Senators Lyman Trumbull from Illinois, Charles Sumner from Massachusetts, Samuel C. Pomeroy from Kansas, Reverdy Johnson from Maryland, and James A. McDougall from California

“ Whether that decision is right nor not, permit me to say that to the honorable member there are men belonging to the profession at least his equals, who think it to have been right right; but whether right or wrong, those who knew the moral character of the Chief Justice as well as I did would blush to say that his name is to be execrated among men. ”

“ They had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect, and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit. ”

“ It is notorious that there were States of the Union where, at the adoption of the Constitution, colored persons were free, and even in the enjoyment of the electoral franchise, while in England the Somersett case had already decided that there could be no distinction of persons on account of color, and Scotland, Holland, and France had all declared the same rule. ”

“ Suppose he did make a wrong decision. No man is infallible. He was a great and learned and an able man. I trust the Senate will take up the bill, and not only take it up, but pass it up.
Mr. SUMNER. The Senator from Illinois says that this idea of a bust is not to be hooted down. let me tell that Senator that the name of Taney is to be hooted down the page of history. Judgment is beginning now; and an emancipated country will fasten upon him the stigma which he deserves. The Senator says that he for twenty five years administered justice. ”