Chapter VIII: Part 8

MR. PRESIDENT,--The proposition I offer now I moved last week on another bill, in a slightly different form, but it was substantially the same. I did not then understand that there was objection to it in principle. It was opposed as not germane to the bill in hand; or, if germane, its adoption on that bill was supposed in some way to embarrass its passage. On that ground, as I understand, it was opposed,--not on its merits. Senators who spoke against it avowed their partiality for it, if I understood them aright,--declared, that, if they had an opportunity on any proper bill, they would vote for it.

Well, Sir, I move it on another bill, to which I believe all will admit it is entirely germane. There is no suggestion that it is not germane. It is completely in order. But the objection of the Senator from Vermont, if I understand, is, that it may interfere with the symmetry of his bill, and introduce an element which he, who has that bill in charge and now conducts it so ably, had not intended to introduce. Very well, Sir; that may be said; but I do not think it a very strong objection.

The Senator is mistaken, if he supposes that the amendment would endanger the bill. Just the contrary. It would give the bill strength.

MR. HOWE. Merit.

MR. SUMNER. It would give it both strength and merit,--because it is a measure which grows out of the exigency of the hour. His bill on a larger scale is just such a measure. It grows out of the present exigency, and this is its strength and its merit. We shall pass that, if we do pass it,--and I hope we shall,--to meet a crisis. We all feel its necessity. But the measure which I now move grows equally out of the present exigency. If ingrafted on the bill, it will be, like the original measure, to meet the demands of the moment. It will be because without it we shall leave something undone which we ought to do.

Now, I ask Senators, is there any one who doubts that under the circumstances such a provision ought to pass? Is there any one who doubts, after what we have seen on a large scale, that the President, for the time being at least, ought to be deprived of the extraordinary function he has exercised? He has announced in public speech that he meant to “kick out of office” present incumbents; and it was in this proceeding, that, on his return to Washington, he undertook to remove incumbents wherever he could. It cannot be doubted, Sir, that we owe protection to these incumbents, so far as possible. This is an urgent duty. If the Senator from Vermont will tell me any other way in which this can be promoted successfully, I shall gladly follow him; but until then I must insist that it shall share the fortunes of the bill, “pursue the triumph and partake the gale.” If the bill succeeds, then let this measure, which is as good as the bill.

But the suggestion is made, that the amendment should be matured in a committee. Why, Sir, it is very simple. Any one can mature it who applies his mind to it for a few moments. It has already been before the Senate for several days, discussed once, twice, three times, I think, not elaborately, but still discussed, so that its merits have become known; and beside its discussion in open Senate, I am a witness that it has been canvassed in conversation much. Many Senators have applied their minds to it, and I may say that in offering it now I speak not merely for myself, but for others, and the proposition, in the form in which I present it, is not merely my own, but it is that of many others, to whose careful supervision it has been submitted. Therefore I say that it is matured, so far as necessary, and there is no reason why the Senate should not act upon it. Why postpone what is in itself so essentially good? Why put off to some unknown future the chance of applying the remedy to an admitted abuse? Is there any one here who says that this is not an abuse, that here is not a tyrannical exercise of power? No one. Then, Sir, let us apply the remedy. This is the first chance we can get. Take it.

Mr. Fessenden was “not disposed to overturn a system which
has recommended itself to the experience of the Government,
recommended itself to the most approved mode of doing the
business of the country for years, with which no fault whatever
has been found in its practical operation, simply because at
this time we are in this ‘muss’ with regard to appointments.”
He was “opposed utterly to the amendment.” Mr. Sumner replied:--

It is very easy to answer an argument, when you begin by exaggerating consequences. Now, Sir, the Senator warns us against my proposition, because it would impose so much business upon the Senate. Is that true? He reminds us of the number of appointments we should be obliged to act upon in the Internal Revenue Department. How many? The assistant assessors. What others? Those can be counted.

MR. CRAGIN. Inspectors under the internal revenue laws.

MR. SUMNER. Inspectors also: those can all be counted. He then reminds us of the officers in the custom-houses. They can all be counted. It would not act on clerks in the custom-houses; it acts only, if at all, on officers of the custom-houses, in a certain sense superior, some with considerable responsibility. They can all be counted. It is easy to say that we shall be obliged to deal with many thousands; but I say, nevertheless, they can all be counted.

But are we not obliged to deal with many thousand postmasters, and also with many thousand officers in the army? How have we carried this great war along? The Senate has acted always upon all the nominations of the Executive for the national army, beginning with the general and ending with a second lieutenant. Every one comes before the Senate; and what is the consequence? The Executive has a direct responsibility to the Senate with regard to every army appointment. But you are not disposed to renounce that responsibility because it brings into this Chamber many thousand nominations. Of the officers that I would bring into the Chamber, some you may consider as second lieutenants in the civil service, others as first lieutenants, others as captains. And why should we not act upon them?

The Senator says we had better follow the received system. One of the finest sentiments that have fallen from one of the most gifted of our fellow-countrymen is that verse in which he says,--

“New occasions teach new duties.”

