ut distinction of color, you will
find the proposition a delusion and a snare. He will do no such thing.
Even the bribe you offer will not tempt him. If, on the other hand,
you expect to accomplish a reduction of his political power, it is
more than doubtful if you will succeed, while the means you employ are
unworthy of our country. There are tricks and evasions possible, and
the cunning slave-master will drive his coach and six through your
amendment, stuffed with all his Representatives."

Drawing toward the close of his speech, Mr. Sumner gave the following
review of his remarks that had preceded: "We have seen the origin of
the controversy which led to the revolution, when Otis, with such wise
hardihood, insisted upon equal rights, and then giving practical
effect to the lofty demand, sounded the battle-cry that 'Taxation
without Representation is Tyranny.' We have followed this controversy
in its anxious stages, where these principles were constantly asserted
and constantly denied, until it broke forth in battle; we have seen
these principles adopted as the very frontlet of the republic, when it
assumed its place in the family of nations, and then again when it
ordained its Constitution; we have seen them avowed and illustrated in
memorable words by the greatest authorities of the time; lastly, we
have seen them embodied in public acts of the States collectively and
individually; and now, out of this concurring, cumulative, and
unimpeachable testimony, constituting a speaking aggregation
absolutely without precedent, I offer you the American definition of a
republican form of government. It is in vain that you cite
philosophers or publicists, or the examples of former history. Against
these I put the early and constant postulates of the fathers, the
corporate declarations of the fathers, the avowed opinions of the
fathers, and the public acts of the fathers, all with one voice
proclaiming, first, that all men are equal in rights, and, secondly,
that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the
governed; and here is the American idea of a republic, which must be
adopted in the interpretation of the National Constitution. You can
not reject it. As well reject the Decalogue in determining moral
duties, or as well reject the multiplication table in determining a
question of arithmetic."

Maintaining that "the rebel States are not republican governments,"
Mr. Sumner said: "Begin with Tennessee, which