable amount; but it was as ransom, and never as compensation. Thank God, that time has passed, never to return,—and simply because money is no longer needed for the purpose. Our fathers, under Washington, never paid the Algerines for our enslaved fellow-citizens, except as ransom; and they ceased all such tribute, when emancipation could be had without it. Such must be our rule. Any other would impoverish the Treasury for nothing. The time has come for the old tocsin to sound, “Millions for defence, not a cent for tribute!” Ay, Sir; millions of dollars—with millions of strong arms also—for defence against Slave-Masters; but not a cent for tribute to Slave-Masters.

If money is paid as compensation, clearly it cannot be awarded to the master, who for generations robbed the slave of his toil and all its fruits, so that, in justice, he may be treated as trustee of accumulated earnings with interest never paid over. Any money as compensation must belong, every dollar, to the slave. If the case were audited in Heaven’s chancery, there must be another allowance for prolonged denial of inestimable rights. Loss of wages may be estimated; but where is the tariff or price-current by which to determine those greater losses which have been the lot of every slave? Mortal arithmetic is impotent to assess the fearful sum-total. In presence of this infinite responsibility, the whole question must be referred to that other tribunal where master and slave are equal, while Infinite Wisdom tempers justice with mercy. There is a Persian tradition of Mahomet once saying that the greatest mortification at the Day of Judgment will be when the pious slave is carried to Paradise and the wicked master condemned to Hell.[282] It is only with finite powers that we on earth can imitate Divine Justice.

The theory of compensation is founded on the intolerable assumption of property in man, an idea which often intrudes into these debates, sometimes from open vindicators, and sometimes from others, who, while yielding, yet reluctantly yield, and thus their conduct is “sicklied o’er” with Slavery. Sir, parliamentary law must be observed; but, if in a parliamentary assembly indignant hisses are ever justifiable, they ought to break forth at every mention of this thing, whatever form it takes,—whether of arrogant claim, or mildest suggestion, or equivocal hint. Impious toward God, and infidel toward man, it is disowned by conscience and reason alike; nor is there any softness of argument or of phrase by which its essential wickedness can be disguised. “The fool hath said in his heart there is no God”; but it is kindred folly to say there is no Man. The first is Atheism, and the second is like unto the first. If in this world a man owns anything, it is himself. This is his great patrimony, alike from his earthly father and his Father in Heaven. It is indefeasible and perpetual,—not to be sold, not to be bought. Always owning himself, he cannot be owned by another.[283]

No man can make black white or wrong right; nor can any Congress or any multitude overcome the everlasting law of justice.

According to a well-known and capital principle of jurisprudence, stolen property cannot be sold, and the attempt to sell it, knowing the primary abstraction, is a crime. The form of sale is impotent, and the title does not pass. Wherever he finds his property, the original owner may resume it as his own. The pawnbroker who has received it in pledge must release his hold; the purchaser who has paid the price must give it up. But can a stolen man be sold? Is there any form of sale which is not impotent to complete this great transfer, so as to give it the semblance of validity against the original owner? Can the title pass? Infinitely absurd and unnatural is the pretext that a man may reclaim his stolen coat wherever he finds it, but cannot reclaim himself! Is the coat more than the man? Slavery asserts that it is; and the whole country says the same, when it sanctions the return of a fugitive slave. But this pretension is only a further outgrowth of that appalling tyranny which begins by denying the right of a man to himself.

The Christian Church, by beautiful, glorious example, testifies from earliest days against this pretension. Hermes, Prefect of Rome, converted to Christ, comes to church on Easter with twelve hundred and fifty slaves, whom after baptism he sets free. Chromatius, another Prefect of Rome, under Diocletian, also a convert, gives liberty after baptism to fourteen hundred, while he proclaims, “They who begin to be children of God must not be slaves of men.” St. Germain, the admirable Bishop of Paris, on receiving alms, cries out, “Thanks be to God, we can now ransom a slave!” This list might be extended. Better even than such personal testimony is the same sentiment manifest in social institutions. St. Theodore, illustrious in the Eastern Church, imposed this rule upon its monasteries: “You must never employ slaves, neither in personal service, nor in affairs of the convent, nor in culture of the earth; the slave is a man created in the image of God.” The Church of the West was not less earnest. St. Benedict of Aniane, the second of the name in canonization, would not allow convents to be served by a slave. In the bosom of these retreats, as also in the priesthood, the former slave mingled with the former lord, nor was there any obstacle between him and the bishop’s crosier. Onesimus, once the slave of Philemon, and hailed as brother beloved by Paul, is said to have become bishop of Ephesus.[284]