We have a new occasion, teaching a new duty. That new occasion is the misconduct of the Executive of the United States; and the new duty is, that Congress should exercise all its powers in throwing a shield over fellow-citizens. The Executive is determined to continue this warfare upon the incumbents of office; shall we not, if possible, protect them? That is our duty growing out of this hour. It may not be our duty next year, or four years from now, as it was not our duty last year, or four years back. But because it may not be our duty next year, and was not our duty last year, it does not follow that it is not our duty now. I would act in the present according to the exigency; and if there is an abuse, as no one will hesitate, I think, to admit, I would meet it carefully, considerately, and bravely.

…

When to-morrow comes, if happily we see a clearer sky, I shall then hearken gladly to the Senator from Maine, and follow him in sustaining the old system; but meanwhile the old system has ceased to be applicable. It does not meet the case. It was good enough when we had a President in harmony with the Senate; but it is not good enough now. We owe it, therefore, to ourselves, and to those looking here for protection, to apply the remedy.

January 17th, after an earnest debate, Mr. Sumner spoke again.

MR. PRESIDENT,--As the proposition on which the Senate is about to vote was brought forward by me, I hope that I may have the indulgence of the Senate for a few minutes. Had I succeeded in catching the eye of the Chair at the proper time, I should, perhaps, have said something in reply to the Senator from Indiana [Mr. HENDRICKS]; but he has already been answered by the Senator from California [Mr. CONNESS]. Besides, the topics which he introduced were political. He did not address himself directly to the proposition itself. I do not say that his remarks were irrelevant, but obviously he seized the occasion to make a political speech. The Senator is an excellent debater; he always speaks to the point as he understands it; and yet his point is apt to be political. Of course he speaks as one having authority with his party, in which he is an acknowledged leader. And now, Sir, you will please to remark, he comes forward as leader for the President of the United States. The Senator from Indiana, an old-school Democrat,--he will not deny the appellation,--presents himself as defender of the President. I congratulate the President upon so able a defender. Before this great controversy is closed, the President will need all the ability, all the experience, all the admirable powers of debate which belong to the distinguished Senator.

As I shall recall the Senate precisely to the question, I begin by asking the Secretary to read the amendment.

The Secretary read the amendment, when Mr. Sumner continued.

Now, Mr. President, I am unwilling to be diverted from that plain proposition into any general discussion of a merely political character. I ask your attention to the simple question on which you are to vote.

Here I meet objections brought against the amendment, so far as I have been able to comprehend them. They have chiefly found voice, unless I am much mistaken, in the Senator from Maine [Mr. FESSENDEN], who is as earnest as he is unquestionably able. The Senator began with a warning, and his beginning gave tone to all he said. He warned us not to forget the lessons of the past; and he warned us also not to fall under the influence of any animosity. When he warned us not to forget the lessons of the past, such was his earnestness that he seemed to me fresh from the study of Confucius. No learned Chinese, anxious that there should be no departure from the ancient ways, and filled with devotion for distant progenitors, could have enjoined that duty more reverently. We were to follow what had been done in the past. Now, Sir, I have a proper deference for the past; I recognize its lessons, and seek to comprehend them; but I am not a Chinese, to be swathed by traditions. I break all bands and wrappers, when the occasion requires. I trust that the Senator will do so likewise. The present occasion is of such a character that his lesson is entirely inapplicable. It is well to regard the past, and study its teachings. It is well also to regard the future, and seek to provide for its necessities. This is plain enough.

Then, Sir, we are not to act under the influence of animosity. Excellent counsel. But, pray, what Senator, on an occasion like this, when we strive to place in the statutes of the country an important landmark, can allow himself to act under such influence? Is the Senator from Maine the only one who can claim this immunity? I am sure he will not make exclusive claim. As he is conscious that he is free from such disturbing influence, so also am I. He is not more free from it than I am. Most sincerely from my heart do I disclaim all animosity. I have nothing of the kind. I see nothing but my duty.

And when I speak of duty, I speak of what I would emphatically call the duty of the hour. I tried the other day, in what passed between myself and the Senator from Maine, briefly to illustrate this idea. I said that we are not to act absolutely with reference to the past, nor absolutely with reference to the future, but we are to act in the present. Each hour has its duties, and this hour has duties such as few other hours in our history have ever presented. Is there any one who can question it? Are we not in the midst of a crisis? Sometimes it is said that we are in the midst of a revolution. Call it, if you will, simply a crisis. It is a critical hour, having its own peculiar responsibilities. Now, if you ask me in what this present duty specially centres, on what it specially pivots, I have an easy reply: it is in protection to the loyal and patriotic citizen, wherever he may be. I repeat it, protection to the loyal and patriotic citizen is the imminent duty of the hour. This duty is so commanding, so engrossing, so absorbing, so peculiar,--let me say, in one word, so sacred,--that to neglect it is like the neglect of everything. It is nothing less than a general abdication.

