Congress will leave undone what it ought to do, if it fails to provide promptly for the establishment of Equal Rights, whether political or civil, everywhere throughout the Union. This is a solemn duty, not to be shirked or postponed. The idea is intolerable, that any State, under any pretension of State Rights, can set up _a political oligarchy_ within its borders, and then call itself a republican government. I insist with all my soul that such a government must be rejected, as inconsistent with the requirements of the Declaration of Independence. Faithfully yours, CHARLES SUMNER. A letter from Hon. Henry Wilson stated: “At the last session I offered an amendment, on the 17th of July, allowing all, without distinction of color, to vote and hold office, making no distinction in rights or privileges.” ARE WE A NATION? ADDRESS BEFORE THE NEW YORK YOUNG MEN’S REPUBLICAN UNION, AT THE COOPER INSTITUTE, TUESDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 19, 1867. And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel, … and they shall be no more two nations.… Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions.--EZEKIEL, xxxvii. 22, 23. * * * * * In these days their union is so entire and perfect that they are not only joined together in bonds of friendship and alliance, but even make use of the same laws, the same weights, coins, and measures, the same magistrates, counsellors, and judges: so that the inhabitants of this whole tract of Greece seem in all respects to form but one single city, except only that they are not enclosed within the circuit of the same walls; in every other point, both through the whole republic and in every separate state, we find the most exact resemblance and conformity.--POLYBIUS, _General History_, tr. Hampton, (London, 1756,) Vol. I. pp. 147, 148. * * * * * We represent the people,--we are a Nation. To vote by States will keep up colonial distinctions.… The more a man aims at serving America, the more he serves his colony. I am not pleading the cause of Pennsylvania; I consider myself a citizen of America.--BENJAMIN RUSH, _Speech in the Continental Congress, July, 1776_: Bancroft, History of the United States, Vol. IX. p. 54. * * * * *