In the testimony of the Christian Church there is one character of precious example: I refer to Pope Gregory, justly meriting by his life the title of Great, which has been preserved by history. Through him England first tasted the blessings of Christianity. Fair-haired Saxons from the distant island, standing for sale in the market of Rome, enlisted his sympathy. When told that they were Angles, he exclaimed, “Not Angles, but Angels,”—“Non Angli, sed Angeli”—and he insisted on their ransom and instruction to become the apostles of their countrymen. Under his auspices St. Augustin commenced the work, so that the conversion of England may be traced to the sympathies aroused by English slaves on the banks of the Tiber. A letter from St. Gregory shows the spirit in which he acted. Giving freedom to two bondmen, he wrote these commanding words: “Since our Redeemer, Maker of the whole creation, being hereto propitiated, has been pleased to assume human flesh, that, by the grace of his divinity, the chain of slavery wherewith we were held captive being broken, he might restore us to pristine liberty, it is well that men whom Nature from the beginning has brought forth free and the law of nations has subjected to the yoke of servitude, should by benefit of manumission be restored to the liberty wherein they were born.”[285] And do not these words speak to us now?

Foremost of all in history who have vindicated human liberty, and associated their names with it forevermore, stands John Milton, Secretary of Oliver Cromwell, and author of “Paradise Lost.” Cradled under a lawless royalty, he helped to found and support the English Commonwealth, while in all that he wrote he pleaded for human rights,—now in defence of the English people, who had beheaded their king, and now in immortal poems which show how wisely and well he loved the cause he had made his own. Nowhere has the assumption of property in man been encountered more completely than in the conversation between the Archangel and Adam, after the former had pictured a hunter whose game was “men, not beasts”:—

Every assertor of this property puts himself in the very place of the hunter of “men, not beasts,” described as “execrable son, so to aspire.” The language is not too strong. “Execrable” is the assumption,—“execrable” wherever made: “execrable” on the plantation, “execrable” in this Chamber, “execrable” in every form it takes, “execrable” in all its consequences, especially “execrable” as an apology for hesitation against Slavery. The assumption, wherever it shows itself, must be beaten down under our feet, like Satan himself, in whom it has its origin.

Again, we are brought by learned Senators to the Constitution, which requires that there shall be “just compensation,” where “private property” is taken for public use. But, plainly, here the requirement is absolutely inapplicable, for there is no “private property” to take. Slavery is but a bundle of barbarous pretensions, from which certain persons are to be released. At what price shall the bundle be estimated? How much shall be paid for the controlling pretension of property in man? How much allowed for that other pretension to shut the gates of knowledge, and keep the victim from the Book of Life? How much given for ransom from the pretension to rob a human being of his toil and all its fruits? And, Sir, what “just compensation” shall be voted for renouncing that Heaven-defying pretension, too disgusting to picture, which, trampling on the most sacred relations, makes wife and child the wretched prey of lust and avarice? Let these pretensions be renounced, and Slavery ceases to exist; but there can be no “just compensation” for any such renunciation. Heart, reason, religion, the Constitution itself, rise in judgment against it. As well vote “just compensation” to the hardened offender who renounces disobedience to the Ten Commandments, and promises that he will cease to steal, cease to commit adultery, and cease to covet his neighbor’s wife! Ay, Sir, there is nothing in the Constitution to sanction any such outrage. Such an appropriation would be unconstitutional.

Mr. Madison said in the Convention that it was “wrong to admit in the Constitution the idea that there could be property in men.”[287] Of course it was wrong. It was criminal and unpardonable. Thank God, it was not done. But Senators admit this “idea” daily. They take it from themselves, and then introduce it where Mr. Madison said it was “wrong.” But if “wrong” at the adoption of the Constitution, how much worse now! There is no instinct of patriotism, as there is no conclusion of reason, which must not be against the abomination; and yet, Sir, it is allowed to enter into these debates. Sometimes it stalks, and sometimes it skulks; but whether stalking or skulking, it must be encountered with the same indignant rebuke, until it ventures no longer to show its head.