Such, I say emphatically, is the duty of the hour, in presence of which it is vain for the Senator to cite the experience of other times, when no such duty was urgent. He does not meet the case. What he says is irrelevant. All that was done in the past may have been well done; for it I have no criticism; but at this time it is absolutely inapplicable.

I return, then, to my proposition, that the duty of the hour is protection to the loyal and patriotic citizen. But when I have said this, I have not completed the proposition. You may ask, Protection against whom? I answer plainly, Against the President of the United States. There, Sir, is the duty of the hour. Ponder it well, and do not forget it. There was no such duty on our fathers, there was no such duty on recent predecessors in this Chamber, because there was no President of the United States who had become the enemy of his country.

Here Mr. Sumner was called to order by Mr. McDougall, a
Democratic Senator from California, who insisted that no
Senator had a right to make use of such words in speaking of
the President. Confusion ensued, with various calls to order.
There was question as to what Mr. Sumner really said. The
presiding officer [Mr. ANTHONY, of Rhode Island] decided that
Mr. Sumner was in order, from which decision Mr. McDougall
appealed, but finally withdrew his appeal, when Mr. Sumner
continued.

When interrupted in the extraordinary manner witnessed by the Senate, I was presenting reasons in favor of the measure on which we are to vote, and I insisted as strongly as I could that the special duty of the hour was protection to loyal and patriotic citizens against the President; I was replying to what fell from the Senator from Maine, who seems, if I may judge from his argument, to feel that there is no occasion for special safeguard, and that the system left by our fathers is enough. In this reply I used language which, according to the short-hand reporter, was as follows: I read from his notes:--

“There, Sir, is the duty of the hour. There was no such duty on
our fathers, there was no such duty on our recent predecessors,
because there was no President of the United States who had
become the enemy of his country.”

These were my words when suddenly interrupted. By those words, Sir, I stand.

MR. DOOLITTLE [of Wisconsin]. I raise a question of order,
whether these words are in order, as stated by the Senator.

THE PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair has already decided a
similar point of order. The Chair will submit this question
to the Senate.

The Presiding Officer decided that Mr. Sumner was in order.
Mr. Doolittle appealed from this decision. Debate ensued on the
appeal, when Mr. Lane, of Indiana, moved to lay the appeal upon
the table. Amid much confusion, other motions were interposed.
At last a vote was reached on the motion of Mr. Lane. The yeas
and nays were ordered, and, being taken, resulted,--Yeas 29,
Nays 10. So the appeal was laid upon the table. Mr. Sumner,
who was in his seat, refrained from voting. The Senate then
adjourned.

* * * * *

January 18th, Mr. Sumner, having the floor, continued.

It is only little more than a year ago that I felt it my duty to characterize a message of the President as “whitewashing.”[77] The message represented the condition of things in the Rebel States as fair and promising, when the prevailing evidence was directly the other way. Of course the message was “whitewashing,” and this was a mild term for such a document. But you do not forget how certain Senators, horror-struck at this plainness, leaped forward to vindicate the President. Yesterday some of these same Senators, horror-struck again, leaped forward again in the same task. Time has shown that I was right on the former occasion. If anybody doubts that I was right yesterday, I commend him to time. He will not be obliged to wait long. Meanwhile I shall insist always upon complete freedom of debate, and I shall exercise it. John Milton, in his glorious aspirations, said, “Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.”[78] Thank God, now that slave-masters are driven from this Chamber, such is the liberty of an American Senator. Of course there can be no citizen of a republic too high for exposure, as there can be none too low for protection. Exposure of the powerful, and protection of the weak,--these are not only invaluable liberties, but commanding duties.

At last the country is opening its eyes to the actual condition of things. Already it sees that Andrew Johnson, who came to supreme power by a bloody incident, has become the successor of Jefferson Davis in the spirit by which he is ruled and in the mischief he inflicts on his country. It sees the President of the Rebellion revived in the President of the United States. It sees that the violence which took the life of his illustrious predecessor is now by his perverse complicity extending throughout the Rebel States, making all who love the Union its victims, and filling the land with tragedy. It sees that the war upon faithful Unionists is still continued under his powerful auspices, without distinction of color, so that all, both white and black, are sacrificed. It sees that he is the minister of discord, and not the minister of peace. It sees, that, so long as his influence prevails, there is small chance of tranquillity, security, or reconciliation,--that the restoration of prosperity in the Rebel States, so much longed for, must be arrested,--that the business of the whole country must be embarrassed,--and that the conditions so essential to a sound currency must be postponed. All these things the country observes. But indignation assumes the form of judgment, when it is seen also that this incredible, unparalleled, and far-reaching mischief, second only to the Rebellion itself, of which it is a continuation, is created, invigorated, and extended through plain usurpation.

I know that the President sometimes quotes the Constitution, and professes to carry out its behests. But this pretension is of little value. A French historian, whose fame as writer is eclipsed by his greater fame as orator, who has held important posts, and now in advancing years is still eminent in public life, has used words which aptly characterize an attempt like that of the President. I quote from the History of M. Thiers, while describing what is known as the Revolution of the 18th Brumaire.

