Alfred H. Stone Collection
Volume: 73

33. Charles Sumner, No Compromise of Human Rights. No Admission in the Constitution of Inequality of Rights, or Disfranchisement on Account of Color. Speech of Hon. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, on the Proposed Amendment of the Constitution Fixing the Basis of Representation; Delivered in the Senate of the United States, March 7, 1866 (Washington, DC: Congressional Globe, 1866). (21 p.)

Speech endorsing an amendment to the Constitution stating “that whenever the elective franchise shall be denied or abridged in any State on account of race or color, all persons therein of such race or color shall be excluded from the basis of representation [in Congress].” This language in a slightly modified version later became part of the Fourteenth Amendment.