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perfect freedom and equality of the colored race under the law. In 1865, when the question of admitting Representatives from the State of Louisiana, in which a Government had been formed by Unionists under Federal protection, a joint resolution of the Senate Judiciary Committee recognising this State Government was presented Mr. Sumner offered a substitute favoring an early establishment of a republican government by act of Congress, based on the principles of the Declaration of Independence, and the equality of all citizens before the law. In the final resolution of his substitute the military forms of Government which had been established over the Southern States were condemned as contrary to constitutional principles. Mr. Sumner's principle was that by investing the negroes in the conquered States with all the rights that the white citizens enjoyed, national authority would be placed upon a more secure foundation than by any other method. All his public utterances on the policy of reconstruction were mainly founded on this idea. He further advanced the theory that no amendment to the Constitution was necessary to guarantee equality before the law to the colored race, because that instrument provided for "a republican form of government" in each State, and as long as any State refused impartial sufferage it did not possess a republican government. This view, however, was generally looked upon as untenable. After the amendment to the Constitution abolishing slavery had been ratified by twenty-seven States, Congress was called to take action on the "Equality bill." On the 20th of December Mr. Sumner made a strong speech, urging the passage of the bill as necessary to that protection of the freedom which the National Government was pledged to afford. The bill was passed. In the following session President Johnson sent to Congress (Dec. 18, 1866,) his message on the progress of reconstruction in the South, giving a very rose- colored view of affairs there. Mr. Sumner made a sharp attack on the message, stigmatizing it as similar to the "whitewashing message" of President Pierce on the affairs of Kansas. Senator Doolittle defended the President, and thenceforward the rupture between Congress and President Johnson began, which ended in his impeachment. In May of the next year, Mr. Thaddeus Stevens' reconstruction measures were the leading questions in the Lower House. They encountered violent opposition from the proposed disfranchisement of the greater part of those who had been conspiciously active in
