Something has been said by different Senators of plighted faith. Sir, there is a faith that is plighted, and by that I will stand, God willing, to the end. It is nothing less than this: to secure the rights of all, without distinction of color, in the State of Virginia. When I can secure those rights, when I can see that they are firmly established beyond the reach of fraud, beyond the violence of opposition, then I am willing that that State shall again assume its independent position. But until then I say, Wait! In the name of Justice, in the name of Liberty, for the sake of Human Rights, I entreat the Senate to wait.
January 13th, in response to criticisms by Mr. Trumbull, of Illinois, Mr. Sumner said:--
It was in pursuance of the effort I made on the first day of this week that yesterday I presented a memorial from loyal citizens of Virginia here in Washington. I presented it as a memorial, and asked to have it read. The Senator from Nevada [Mr. STEWART], in the remarks which he so kindly made with regard to me later in the day, said that in asking to have it read I adopted it. I can pardon that remark to the Senator from Nevada, who is less experienced in this Chamber than the Senator from Illinois; but the latter Senator has repeated substantially the same remark. Sir, this is a new position, that in presenting a memorial one adopts it, especially when he asks to have it read. Why, Sir, what is the right of petition? Is it reduced to this, that no petition can be presented unless the Senator approves it, or that no petition can be read at the request of a Senator unless he approves it? Such a limitation on the right of petition would go far to cut it down to its unhappy condition in those pro-slavery days which some of us remember. Sir, I was right in presenting the memorial, and right in asking to have it read.
And now what is its character? It sets forth a condition of things in Virginia which might well make the Senate pause. I think no candid person can have listened to that memorial without seeing that it contains statements with regard to which the Senate ought to be instructed before it proceeds to a vote. Do you consider, Sir, that when you install this Legislature you consign the people of Virginia to its power? Do you consider that to this body belongs the choice of judges? The whole judiciary of the State is to be organized by it. This may be done in the interests of Freedom and Humanity, or in the ancient interests of the Rebellion. I am anxious that this judiciary should be pure and devoted to Human Rights. But if the policy is pursued which finds such strenuous support, especially from the Senator from Illinois, farewell then to such a judiciary!--that judiciary which is often called the Palladium of the Commonwealth, through which justice is secured, rights protected, and all men are made safe. Instead of that, you will have a judiciary true only to those who have lately been in rebellion. You will have a judiciary that will set its face like flint against those loyalists that find so little favor with the Senator from Illinois. You will have a judiciary that will follow out the spirit which the Senator has shown to-day, and do little else than pursue vindictively these loyalists.