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OPENING OF THE STREET-CARS TO COLORED

PERSONS.

SPEECHES IN THE SENATE, ON VARIOUS PROPOSITIONS, FEBRUARY 10, MARCH 17, JUNE 21, 1864.

THE opening of the street-cars in Washington constitutes a special chapter of effort, which, beyond its local influence, was important as an example to the country.

February 27, 1863, the Senate having under consideration the bill to authorize the Alexandria and Washington Railroad Company to extend their road across the Potomac River and through the city of Washington to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad station, Mr. Sumner moved an amendment in the following words:

"And provided, also, That no person shall be excluded from the cars on account of color."

In making this motion, he called attention to what seemed to him a new illustration of the barbarism of Slavery. An aged colored person had been excluded from the cars and dropped in the mud. He thought the incident discreditable, and that it was the duty of Congress to interfere. The following dialogue then ensued.

MR. HOWE (of Wisconsin). I should like to ask the Senator from Massachusetts, as a question of law, whether, if this railroad company, being common carriers, should drop any person or refuse to carry any person who offered them their fare, they would not be liable as the law now stands, without any express enactment?

MR. SUMNER. If you ask me the question as a lawyer, I should say they would be liable; but the experience here, as I believe, is, that this liability is not recognized. The Senator knows well, that, under the influence of Slavery, human rights are disregarded, and those principles of law which he recognizes are set aside. Therefore it becomes the duty of Congress to interfere and specially declare them.

MR. HOWE. Would the effect of the amendment be any more than a reenactment of the existing law?

MR. SUMNER. That was said of the Wilmot Proviso, as the Senator will remember.

The question being taken by yeas and nays, resulted, Yeas 19, Nays 13; so the amendment was agreed to. It was concurred in by the House, and approved by the President, March 3, 1863.

This provision, though applicable to a single road, seemed to decide the principle. But it was not so regarded by the other railroads in Washington, which continued to exclude colored persons, often under painful circumstances.

February 10, 1864, Mr. Sumner called attention to this subject by the following resolution :

"Resolved, That the Committee on the District of Columbia be directed to consider the expediency of further providing by law against the exclusion of colored persons from the equal enjoyment of all railroad privileges in the District of Columbia."

Mr. Sumner explained the resolution.

MR.

R. PRESIDENT,- It is necessary that I should call attention to a recent outrage which has occurred in this District. I do it with great hesitation. At one moment I was inclined to keep silence, believing that the good name of our country required silence; but since it has already found its way into the journals, I cannot doubt that it ought to find its way into this Chamber.

An officer of the United States, with the commission of Major, with the national uniform, has been pushed from a car on Pennsylvania Avenue for no other offence than that he was black. Now, Sir, I desire to say openly that we had better give up railroads in the national capital, if we cannot have them without such an outrage upon humanity, and upon the national character. An incident like that, Sir, is worse at this moment than defeat in battle. It makes enemies for our cause abroad, and sows distrust. I hope, therefore, that the Com

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mittee on the District of Columbia, I know the disposition of my honorable friend, the Chairman of that Committee, in the bills we are to consider relative to the railroads in this District, will take care that such safeguards are established as will prevent the repetition of any such wrong.

In reply to Mr. Hendricks, of Indiana, Mr. Sumner spoke again.

MR. PRESIDENT, I am sure that the Senator from Indiana [Mr. HENDRICKS] is mistaken in regard to the provision for colored people. There may be here and there, now and then, once in a long interval of time, a car which colored people may enter; but any person traversing the avenue will see that those cars appear very rarely; and if any person takes the trouble to acquaint himself, with the actual condition of things, he will learn that there are great abuses and hardships, particularly among women, growing out of this outrage. I use plain language, Sir, for it is an outrage. It is a disgrace to this city, and a disgrace also to the National Government, which permits it under its eyes. It is a mere offshoot of the Slavery which, happily, we have banished from Washington.

