LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ] DODDSbMlfiVl • ^> '■» • * '•. ^. ? «.v CHARLES SUMNER. THE LIFE CHAKLES SUM NEK: CHOICE SPEC niEXS OK HIS ELOQUENCE, A DEIJXEATIOX OF HIS ORATORICAE CHARACTER, HIS GUEAT SPEECH UN KANSAS. By D. a. harsh a, AUTHOR OF " EMINENT ORATORS AND STATtSMEN," ETC., ETC. ' Wliere Libertj Is, there in mr countrr." BINJAVIN FXAKXLIN. XEW YORK: • DAYTON AND BURDICK, 2 9 A N N - S T R E E T . 1 8 5 f. . E^i6 ^ ,^\^^ EntorcJ according to Act of Cunirress, in the year l?o6, by D.VYTON AND BURDICK, III the Clerk's Office -.f ttio restrict Court of the United States for the Soil' hern District of New York. SriKaoTmo bt RICHARD ■ VALENTIN'S. 17 Dutch-itxaat, S 7. PREFACE. In preparing the following brief Memoir of the Hon. Charles Sumnek, we would mention three principal objects which we have had in view : 1st, The presentation of the leading events in his public life, in a chronological order ; 2d, The in- troduction of the choicest specimens of his elo- quence, especially those passages which best illus- trate his character as an advocate of human rights, and, at the same time, afford the finest examples of his style of composition ; and 3d, The delinea- tion of his oratorical character. The dates and circumstances connected with the delivery of his numerous orations and speeches are given, with connnents on the passages quoted, pai'ticularly with regard to the style, the grandeur of their conception, or the happy and forcible illustration of their subjects. Nothing need be 1* 6 PKEFACE. said in commendation of the great speech on Kansas, which we have added as the masterpiece of Mr. Sumner. It speaks for itself, and we ear- nestly request every American citizen to peruse it carefully. The ingenuous reader will admire it as an eloquent production, a manly declaration of the noble sentiments of its author on an important question, and a glorious defence of Liberty in an oppressed Territory. It is full of the beautiful and sublime, grand in its diction, rich and in- structive in its historical details, logical in its deductions, and powerful in its appeals. In the Appendix will be found the scathing speech of Daniel Lord, Esq., delivered at the indignation meeting in Kew York, and the re- marks made at the indignation meeting in Faneuil Hall, Boston, together with the speeches of Itev. Drs. Halley and Hague, at a similar meeting in Albany, We would here remark that the speeches of these distinguished clergymen are among the most eloquent and spirit-stirring that have been made on such occasions, and reflect much credit upon the genius and patriotism of their authors. This biographical sketch, accompanied by an immortal speech, is now respectfully offered to PREFACE. 7 the public, in the hope that it may prove both interesting and instructive to the thousands of ouj' citizens who are manifesting their sympathy for the stricken senator. "Would that it were a more worthy tribute of honor to the man, Mhose blood, unrighteously shed, calls aloud to heaven and earth for avenging justice, and M'hose name shall be transmitted to the most distant posterity, among the noble army of mart}Trs to the cause of Liberty ! May the reader rise from the perusal of this volume with feelings of admiration for Charles SuMNEK, the ripe scholar, the able lawyer, the eloquent orator, the accomplished statesman, the noble champion of Freedom. Aeqyle, N. Y., October, 1866. "Tell me not of rights — talk not of the property of the planter in his slaves. I deny the ritiht — I acknowledge not the property. The principles, the feel- ings of our couimon nature, rise in rebellion against it. Be the appeal made to the understanding or to the heart, the sentence is the same that rejects it. In vain you tell me of laws that sanction such a claim ! There is a law above all the enactments of human codes— the same throughout the world, the same in all times ; it is the law written by the finger of God on the heart of man ; and by that law, unchangeable and eternal, while men despise fraud, and loathe rapine and abhor blood, they will reject, with indignation, the wild and guilty phantasy that man can hold property in man." — Lord Brouoiiau. