Republican (nationalist) Senator Charles Sumner, of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, on the floor of the Senate introduces his plan for Congressional (radical) Reconstruction:

       To carry out the guarantee of a republican form of government, and to enforce the prohibition of slavery; Be it resolved … that in all states lately declared to be in rebellion there shall be no oligarchy, aristocracy, caste, or monopoly invested with peculiar privileges or powers, and there shall be no denial of rights, civil or political, on account of color or race; but all persons shall be equal before the law, whether in the courtroom or at the ballot box; and this statue, made in pursuance of [t]he constitution, shall be the supreme law of the land, anything in the constitution or laws of any such state to the contrary notwithstanding. (emphasis added)

       NOTE: It is important to notice here that Sumner feels special privileges should not be extended along racial lines, but a similar denial of privilege to the moneyed railroad and banking interests is conspicuously absent.

       [added 4/24/2022]