Xxviii.
Another infamous law had stood upon the statute books of the
United States, from March 3, 1825, for more than a third of a century.
It was as follows:
That no other than a free white person shall be employed in conveying the mail, and any contractor who shall employ, or permit any other than a free white person to carry, the mail, shall for every such offence, incur a penalty of twenty dollars.
This bill was to blacken the statute book no longer.
On the 18th of March, 1862,
Mr. Sumner asked and
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obtained the unanimous consent of the Senate to introduce a bill to remove all disqualifications of color, in carrying the mails.
It was reported back on the 27th of the month, by
Mr. Collamer, of
Vermont,
Chairman of the
Committee on Post-offices, without amendment, and passed.
But in the
House, it was laid on the table, by a large majority, on motion of
Mr. Colfax.
It was renewed, however, by
Mr. Sumner, in the next Congress, and became a law.
The original of the subjoined letter from
Senator Sumner, with the italics marked by its author, is among the papers left by the late
Count Gurowski.
It shows the clear prophetic vision of the writer.
my Dear
Count: You will pardon my seeming negligence, and believe that whatever you write always interests and pleases me.
Your book, I find on inquiry, has been received by many
Senators, who speak of it warmly.
I hope that the publishers speak as well.
I wish you were here, that I might have the advantage of your conversation and of your overflowing knowledge and sympathy, too. Daily and hourly I plead for
firmness against concession in any form.
Sunday evening I had a visit from
Thurlow Weed and
Seward.
The former told me that he found himself ‘alone.’
Nobody united with him. I rejoiced.
Aspinwall and
Corning are here for the same object.
They urge that we cannot have a
united North unless we make an effort for adjustment; to which I reply: ‘We have the verdict of the people last November—that is enough.’
But these compromisers do not comprehend the glory of a principle.
Perissent les colonies plutot qu'un principe That exclamation exalts a period which has many things to be deplored.
The slave States are mad. They will all move.
Nothing now but abject humiliation on the part of the
North can stay them.
Nobody can foresee precisely all that is in the future,
but I do not doubt that any conflict will precipitate the doom of slavery.
It will probably go down in blood.
Bon soir!
je vous embrasse de tout mon coeur.
Ever yours,
