But the Senator says that the cases in which colored persons are interested arise in the State courts, and not in the United States courts, and that therefore my amendment is entirely inapplicable. The Senator is entirely mistaken again. The United States courts have jurisdiction of crimes without reference to color. They also have civil jurisdiction in other cases which do not depend upon citizenship. The Senator, as a lawyer, knows this well; and yet, deliberately, by vote, and now by speech, he upholds the barbarous rule of exclusion on account of color. Sir, I do not know which was worse, the vote or the speech, although the latter was in harmony with the former. I was astonished at the vote. I am now astonished at the speech, which, pardon me, is as illogical in argument as bad in principle. Most kindly, but most earnestly, do I dissent from it. Sir, I do not wish to take up time, but the subject is of transcendent importance. You will bear with my frankness, if I add, that sanctioning this exclusion can do no honor to Congress. I am sure it must be recorded in judgment against us, and deservedly too. Civilization will blush at the record. God save us! Mr. Davis, of Kentucky, followed with the remark:-- “I do not think, Mr. President, there was any need for sticking the perpetual, the all-pervading, the everywhere-to-be-found, the ever-in-the-way negro to this bill. I hope and trust that the Senate and the Congress of the United States will be allowed to mature and perfect some few bills, in which the interests and the business of the white man are involved, without having this ever-present negro stuck upon them by the Senator from Massachusetts. If he desires to bring up this matter of the negro in connection with the rules of proceeding in the Federal courts, let him introduce a distinct bill, and not make everything odoriferous of his friend.” Mr. Sumner then renewed his motion in the form of a proviso, and afterwards the Senate adjourned. The bill was never taken up again. But the same question was soon presented on another bill. July 15th, the Senate had under consideration a bill concerning the competency of witnesses in courts of the United States, which provided that this should be regulated by “the laws of the State in which the court shall be held.” Mr. Sumner offered his amendment again. It was opposed by Mr. Foster, of Connecticut, who had reported the pending bill. In the course of his remarks he said: “It is competent for every State to fix its own rules for itself, and the independence of each State of every other State requires that they should be protected in that right of making their own laws.” Mr. Sumner replied:--