Putting aside, then, all objection, whether from open opposition or lukewarm support, the great question recurs, that question which dominates this debate, How shall Slavery be overthrown? The answer is threefold: first, by the courts, declaring and applying the true principles of the Constitution; secondly, by Congress, in the exercise of the powers belonging to it; and, thirdly, by the people, through an Amendment of the Constitution. Court, Congress, people, all may be invoked; and the occasion justifies the appeal.

1. Let the appeal be made to the courts. But, alas! one of the saddest chapters in our history is the conduct of judges, lending themselves to the support of Slavery. Injunctions of the Constitution, guaranties of personal liberty, and prohibitions against its invasion have all been forgotten. Courts, which should be asylums of Liberty, have been changed into strongholds of Slavery; and the Supreme Court of the United States, by final decision as shocking to the Constitution as to the public conscience, proclaimed itself tutelary stronghold of all. It was part of the national calamity, that, under the influence of Slavery, Justice, like Astræa of old, fled. But now, at last, in a regenerated Republic, with Slavery waning, and the people rising in judgment against it, let us hope that the judgments of courts may be reconsidered, and the powers of the Constitution in behalf of Liberty fully exercised, so that human bondage shall no longer find an unnatural support from the lips of judges,—

Sir, no court can afford to do an act of wrong. Its business is justice; and when, under any apology, it ceases to do justice, it loses those titles to reverence otherwise so willingly bestowed. There are instances of great magistrates openly declaring disobedience to laws “against common right and reason,” and their names are mentioned with gratitude in the history of jurisprudence. There are other instances of men holding the balance and the sword, whose names are gathered into a volume as “atrocious judges.” If our judges, cruelly interpreting the Constitution in favor of Slavery, do not come into the latter class, they can claim no place among those others who have stood for justice, like the rock on which the sea breaks in idle spray. Vainly do you attempt to frame injustice into a law, or to sanctify it by any judgment of court. From Cicero we learn, that, “if commands of the people, if decrees of princes, if opinions of judges were sufficient to constitute right, then were it right to commit highway robbery, right to commit adultery, right to set up forged wills.”[288] And Augustine tells us, with saintly authority, that what is unjust cannot be law.[289] Every law and every judgment of court, to be binding, must have at its back the everlasting, irrepealable law of God. Doubtless the model decision of the American bench, destined to be quoted hereafter with most honor, because the boldest in its conformity with great principles of humanity and social order, was that of the Vermont judge who refused to surrender a fugitive slave until his pretended master could show a title-deed from the Almighty.

But courts have no longer occasion for such boldness. They need not step outside the Constitution. It is only needed that they should follow just principles in its interpretation. Let them be guided by a teacher like Edmund Burke, who spoke as follows:—

“Men cannot covenant themselves out of their rights and their duties; nor by any other means can arbitrary power be conveyed to any man. Those who give to others such rights perform acts that are void as they are given.… Those who give and those who receive arbitrary power are alike criminal, and there is no man but is bound to resist it to the best of his power, wherever it shall show its face to the world. It is a crime to bear it, when it can be rationally shaken off.”[290]

Or let them be guided by that other teacher, Lord Chatham, when he said:—

“With respect to the decisions of courts of justice, I am far from denying them their due weight and authority; yet, placing them in the most respectable view, I still consider them, not as law, but as an evidence of the law; and before they can arrive even at that degree of authority, it must appear that they are founded in and confirmed by reason,—that they are supported by precedents taken from good and moderate times,—that they do not contradict any positive law,—that they are submitted to without reluctance by the people,—that they are unquestioned by the legislature (which is equivalent to a tacit confirmation),—and, what in my judgment is by far the most important, that they do not violate the spirit of the Constitution.”[291]

Or let them go back to that early Spanish testimony against the Slave-Trade and Slavery, when De Soto, in lectures at Salamanca, thus spoke:—

“It is affirmed that the unhappy Ethiopians are by fraud or force carried away and sold as slaves. If this is true, neither those who have taken them, nor those who purchased them, nor those who hold them in bondage can ever have a quiet conscience till they emancipate them, even if no compensation should be obtained.”[292]

Or, let them accept the unanswerable judgment of that acute moralist, the late Archbishop Whately, who in simple words shows the superior title of the slave:—

“A slave cannot fairly be called a thief for taking anything from his master, or for stealing his own liberty. He may be considered as in an enemy’s country, in the midst of those who recognize no rights of his as against them, and who therefore have no rights as against him.”[293]

If courts were thus inspired, it is easy to see that Slavery would disappear under righteous judgment.

