Chapter II: Front Matter (2)

I doubt not that there are other modes within the jurisdiction of Congress; but these are all contained substantially in the three I have named.

It is not now proposed to remand Georgia to a territorial condition, or to subject the State to a military government. But it is proposed to place it in charge of the existing provisional government, which is to continue for a full constitutional term; and this is done as the best way of guarding against disturbing forces from the late Rebellion. It is said that this will be sufficient. I hope that it may be. I am satisfied that it is the least Congress can do in the exigency. Anything short of this will be the betrayal of those who have a right to our protection.

Against this simple and moderate proposition is interposed the Bingham Amendment, which, however plausible in form, is destructive in consequence. It is enough that it hands over the State to misrule and violence. Senators, how can you do this thing? How can you hesitate to take every heed and precaution against even the possibility of such an occurrence? You have the power. Then must you exercise it. In the recent history of Georgia nothing can be adduced to make you hesitate. On the contrary, all things, when properly understood, conspire to constrain the exercise of this power.

How feeble is the argument, that, _because_ Governor Bullock was chosen Governor and the Legislature commenced its session at a given date now past, therefore in this process of Reconstruction the constitutional term of the Governor and of the Legislature must be limited to two years from that date! Besides ignoring all the controlling powers of Congress, this assumption ignores also the conduct of this very Legislature by which its organization was for a while defeated. Nothing is clearer than that the termination of the provisional government in Georgia was contingent on the performance of certain covenants, express and implied. These covenants have been outrageously violated. The very form of government underwent a change when persons clearly ineligible from disloyalty were allowed to take part in it, while citizens entitled to equal rights, and especially protected by the Reconstruction Laws, were tyrannically ejected from the Legislature. There was for the time being a usurpation. Had this violation of underlying covenants been anticipated, Reconstruction would have been postponed. No Senator will pretend the contrary. But Congress, in view of what has occurred, may justly do what it would have done, had it anticipated the result. It may postpone Reconstruction,--treating the Legislature meanwhile as provisional, and recognizing its acts only so far as in the judgment of Congress they are fit to be recognized.

If instruction be needed on this point, it will be found in the authoritative words of publicists, showing how even the terms of a treaty may be disregarded where there has been a change in the form of government.

Thus, Vattel does not hesitate to say,--

“It may say, upon a good foundation, that it would not have
entered into an alliance with that nation, had it been under
the present form of government.”[11]

One of our own publicists, Alexander Hamilton, has dealt with the same question in congenial language:--

“Contracts between nations, as between individuals, must lose
their force where the considerations fail.

“A treaty pernicious to the state is of itself void, where no
change in the situation of either of the parties takes place.
By a much stronger reason it must become voidable at the option
of the other party, when the voluntary act of one of the allies
has made so material a change in the _condition of things_ as
is always implied in a radical revolution of government.”[12]

We but follow the simple principles of these texts, when we declare that the outrage perpetrated in Georgia so far changed the condition of things that the Legislature lost all title to recognition by Congress. It ceased to be the Legislature contemplated by Congress. Nor was it the first regular Legislature contemplated by the State Constitution. It was irregular, abnormal, revolutionary. To recognize such a body as the first regular Legislature is a fraud on the State Constitution. To insist that members chosen as the first regular Legislature shall be treated as provisional only is unjust to them. To insist that such members shall be despoiled of the regular term is a direct surrender to the disorganizers, who will rejoice to see Congress sacrifice the true men to whom it owes protection. To my mind there can be no surer rule than so to act that these disorganizers shall not rejoice. Especially will I not please them at the expense of patriot citizens.

In the exercise of this power Congress is acting on principles of Equity. And here allow me to say, that, in superintending the process of Reconstruction, Congress is a Court of Equity, bound to supply deficiencies in the existing law, to enjoin against threatened wrong, and generally to see justice done in spite of technicalities. Here I only follow the best definitions of Equity from the earliest times. No student can forget that profound definition by Aristotle,[13] adopted by Grotius[14] also,--“Equity is the correction of that wherein the law by reason of its universality is deficient”; nor can he forget the phrase of Lord Bacon, when he gives it a higher character still, namely, “The general conscience of the realm, which is Chancery.”[15] These two philosophers were each right; for Equity is at once a correction of law and the voice of conscience. In conformity with these principles, an ample jurisdiction has been established, under which, among other things, the powers of ordinary courts are supplemented by more flexile methods, the rules of law are prevented from becoming instruments of injustice, persons are restrained from asserting doubtful rights in a manner productive of irreparable damage, and, in the absence of positive law, universal justice is maintained. It has been a constant aspiration to bring Law and Equity into harmony. Lord Chancellor Eldon relates that on one occasion Lord Chief-Justice De Grey said, he “never liked Equity so well as when it was like Law”; and he adds, “The day before I heard Lord Mansfield say he never liked Law so well as when it was like Equity.”[16] In the same spirit, Bishop Burnet says of Sir Matthew Hale:--

“As great a lawyer as he was, he would never suffer the
strictness of law to prevail against conscience; as great a
chancellor as he was, he would make use of all the niceties
and subtilties in law, when it tended to support right and
equity.”[17]

Such is Equity, and such are the principles which preside in its courts. No strictness of law can prevail against conscience. The niceties and subtilties of law are all to be used in support of right and equity. These noble and authoritative rules are a pathway of light. Against all strictness of law conscience must prevail. If there are niceties and subtilties in the law, let them all be employed on the side of right and equity. That is according to reason and the harmonies of the Universe. It is Equity.