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. His birth — notice of his fiither— early education— wins several lite- rary prizes — a close student of history — his youth — early associ- ations—passage from Mr. Everett— remarks of Mr. Sumner on Boston— jrraduates at Harvard Collesre — studies law — a diliger.t student— eloquent passage from Dr. Chalmers, on genius and in- dustry — Mr. Sumner writes for tlie American Jurist — becomes its editor — admitted to the bar — practices in Boston — appointed re- porter of the Circuit Court — lectures to the law students of Cambridge — edits an important law-book — his position as a lawyer ^13 CHAPTER II. Visit to Europe — letters of introduction — received in England with marked attention — attends the debates in Parliament — favorably received by members of the Englisli Bar, &c. — visits Paris — writes a defence of the American claim to the Northeastern boundary — visits Italy — studies art and literature there — visits Germany — returns to Boston — again lectures in Cambridge — publishes an edition of Vesey's Reports — delivers hid oration, entitled the True Grandeur of Nations — Judge Story's opinion of it— eloquent pas- sage on the Reign of Peace 26 10 CONTENTS. CHAPTER III. Spoken of as the successor of Judge Story in the Law School — remarks of Story and Kent — espouses tlie cause of freedom — compared to Charles James Fox — delivers .a speech against;^ the admission of Texas as a slave State — extracts from tli«r speech 40 CHAPTER IV. Pronounces an oration before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Har- vard University — beautiful extracts — sentiment of John Quincy Adams — delivers a speech on the anti-slavery duties of the Whig^ party — glowing passages from this speech — delivers a brilliant lecture on white slavery in the Barbary States 46 CHAPTER V. Pronounces an Oration before the Literary Societies of Amherst College — extracts — delivers an oration before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Union College — splendid passages from this address — makes a speech before the Whig State Convention of Massachu- setts, at Springfield — forcible passages quoted from this address — remarks 59 CHAPER VI. Delivers a Speech in a Mass Convention at Worcester, Massachu- setts — extracts — delivers an address before the American Peace Society in Boston — admirable passages quoted from this etFort — remarks, &c 73 CHAPTER VII. Delivers a Speech at the Free Soil State Convention— remarks on this effort — forcible extracts— Mr. Sunnier ever true to the cause of freedom S5 CONTENTS. 11 CHAPTER VIII. Elected to the United States Senate — Letter of Acceptance— Speeches on the Iowa Eailroad Bill — An extract— delivers his celebrated Speech in the Senate, entitled Freedom National, Slavery Sec- tional — passage quoted on Freedom of Speech — the Peroration — remarks 96 CHAPTER IX. Delivers a Speech at the Plymouth Festival — its peroration quoted — makes his memorable Speech in the Senate, The Landmark of Freedom ; Freedom National — extracts — his final protest for him- self and the Clergy of New England against Slavery in Nebraska and Kansas — his remarks on that occasion 112 CHAPTER X. Delivers his speech in the Senate on the Boston Memorial for the Repeal of the Fugitive Slave Bill, etc. — makes an address before the Mercantile Library Association of Boston — delivers his speech in the Senate, entitled the Demands of Freedom — Repeal of the Fugitive Slave Bill — pronounces an address at the Metropolitan Theatre, New York — eloquent extracts 124 CHAPTER XL The late Session of Congress — Mr. Sumner delivers his great Speech on Kansas — the assault in the Senate chamber — Mr. Sumner's statement respecting it— indignation meetings — remarks 138 CHAPTER XII. Oratorical character of Mr. Sumner— his person— his delivery— his voice — his intellect — his learning — his imagination, &c. — his love of freedom— his style of composition — compared to Fisher Ames — concluding remarks 151 12 CONTENTS. Speech The crime against Kansas. The apologies for the crime : the true remedy 161 Appendix : Speech of Daniel Lord, delivered in the Broadway Tabernacle, May 30th, 1856 303 Kemarks made at the indignation meeting Ln Boston, May 24tl:, 1856 808 Speech of Kev. Dr. Hague, at the indignation meeting in Albany, June 6th, 1856 813 Speech of Eev. Dr. Halley, at the indignation meeting in Albany, J une 6th, 1856 321 MEMOIR OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. CHAPTER I. His birth — notice of his father— early education— wins several lite- rary prizes— a close student of history— liis youth — early associ- ations—passage from Mr. Everett— reinarlis of Mr. Sumner on Boston— graduates at Harvard College— studies law— a diligent student— eloquent passage from Dr. Chalmers, on genius and in- dustry — Mr. Sumner writes for the American Jurist — becomes its editor— admitted to the bar— practices in Boston— appointed re- porter of the Circuit Court— lectures to the law students of Cam- bridge — edits an important law-book — his position as a lawyer. Charles Sumner was bom in Boston, Massa- chusetts, on the 6th of February, 1811. His father, Charles Pinckney Sumner, was born in 1776; was graduated at Harvard College, and studied law imder Hon. George Kichards Minot, and Hon. Josiah Quincy. He was a man of learning and abilities, and possessed a noble, philanthropic spirit. It is said that the happiness of mankind was his controlling passion. A simple anecdote will illustrate this : "Shortly after he left college, an incident oc- 14 