2. Unhappily, courts will not perform the duty of the hour, and we turn elsewhere. Appeal must be made to Congress; and here, as has been fully developed, the powers are ample, unless in their interpretation you surrender in advance to Slavery. By a single brief statute, Congress may sweep Slavery out of existence. Patrick Henry saw and declared, that, under the influence of a growing detestation of Slavery and the increasing “urbanity” of the people, this must be expected, while all the capacious war powers proclaim trumpet-tongued that it can be done constitutionally, and the peace powers echo back the war powers.

Here we encounter again the “execrable” pretension of property in man, with the attendant claim of “just compensation” for the renunciation of Heaven-defying wrongs. But this is no more incident to abolition by Act of Congress than by Amendment of the Constitution; so that, “if just compensation” can be discarded in one case, it can be in the other. But the votes on the latter proposition already taken in the Senate testify that it is discarded. Sir, let the “execrable” pretension never again be named, except for condemnation, no matter how or when it appears, or what form it takes. Let the “idea,” originally branded as so “wrong” that it could not find place in the Constitution, never find place in our debates.

Even if Congress be not prepared for that single decisive measure promptly ending this whole question and striking Slavery to death, there are other measures by which the end may be hastened. The towering Upas may be girdled, even if not felled at once to earth. Already, by Acts of Congress, Slavery is abolished in the national capital and in the national territories. This is not enough.

The Fugitive Slave Bill, conceived in iniquity, and imposed upon the North as a badge of subjugation, may be repealed.

The coastwise Slave-Trade may be deprived of all support in the statute-book.

The traffic in human beings, as an article of “commerce among the States,” may be extirpated.

And, above all, that odious rule of evidence, so injurious to justice and discreditable to the country, excluding the testimony of colored persons, may be abolished, at least in national courts.

And there is one other thing to be done. The enlistment of colored persons must be encouraged by legislation in every possible form; for enlistment is emancipation. That contract whereby the soldier-slave promises service at hazard of life, like the contract of marriage, fixes the equality of the parties, which Congress, for the national defence, and the national character also, will sacredly maintain.

All these things at least may be done, and, when they are done, Heaven and Earth will be glad, for they will have assurance that all will be done.

3. Nor will even these suffice. The people must be summoned to confirm the whole work. It is for them to put the capstone upon the sublime structure. An Amendment of the Constitution may do what courts and Congress decline to do, or, even should they act, it may cover their action with its panoply. Such an Amendment will give completeness and permanence to Emancipation, while bringing the Constitution into avowed harmony with the Declaration of Independence. Happy day, long wished for, destined to gladden those beatified spirits who have labored on earth to this end, but died without the sight!

And yet I would not indiscreetly take counsel of our hopes. From the nature of the case, such an Amendment cannot be consummated at once. Time must intervene, with opportunities of opposition. It can pass Congress only by a vote of two thirds in both branches; and then it must be adopted by the Legislatures of three fourths of the States. Even under most favorable circumstances, it is impossible to say when it can become part of the Constitution. Too tardily, I fear, for all the good that is sought. Therefore I am not content with this measure alone. It postpones till to-morrow what ought to be done to-day; and I much fear that it will be made the apology for indifference to other efforts of direct practical value,—as if it were pardonable to neglect for a day the duties we owe to Human Rights.

When will rise that to-morrow’s sun, to witness that other sun filling the land with the light of Freedom?

For myself, let me confess, that, in presence of the mighty events now thronging, I feel how insignificant is any individual, whether citizen or Senator; and yet, humbly longing to do my part, I would not put off till to-morrow what ought to be done to-day,—especially can I not consent to this great postponement. Our fellow-men are in bonds: they must be relieved. Most beautiful that ancient story, where the philosopher, while on a mission to a great king for the release of captives, being invited to sup, replied in the famous words of Ulysses, “O Circe! what man of a right mind could let himself touch meat or drink before he had ransomed his companions and beheld them with his eyes?” The philosopher did not speak in vain. The captives were set free at once.[294]

Beyond my general desire to see an act of universal emancipation, at once and forever settling this great question, so that it may no longer be the occasion of strife between us, there are two other objects ever present to my mind as a practical legislator: first, to strike at Slavery wherever I can hit it; and, secondly, to clear the statute-book of all existing supports of Slavery, so that this great wrong may find nothing there to which it can cling for life. Less than this, at the present moment, when Slavery is still menacing, would be abandonment of duty.