Am I not right, when I now insist that Congress is a High Court of Equity with Georgia at its bar? It only remains that it should apply the principles of Equity, especially supplying deficiencies in the existing law, enjoining against threatened wrong, and seeing that justice is done,--all technicalities to the contrary notwithstanding. Against all strictness of law conscience must prevail; and if there are niceties and subtilties in the law, they must all minister to the completion of Reconstruction. To this end, the process of Congress must go forth in such form as will best establish peace and security in that State under the safeguard of equal laws. With the execution of this process Georgia will be a republican government in reality as in name.

The assertion of this power is necessary now, not merely for Georgia, where it will bring peace and security, but also for the Nation, which will be elevated in character and strengthened in that unity against which the Rebellion dashed itself in battle. An ancient sage has left in perpetual testimony, that the best government is where an injury to a single citizen is redressed as an injury to the whole nation. In harmony with the saying of the sage is the fundamental law that protection and allegiance are reciprocal, so that the Nation owes protection in exchange for the allegiance it receives. The duties of the Nation are correlative with the duties of the citizen. Are we a Nation? Surely we are not, if any State can without correction deny Equal Rights within its border, or in any way imperil the tranquillity of the Republic. There was a time when all this might be done with impunity,--when a State was permitted to exalt itself above the Nation,--when a State determined for itself the standard of Human Rights,--when there was one rule of citizenship at Boston and another at New Orleans, and as many different rules as there were States,--when State Rights were made the protection for all that a State chose to do, and the turtle, with its impenetrable shell, was the prototype of a political community constituting part of the Nation. But this time has passed. A State can no longer play the turtle; State Rights have ceased to be a protection for all that a State inclines to do; there can be but one rule of citizenship in all the States, being the same in Boston and New Orleans; no State can determine for itself the standard of Human Rights; no State can exalt itself above the Nation; nor can any State without correction deny Equal Rights within its borders, or in any way imperil the tranquillity of the Republic. The judgments of courts, the arguments of Senators, with all possible learning and all possible skill, are impotent against that prevailing law which places the National Unity and the Equal Rights of All beneath the safeguard of the Nation. There they will remain from this time forevermore, making the Republic more than ever an example to mankind.

After various amendments, the bill was finally taken into a new
draft, leaving the questions presented in the Bingham Amendment
to the determination of the State Constitution, and in this
form passed both Houses without a division.

INCOME TAX.

REMARKS IN THE SENATE, APRIL 7, 1870.

The Senate having under consideration a Joint Resolution from
the House, with an amendment by the Committee on Finance,
declaratory of the meaning and intention of the law relating to
the Income Tax, Mr. Sumner said,--

I shall make no opposition to the amendment of the Committee on Finance, as I understand it is to relieve the Department from a difficulty which has arisen in the interpretation of a statute; but I desire to say now--and I take this earliest opportunity--that I think the income tax ought not to be continued any longer.

MR. CONKLING [of New York]. Reëstablished, you mean.

MR. SUMNER. Very well; I accept the amendment of the Senator from New York: it ought not to be reëstablished.

MR. SCOTT [of Pennsylvania]. It has expired.

MR. SUMNER. It has expired. There was an understanding, when it was established, that it should live only into the year 1870. It has now reached its natural death, and no resurrection ought to operate upon it. An income tax is a war tax. It ought not to be made a peace tax. “The medicine of the Constitution should not become its daily bread.” I am against the continuance of this tax; and if the occasion required, I would go forward and assign reasons. But I am unwilling now to enter into any general discussion of the question, as it is not directly presented by the proposition before the Senate; but I hope the Senator from Ohio [Mr. SHERMAN], who has charge of this bill, and is Chairman of the Finance Committee, will bear in mind the radical objection to any reëstablishment of this tax, and will also bear in mind another important proposition,--that the taxes of the country must be reduced. I have on another occasion, and more than once, said, “Down with the taxes!”--and I repeat the cry now. We cannot do better than to begin with a tax inequitable in its operation, and which, according to the original understanding when first adopted, was to end now.

