Mr. EDMUNDS. I did not. Why, sir, we have uniformly admitted States on conditions. Every State that has been admitted, I think has been admitted on some condition or other. We have usually provided, it is true, that that condition should be incorporated by an ordinance irrevocable in their constitution, but so far as it derives its validity from that constitution the people have a right to change it at }. any time. when you go back to the root of the matter, the binding obligation upon these new States to adhere to the conditions which we impose and which they agree to, grows out of theoand supreme power of the will of their creator, the Congress of the U.S., exercising its functions under the constitution of the U.S., which declares that its laws, independent of all State constitutions and State laws, shall be the paramount law of the land. Now, Mr. President, to return to the point to which I was speaking: wherefore is this distinction set up in the fundamental law which the wHole of this Territory have brought here and laid upon our desk? My honorable friendfrom Ohio, imitating a distinguished citizen of Massachusetts who is now dead, in believing that the DeclarIndep was only a sounding and glittering generality, tells us that this is only a mere technicality; it does not amount to anything; there are no colored men there, and we are really “sticking in the bark” when we are endeavoring toingraft upon this constitution the perpetual and fundamental condition that equality among men shall be preserved there; that we are really impeding the progress of republicanism by being over nice about such little, immaterial trifles as the right of men of any particular race or color to exercise the full political privileges of citizenship to the exclusion of all others. Mr. President, I do not regard it as an imAmaterial trifle. If it was of consequence enough to be matter of deliberate consideration in the territorial convention of the people of Nebraska, as I assume that it did, if it was of consequence enough to go into the fundamental law as one of the cardinal principles upon which that free government is to be instituted, then certainly it is no such mean thing as not to deserve consideration and debate from us; it is something more than a mere technicality, in the language of the Senfrom Ohio; it is something more than the sounding and glittering generality that that eminent citizen of Massachusetts to whom I have alluded characterized as being the chief quality of the DeclarIndep; and I am surprised indeed, sir, surprised be yond measure, and I feel regret that is even greater than my surprise, to see the honorable Senfrom Ohio, whom we all love so well to follow, leading us through this District against all opposition for these same equal rights, and then turning to the westward and saying that after all it is nothing but a tech nicality, that men are standing in their own light and in the light of their party if they venture to lift their voices in favor of erasing this offensive, unjust, and inhuman distinction! There is everything, Mr. President, in justice; and we shall learn when the empire of tradition which has been tottering has at last completely fallen, we shall learn in the new light that we are coming to, that we shall never have complete prosperity if we do not stick to our principles o thick and thin. There can be no temporary triumph, there can be no temporary necessity in the nature of things possible which will justify a true man in departing one hair from justice and truth. There is something more, Mr. President. While we all love justice and equal rights, and we all love our party because we believe it represents the active operation of that justice and the essential propagation of those rights, we must still remember that even the party which we wish to carry forward and build up for this purpose is not .enough and strong enough to do wrong. We must remember that we must not stand upon one principle in the DistCol and }. exactly the opposite one in the Territory of Nebraska, because although we are strong now, the free people of this country will never believe in a party which is inconsistent with itself, and of whom it might be justly said if we put this bill through as it is: “Your pretense in the DistCol and in the southern States about the equality of men is merely because it suits your }. to get in Republican Sens&Reps; but when it suits your purpose to get in Republican Sens&Reps from Nebraska, then you believe that there is no such thing as equal rights irre spective of race or color; it is only a techni cality, then, or a glittering generality.” Mr. President, as strong as we are, and justly strong; as proud as we are and as conscious as we are of our strength, we do not deserve to be strong or proud or successful if we do not adhere to a great principle of justice and equality which we practice upon here where we have the power; if we do not adhere to it in Nebraska because it happens at the moment that we are to gain a Representative or 2 or a Senator or 2 by denying the principle there. And as we have the power, in my judgment, the clear and unquestioned power, in the exercise of our discretion, in admitting this territory to be a State, in creating it to impose such conditions cardinal and perpetual as seem fit to us, why not let us do it? hy not let us say to the people of this Territory, “We receive you upon the condition that within your bor ders, notwithstanding your constitution or your laws, you shall practically exercise equality and justice toward every citizen within your lim its?” As I have said before, the power cannot logically under the Constitution be denied. There is no danger if it could in trying the exeriment; the friends of this measure certainly, if they believe it to be merely a brutum fulmen, are not injured by it, and ithus concede the assertion of a principle upon the part of the Congress of the U.S., which I trust within the next 5 years will be carried to the remotest corner of the land.