“When any one wishes to make a revolution, it is always
necessary to disguise the illegal as much as possible,--to use
the terms of a Constitution in order to destroy it, and the
members of a Government in order to overturn it.”[79]

In this spirit the President has acted. He has bent Constitution, laws, and men to his arbitrary will, and has even invoked the Declaration of Independence for the overthrow of those Equal Rights it so grandly proclaims.

In holding up Andrew Johnson to judgment, I do not dwell on his open exposure of himself in a condition of intoxication, while taking the oath of office,--nor do I dwell on the maudlin speeches by which he has degraded the country as it was never degraded before,--nor do I hearken to any reports of pardons sold, or of personal corruption. This is not the case against him, as I deem it my duty to present it. These things are bad, very bad; but they might not, in the opinion of some Senators, justify us on the present occasion. In other words, they might not be a sufficient reason for the amendment which I have moved.

But there is a reason which is ample. The President has usurped the powers of Congress on a colossal scale, and has employed these usurped powers in fomenting the Rebel spirit and kindling anew the dying fires of the Rebellion. Though the head of the Executive, he has rapaciously seized the powers of the Legislative, and made himself a whole Congress, in defiance of a cardinal principle of republican government, that each branch must act for itself, without assuming the powers of the other; and, in the exercise of these illegitimate powers, he has become a terror to the good and a support to the wicked. This is his great and unpardonable offence, for which history must condemn him, if you do not. He is a usurper, through whom infinite wrong is done to his country. He is a usurper, who, promising to be a Moses, has become a Pharaoh. Do you ask for evidence? No witnesses are needed to prove this guilt. It is found in public acts which are beyond question. It is already written in the history of our country. Absorbing to himself all the powers of the National Government, and exclaiming, with the French monarch, that _he alone_ is “the Nation,” he assumes, without color of law, to set up new governments in the Rebel States, and, in the prosecution of this palpable usurpation, places these governments of his own creation in the hands of traitors, to the exclusion of patriot citizens, white and black, who, through his agency, are trampled again under the heel of the Rebellion. Thus a power plainly illegitimate is wielded to establish governments plainly illegitimate, which are nothing but engines of an intolerable oppression, under which peace and union are impossible; and this monstrous usurpation is continued in constant efforts by every means to enforce the recognition of these illegitimate governments, so tyrannical in origin and so baneful in the influence they are permitted to exert. And now, in the maintenance of this usurpation, the President employs the power of removal from office. Some, who would not become the partisans of his tyranny, he has, according to his own language, “kicked out.” Others are spared, but silenced by this menace and the fate of their associates. Wherever any vacancy occurs, whether in the Loyal or the Rebel States, it is filled by the partisans of his usurpation. Other vacancies are created to provide for these partisans. I need not add, that, just in proportion as we sanction such nominations or fail to arrest them, according to the measure of our power, we become parties to his usurpation.

Here I am brought directly to the practical application of this simple statement. I have already said that the duty of the hour is in protection to the loyal and patriotic citizen against the President. This cannot be doubted. The first duty of a Government is protection. The crowning glory of a Republic is, that it leaves no human being, however humble, without protection. Show me a man exposed to wrong, and I show you an occasion for the exercise of all the power that God and the Constitution have given you. It will not do to say that the cases are too numerous, or that the remedy cannot be applied without interfering with a system handed down from our fathers, or, worse still, that you have little sympathy with this suffering. This will not do. You must apply the remedy, or fail in duty. Especially must you apply it, when, as now, this wrong is part of a huge usurpation in the interest of recent Rebellion.

The question, then, recurs, Are you ready to apply the remedy, according to your powers? The necessity for this remedy may be seen in the Rebel States, and also in the Loyal States, for the usurpation is felt in both.

If you look at the Rebel States, you will see everywhere the triumph of Presidential tyranny. There is not a mail which does not bring letters without number supplicating the exercise of all the powers of Congress against the President. There is not a newspaper which does not exhibit evidence that you are already tardy in this work of necessity. There is not a wind from that suffering region which is not freighted with voices of distress. And yet you hesitate.

I shall not be led aside to consider the full remedy, for it is not my habit to travel out of the strict line of debate. Therefore I confine myself to the bill before us, which is applicable alike to Loyal and Rebel States.