After further debate, in which different Senators participated,
Mr. Sumner spoke again, as follows:--

MR. PRESIDENT,--I should not have said another word but for the very confident statement made by my friend, the Senator from Ohio, that at a proper time he will show the fairness of this tax. Sir, if he can show its fairness, he will do what no person before him has ever been able to do,--what no speaker in Parliament, no speaker in Congress, no writer on taxation or political economy has ever been able to accomplish. The Senator assumes in advance a very considerable task. Let me commend him to the candid, absolutely impartial, and authoritative words of Mr. McCulloch, in his work on Taxation and Funding. We all know the authority of this writer; none better can be adduced. A committee of this body might be well satisfied, could it have the sanction of this writer. Now what does he say of the tax on income? One would think he had listened to my honorable friend on this question. Of its effects he says:--

“It would no doubt have the supposed effects, [_i. e._ be
successful,] could it be fairly assessed. But the practical
difficulties in the way of its fair assessment are not of a
sort that can be overcome. And the truth is, that taxes on
income, though theoretically equal, are in their practical
operation most unequal and vexatious.”[18]

MR. SHERMAN. Read the paragraph immediately before that, in
which he speaks of the theory of an income tax.

MR. SUMNER. I should rather read a paragraph after it, with the permission of the Senator. [_Laughter._] I have read the chapter, and I understand it; and there are words here to which I call the attention of my friend:--

“After the Legislature has done all that can be done to make it
equal, it will be most unequal.”

Strong language that!

“To impose it only on certain classes of incomes, or to impose
it on all incomes, without regard to their origin, is alike
subversive of sound principle. Nothing, therefore, remains but
to reject it, or to resort to it only when money must be had
at all hazards, when the ordinary and less exceptionable means
of filling the public coffers have been tried and exhausted,
and when, as during the late war, Hannibal is knocking at your
gates, and national independence must be secured at whatever
cost. An unreasoning necessity of this sort is the only
satisfactory justification of taxes on property and income.”[19]

This is the voice of Science. It is not the voice of a political partisan, or of the representative of any Administration anxious to establish a system of taxation, but it is the voice of Science itself, speaking by one of its--I may say chosen authorities. How can this testimony be answered? If you come back to an authority of a different character, take a statesman. The Senator from California [Mr. CASSERLY] has referred to Sir Robert Peel, who is known as the modern author of the income tax; but he has left his testimony behind. I quote words from different speeches, showing how he has characterized it. He admitted that it was “a tax which had hitherto been reserved for time of war”; and that “the question of its imposition was, whether the political necessity was of such magnitude and urgency as to justify it”; and then that it “ought to be accompanied by measures of simultaneous relief.” Then, “he did not deny that it was an inquisitorial tax”; and again, that “a certain degree of inquisitorial scrutiny was inseparable from an income tax”; and further, that “a good deal of inconvenience inevitably arose from the inquiries that must be instituted into the properties of men, in the imposition of an income tax”; moreover, that “one great objection to the income tax was, that it fell with peculiar severity upon those who were determined to act honestly.”[20]

In harmony with his testimony is that also of Mr. Gladstone, named by the two Senators who have preceded me. The Senator from Ohio reminds us that Mr. Gladstone has sustained an income tax. Have we not all sustained an income tax?

Mr. SHERMAN. He does it this very year.

MR. SUMNER. This very year, and why? The Senator knows perfectly how England is pressed by taxation,--how difficult it is to find objects for taxation in order to meet the great demands upon her exchequer. He knows that England is obliged now, in time of peace, to meet the responsibilities of war. It is on account of that terrible war debt which still hangs over her, the interest of which must be annually paid, that she is obliged to assume even in a period of peace this responsibility. I think we are in no such condition. Our war is happily over, and I know no reason why the responsibilities and obligations assumed during that period should be prolonged now during the reign of peace. Sir, let us put an end to the war. And I know no better way to give our testimony to the end of the war than by stopping that taxation which was born of the war.

MORE WORK TO BE DONE.

LETTER TO THE AMERICAN ANTISLAVERY SOCIETY AT ITS FINAL MEETING, APRIL 8, 1870.

SENATE CHAMBER, April 8, 1870.

GENTLEMEN,--You propose to celebrate the triumph of Equal Rights
at the ballot-box, and at the same time to abandon that famous
shibboleth by which you once rallied the country against Slavery.

It was said of Wolfe, the conqueror at Quebec, that he died in
the arms of Victory; and such will be the fortune of your noble
Society. “They run!” was the voice that fell on the ears of the
expiring General. “Who run?” he exclaimed. “The enemy,” was the
answer. “Now, God be praised, I shall die in peace,” said he, and
his battle ended.

The Antislavery Society may now die in peace. Slavery is ended.
But I do not doubt that the same courage and fidelity which
through long years warred against this prodigious Barbarism will
continue determined to the end in protecting and advancing the
work begun.

I do not think the work finished, so long as the word “white”
is allowed to play any part in legislation,--so long as it
constrains the courts in naturalization,--so long as it rules
public conveyances, steamboats, and railroads,--so long as it
bars the doors of houses bound by law to receive people for food
and lodging, or licensed as places of amusement,--so long as it
is inscribed on our common schools;--nor do I think the work
finished until the power of the Nation is recognized, supreme
and beyond question, to fix the definition of a “republican
government,” and to enforce the same by the perfect maintenance
of rights everywhere throughout the land, according to the
promises of the Declaration of Independence, without any check or
hindrance from the old proslavery pretension of State Rights. It
must be understood that every State, while perfectly free in its
local administration, is subject to the supremacy of the Nation,
whenever it touches the Rights of Man,--so that, according to
the ancient words of Demosthenes, the law shall be “a general
ordinance, _equal and alike to all_.”[21] Let there be Equality
before the Law, and all rights are assured. In this cause count
me always as your devoted and grateful fellow-worker.

