the 29th of January. On that day Mr. Trumbull, having called up
the bill for the consideration of the Senate, said:

"I regard the bill to which the attention of the Senate is now called,
as the most important measure that has been under its consideration
since the adoption of the constitutional amendment abolishing slavery.
That amendment declared that all persons in the United States should
be free. This measure is intended to give effect to that declaration,
and secure to all persons within the United States practical freedom.
There is very little importance in the general declaration of abstract
truths and principles unless they can be carried into effect, unless
the persons who are to be affected by them have some means of availing
themselves of their benefits. Of what avail was the immortal
declaration 'that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,' and 'that to secure
these rights governments are instituted among men,' to the millions of
the African race in this country who were ground down and degraded,
and subjected to a slavery more intolerable and cruel than the world
ever before knew? Of what avail was it to the citizen of
Massachusetts, who, a few years ago, went to South Carolina to enforce
a constitutional right in court, that the Constitution of the United
States declared that the citizens of each State shall be entitled to
all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States?
And of what avail will it now be that the Constitution of the United
States has declared that slavery shall not exist, if in the late
slaveholding States laws are to be enacted and enforced depriving
persons of African descent of privileges which are essential to
freemen?

"It is the intention of this bill to secure those rights. The laws in
the slaveholding States have made a distinction against persons of
African descent on account of their color, whether free or slave. I
have before me the statutes of Mississippi. They provide that if any
colored person, any free negro or mulatto, shall come into that State
for the purpose of residing there, he shall be sold into slavery for
life. If any person of African descent residing in that State travels
from one county to another without having a pass or a certificate of
his freedom, he is liable to be committed to jail, and to be dealt
with as a per