So long as a single slave continues anywhere beneath the flag of the Republic, I am unwilling to rest. Too well I know the vitality of Slavery with its infinite capacity of propagation, and how little Slavery it takes to make a Slave State with all the cruel pretensions of Slavery. The down of a single thistle is full of all possible thistles, and a single fish is said to contain many millions of eggs, so that the whole sea may be stocked from its womb.

The modern founder of political science, Machiavelli, writer as well as statesman, in his most instructive work, the Discourses on Livy, has a chapter entitled, “For a Republic to have long life, it is necessary to bring it back often to its origin”:[295] where he shows how the native virtue in which a Republic was founded becomes so far corrupted that in process of time the body-politic is destroyed,—as in the case of the natural body, where, according to the doctors of medicine, something is daily added, from time to time requiring cure. The remarkable publicist teaches under this head that Republics are brought back to their origin, and to the principles in which they were founded, by pressure from without, where prudence fails within; and he affirms that the destruction of Rome by the Gauls was necessary, in order that the Republic might have a new birth, with new life and new virtue,—all of which ensued, when the barbarians were driven back. If the illustration is fanciful, there is wisdom in the counsel; and now the time has come for its application. The Gauls are upon us, not from a distance, but domestic Gauls, flinging their swords, like Brennus, into the scales; and we, too, may profit by the occasion to secure for the Republic a new birth, with new life and new virtue. Happily, the way is easy; for there is no doubt of its baptismal vows, or the declared sentiments of its origin. There is the Declaration of Independence: let its solemn promises be redeemed. There is the Constitution: let it speak according to the promises of the Declaration. Let it speak, and the last act of the great American tragedy will be ended, while the stage is piled with corpses. From its early beginning in the hold of the Dutch ship on its way to Jamestown, as the Pilgrims in the Mayflower were on their way to Plymouth, down to this bloody Rebellion, Slavery has been a prolonged tragedy. History and Art will hereafter portray the scenes. Nor can its death be otherwise than an epoch, not only for our own country, but for mankind. Slavery in its distant origin was the substitute for death. The slave was allowed to live, but without the rights of man. Instead of death in the grave with its insensibility and decay, there was death in life with constant degradation and suffering. Hence in all ages the awakened sympathies of the good and humane,—heard sometimes in sorrow for the unhappy fate of an individual, and then in appeal for a race.

How truly affecting are the words of Homer, depicting the wife of Hector toiling as bondwoman at the looms of her Grecian master,—or those other undying words which exhibit man in Slavery as shorn of half his worth! The story of Joseph sold by his brothers has been repeated in every form, touching innumerable hearts. Borrowed from the Bible, it figured in the moralities of the Middle Ages and in the later theatre of France. How genius triumphed over Slavery is part of this testimony. Æsop, the fabulist,—one of the world’s greatest teachers, if not lawgivers,—was a slave; so also was Phædrus, the Roman fabulist, whose lessons are commended by purity and elegance; and so, too, was Alcman, the lyric, who shed upon Sparta the grace of poesy. To these add Epictetus, sublime in morals,—and Terence, incomparable in comedy, who gave to the world that immortal verse, which excited the applause of the Roman theatre, “I am a man, and nothing which concerns mankind is foreign to me.” Nor should it be forgotten that the life of Plato was checkered by Slavery.

In later days the sympathy is more for a race than for individuals. Unhappily, the ban of color has become a certificate of Slavery, and a large portion of the human family, whose offence was a skin darkened by the hand of God, has been degraded to the condition of chattels. The sympathies once awakened only for illustrious gifts are now bestowed upon suffering humanity, marking an advance in civilization. To be a man is a sufficient title-deed for the rights of man, which we seek to establish. But their triumph among us will be the certain herald of triumph everywhere. In other places Slavery may linger yet a little longer; but its death here will make its continued existence impossible wherever civilization prevails.