Accept my thanks for the invitation with which you have honored
me, and believe me sincerely yours,

CHARLES SUMNER.

TO THE COMMITTEE OF THE ANTISLAVERY SOCIETY.

EDUCATION.

REMARKS IN THE SENATE, MAY 9, 1870.

The question being on an amendment to the Legislative
Appropriation Bill, reducing the appropriation for the Bureau
of Education from $14,500 to $5,400, in conformity with a
previous reduction of the clerical force, Mr. Sumner said:--

MR. PRESIDENT,--I hope there may be no hesitation in refusing to agree to this amendment. It seems to me that the House of Representatives has acted wisely in increasing the appropriation, and we shall act very unwisely, if we fail to unite with the House. We, Sir, are a Republic; we are living under republican institutions; and, as I understand them, one of their essential elements is Education. Now, Sir, here is an agency associated with the National Government, having education for its object; and what is the appropriation proposed by our excellent committee? It is $5,400: that is all. Looking on the opposite page of the bill, I find an appropriation of $9,000 for stationery, furniture, and books for the Interior Department; I find an appropriation of $16,000 for fuel and lights for the Interior Department; and yet we propose to give only $5,400 to create and support a Bureau of Education! Sir, is that decent? It seems to me, in this age, at this period of our history, when more than ever we are beginning to see the transcendent advantage of education, how much we owe to light,--

“Hail, holy light!”--

it seems to me strange that we should now cut down the appropriation for the Bureau of Education. Turning on, I come to the Department of Agriculture, and there I find an appropriation of $72,170; and then I turn back again to the $5,400 for the Bureau of Education. I think the House did not go far enough, when it made the appropriation $14,500. I would make the appropriation as large as that for the Agricultural Department; and I know full well the period is at hand when all of you will rejoice to make an appropriation for the Educational Bureau twice more than that for the Agricultural Department.

As to the question whether there is any existing statute to sanction this appropriation, I dismiss it entirely. It is merely a technicality; and it ought not now, on this Appropriation Bill, at this stage, after the vote of the House, to be allowed to stand in the way.

Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, supported the amendment as a step toward
the abolition of the Bureau, which he regarded as useless,--at
the same time urging the withdrawal, for consideration in a
full Senate, of a proviso, just voted, for the restoration of
the original clerical force; and it being thereupon suggested
that the whole matter be passed over till the next day, Mr.
Sumner said:--

Before that passes away, I wish to make one comment on a single word of the Senator from Ohio. The Senator said that he hoped we should take no backward step; and yet his speech and his proposition were a backward step. Sir, there is nothing that any State or any nation can do for education that is not for civilization itself; and now the Senator from Ohio is against appropriating a paltry sum of $10,000 for education.

MR. SHERMAN. No,--for two or three clerks.

MR. SUMNER. My friend will pardon me,--for education. He is against making this paltry appropriation for education; and he reminds us that in his great State $3,000,000 are set apart for this purpose. Is it not shameful, that, while $3,000,000 are set apart for this purpose in his great State, so small a sum as is now proposed is to be set apart by the Nation? Am I told that the Nation has nothing to do with this question? Allow me to reply at once, it has everything to do with it; it has more to do with it than the State of Ohio, inasmuch as in the Nation are all the States. Ohio is only one State; all the States compose the Nation; and the Nation is responsible for the civilization of all the States. The Nation is the presiding genius, not only of Ohio, but of all the associate States of the Union. Therefore, Sir, should the Nation by every means in its power, by appropriation, by a department, by a bureau, by clerks, by officers, do everything possible to promote the interests of education.

But the question may be asked, What can it do? With the sum proposed, unhappily, very little,--too little. But let us not give up doing even that little. A little in such a cause is much. If nothing else, information may be accumulated, statistics may be gathered, facts may be brought together, which can be laid before those interested in education all over our own country and in foreign lands. That may be a specific object of the Bureau of Education.

Then, again, it may supply a general impulse to education in every State,--even in Ohio, with its $3,000,000 appropriated to that purpose. Permit me to say, the State of Ohio, great as it is, is not yet above the reach of educational influences; and I am sure that this Bureau, if properly organized, might be of advantage even to the great State which my friend represents with so much ability on this floor. I therefore adopt the language of my friend, when he said, “Let us take no backward step.” I would increase this appropriation, rather than diminish it. I wish it were $100,000,--ay, Sir, $500,000.

The amendment was rejected,--Yeas 19, Nays 38.

NO EXCLUSION OF RETIRED ARMY OFFICERS FROM CIVIL OFFICE.

REMARKS IN THE SENATE, MAY 12, 1870.

