MR. PRESIDENT,--If I were compelled to determine our comparative obligation to France and Germany, I should hesitate; and what American could do otherwise? I look at the beginning of our history, and I see, that, through the genius of our greatest diplomatist and greatest citizen, Benjamin Franklin, France was openly enlisted on our side. She gave us the Treaty of Alliance, and flung her sword into the trembling scale. Through France was independence assured; without France it must have been postponed. Such, Sir, is our obligation to France, infinite in extent, which, ever paying, we must ever owe. But is our obligation to Germany less? I cannot forget that this great country, fertile in men as in thought, has contributed to ours a population numerous and enlightened, by which the Republic is strengthened and our civilization elevated. France contributed to national independence; Germany to national strength and life. How shall I undertake to determine the difference between these two obligations? We owe infinitely to France; we owe infinitely to Germany. It is within my knowledge,--indeed, I have learned it within a very few days,--that, during this last year, Count Bismarck, in conversation with a personal friend of my own, said, with something of pride, that Germany had in the United States her second largest State after Prussia. MR. WILSON. What did he mean by that? MR. SUMNER. The German statesman had encouraged emigration, by which Germans come here; so that there is a German population among us larger than that of any other German State after Prussia. Such, to my mind, is the natural meaning of his language. Some of the largest German cities are in our country; and all this population together is itself a State. But, Sir, why consider this comparison? Here is simply a question of charity. Now charity knows no distinction of persons, knows no distinction of nations; especially does it know no distinction of friends. I will not undertake to hold the balance between these two mighty benefactors, to whom we are under such great and perhaps equal obligations. Let us do all that we can for each, with this understanding,--that, where there is the most suffering, there must our charity go. FOOTNOTES [1] Equality before the Law,--Argument before the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, December 4, 1849: _Ante_, Vol. III. pp. 51, seqq. [2] The Equal Rights of All,--Speech on the proposed Amendment of the Constitution fixing the Basis of Representation, February 5 and 6, 1866: _Ante_, Vol. XIII. pp. 190-4. [3] See article entitled “Admission of a Colored Lawyer to the Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States,” February 1, 1865: _Ante_, Vol. XII. pp. 97, seqq. [4] “Le domicile est l’habitation fixée en quelque lieu, dans l’intention d’y demeurer toujours.”--_Le Droit des Gens_, Liv. I. ch. 19, § 218. [5] Senate Reports, 41st Cong. 2d Sess., No. 75, p. 2.