Mr. President, the immediate question before us is on the proposition to prohibit Slavery in our country by Constitutional Amendment; and here I hope to be indulged with regard to the form it should take. A new text of the Constitution cannot be considered too carefully even in this respect, especially when it is nothing less than a new article of Freedom. For a moment we are performing something of that duty which belongs to the conditores imperiorum, placed foremost by Lord Bacon in “the degrees of sovereign honor,”[296] and “words” become “things.” From the magnitude of the task we may naturally borrow circumspection, and I approach this part of the question with suggestion rather than argument.

Let me say frankly that I should prefer a form of expression different from that having the favor of the Committee. They have selected what was intended for the old Jeffersonian Ordinance, sacred in our history, although, let me add, they have not imitated it closely. But I must be pardoned, if I venture to doubt the expediency of perpetuating in the Constitution language which, if it have any signification, seems to imply that “Slavery or involuntary servitude” may be provided for “the punishment of crime.” Instances anterior to the Constitution show the origin of this exception. In the absence of penitentiaries, Slavery was a punishment adjudged by courts. According to early Colonial records in Massachusetts, one William Andrews “was censured to be severely whipped and delivered up as a slave to whom the Court shall appoint.”[297] But it cannot be intended to sanction such judgment now. There can be no reason why Slavery should not be forbidden positively and without exception, especially as “imprisonment” cannot be confounded with this “peculiar” wrong. If my desires could prevail, I would put aside the Ordinance, and find another form.

I know nothing better than this:—

“All persons are equal before the law, so that no person can hold another as a slave: and the Congress shall have the power to make all laws necessary and proper to carry this declaration into effect everywhere within the United States and the jurisdiction thereof.”

By the latter clause the declaration is plainly applicable to the States, while the earlier words assert the equality of all persons before the law,—a fruitful principle, assuring to all the same rights. Inter pares non est potestas, “Among equals there is no superiority,” is a received maxim of law, expressing a natural truth. Therefore, where all are equal, there can be no Slavery; so that, in declaring equality before the law, you make Slavery, alike with superiority, impossible. This language, though unknown to the Common Law and new in our country, has a fixed place in modern constitutional history. To understand how it has reached its present authority we must repair for a moment to France, so rich in experience and in genius.

Bills of Rights in England were moderate in terms, compared with our Declaration of Independence, and with the Declarations of Rights first announced by France in the throes of terrible revolution, and since recognized among the permanent triumphs of that prodigious outbreak. Until this period there had been no written Constitution in France, though since there have been many in succession. The earliest, in September, 1791, was preceded by a Declaration of Rights, proposed by Lafayette, which, after setting forth that “ignorance, forgetfulness, or contempt of the rights of man are the sole causes of public evils and of the corruption of Governments,” undertakes to announce what it calls “the natural rights of man, inalienable and sacred”; and this is done—

“To the end that this Declaration, being constantly present to all the members of the social body, may incessantly recall to them their rights and their duties; to the end that the acts of the legislative power, and those of the executive power, being every moment capable of comparison with the object of every political institution, may be more respected by them; to the end that the claims of the citizens, being henceforth founded on simple and incontestable principles, may always turn to the maintenance of the Constitution and to the happiness of all.”

This too elaborate, but instructive preamble, is followed by an article with a generality of expression not unlike that of our own Declaration:—

“Article I. Men are born and continue free and equal in rights.”

In the sixth article of the Declaration this is explained by declaring that the law “ought to be the same for all, whether it protect, whether it punish,” and then it speaks of “all citizens being equal in its eyes.”[298]

In June, 1793, another Constitution was adopted, which, after a brief preamble, opens with these articles:—

“Article I. The object of society is the common happiness. Government is instituted to guaranty to man the enjoyment of his natural and imprescriptible rights.

“Article II. These rights are equality, liberty, security, property.

“Article III. All men are equal by nature and before the law.”[299]

Here the new statement begins to appear. Men are equal by nature and before the law.