The Senate having under consideration a bill for the reduction
of the Army, reported by Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts, from the
Committee on Military Affairs, as a substitute for one from the
House, and the pending question being on an amendment by Mr.
Trumbull, of Illinois, restoring to its original form in the
House bill the provision “That it shall not be lawful for any
officer of the Army of the United States on the active list
to hold any civil office,” by striking out the words “on the
active list,” Mr. Sumner said:--

MR. PRESIDENT,--There is a principle of our institutions, to which reference is constantly made in this debate, which is worthy of constant memory. It is the subordination of the military to the civil power. Mr. Jefferson, in his Inaugural Address, so memorable as a representation of the fundamental principles of republican institutions, expressly declares the subordination of the military to the civil an essential element of a republic. I accept that idea; and I confess that I have always admired in our system that the Navy Department and the War Department each is in charge of a civilian; that neither a naval officer nor a military officer, in the ordinary course of affairs, takes his place at the head of either of these Departments, to the end that the Navy and the Army shall see in a civilian the visible head of each. In that I recognize the genius of the Republic.

But now, Sir, for the application. I confess I agree entirely with the argument of the Senator from Ohio [Mr. SHERMAN]. I consider that the demands of republican institutions are completely satisfied, if we exclude men in active service from taking part in civil life. To go further is to tie the hands of the appointing power,--to take from the country the opportunity of securing, it may be, important service,--and, I think, is to be needlessly hard on men who in their day have rendered good service to the country. It does seem to me that cases may occur where it may be important to take into the civil service a retired officer. Why may not that occur in the natural course of events? There is talent, there is experience. Are our offices so well filled, is the public service so completely performed, that we can afford to exclude talent and experience?

MR. CONKLING. Is not that much more true in regard to active
officers?

MR. SUMNER. There, Sir, you come in conflict with the fundamental principle of republican institutions. You cannot, as I submit, fill civil offices from the active service of the Army or Navy without conflict with that fundamental principle.

MR. CONKLING. Why?

MR. SUMNER. But I find no such conflict, if you take an officer on the retired list.

MR. CONKLING. Will the Senator point out the distinction?

MR. SUMNER. The Senator asks, “Why?” For the obvious reason, that, when the officer is on the retired list, he has, for all the ordinary purposes of the service, ceased to be an officer,--he enjoys what I think has been called a pension, which in reality is a pension under another name,--and he has ceased to be in the active, practical service either of Navy or of Army. On that account I see a clear distinction.

Therefore it seems to me, for the sake of the public service, and that we may not be guilty of hardship to any portion of the community, that the words introduced by my colleague in the pending bill ought to be preserved. I hope they will not be struck out.

The amendment prevailed,--Yeas 34, Nays 22.

ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS.

REMARKS IN THE SENATE, MAY 27, 1870.

On the question of an appropriation of $100,000 for “one or
more expeditions towards the North Pole,” moved by Mr. Sumner,
under a resolution of the Committee on Foreign Relations,--it
being objected by Mr. Morrill, of Vermont, that “we could not
afford to embark in such an enterprise,” that “the money was
needed for purposes altogether more pressing,” Mr. Sumner
remarked,--

The Senator from Vermont has just moved and carried a large appropriation for the extension and adornment of the Capitol grounds, and now he opposes a smaller appropriation having for its object the extension of geographical knowledge in this hemisphere. I voted gladly for the proposition of the Senator; but he does not favor mine. He is against the North Pole. His mood is not unlike that of Lord Jeffrey, when he broke forth against it. Somebody, to whom he had spoken impatiently on the subject, complained to Sydney Smith of the language he had employed, being nothing less than “Damn the North Pole!”--when the great wit endeavored to soothe the injured man, saying, “Do not be concerned; I have heard him speak disrespectfully of the Equator.” I presume the Senator from Vermont would do the same thing, if there were any question of exploration under the Equator.

I doubt not that in former days the Senator has circulated under his frank Herndon’s “Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon.” Here was an Equatorial exploration by which our country has gained honor. There is nothing in our history by which we have acquired a better fame than what we have done for science. The scientific reports on our Western territory are much valued where science is cultivated. And the United States Exploring Expedition, organized by the care of John Quincy Adams, has given to our Republic a true renown. Who would blot from our annals this invaluable record? But we, too, may do something not unworthy of companionship with this early expedition.

Thus far our Government has attempted nothing for Polar exploration. Kane and Hayes have added to our geographical knowledge, and inscribed the names of honored countrymen on Arctic headlands; but their expeditions proceeded from private munificence. The time has come when the Government should take up this work, nor leave the monopoly to foreign powers. Perhaps I desire too much; but I would have my country explore this whole North American Continent, not only in the interest of science, but for the sake of the near future. It is easy to see that our Capitol grounds will be broader than anything included in the amendment of the Senator from Vermont, and I hope we shall not delay their exploration.

Nor should we be daunted by difficulties. I cannot doubt that the time will come when every quarter of the globe, with every corner, every recess, whether at the Equator or the Pole, whether land or sea, will be brought within the domain of knowledge, and find its place on the map, so that there shall be no _Terra Incognita_; but we must do our part in this triumph. Do not say that this knowledge is without value. Just in proportion as we know the earth can we use and enjoy it. Therefore, for our own advantage and for our good name----

THE VICE-PRESIDENT. It is the duty of the Chair to remind the
Senator from Massachusetts that his five minutes have expired.