This bill has its origin in what I have already called the special duty of the hour, which is protection of loyal and patriotic citizens against the President. I have shown the necessity of this protection. But the brutal language the President employs shows the spirit in which he acts. The Senator from Indiana [Mr. HENDRICKS], whose judgment could not approve this brutality, doubted if the President had used it. Let me settle this question. Here is the “National Intelligencer,” always indulgent to the President. In its number for the 13th of September last it thus reports what the Chief Magistrate said at St. Louis:--

“I believe that one set of men have enjoyed the emoluments of
office long enough, and they should let another portion of
the people have a chance. [_Cheers._] How are these men to be
got out [_A voice, ‘Kick ’em out!’--cheers and laughter_],
unless your Executive can put them out,--unless you can reach
them through the President? Congress says he shall not turn
them out, and they are trying to pass laws to prevent it being
done. Well, let me say to you, if you will stand by me in this
action [_cheers_],--if you will stand by me in trying to give
the people a fair chance,--to have soldiers and citizens to
participate in these offices,--God being willing, I will kick
them out,--I will kick them out just as fast as I can. [_Great
cheering._]”

Such diction as this is without example. Proceeding from the President, it is a declaration of “policy” which you must counteract; and in this duty make a precedent, if need be.

The bill before the Senate, which the Senator from Vermont [Mr. EDMUNDS] has shaped with so much care and now presses so earnestly, arises from this necessity. Had Abraham Lincoln been spared to us, there would have been no occasion for any such measure. It is a bill arising from the exigency of the hour. As such it is to be judged. But it does not meet the whole case. Undertaking to give protection, it gives it to a few only, instead of the many. It provides against the removal of persons whose offices, according to existing law and Constitution, are held by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. Its special object is to vindicate the power of the Senate over the offices committed to it according to existing law and Constitution. Thus vindicating the power of the Senate, it does something indirectly to protect the citizen. In this respect it is beneficent, and I shall be glad to vote for it.

The amendment goes further in the same direction. It provides that all agents and officers appointed by the President or by the head of a Department, with salaries exceeding $1,000, shall be appointed only by and with the advice and consent of the Senate; and it further proceeds to vacate all such appointments made since 1st July last past, so as to arrest the recent process of “kicking out.” The proposition is simple; and I insist that it is necessary, unless you are willing to leave fellow-citizens without protection against tyranny. Really the case is so plain that I do not like to argue it, and yet you will pardon me, if I advert to certain objections which have been made.

We have been told that the number of persons it would bring before the Senate is such that it would clog and embarrass the public business,--in other words, that we have not time to deal with so many cases. This is a strange argument. Because the victims are numerous, therefore we are to fold our hands and let the sacrifice proceed. But I insist that just in proportion to the number is the urgency of your duty. Every victim has a voice; and when these voices count by thousands, you have no right to turn away and say, “They are too numerous for the Senate.” This is my answer to the objection founded on numbers.

But this is not all. You did not shrink, during the war, from the numerous nominations of military officers, counting by thousands; nor did you shrink from the numerous nominations of naval officers, counting by thousands. The power over all these you never relaxed, and I know well you never will relax. You know, that, even if unable to consider carefully every case, yet the power over them enables you to interpose a veto on any improper nomination. The power of the Senate is a warning against tyranny in the Executive. But it is difficult to see any strong reason for this power in the case of the army and navy which is not applicable also to civil officers. This I should say in tranquil times; but there is another reason peculiar to the hour. Even if in tranquil times I were disposed to leave the appointing power as it is, I am not disposed to do so now.

Then, again, we are told that we must not abandon the system of our fathers. I have already answered this objection precisely, in saying, that, whatever may have been the system of the Fathers, it is inadequate to the present hour. But I am not satisfied that the proposition moved by me is inconsistent with the system of the Fathers. The officers of the Internal Revenue did not exist then, and the inferior officers of the customs were few in number and with small emoluments. But all district attorneys and marshals, even if their salary was no more than two hundred dollars, were subject to the confirmation of the Senate.

MR. EDMUNDS. And so they are yet.

MR. SUMNER. And so they are yet. But can the Senator doubt, that, if, at the time when those officers were made subject to the confirmation of the Senate, weighers and gaugers and inspectors had been as well paid as they are now, they, too, would have been brought under the control of this body? I cannot.

MR. EDMUNDS. I do not think they would.

MR. SUMNER. But even if the Senator does not accept the view which I present on the probable course of our fathers, he cannot resist the argument, that, whatever may have been the old system, we must act now in the light of present duties. I repeat, a system good for our fathers may not be good for this hour, which is so full of danger.

Then, again, we are told, with something of indifference, if not of levity, that it is not the duty of the Senate to look after the “bread and butter” of officeholders. This is a familiar way of saying that these small cases are not worthy of the Senate. Not so do I understand our duties. There is no case so small as not to be worthy of the Senate, especially if in this way you can save a citizen from oppression and weaken the power of an oppressor.

Something has been said about the curtailment of the Executive power, and the Senator from Maine [Mr. FESSENDEN] has even argued against the amendment as conferring upon the President additional powers. This is strange. The effect of the amendment is, by clear intendment, to take from the President a large class of nominations and bring them within the control of the Senate. Thus it is obviously a curtailment of Executive power, which I insist has become our bounden duty. The old resolution of the House of Commons, moved by Mr. Dunning, is applicable here: “The influence of the Crown has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished.” In this spirit we must put a curb on the President, now maintaining illegitimate power by removals from office.