“Equal before the law.” This term, which, by its essential accuracy and self-limitation, excludes all uncertainty, exaggeration, or vagueness, was already known in the literature of France. Voltaire, whose wonderful genius was so peculiarly French, with that constant clearness which is the boast of the French language, had used it in one of his philosophical poems, where political truth is commended in the manner of Pope. The first of these was in 1734, on “Equality of Conditions,” where he says, “Mortals are equal; their mask is different”; and then, “To have the same rights to happiness, this is for us the perfect and only equality”;[300] thus, like our Declaration of Independence, placing “the pursuit of happiness” among natural rights. This assertion of equal rights was defined in the poem on “The Law of Nature,” addressed to Frederick, King of Prussia, and written in 1752, where he says, “The law in every State ought to be universal; mortals, whoever they may be, are equal before it.” But I cite the precise words:—

This happy statement naturally passed from the poem to the Constitution.

It was much to declare equality; it was more still to do it with accuracy of form defying assault. This conquest of the Revolution assumed its most precise enunciation on the restoration of the Bourbons, when it appeared as the first article in the Constitutional Charter of Louis the Eighteenth, promulgated in 1814.

“Article I. Frenchmen are equal before the law, whatever may otherwise be their titles and their ranks.”[302]

And it was repeated by Napoleon, April 22, 1815, on his return from Elba.[303]

At the installation of Louis Philippe as king, in August, 1830, with Lafayette by his side, the same declaration was placed at the head of the Constitutional Charter.[304]

Meanwhile this expression passed from France into the Constitutions of other countries: of Holland, in 1801, where the declaration was, “All members of society are equal before the law, without distinction of rank or birth”;[305] of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, created by Napoleon in 1807, where we meet these terms: “Slavery is abolished; all citizens are equal before the law”;[306] of the Canton of Zug, in Switzerland, in 1814, where, among “General Principles,” is the article, “All the citizens of the Canton are equal before the law, and there are no subjects in the Canton of Zug”;[307] of Bavaria, in 1818, where “equality of the rights of the citizens before the law” is enumerated in the preamble among “the principal features of the Constitution”;[308] of Bolivia, in South America, where in 1825 we meet the words, “All citizens are equal before the law”;[309] of Portugal, in 1826, where it is declared, “The law is equal for all, whether it protects, whether it punishes”;[310] of Brazil, where in the same year was a similar declaration;[311] and then of Greece, not only in the Provisional Constitution of 1822, but in the permanent Constitution of 1827, when the Greek nation “proclaims before God and before man its political existence and its independence,” and then among its fundamental principles declares, “All Greeks are equal before the law.”[312]

The French Revolution of 1830 quickened this statement anew. Belgium adopted it in 1831,[313] and even Austria in 1849; the latter power as follows: “All subjects are equal before the law, and judged according to the same fundamental rights”;[314] and Sardinia, in 1848, as follows: “All natives of the kingdom, whatever their titles or their rank, are equal before the law.”[315] The same words reappear in the Fundamental Statute of Italy, in 1861, when that classical land became a nation.[316]

Doubtless the extensive adoption of this formula testifies to its value in expressing an important principle, being nothing less than the primal truth declared by our fathers. All will confess its comparative precision. The sophistries of Calhoun, founded on the obvious inequalities of body and mind, are all overthrown by this simple statement, which, though borrowed latterly from France, is older than French history. I have had occasion before to remind the curious student that the ancient Greek of Herodotus supplies a single word for this phrase, when it is said that “the Government of the many has the most beautiful name of ἰσονομία,” or equality before the law.[317] The father of history was right. The name is most beautiful. But he did not see all its beauty; nor did the three Persian satraps, whose dialogue he reports,[318] know how great a truth was revealed. Not till after generations and ages had passed was equality before the law authoritatively declared; and now, while involving it as a rule, we repair to that bountiful Greek tongue, which, at that early day, by a single word, anticipated our modern exigency. Such a word, originally adopted in our Declaration of Independence, would have superseded criticism.

Enough has been said to explain the origin of a term which has played an important part. Though traced to distant antiquity, and now adopted in various countries, it derives its modern authority from France, where it is the “well-ripened fruit” of unprecedented experience in the discussion of great problems in political science. Naturally, it does not come from England; for the idea finds little favor in that hierarchical kingdom. In France Equality prevails more than Liberty: in England Liberty more than Equality. Here among us both should find a home; and such a declaration as I now propose, embodying Liberty and Equality, will keep the double idea perpetual in the public mind and conscience, “to warn, to comfort, and command.” The denial of Liberty in the Rebel States begins with the denial of Equality; so that our work is not completely done without the assertion of both principles.