MEMOIR OF currcd expressive of this character. He passed a winter in the West Indies. The vessel in which he was a passenger, happened to stop at the Island of Hayti, which was then rejoicing in its in- dependence ; and the officers and passengers, with other American citizens there, were invited to a public entertaiinnent on the anniversary of ,the birthday of Washington, at which General Boyer, afterwards president of that republic, presided. Mr. Sumner, when called upon for a toast, gave the following: 'Liberty, Equality, and Happi- ness, to all men ;' which so much pleased Boyer, that he sent one of his aids-de-camp to invite the young American to take the seat of honor by his side at the feast." In 1798, at the age of twenty-two, he delivered the poem before the Phi Beta Kappa of Harvard College, and in 1800, pronounced a eulogy on Washington, which was included in an octavo volume entitled " Eulogies and Orations on Wash- ington," intended to embrace the best tributes to the memory of the " Fatlier of his Country." In 1825, he was appointed by Gov. Lincoln to the office of high sheriff of the county of Suffolk, Massachusetts — a station which he occupied till his decease in 1839. Among other estimable qualities, Charles Pinck- ney Sumner was distinguished for his probity and HON. CHAR L E S S i: M N E R . 15 conscientious integrity. It is stated, that more than one person remarked of him, that they would trust their whole fortunes to him, without bond or security of any kind. With regard to his literary character, we may also mention that he possessed respectable poetical talents. Some of his toasts at public festivals were expressed in verse, and were very felicitous. As a specimen, take the following, given July 4, 1826. " The United States : One and indivisible." " Firm like the oak may our blest Union rise, No Ies3 distinguished for its strength and size ; The unequal branches emulous unite To shield and grace the trunk's majestic height; Through long succeeding years and centuries live, No vigor losing from the aid they give." Another toast, which he gave on the 4th of July, 1828, in honor of Governor Lincoln, who was a practical farmer, deserves to be repeated here : " In China's realms, from earliest days till now. The well-loved emperor annual holds the plow ; Here, too, our ^torthiest candidates for fame. With unsoiled honor, sometimes do the same. Upholding such, our yeomen's generous hearts Show a just reverence to the first of arts." Mr. Sumner declined an invitation to become a candidate for Governor of Massachusetts. His memory will long be venerated by the patriotic citizens of his noble, native State. In early life the subject of our memoir mani- 1G MEMOIR OF fested uncommon powers of intellect, and applied himself with indefatigable perseverance to the acquisition of useful knowledge, and to the im- provement of his mind. His youthful years were thus profitably passed in collecting gems of wis- dom and truth, and in laying the foundation of his future eminence as a scholar, and as an orator and statesman. He was carefully prepared for a col- legiate course, at the Boston Latin School, where he acquired the reputation of a diligent and suc- cessful student. Indeed, so high were his literary attainments at this school that, at the end of his course, he won the prizes for English composition and Latin poetry, besides the Franklin medal. It may here be stated that, among other studies which at this period engaged his attention, he was particularly delighted with history, a subject which he has ever since regarded with intense in- terest, and of which he has acquired a very accu- rate and extensive knowledge. It is said that while at the Boston Latin School, he would often rise before daylight to read Hume and Gibbon, and other celebrated historians. His mind was early replenished with the choicest passages and noblest expressions of ancient and modern writers, and these have been of eminent service to him while illustrating, defending, and enforcing the grand principles of justice and freedom. HON. CHARLES SUMNER. IT As we shall yet have occasion to see, his speeches are full of classical allusions — of apt and beautiful comparisons and elucidations drawn from the sparkling fountains of antirpiity. He also studied with much interest the manners and cus- toms of different nations, and the chronology and mythology of the ancients. The youth of Sumner was a pleasant season of rapid, intellectual development and progression in science and literature ; and the remembrance of youthful associations has been delightful to him ever since, as it must be to those who have passed their early days in virtuous habits and correct mental discipline. In allusion to those tender as- sociations of youtli, which we all cherish to the evening of life, he some time since beautifully re- marked : " We incline, by a natural