* * * * *

Mr. President, I have used moderate language, strictly applicable to the question. But it is my duty to remind you how much the public welfare depends upon courageous counsels. Courage is now the highest wisdom. Do not forget that we stand face to face with an enormous and malignant usurper, through whom the Republic is imperilled,--that Republic which, according to our oaths of office, we are bound to save from all harm. The lines are drawn. On one side is the President, and on the other side is the people of the United States. It is the old pretension of prerogative, to be encountered, I trust, by that same inexorable determination which once lifted England to heroic heights. The present pretension is more outrageous, and its consequences are more deadly; surely the resistance cannot be less complete. An American President must not claim an immunity denied to an English king. In the conflict he has so madly precipitated, I am with the people. In the President I put no trust, but in the people I put infinite trust. Who will not stand with the people?

Here, Sir, I close what I have to say at this time. But before I take my seat, you will pardon me, if I read a brief lesson, which seems written for the hour. The words are as beautiful as emphatic.

“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy
present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we
must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must
think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and
then we shall save our country.”

These are the words of Abraham Lincoln.[80] They are as full of vital force now as when he uttered them. I entreat you not to neglect the lesson. Learn from its teaching how to save our country.

Mr. Edmunds and Mr. Reverdy Johnson replied. Mr. Howe, of
Wisconsin, and Mr. Lane, of Indiana, favored the amendment. Mr.
Johnson suggested that the expression of opinion adverse to the
President would disqualify a Senator to sit on his impeachment.
Mr. Sumner interrupted him to say:--

What right have I to know that the President is to be impeached? How can I know it? And let me add, even if I could know it, there can be no reason in that why I should not argue the measure directly before the Senate, and present such considerations as seem to me proper, founded on the misconduct of that officer.

Mr. Sumner here changed his amendment by striking out the
limitation of $1,000 and inserting $1,500. He then said:--

I make the change in deference to Senators about me, and especially yielding to the earnest argument of the Senator from Vermont [Mr. EDMUNDS], who was so much disturbed by the idea that the Senate would be called to act upon inspectors. My experience teaches me not to be disturbed at anything. I am willing to act on an inspector or a night watchman; and if I could, I would save him from Executive tyranny. The Senator would leave him a prey, so far as I can understand, for no other reason than because he is an inspector, an officer of inferior dignity, and because, if we embrace all inspectors, we shall have too much to do.

Sir, we are sent to the Senate for work, and especially to surround the citizen with all possible safeguards. The duty of the hour is as I have declared. It ought not to be postponed. Every day of postponement is to my mind a sacrifice. Let us not, then, be deterred even by the humble rank of these officers, or by their number, but, whether humble or numerous, embrace them within the protecting arms of the Senate.

The amendment was rejected,--Yeas 16, Nays 21. After further
debate, the bill passed the Senate,--Yeas 29, Nays 9. It then
passed the House with amendments. To settle the difference
between the two Houses, there was a Committee of Conference,
when the bill agreed upon passed the Senate,--Yeas 22, Nays
10,--and passed the House,--Yeas 112, Nays 41. March 2d, the
bill was vetoed, when, notwithstanding the objections of the
President, it passed the Senate,--Yeas 35, Nays 11,--and passed
the House,--Yeas 138, Nays 40,--and thus became a law.[81]

DENUNCIATION OF THE COOLIE TRADE.

RESOLUTION IN THE SENATE, FROM THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS, JANUARY 16, 1867.

The following resolution was reported by Mr. Sumner, who asked
the immediate action of the Senate upon it.

Whereas the traffic in laborers transported from China and other Eastern countries, known as the Coolie trade, is odious to the people of the United States as inhuman and immoral;

And whereas it is abhorrent to the spirit of modern international law and policy, which have substantially extirpated the African slave-trade, to permit the establishment in its place of a mode of enslaving men different from the former in little else than the employment of fraud instead of force to make its victims captive: Therefore

_Be it resolved_, That it is the duty of this Government to give effect to the moral sentiment of the Nation through all its agencies, for the purpose of preventing the further introduction of coolies into this hemisphere or the adjacent islands.

The resolution was adopted.

CHEAP BOOKS AND PUBLIC LIBRARIES.

REMARKS IN THE SENATE, ON AMENDMENTS TO THE TARIFF BILL REDUCING THE TARIFF ON BOOKS, JANUARY 24, 1867.

The Senate having under consideration the bill to provide
increased revenue from imports, Mr. Edmunds, of Vermont, moved
to retain the following articles on the free list:--

“Books, maps, charts, and other printed matter, specially
imported in good faith for any public library or society,
incorporated or established for philosophical, literary, or
religious purposes, or for the encouragement of the fine
arts.”

Mr. Sumner said:--

MR. PRESIDENT,--By the existing law, public libraries and literary societies receive books, maps, charts, and engravings free of duty. It is now proposed to change the law, so that public libraries and literary societies shall no longer receive books, maps, charts, and engravings free of duty. It is a little curious that the present moment is seized for this important change, which I must call retrogressive in character. It seems like going back to the Dark Ages. We made no such change during the war. We went through all its terrible trials and the consequent taxation without any such attempt. Now that peace has come, and we are considering how to mitigate taxation, it is proposed to add this new tax.

