Mr. Morrill -- Mr. Davis "wound up" -- Mr. Guthrie's Speech
-- Mr. Hendricks -- Reply of Mr. Lane -- Mr. Wilson -- Mr.
Trumbull's closing remarks -- Yeas and Nays on the passage
of the Bill.

The preceding Congress having proposed an amendment to the
Constitution by which slavery should be abolished, and this amendment
having been "ratified by three-fourths of the several States," four
millions of the inhabitants of the United States were transformed from
slaves into freemen. To leave them with their shackles broken off,
unprotected, in a new and undefined position, would have been a sin
against them only surpassed in enormity by the original crime of their
enslavement.

As provided in the amendment itself, it devolved upon Congress "to
enforce this article by appropriate legislation." The Thirty-ninth
Congress assembled, realizing that it devolved upon them to define the
extent of the rights, privileges, and duties of the freedmen. That
body was not slow in meeting the full measure of its responsibility.

Immediately on the reaessembling of Congress after the holidays,
January 5, 1866, Mr. Trumbull, in pursuance of previous notice,
introduced a bill "to protect all persons in the United States in
their civil rights, and furnish the means of their vindication." This
bill, having been read twice, was referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary.

It was highly appropriate that this bill, involving the relations of
millions of the inhabitants of the United States to the Government,
should be referred to this able committee, selected from among the men
of most distinguished legal ability in the Senate. Its members were
chosen in consideration of their high professional ability, their long
experience, and exalted standing as jurists. They are the legal
advisers of the Senate, whose report upon constitutional questions is
entitled to the highest consideration.

To such a committee the Senate appropriately referred the Civil Rights
Bill, and the nation could safely trust in their hands the great
interests therein involved.

The bill declares that "there shall be no discrimination in civil
rights or immunities among the inhabitants of any State or Territory
of the United States on account of race, color, or previous condition
of slavery; but the inhabitants, of every race and color, without
regard to any previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude,
except as a punishment for crime whereof th