In making Equality the fundamental principle, underlying Liberty itself, I follow reason and authority. Clearly, where all are equal, there can be no Slavery. Equality makes Slavery impossible, while it broadens Liberty into that community of right which is the essence of Republican Government. A remarkable French writer, La Boëtie, whose short life was brightened by the friendship of Montaigne, well exhibits the dependence of Liberty upon Equality. In his little work, “Voluntary Servitude,” which inspires astonishment in all who read it, while vindicating and exalting Liberty as derived from Nature, and setting forth how “this good mother” has given to us all the whole earth for a home, has lodged us all in the same house, has fashioned us all according to the same pattern, so that each can see and recognize one in another, and then, alluding to the gift of voice and speech for our better mutual acquaintance and fraternity, also to the means by which Nature ties and binds so strongly the knot of our alliance and society, also to the manifestation in all things that she did not wish so much to make us all united as all one, the precocious philosopher declares: “There can be no doubt that we are all naturally free, since we are all companions, and it cannot fall into any human head that Nature has put anybody in slavery, having put us all in company.”[319] Here is exhibited that controlling Equality which has prevailed in France.

A recent English publicist and professor exhibits also the predominance of this principle: I refer to Mr. Maine, who, in his work on “Ancient Law,” after tracing it to the jurisconsults of the Antonine era, and asserting that it “is one of a large number of legal propositions which in progress of time have become political,” attests the influence of France, which, according to him, is seen in our own Declaration of Independence, where what he calls “the specially French assumption,” that all men are born equal, is joined with what he calls “the assumption more familiar to Englishmen,” that all men are born free; and he adds, that, “of all the ‘principles of 1789,’ it is the one which has been least strenuously assailed, which has most thoroughly leavened modern opinion, and which promises to modify most deeply the constitution of societies and the politics of states.”[320] And now I venture to suggest that this guiding principle be recognized by us in words commended by usage and intrinsic character.

Should the Senate not incline to this form, there is still another I would suggest:—

“Slavery shall not exist anywhere within the United States or the jurisdiction thereof; and the Congress shall have power to make all laws necessary and proper to carry this prohibition into effect.”

This is simple, and avoids all language open to question. The word “Slavery” is explicit, and describes precisely what you propose to blast. There is no doubt with regard to its signification. It cannot be confounded with “the punishment of crime”; for imprisonment is not Slavery; nor can any punishment take the form of a wrong which stands by itself, peculiar, terrible, outrageous. Therefore nothing about punishment should find place in the rule we now ordain. Beyond this I would avoid technicality, which is out of place in such a text; and here I am encouraged by other examples. An early Constitution of France prohibited Slavery in every form, when it said: “Every man can engage his time and his services, but he cannot sell himself, nor be sold; his person is not alienable property.”[321] That of the Greek nation was equally thorough: “It is not permitted in Greece to sell or to buy men; every slave, whatever may be his nation or religion, is free from the time he puts foot on Greek territory.”[322] Nothing can be simpler than this prohibition in the Bavarian Constitution: “Servitude is everywhere suppressed”;[323] or than this in the Constitution of Wurtemberg: “Serfdom is forever abolished”;[324] or than this in the Constitution of the French Republic in November, 1848: “Slavery cannot exist upon any French soil.”[325] Nor can anything be more simple and thorough than these words from Hayti: “Slaves cannot exist on the territory of the Republic. Slavery there is forever abolished.”[326] Naturally a Republic of enfranchised slaves made this the first article of its Constitution, while sense as well as instinct supplied the form. And, Sir, in all these historic instances you will remark that there is nothing technical.

If the Senate is determined to follow the Jeffersonian Ordinance, then I prefer that it should be the Ordinance actually, and not as reported by the Committee. And I would complete the work by expelling from the Constitution all those words so often misconstrued, perverted, and tortured to a false support of Slavery.

But while desirous of seeing the great rule of Freedom we are about to ordain embodied in a text which shall be like the precious casket to the more precious treasure, yet I confess that I feel humbled by my own endeavors. And whatever the judgment of the Senate, I am consoled by the thought that the most homely text containing such a rule will be more beautiful far than any word of poet or orator, and will endure to be read with gratitude, when the lofty dome of this Capitol, with the statue of liberty which crowns it, has crumbled to earth.