February 4th, the Senate considered the joint resolution. Mr. Fessenden, of Maine, “wished to inquire what propriety there is in our going back and paying them this increase for services already rendered.” Mr. Wilson thought, “as an act of justice, the bill should be retrospective,”--that “the gross injustice done by the country toward these men ought to be corrected.” Mr. Fessenden was in favor, and had ever been in favor, of putting colored soldiers on a level with white, but he was opposed to paying men for services already rendered, unless the men were promised full pay by orders emanating from the War Department. Mr. Sumner, after stating that there were two classes of enlistments, first, under the statute of 1861, and, secondly, under the statute of 1862, insisted that under the former statute any person of African descent might be enlisted and entitled to the same pay as a white soldier. “There was no limitation in the statute. There was no color there. There was nothing against the enlistment of colored men under that statute, except a blind prejudice which we ought to forget.” He concluded: “I wish to see our colored troops treated like white troops in every respect. But I would not press this first principle by any retroactive proposition, unless where the faith of the Government is committed, and there I would not hesitate. The Treasury can bear any additional burden better than the country can bear to do an injustice.” February 10th, the subject being still under consideration, Mr. Sumner said:-- MR. PRESIDENT,--I am grateful to the Senator from Connecticut [Mr. FOSTER] for his admirable argument on this question; and yet it seems to me, if he will pardon me, that even in point of law he has not stated the case as strongly in favor of this obligation as it might be stated. It may be remembered, that, when this discussion was closing, the other day, I ventured to throw out the remark, that there were evidently two classes of cases: the first, where enlistments in good faith were made under the statute of 1861; and the second, where they were made under the statute of 1862.