“Could any man, white or black, claim a right of entrance into the domicile of the poorest, the humblest, the weakest citizen of the State of Maine by virtue of Mr. Sumner’s amendment, when it shall become a law? Certainly not; a man’s private domicile is his own castle: no one, with even kingly pretensions, dare force himself over its threshold. But the public inn, the public or common school, the public place of amusement, as well as common carriers, asking the special protection of law, created through its action on the plea and for the benefit of the public good, have no such exclusive right as the citizen may rightfully claim within his home; and it seems to me to be invoking the aid of an unholy prejudice in attempting to force the idea that Mr. Sumner desires, or that the colored people in petitioning for civil rights are designing, to break into social circles against the wish of those who compose them.” It is difficult to answer that. The writer proceeds:-- “I have the testimony of Senator Morrill, this same Senator, to the fact ‘that equality before the law, without distinction of race or color,’ is a constitutional right,--for we have his declaration to that effect recorded, and further setting forth that it is ‘the duty of the Circuit Court of the United States to afford a speedy and convenient means for the arrest and examination of persons charged with a disregard of the same.’ (See proceedings of Senate, April, 1866.)” I have not verified this reference; I read it as I find it. The Senator will know whether he has heretofore employed such generous language, in just conformity with the Constitution. Assuming now that he has used this language, I think, as a lawyer, he will feel that George T. Downing has the better of him. I ask my friend to listen, and perhaps he will confess:-- “If equality before the law be a constitutional right, as testified to by Mr. Morrill, and if it be the duty of the Federal courts to protect the same, as he further affirms, is not all conceded as to the right of Congress to act in the case in question, when it is shown that the public inn, the public school, the common carrier, are necessary institutions under the control of law, where equality without regard to race or color may be enforced? Can there be any question as to the same? “I further invoke the letter of the Constitution _in behalf of Congressional action_ to protect me in the rights of an American citizen; for instance,”-- Again I say, this is not the argument of a Senator, nor of a lawyer, but only of one of those colored fellow-citizens for whom my friend can find no protection,--