not, with any reasonable chance of success, seek to press this important measure. That, Sir, is the occasion for delay; and I do not think I hardly like to make any question with my friend-but I do not think he was generous in the imputation that he sought to throw upon me. Had that Senator, on the first day of the session, or when I made an effort at a later day to bring it up, come forward then to aid me in pressing it on the attention of the Senate, had he reminded the Senate and the country how many fellow-citizens were shut out from their rights, and that a denial of rights does not allow delay, had these words come from the Senator at that time, ah! we should have been having no such debate as has occurred to-day. The bill would have been hastened on its way, and a people long enslaved and degraded would be at last lifted to equality. The question being now put, the bill was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary without objection. March 11, 1874, Mr. Sumner died. April 14th his bill was reported back by Mr. Frelinghuysen from the Committee with an amendment in the form of a substitute, being substantially the original bill taken into a new draught, with a few differences of machinery. In this form, after long and exhaustive debate, it was passed in the Senate, May 22d, by Yeas 29, Nays 16. In the House, all efforts to take it up were frustrated by the minority, under the rule requiring a two-thirds vote for this purpose, until the closing hours of the succeeding session, March 3, 1875, when a vote was obtained referring it to the Committee on the Judiciary, but too late for action, and the bill fell with the expiration of the Congress. Meanwhile, however, February 3d, Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts, had reported a bill from this Committee, covering the provisions of the Senate bill, with the exception only of that relating to cemeteries, but with the addition to that on Common Schools of the proviso, — "That if any State or the proper authorities in any State, having the control of Common Schools or other public institutions of learning aforesaid, shall establish and maintain separate schools and institutions giving equal educational advantages in all respects for different classes of persons 14 VOL. XV. entitled to attend such schools and institutions, such schools and institutions shall be a sufficient compliance with the provisions of this section so far as they relate to schools and institutions of learning." On proceeding to a vote, the next day, February 14th, the entire clause, embracing Common Schools, public institutions of learning or benevolence, and national agricultural colleges, together with this proviso, was, on motion of Mr Kellogg, of Connecticut, struck out by Ayes 123, Noes 48, -a call for the Yeas and Nays, which would have brought out the names, being refused. A previous motion by Mr. Cessna, of Pennsylvania, to substitute the full text of the Senate bill for that of the House Committee, now recurring, was defeated by Yeas 114, Nays 148, and the latter, amended as above stated, was then passed by Yeas 162, Nays 100,- and subsequently, February 27th, in the Senate also, by Yeas 38, Nays 26, and March 1st received the approval of the Executive. This bill, entitled "An Act to protect all citizens in their civil and legal rights," has since stood on the statute book as a finality, these rights, in the terms of the statute, consisting of "the full and equal enjoyment of the accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges of [1st] inns, [2d] public conveyances on land or water, [34] theatres, and other places of public amusement"; to which another section, rising to a higher plane, adds the declaration [4th] “That no citizen possess ing all other qualifications which are or may be prescribed by law shall be disqualified for service as grand or petit juror in any court of the United States, or of any State, on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude," with such security to the colored citizens of this inestimable right as may be found in the provision that "any officer or other person, charged with any duty in the selection or summoning of jurors, who shall exclude or fail to summon any citizen for the cause aforesaid, shall, on conviction thereof, be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and be fined not more than five thousand dollars." 1 Statutes at Large, Vol. XVIII. Part 3, pp. 335-36. INDEX. A. ABOLITION OF SLAVERY, not pre- Abolition Societies petition 1st Con- On 406; III. 174. On slavery, III. 115. Abolitionists, need of, I. 314. Jef- et seq. |