tlemen think they have a right to command and
control every-where. They do it. They think they have a right to do it
here, and we are sheep in the hands of our shearers. We are dumb."

Mr. Trumbull said: "I will occupy a few moments of the attention of
the Senate, after this long harangue of the Senator from Kentucky,
which he closed by declaring that we are dumb in the presence of
military power. If he has satisfied the Senate that he is dumb, I
presume he has satisfied the Senate of all the other positions he has
taken; and the others are about as absurd as that declaration. He
denounces this bill as 'outrageous,' 'most monstrous,' 'abominable,'
'oppressive,' 'iniquitous,' 'unconstitutional,' 'void.'

"Now, what is this bill that is obnoxious to such terrible epithets?
It is a bill providing that all people shall have equal rights. Is not
that abominable? Is not that iniquitous? Is not that monstrous? Is not
that terrible on white men? [Laughter.] When was such legislation as
this ever thought of for white men?

"Sir, this bill applies to white men as well as black men. It declares
that all men in the United States shall be entitled to the same civil
rights, the right to the fruit of their own labor, the right to make
contracts, the right to buy and sell, and enjoy liberty and happiness;
and that is abominable and iniquitous and unconstitutional! Could any
thing be more monstrous or more abominable than for a member of the
Senate to rise in his place and denounce with such epithets as these a
bill, the only object of which is to secure equal rights to all the
citizens of the country--a bill that protects a white man just as much
as a black man? With what consistency and with what face can a Senator
in his place here say to the Senate and the country, that this is a
bill for the benefit of the black men exclusively, when there is no
such distinction in it, and when the very object of the bill is to
break down all discrimination between black men and white men?"

Mr. Guthrie, of Kentucky, said: "My doctrine is that slavery exists no
longer in this country; that it is impossible to exist in the face of
that provision; and with slavery fell the laws of all the States
providing for slavery, every one of them. I do not see what benefit
can arise from repealing them by this bill, because, if they are not
repealed by the Constitution as amended, this bill could not repeal
them. I hope that all the States in which slavery f