After reading the letter at length, Mr. Sumner proceeded:-- This instructive letter is full of wise warnings, to which we cannot be indifferent. It is testimony, but it is also argument. The necessity of this measure appears not only from Georgia, but even from Pennsylvania. I have in my hands an article by Richard T. Greener, the principal of the Colored Institute at Philadelphia, where he vindicates the pending bill. I read a brief passage, and simply in reply to the Senator from Maine, on the necessity of Congressional action. Mr. Greener is no unworthy representative of his race. He knows well how to vindicate their rights. Here is what he says:-- “Not three weeks ago, the Committee which waited on the President from this city, in behalf of Mr. Sumner’s bill, were refused accommodations at the dépôt restaurant in Washington, and only succeeded in being entertained by insisting upon just treatment. It has scarcely been three months since the secretary of the American legation at Port-au-Prince, Rev. J. Theodore Holly, with his wife and three children, was refused a state-room on the steamer running between New Haven and New York city.” Then he shows the necessity:-- “Should Minister Bassett himself, indorsed by the Union League, return home and arrive late at night, there are probably not two hotels, such as a gentleman of his station would wish to stop at, where he could be accommodated,--not a theatre or place of amusement which he could visit without insult or degrading restrictions,--not a church, except it be a Quaker or Catholic one, where he would not be shown into the gallery, or else be made to feel uncomfortable: so outrageous are the current American ideas of common hospitality and refinement; so vindictive is this persecution of a humble class of your fellow-citizens.” Lastly he vindicates the pending measure, and asks for a two-thirds vote:-- “The Supplementary Bill ought to pass by a two-thirds vote. If it passes by a simple majority, we shall, of course, be satisfied, and understand the reason why. If Republican Senators, elected by colored votes, give their influence and votes against this measure, it might be well for them to remember that Negroes, along with instinct, have ‘terrible memories.’”