emotion, to the spot where we were born, to the fields which witnessed the sports of childliood, to the seat of youthful studies, and to the institutions under whicli we have been trained. The finger of God writes all these things, in indelible colors, on the heart of man ; so that, in the dread extremities of death, he reverts, in fondness, to eai-ly associations, and longs for a draught of cold water from the bucket in his father's well." In the same mingled strain of pathos and beau- 2* 18 MEMOIROF ty does tlie classical and accomplished Everett al- lude to the scenes of his own schoolboy days. In 1838, at a public festival at Exeter, where he had received his academical education, he remarked : " It was my good fortune, to pass here but a portion of the year before I entered college ; but I can truly say that even in that short time I con- tracted a debt of gratitude, which I have felt throughout my life, I return to these endeared scenes with mingled emotion. I find them chang- ed ; dwelling-places are no more on the same spots ; old edifices have disappeared ; new ones, both public and private, have been erected. Some of the respected heads of society whom I knew, though as a child, are gone. The seats in the Academy-room are otherwise arranged than for- merly, and even there the places that once knew me know me no more. Where the objects them- selves are unaltered, the changed eye and the changed mind see them differently. The streets seem narrower and shorter, the distances less con siderable ; this play-ground before us, which I re member as most spacious, seems sadly contracted But all, sir, is not changed, either in appearance or reality. The countenance of our reverend pre ceptor has undergone no change to my eye. li still expresses that suaviter in modo mentioned by the gentleman last up (Kev. Professor Ware, HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 19 Jun.), with nothing of the sternness of the other princij^le. It is thus I remember it ; it was al- ways sunshine to me, Xature, in the larger fea- tures of the landscape, is unchanged ; the river still flows, the woods yield their shade as plea- santly as they did thirty years ago, doubly grate- ful for the contrast they afford to the dusty walks of active life ; for the solace they yield in an es- cape, however brief, from its burdens and cares. As I stood in the hall of the Academy, last even- ing, and saw from its windows the river winding through the valley, and the gentle slope rising from its opposite bank, and caught the cool breeze that was scattering freshness after the sultry sum- mer's day, I could feel the poetry of Gray, on re- visiting, in a like manner, the scenes of his school- boy days : ' Ah, happy hills ! ah, pleasing shade ! Ah, fields beloved in vain ! Where once my careless cliildhood strayed, A stranger yet to pain ! I feel the gales that from ye blow A momentary bliss below. As, waving fresh their gladsome wing, My weary soul they seem to soothe, And, redolent of joy and youth. To breathe a second spring.' " Mr. Sumner early manifested the strongest at- tachment to Boston, his native city. In a passage of uncommon beauty he shows this regai'd in a happy manner : 20 MEMOIROF " Boston has always led the generous and mag- nanimous actions of om* history. Boston led the cause of the Revolution. Here was commenced that discussion, pregnant with the independence of the colonies, which, at first occupying a few warm but true spirits only, finally absorbed all the best energies of the continent, — the eloquence of Adams, the patriotism of Jefierson, the wisdom of "Washington. Boston is the home of noble charities, the nurse of true learning, the city of churches. By all these tokens she stands con- spicuous, and other parts of the country are not unwilling to follow her example. Athens was called the eye of Greece, — Boston may be called the eye of America ; and the influence M'hich she exerts is to be referred, not to her size, — for there are other cities larger far, — but to her moral and intellectual character." In 1830, Mr, Sumner was graduated at Harvard College, and the following year, entered the Law School of the same institution. His whole atten- tion was now turned to the study of juridical sci- ence. Not trusting to genius alone, he inured his mind to incessant and hard study, and read all the legal authors of value which he met with. His labor in this respect was truly assiduous, as it was astonishing. We are informed that he never re- lied upon text-books, but sought original sources. HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 21 read all authorities and references, and made him- self familiar with books of the common law, from the year-books, in unconth JSTorman, down to the latest reports. It w^as said that he could go into the law library of which he was the librarian, and find in the dark any