MR. HENDRICKS. Will the Senator allow me to ask whether he
regards this bill as a mitigation of the taxes upon goods
brought from foreign countries?

MR. SUMNER. I am not discussing the bill as a general measure.

MR. HENDRICKS. I thought the Senator spoke of the present
effort to mitigate taxation.

MR. SUMNER. I believe I am not wrong, when I say there is everywhere a disposition to reduce taxation, whether on foreign or domestic articles. Such is the desire of the country and the irresistible tendency of things. But what must be the astonishment, when it appears, that, instead of reducing a tax on knowledge, you augment it!

I insist, that, in imposing this duty, you not only change the existing law, but you depart from the standing policy of republican institutions. Everywhere we have education at the public expense. The first form is in the public school, open to all. But the public library is the complement or supplement of the public school. As well impose a tax on the public school as on the public library.

I doubt if the Senate is fully aware of the number of public libraries springing into existence. This is a characteristic of our times. Nor is it peculiar to our country. Down to a recent day, public libraries were chiefly collegiate. In Europe they were collegiate or conventual. There were no libraries of the people. But such libraries are now appearing in England and in France. Every considerable place or centre has its library for the benefit of the neighborhood. But this movement, like every liberal tendency, is more marked in the United States. Here public libraries are coming into being without number. The Public Library of Boston and the Astor Library of New York are magnificent examples, which smaller towns are emulating. In my own State there are public libraries in Lowell, Newburyport, New Bedford, Worcester, Springfield,--indeed, I might almost say in every considerable town. But Massachusetts is not alone. Public libraries are springing up in all the Northern States. They are now extending like a belt of light across the country. They are a new Zodiac, in which knowledge travels with the sun from east to west. Of course these are all for the public good. They are public schools, where every book is a schoolmaster. To tax such institutions now, for the first time, is a new form of that old enemy, a “tax on knowledge.” Such is my sense of their supreme value that I would offer them bounties rather than taxes.

In continuation of this same hospitality to knowledge, I wish to go still further, and relieve imported books of all taxes, so far as not inconsistent with interests already embarked in the book business. For instance, let all books, maps, charts, and engravings printed before 1840 take their place on the free list. Publications before that time cannot come in competition with any interests here. The revenue they afford will be unimportant. The tax you impose adds to the burdens of scholars and professional men who need them. And yet every one of these books, when once imported, is a positive advantage to the country, by which knowledge is extended and the public taste improved. I would not claim too much for these instructive strangers belonging to another generation. I think I do not err in asking for them a generous welcome. But, above all, do not tax them.

It is sometimes said that we tax food and clothes, therefore we must tax books. I regret that food or clothes are taxed, because the tax presses upon the poor. But this is no reason for any additional tax. Reduce all such taxes, rather than add to them. But you will not fail to remember the essential difference between these taxes. In New England education from the beginning was at the public expense; and this has been for some time substantially the policy of the whole country, except so far as it was darkened by Slavery. Therefore I insist, that, because we tax food and clothes for the body, this is no reason why we should tax food and clothes for the mind.

The question, being taken by yeas and nays, resulted,--Yeas 22,
Nays 13; so the amendment was adopted.

Mr. Sumner then moved to exempt “maps, charts, and engravings
executed prior to 1840.” He said that this amendment was
naturally associated with that on which the Senate had just
acted; that there could be no competition with anything at home.

In reply to Mr. Williams, of Oregon, Mr. Sumner again spoke.

MR. PRESIDENT,--There is no question of the exemption of those who are best able to pay these duties; it is simply a question of a tax on knowledge. The Senator by his system would shut these out from the country, and would say, “Hail to darkness!” I do not wish to repeat what I have so often said; but the argument of the Senator has been made here again and again, and heretofore, as often as made, I have undertaken to answer it. He says we put a tax on necessaries now,--on the food that fills the body, on the garments that clothe the body. I regret that we do. I wish we were in a condition to relieve the country of such taxation. But does not the Senator bear in mind that he proposes to go further, and to depart from the great principle governing our institutions from the beginning of our history? We have had education free: in other words, we have undertaken to fill the mind and to clothe the mind at the public expense. We never did undertake to fill the body or to clothe the body at the public expense. Sir, as a lover of my race, I should be glad, could the country have clothed the body and filled the body at the public expense. I should be glad, had society been in such a condition that this vision could be accomplished; but we all know that it is not, and I content myself with something much simpler and more practical. I would aim to establish the principle which seems to have governed our fathers, and which is so congenial with republican institutions, that education and knowledge, so far as practicable, shall be free.

