MR. SUMNER. That I do not know. But I ask you who look to the colored vote in these States as the means of security and peace, through which you are to find protection for this Republic, and for white fellow-citizens there as well as for the colored themselves, to see that this stigma is not put upon them by any commanding general pretending to act by virtue of our legislation. It is not enough to tell me, that, under the actual law, colored persons may be designated. To that I reply, in the State of Virginia they have not been designated; and I wish now that Congress should declare that any exclusion on account of color is without the sanction of law.
And that brings me to the inquiry of my friend from Illinois, as to the penalty, I think, or as to the extent of the remedy.
MR. TRUMBULL. The question was, whether your proviso afforded any remedy.
MR. SUMNER. That I will answer. My proviso affords precisely the same remedy that it afforded on the Railroad Bills. It is in nearly the same terms. I followed those terms, because I know my friend likes good precedents, and we have enough of those on the question of the street cars. The Senate adopted that proviso at least half a dozen times. There it is, without penalty, and yet it has been most efficacious, not only in these streets, but as an example throughout the country. Adopt this proviso now, and I am sure it will be most efficacious with our generals even without any penalty. Should they exclude fellow-citizens on account of color, it will be a violation of law and a failure of duty; there can be no votes of thanks for them,--“no hope of golden spurs to-day.”
Mr. Conkling replied: “I do not wish, for one, to vote for an amendment which I think carries nothing with it, but which simply incumbers the bill with unnecessary, and I might say verbose provisos.”
The amendment was rejected by a tie-vote,--Yeas 18, Nays 18.
At the next stage of the bill, Mr. Sumner renewed his amendment. In reply to Mr. Edmunds, of Vermont, Mr. Sumner said:--
I will not spend time. There has been an abuse which has come to our knowledge. We know that in whole States colored persons are excluded from the boards, and this justifies our intervention.