volume, if in its proper place. In the early intellectual culture of Mr. Sumner, we have another exemplification of that acknow- ledged truth, that in order to lead any individual, however gifted he may be, to the highest literary eminence, labor, industry, and perseverance, must always accompany genius. This idea is beauti- fully unfolded by Dr. Chalmers in an admirable passage which we must here be peruutted to quote at length : " It is by dint of steady labor — it is by giving enough of application to the work, and having enough of time for the doing of it — it is by regu- lar painstaking and the plying of constant assidui- ties — it is by these, and not by any process of leger- demain, that we secure the strength and the sta- ple of real excellence. It was thus that Demos- thenes, clause after clause, and sentence after sen- tence, elaborated, and that to the uttennost, his immortal orations ; it was thus that Newton pio- neered his way, by the steps of an ascending geometry, to the mechanism of the heavens — after which, he left this testimony behind him, that he 22 MEMOIROF was conscious of nothing else but a habit of pa- tient thinking, which could at all distinguish him from other men. He felt that it was no inaccessi- ble superiority on which he stood, and it was thus that he generously proclaimed it. It is certainly another imagination that prevails in regard to those who have l»ft the stupendous monuments of intellect behind them — not that they were diiFer- ently exercised from the rest of the sj^ecies, but that they must have been differently gifted. It is their talent, and almost never their industry, by which they have been thought to signalize them- selves ; and seldom is it adverted to, how much it is to the more strenuous application of those com- mon-place faculties which are diffused among all, that they are indebted for the glories which now encircle their remembrance and their name. It is felt to be a vulgarizing of genius that it should be lighted up in any other way than by a direct inspiration from heaven ; and hence men have overlooked the steadfastness of purpose, the devo- tion to some single but great object, the unweari- ness of labor that is given, not in convulsive and preternatural throes, but by little and little as the strength of the mind may bear it, — the accumula- tion of many small effurts, instead of a few grand and gigantic but perhaps irregular movements on HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 23 the part of energies that are marvellous. Men have overlooked these as being indeed the ele- ments to which genius owes the best and the proudest of her achievements. They cannot think that aught so utterly prosaic as patience, and painstaking, and resolute industry, have any share in the upholding of a distinction so illustrious. These are held to be ignoble attributes, never to be found among the demigods, but only among the drudges of literature : and it is certainly true, that in scholarship there are higher and lower walks. But still the very highest of all is a walk of labor. It is not by any fantastic jngglery, in- comprehensible to ordinary minds, and beyond their reach — it is not by this that the heights of philosophy are scaled. So said he who towei-s so far above all his fellows ; and whether viewed as an exhibition of his own modesty, or as an encour- agement to others, this testimony of Sir Isaac may be regarded as one of the most precious legacies that he has bequeathed to the world." While a student of law, Mr, Sumner wrote sev- eral excellent articles for the " American Jurist," and soon became editor of that important journal. After reading law for some time in the office of Benjamin Rand, Esq., a counsellor of Boston, he was admitted to the bar at Worcester, and com- 24 M E M O I R O F menced tlie practice of his profession in Boston, in 1834. He was shortly after appointed rej^orter to the Circuit Court, and published three volumes which are known as " Sumner's Reports." For three successive winters after his admission to the bar, during the absence of Professors Greenleaf and Story, he lectured to the law students at Cam- bridge, and for some time had the sole charge of the Dane School. These labors he performed with distinguished ability, and entire satisfaction to the students and faculty, and while in this capacity, gained for himself a valuable reputation. From this period he speedily advanced to the front rank in his profession, soon became eminent as a jurist, and attracted the admiration of such men as Chan- cellor Kent, Justice Story, and other renowned civilians. In 1833, he ably and judiciously edited A Trea- tise on the Practice of the Courts of Admiralty in Civil Causes of Maritime Jurisdiction^ hy Afi- drew Dunlap. The valuable comments, which he added in the form of an appendix, contained as much matter as the original work. The editing of this treatise was undertaken in consequence of the illness of Mr. Dunlap, who stated on his death- bed that Mr. Sumner had worked over it " with the zeal of a sincere friend, and the accuracy of HON. CHARLES SUMNER, 25 an excellent lawyer." Indeed, Mr. Sumner's po- sition in the legal world, at this time, was an en- viable one : he was universally regarded as a young lawyer of exalted talent, brilliant genius, and commanding eloquence. 