amendment shall have been adopted, if the information
from the South be that the men whose liberties are secured by it are
deprived of the privilege to go and come when they please, to buy and
sell when they please, to make contracts and enforce contracts, I give
notice that, if no one else does, I shall introduce a bill, and urge
its passage through Congress, that will secure to those men every one
of these rights; they would not be freemen without them. It is idle to
say that a man is free who can not go and come at pleasure, who can
not buy and sell, who can not enforce his rights. These are rights
which the first clause of the constitutional amendment meant to secure
to all."

On a subsequent day, December 20, 1865, when this subject was again
before the Senate, Mr. Sumner spoke in its favor. Referring to the
message of the President on the "Condition of the Southern States,"
the Senator said:

"When I think of what occurred yesterday in this chamber; when I call
to mind the attempt to whitewash the unhappy condition of the rebel
States, and to throw the mantle of official oblivion over sickening
and heart-rending outrages, where human rights are sacrificed and
rebel barbarism receives a new letter of license, I feel that I ought
to speak of nothing else. I stood here years ago, in the days of
Kansas, when a small community was surrendered to the machinations of
slave-masters. I now stand here again, when, alas! an immense region,
with millions of people, has been surrendered to the machinations of
slave-masters. Sir, it is the duty of Congress to arrest this fatal
fury. Congress must dare to be brave; it must dare to be just."

After having quoted copiously from the great Russian act by which the
freedom given to the serfs by the Emperor's proclamation "was
secured," and having emphasized them as examples for American
legislation, Mr. Sumner said:

"My colleague is clearly right in introducing his bill and pressing it
to a vote. The argument for it is irresistible. It is essential to
complete emancipation. Without it emancipation will be only _half
done_. It is our duty to see that it is wholly done. Slavery must be
abolished not in form only, but in substance, so that there shall be
no black code; but all shall be equal before the law."

He then read extracts from letters and documents, showing the hostile
sentiments of the people, and the unhappy condition of the colored
population in nearly all of the reb