To make education and knowledge free, you must, so far as possible, relieve all books from taxation. I have already said that I did not propose to interfere with any of the practical interests of the book trade; but, where those interests are out of the way, I insist that the great principle of republican institutions should be applied. This is my answer to the Senator from Oregon. I fear he has not adequately considered the question. He has not brought to it that knowledge, that judgment, which always command my respect, as often as he addresses the Senate. He seems to have spoken hastily. I hope that he will withdraw, or at least relax, his opposition, and, revolving the subject hereafter, range himself, as he must, with his large intelligence, on the side of human knowledge.

Then, again, in reply to Mr. Conness, of California, Mr. Sumner
remarked:--

It is because I hearken to the needs of my country that I make this proposition. I am not to be led aside by the picture of other necessities. I respect all the necessities of the people; but among the foremost are those of public instruction, and it is of those I am a humble representative on this floor. The Senator from California may, if he chooses, treat that representation with levity; he may announce himself an opponent of the policy which I would establish for my country; he may set himself against what I insist is a fundamental principle of republican institutions, that knowledge should not be taxed; he may go forth and ask for taxation on books and on public libraries, and, if he chooses, carry the principle still further, and tax the public school. He will then be consistent with himself. I hope that he will allow me to speak for what I believe the true need of the country.

The motion to exempt maps, charts, and engravings was rejected.

Mr. Sumner then moved to place on the free list “books printed
prior to 1840.” It being objected, that “the duty as already
laid was very low, only 15 per cent.,”--that “we have to look
to revenue,”--and that it was desirable “to have all the
interests of the country taxed,”--Mr. Sumner replied:--

Every argument for making the duty low is equally strong against having any duty on the subject. There is no reason that could have influenced the Committee in favor of reducing the duty which is not equally strong in favor of removing the duty. The Senator declares that the object is revenue. But the revenue that will come from this source is very small; it is not large enough to compensate for the mischief it will cause. Sir, I believe all the conclusions of the best experienced in taxation are, that we should seek as much as possible to diminish the objects of taxation. Just in proportion as nations become experienced in imposing taxes do they limit the objects to which the taxes are applied. It seems to me we are strangely insensible to that lesson of history. We seem to be groping about and seizing hold of every little object, every filament, if I may so express myself, which we can grasp, in order to drag it into the sphere of taxation.

I think we should be better employed, if we declined to tax a large number of articles which it is proposed to tax, and brought our taxation to bear on a few important articles, which we should make contribute substantially to the resources of the country. The tax that is now proposed will contribute nothing of any real substance to the resources of the country, while to my view it is not creditable. I say it frankly, it is not creditable to the civilization of our age, and least of all is it creditable to the civilization of a republic.

Such is my conviction. As often as I have thought of this question, I cannot see it in any other light; and I do think that money derived from a tax on books can be vindicated only on the principle of the Roman emperor, “Money from any quarter, no matter what, for money does not smell.”[82] Now it were better, if, instead of hunting up these several articles for taxation, running them down like game, to bag them in the public treasury, we should confine ourselves to the great subjects, and make them productive. There are enough of them, and in this way we can have revenue enough. I would have all the revenue we want; but, having it, be hospitable to literature, to knowledge, to art; and now let me say, be hospitable to books, because through books you will obtain what you desire in literature, in knowledge, and in art.

Mr. Kirkwood, of Iowa, thought Mr. Sumner ought to be content
with what was done. “If he gets the rate reduced from 25 to 15
per cent., when the taxes on everything we eat and wear are
being raised 20, 30, 40, or 50 per cent., I think that he ought
to be content.”

MR. SUMNER. Personally I am content with anything. I am trying to do what I think best for the people. I may be mistaken in my judgment; and when I see so many distinguished Senators so earnestly differing from me, I am led to call in question my conclusions; and yet considerable reflection and some experience in dealing with this question have always brought me more strongly than before to the same unalterable conclusion. I feel, that, in imposing this tax, you make a great mistake; because it is a bad example, and just to the extent of its influence keeps knowledge out of the country.

The motion of Mr. Sumner was rejected,--Yeas 5, Nays 32.
Another motion by him, to exempt mathematical instruments and
philosophical apparatus imported for societies, shared the same
fate.

CHEAP COAL.

SPEECH IN THE SENATE, ON AN AMENDMENT TO THE TARIFF BILL, JANUARY 29, 1867.

January 29th, the Senate having under consideration the bill
to provide increased revenue from imports, known as the Tariff
Bill, Mr. Sumner moved the following:--

“On all bituminous coal mined and imported from any
place not more than thirty degrees of longitude east of
Washington, fifty cents per ton of twenty-eight bushels,
eighty pounds to the bushel.”

The effect of this amendment would be to reduce the duty from
$1.50 to 50 cents a ton.

MR. PRESIDENT,--The object of the amendment is to bring the bill back where it was at first. The Senate will remember that in committee a motion prevailed by which the duty of 50 cents per ton on the coal mentioned was raised to $1.50. I am at a loss to understand the precise object of this increased tax on coal. There are strong reasons against any tax on coal; and the reasons are stronger still against this increased tax. Its movers must have an object. What is it?