* * * * *

The appropriation was voted,--Yeas 28, Nays 25.

ONE CENT POSTAGE, WITH ABOLITION OF FRANKING.

SPEECH IN THE SENATE, JUNE 10, 1870.

The Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, having under
consideration the House bill “to abolish the franking
privilege,” Mr. Sumner said:--

MR. PRESIDENT,--This debate began with a simple proposition to abolish the franking system, sometimes called “the franking privilege.” The bill for this purpose rudely terminates the existing system, without supplying any substitute, and without taking advantage of the proposed change to reduce the rate of postage. The bill is destructive, but in no respect constructive. It pulls down, but does not pretend to set up. It abolishes an old and time-honored, if not beneficent system, under which the people have grown in knowledge; but it does not attempt to provide any means by which the original object of the system shall be accomplished. It is a raw, crude, naked proposition. To adopt it in its present form would be as if you voted the destruction of this Capitol, without providing any place for the meeting of Congress, or economizing the ruins you made.

THE FRANKING SYSTEM, AND NOT THE FRANKING PRIVILEGE, IN OUR COUNTRY.

In England the power to frank was originally conferred as a “privilege,” and it assumed this character completely with time. When O’Connell wrote to a young aspirant, who had just been elected to Parliament, “You can frank to-night,” he announced a privilege. So far as this power in our country can be regarded as a privilege, it has no title to favor,--not the least. But whatever may be its character, nothing is clearer than that it should not be a burden on the postal service. With regard to the frank there are two obvious principles: first, so far as it is a privilege, it must be abolished; and, secondly, so far as it is allowed to remain, it must not be at the expense of the Post-Office, but, like other national services, be paid by the National Treasury. Better still, let it all disappear in a renovated system, where the rate of postage shall render the frank unnecessary.

The franking system in our country cannot be treated alone. It is part of a larger system, being the postal service of the country, and must be regarded in its relations to this service. In its most simple statement it is the freedom of certain letters, documents, pamphlets, and seeds in the public mails; but its true character is seen only in its operation. The franking system is that part of the postal service by which the people are enabled without cost to address their Senators and Representatives in Congress, and also the Departments of Government, while these answer without cost, thus bringing all near together; it is also that part of the postal service by which public documents are circulated throughout the country, and though much is distributed to little purpose, yet much is of unquestionable advantage. Seeds, speeches, and pamphlets are also distributed in the same way; nor can there be any question of the good influence from this agency. All these are component parts of the existing postal system. Strike out these, and the postal system of our country is changed. It is not the system which has existed from the beginning of our Government, under which the country has grown in knowledge and power.

To those who speak lightly of the franking system I indicate briefly what it has done. It has brought the people and the Government nearer together than people and Government ever were before. It has distributed innumerable documents by which knowledge in government, in science, and in the practical arts has been advanced. It has lent itself to the dissemination of truth, especially in speeches; so that it has been preacher and schoolmaster, with the whole people to hear and to learn. During the long tyranny of Slavery it was by the franking system that the arguments and protests against this wrong were carried among the people; and when Slavery broke forth in rebellion, the franking system became the powerful ally of the national cause; and now in the education of the States lately in rebellion this very franking system is the same powerful ally. It may be politic, discreet, and economical to dispense with it, but not, I think, without providing some substitute or commutation.

PROPOSED SUBSTITUTE.

To meet the exigency of the pending proposition I have introduced a bill, whose character may be seen in its title,--being “to simplify and reduce the rate of postage, to abolish the franking system, to limit the cost of carrying the mail, and to regulate the payment of postage.”[22] While abolishing the franking system, I try to provide a substitute, and at the same time, by associate provisions, to simplify and reduce the rate of postage. Taking advantage of the proposed change, I would revise the whole postal service, and bring it into harmony with the demands of republican civilization. Here the example of England is an important guide. The franking system there was an indulgence, or privilege, and little else. The “Quarterly Review,” while recognizing it as an abuse, likened it to “the concomitant and greater one which stands on the same ground,--_exemption from arrest_.”[23] It was not a system important in the relations between Government and people, and yet it was abolished only in conjunction with the establishment of a uniform letter-postage at one penny. But just in proportion as the franking system is important with us should its abolition be accompanied by a corresponding reduction in postage.

The copper unit of value in England is a penny, and this was adopted as the rate of postage there. With us the copper unit of value is a cent, and this I would adopt as the rate of postage here.

There are other provisions in the bill to which I call attention, especially the new facilities for newspapers and periodicals; also the requirement that all the business of the Post-Office shall be by stamps, so that no money shall be collected or received by any clerk in the office. By this process, at once simple, economical, and efficient, all postages will be collected, and there will be no necessity for accounts. The stamp office will be the universal money office, and the vendor of stamps will be the universal collector.

