Alfred H. Stone Collection
Volume: 23

2. Charles Sumner, Protection of Freedmen: Actual Condition of the Rebel States. Speech of Hon. Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts, on the Bill to Maintain the Freedom of the Inhabitants in the States Declared in Insurrection and Rebellion by the Proclamation of the President of July 1, 1862; Delivered in the Senate of the United States, December 20, 1865 (Washington, DC: Congressional Globe Office, 1865). (15 p.)

Speech objecting to the attempt in several Southern states to re-establish a form of legalized slavery, thus nullifying the Thirteenth Amendment, which was ratified on December 6, 1865. “It is essential to complete Emancipation. Without it [the bill under consideration] Emancipation will be only half 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” (emphasis in original).