Now go back to the facts on which I predicated my motion. The Senator from Iowa [Mr. GRIMES] has referred to the colored officer. I have in my hand his letter, addressed to his military superior, making a report of the case, and, as it is very brief, I will read it.

"WASHINGTON, D. C., February 1, 1864. "SIR, I have the honor to report that I have been obstructed in getting to the Court this morning by the con

ductor of car No. 32 of the Fourteenth Street line of the city railway.

"I started from my lodgings to go to the hospital I formerly had charge of, to get some notes of the case I was to give evidence in, and hailed the car at the corner of Fourteenth and I Streets. It was stopped for me, and, when I attempted to enter, the conductor pulled me back, and informed me that I must ride on the front with the driver, as it was against the rules for colored persons to ride inside. I told him I would not ride on the front, and he said I should not ride at all. He then ejected me from the platform, and at the same time gave orders to the driver to go on. I have, therefore, been compelled to walk the distance in the mud and rain, and have also been delayed in my attendance upon the Court.

"I therefore most respectfully request that the offender may be arrested and brought to punishment.

"I remain, Sir, your obedient servant,

"A. T. AUGUSTA, M. B.,

"Surgeon Seventh U. S. Colored Troops.

"CAPTAIN C. W. CLIPPINGTON, Judge Advocate."

In my opinion, the writer of this letter had just as much right in that car as the Senator from Indiana, and it was as great an outrage to eject him as it would be to eject that Senator. I go further, and I say - pardon the illustration that the ejection of that Senator would not bring upon this capital half the shame that the ejection of this colored officer necessarily brings upon the capital. I do not mean, of course, to make the remark personal; but, as the Senator from Indiana has entered into this discussion, and chooses to vindicate this inhumanity, I allude to him personally.

The resolution was adopted, - Yeas 30, Nays 10.

February 24th, Mr. Willey, of West Virginia, from the Committee on the District of Columbia, made a report in the following terms.

"That the Act entitled 'An Act to incorporate the Washington and Georgetown Railroad Company,' approved May 17, 1862, makes no distinction as to passengers over said road, or as to any of the privileges of said road, on account of the color of the passenger, and that, in the opinion of the Committee, colored persons are entitled to all the privileges of said road which any other persons have, and to all the remedies for any denial or breach of such privileges which belong to any other persons. The Committee, therefore, ask to be discharged from the further consideration of the premises."

February 25th, Mr. Sumner called attention to this report, and moved to reconsider the vote accepting it. Mr. Grimes stated that "the Committee hold that every person has a right to ride in the cars, and that a colored person has the same remedies open to him for any infringement of his rights by the Company as anybody else." Mr. Sumner then inquired, "whether it was the understanding of the Committee that the ejection of a colored person from a car was illegal." Mr. Grimes replied, "As I understood it." Mr. Sumner. "That the ejection was illegal?" Mr. Grimes. "Yes, Sir." Mr. Reverdy Johnson united in this conclusion. Mr. Willey said: "The law is now full and perfect in all its provisions and adaptations to secure the colored persons in the enjoyment of the privileges of this railroad." Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts, said: "I think in law he is right, but in practice it is an undeniable fact that the spirit of the old law and the old practices still lingers to some extent here in the District." Mr. Saulsbury, of Delaware, followed: "I most heartily approve of the action of the officer on board that railroad-car. I think he deserved the thanks of the community. When these negroes go about sticking their heads into railroad-cars, and among white people, and into the Supreme Court Room, I think an officer is perfectly right in telling them they have no business there." Mr. Sumner remarked as follows.

AFTER the declarations made to-day, I am, at least for the present, satisfied, and shall not proceed further with my motion. I was particularly grateful to the Senator from Maryland for his very explicit statement of the law. I do not doubt he is entirely right. It has always been my opinion. I am glad to have it confirmed by that distinguished Senator and lawyer. I am also grateful to the Senator from West Virginia, who made

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