Do you ask for economy? I show you a way, simple and certain, by which receipts will be assured, while business is simplified. All dues will be collected at the minimum of cost, so that there will be no loss from frauds or supernumerary hands. There will be both security and economy, besides simplicity; but simplicity is economy as well as convenience, in the Post-Office as in mechanics.

FOREIGN EXAMPLES.

If we go to foreign countries for example, we shall be obliged to stop in England. There is nothing in any nation of the European continent which is not a warning. Everywhere on that continent, from time immemorial, postage has been exorbitant. The great Revolution which popularized the institutions of France did not popularize the Post-Office. Kings and nobles disappeared, while equal rights prevailed; but France, fruitful in ideas, did not conceive the idea of the Post-Office as a beneficent agent of civilization and the handmaid of social life. Nor at that time was England in advance of France. Everywhere postage was high and the mails were slow. In England the service had a burden in the circumstance that every peer of the Upper House and member of Parliament had a defined power of franking,--being the power to send ten letters daily and to receive fifteen.[24] As the letters sent and received by each privileged person were limited in number, the Post-Office was obliged each day to verify every frank and to count the letters thus sent and received. Here was what may be justly called “the franking privilege,” while the whole postal service was costly and cumbersome. Like that of the United States, it was the growth of accident, and it was administered with a particular eye to profits, as if this were the first object of a post-office. Economy there should be always, but profits never. In Great Britain the surplus of receipts above the cost of administration was carried to the general treasury. In the United States the surplus received on certain lines has been employed down to this day in extending mail facilities to the sparse settlers in other parts of the country, besides defraying the expense of the franking system; and the letters of the people have been subjected to this tax.

IN ENGLAND THE POST-OFFICE REGARDED ORIGINALLY AS A SOURCE OF REVENUE.

From a proposition submitted to the King in 1635, and still preserved in the State-Paper Office, it appears that the postal service was of the slenderest character: letters, it is said, “being now carried by carriers or foot-posts sixteen or eighteen miles a day, it is full two months before any answer can be received from Scotland or Ireland to London.”[25] But just so soon as it attracted attention the Post-Office was regarded as a source of revenue. In 1657 a voice in Parliament declared that it would “raise a revenue”; while a wise statesman replied, with little effect, “Nothing can more assist trade than this intercourse.”[26] It was often farmed out for hire. The posts, both inland and foreign, under the Commonwealth, were farmed for £10,000 a year.[27] In 1659 the Report on the Public Revenue contains the following item: “By postage of letters in farm, £14,000.”[28] Under Charles the Second the same system was continued, and his first Postmaster-General contracted to pay to the King a yearly rent of £21,500.[29] A little later we meet the statute of 15 Charles II. c. 14, with the suggestive title, “An Act for settling the profits of the Post-Office on his Royal Highness the Duke of York and the Heirs male of his body.” Under Queen Anne, what were called the “cross-posts” were farmed to Ralph Allen, who made great improvements in their management upon an agreement that the new profits so created should be his own during life. The bargain was so excellent for the contractor that during forty-two years he netted an average annual profit of nearly twelve thousand pounds,[30] which was enormous for those days. It is pleasant to think that the money thus obtained was well spent, as will be confessed when it is known that this contractor was the _Allworthy_ of Fielding, and won from Pope that famous praise,--

“Let humble Allen, with an awkward shame,
Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.”[31]

The Post-Office was not only farmed to contractors, but it was burdened with pensions, sometimes to a royal mistress or favorite. This system was begun by James the Second, who, in execution of the wishes of his brother, Charles the Second, granted to Barbara, Duchess of Cleveland, £4,700 annually, and to the Earl of Rochester £4,000 annually, payable by the Post-Office.[32] Among the rewards lavished at a later day upon the Duke of Marlborough was an annual pension of £5,000, charged upon the Post-Office;[33] so that the victor of Ramillies and of Blenheim was a stipendiary upon the correspondence of the kingdom, every letter contributing to his annual income.

As the correspondence of the kingdom was charged with pensions, so also was it called to bear the burden of war. The statute of 9 Anne, c. 10, tells the story in its title: “An Act for establishing a General Post-Office for all her Majesty’s dominions, and for settling _a weekly sum out of the revenues thereof for the service of the war_ and other her Majesty’s occasions.” This statute was not short-lived, and its success as “war measure” encouraged the imposition of other burdens, so that the great English commentator, Sir William Blackstone, selected the Post-Office as a favorite pack-horse. “There cannot be devised,” says he, “a more eligible method than this of raising money upon the subject; for therein both the Government and the people find a mutual benefit. The Government acquires a large revenue; and the people do their business with greater ease, expedition, and cheapness than they would be able to do, if no such tax (and of course no such office) existed.”[34] Here is the rule authoritatively declared which so long prevailed with regard to the Post-Office.

ORIGIN OF FRANKING PRIVILEGE IN ENGLAND.

