MR. SUMNER. I know very well that they may, in the last resort, be obliged to go to the courts; but I know that it will be more difficult for the Company to exclude them in the face of a positive statute than when their rights are simply founded on _inference_. The positive words which I propose leave no loophole for doubt. They must be obeyed. There is nothing more common in legislation than, in case of doubt as to the meaning of a statute, or of the Common Law, to remove it by what is well known as a “declaratory” statute. I have in my hands a work of authority, which the Senator knows well, Dwarris on Statutes, from which I read:-- “And first of declaratory acts. These are made where the old custom of the kingdom is almost fallen into disuse or become disputable, in which case the Parliament has thought proper, _in perpetuum rei testimonium_, and for avoiding all doubts and difficulties, to declare what the Common Law is and ever hath been.”[310] Are not these words completely applicable to the case before us? What should be the custom is, according to these words, “almost fallen into disuse, or become disputable.” I say, therefore, again, following these words, “for avoiding all doubts and difficulties,” it is the duty of Congress “to declare” what the law of the land is. Again, in another place, this same authority, speaking still further of declaratory statutes, says:-- “Acts to explain laws are properly acts of interpretation by legislative authority,--or, to borrow an expression from the writers on the Roman Law, they are acts of _authentic interpretation_.”[311] I ask the attention of the Senator to the expression, “they are acts of _authentic interpretation_.” Now, Sir, what I desire is, that the Senate shall give an authentic interpretation to the law. To do this it is not needful to range over the whole field of history, of morals, or of politics, in imitation of the Senator, or to discuss the equality of races, or their fortunes in the future; but it is enough for us to become acquainted with the existing abuse, every day under our own eyes, in the streets of this capital, and then to apply the remedy. Beyond all question, there is an abuse. The remedy is simple, and I cannot doubt that it will be effective. Listening to the objections which this measure has encountered, I am reminded of those so often brought against the Wilmot Proviso. Sometimes it was said that Slavery could not go into the Territories without positive statute, and that therefore the prohibition was unnecessary. But it generally happened that those who opposed the positive prohibition were indifferent to the great question. No, Sir; there can be but one true rule. It is this: the rights of colored persons must be placed under the protection of positive statute, warning their oppressors against continued outrage.