The English franking privilege was the natural parasite of such a system, where the true idea of a post-office was entirely forgotten. Its origin belongs to this argument. It was in 1657, beneath the sway of the great Protector, while the Postage Act was before the House, that Sir Christopher Pack is reported as saying, “The design of the bill is very good for trading and commerce; … as to that of letters passing free for members, it is not worth putting in an Act”;[35] and this is the earliest allusion to “letters passing free for members.” The idea showed itself again just after the Restoration, while the Act of 12 Charles II., c. 35, was under discussion. The proposition to frank all letters to or from members of Parliament during the session was carried on a division and after considerable debate, in the course of which Sir Heneage Finch, so eminent as lawyer and judge, characterized it as “a poor mendicant proviso, and below the honor of the House.” Among its partisans was Sir George Downing, a graduate in the first class of Harvard College. The Speaker, Sir Harbottle Grimston, was unwilling to put the question, saying, “I am ashamed of it.”[36] The Lords struck it out of the bill, ostensibly for the reasons which had actuated the Opposition in the Commons, but really because there was no provision that their own letters should pass free. Although the proposition failed at that time to obtain legislative sanction, yet the object was accomplished indirectly. In the indenture with the contractor to whom the Post-Office was farmed occurred a proviso for the free carriage of all letters to or from the King, the great officers of State, “and also the single inland letters only of the members of the present Parliament during the continuance of this session of this Parliament.”[37] And thus began the “franking privilege” in England. Defeated in Parliament, it was smuggled into a Post-Office contract. With such an origin, it became a mere perquisite of office; and afterward, when sanctioned by statute, it was employed at the mere will of its possessor, who sometimes distributed his franks among his friends and sometimes sold them for a price.[38]

POST-OFFICE IN THE COLONIES.

The postal service in the Colonies was on a small scale. Authentic incidents show its beginnings. The Government of New York in 1672 established a post to go monthly from New York to Boston, advertising “those that bee dispos’d to send letters, lett them bring them to the Secretary’s office, where, in a lockt box, they shall bee preserved till the messenger calls for them. All persons paying the post before the bagg be seal’d up.”[39] Thirty years later this monthly post was fortnightly.[40] In Virginia the postal service was more simple. The Colonial law of 1657 required every planter to provide a messenger for the conveyance of dispatches, as they arrived, to the next plantation, and so forward, on pain of forfeiting a hogshead of tobacco for each default.[41] Until after 1704 there was no regular post further East than Boston, or further West than Philadelphia. In that year Lord Cornbury, writing to Government at home, says:--

“If I have any letters to send to Virginia, or to Maryland, I
must either send an express, who is often retarded for want of
boats to cross those great rivers they must go over, or else
for want of horses, or else I must send them by some passengers
who are going thither. The least I have known any express take
to go from hence to Virginia has been three weeks.”[42]

Shortly afterward stage-coaches were established between Boston and New York, and between Boston and Philadelphia; but no post-office was established in Virginia until 1732; nor did any postal revenue accrue to Great Britain from the Colonies until 1753, when Benjamin Franklin became Postmaster-General for the Colonies.[43]

The same genius which ruled in philosophy and in politics was not wanting in this sphere of duty. The office was remodelled, and the sphere of its operations extended. But the efforts of Franklin in this department became tributary to the revenues of the mother country. On his removal, in 1774, he was able to say, “Before I was displaced by a freak of the ministers we had brought it to yield _three times as much clear revenue to the Crown_ as the Post-Office of Ireland. Since that imprudent transaction they have received from it--not one farthing.”[44] Revenue! always revenue! Even Franklin shows no sign of ascending to the true idea of a post-office. The Revolution was now at hand, when the Crown ceased to receive revenue from any source in the United States. But in separating from the mother country the Post-Office was left unchanged in character. It was an undeveloped agency, with receipts always above expenses.

REFORM AND PENNY POSTAGE IN ENGLAND.

Meanwhile in the mother country the Post-Office continued to be a source of revenue; but its natural capacities were impaired by a defective system, without an animating soul. It was merely a machine for carrying a few letters and putting money into the public treasury. Though still on a small scale, its processes were multifarious. The rates were constantly altered, and generally increased in amount, as also in number, in each of the three kingdoms, and without uniformity in either two. From two or three, in 1710, they rose in number until they reached the climax of absurdity and inconvenience in twelve different rates for England and Scotland in 1812, and thirteen for Ireland in 1814.[45] The impracticable system, with rates at once numerous and high, led to perpetual evasions, while the franking privilege was a charge without an equivalent. At last the day of revolution came. After careful inquiry the old system was swept away, and with it no less than one hundred and fifty Acts of Parliament by which it was incumbered.[46] The old was succeeded by the new, and the change was complete. No institution in history ever underwent at once a transformation so beneficent as that of the British Post-Office.

Next after Benjamin Franklin, Rowland Hill will be enrolled as the most remarkable character in the history of the Post-Office. The son of a schoolmaster, of simple life, and without any connection with the postal service, he conceived the idea of radical reform. It is not too much to say that he became the inventor or author of cheap postage. More than all Franklin did for the Colonies Hill did for Great Britain. Call him inventor or author, there are few on either list more worthy of honor; and since what is done for one country becomes the common property of the world, he belongs to the world’s benefactors.