3 '26 M E M O I R O F CHAPTER 11. Visit to Europe — letters of introduction — received in Enslaiid with marlved attention— attends tlie debates in Parliament — favorably received by members of the English Bar, &c.— visits Paris— writes a defence of the American claim to the Northeastern boundary — visits Italy — studies art and literature there— visits Germany — returns to Boston — again lectures in Cambridge— publishes an edition of Vesey's Eeports — delivers his oration, entitled the True Grandeur of Nations — Judge Story's opinion of it — eloquent pas- sage on the Eeign of Peace. In the autumn of 1837, Mr. Sumner visited Eu- rope, where he remained till the spring of 1840, enjoying superior advantages of a literarj- nature, and adding largely to the number of his intel- lectual accomplishments. The renowned Judge Story, who always cher- ished the highest regard for him, wrote a letter of introduction to a distinguished gentleman in Lon- don, in which he says : " Mr. Sumner is a practising lawyer at the Bos- ton bar, of very high reputation for his years, and already giving the promise of the most eminent distinction in his profession ; his literai-y and ju- dicial attainments are truly extraordinary. He is one of the edit;prs — indeed, the principal editor of HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 27 the ' American Jurist,' a quarterly journal of ex- tensive circulation and celebrity among- us, and without a rival in America. He is also the re- porter of the court in which I preside, and has already published two volumes of rej^orts. His private character, also, is of the best kind for purity and propriety ; but, to accomplish himself more thoroughly in the great objects of his profes- sion, — not merely to practice, but to extend the boundaries in the science of law, — I am very anxious that he shoidd possess the means of visit- ing the courts of Westminster Hall un<]er favora- ble auspices ; and I shall esteem it a pei'sonal favor if you can give him any facilities in this particular." When he reached England, Mr. Sumner was received with marked distinction by eminent states- men, lawyers, and scholars. During his stay in England, which was nearly a year, he closely at- tended the debates in Parliament, and heard all the great speakers of the day, many of whom he became intimately acquainted with. His deport- ment was so gentlemanly, his mind so vigorous and accomplished, and his address so winning, that he became a favorite with many in the Ijest circles of English society. With regard to the pleasing qualities of Mr. Sumner in conversation, it has been well said, " We know not the man, 28 M E M O I R O F that is more lovable, companionable, and pro- fitable, in social intercourse, tlian is Charles Sumner," In writing to Mr. Snmner, while enjoying such advantages in England, Judge Story says in a letter, dated August 11, 1838 : " I have ]-eceived all your letters, and have de- voured them with unspeakable delight. All the family have heard them read aloud, and all join in their expressions of pleasure. You are now exactly where I should wish you to be, — among the educated, the literary, the noble, and, though last, not least, the learned of England, of good old England, our mother-land, God bless her ! Your sketches of the bar and bench are deeply interest- ing to me, and so full that I think I can see tliem in my mind's eye. I must return my thanks to Mr. Justice Vaughan for his kindness to you ; it has gratified me beyond measure, not merely as a proof of his liberal friendship, but of his acute- ness and tact in the discovery of character. It is a just homage to your own merits. Your Old Bailey speech was capital, and hit, by stating sound truths, in the right way." The most flattering attentions were shown to Mr. Sunmer by distinguished members of the English bar and the bench, and while attending the courts at Westminster Hall, he was frequently HON. CHARLES SUMXER. 29 invited by the judges to sit bj their side at the trials. " At tlie meeting of the British Scientific Asso- ciation, he experienced the same flattering atten- tions. In town and country, he moved freely in society, to which intelligence and refinement, wealth and worth, lend every charm and grace. Nor did the evidence of such respect and confi- dence pass away with his presence. Two years after his return from England, the Quarterly lie- meio, 2i\\\\(\\\\g to his visit, stepped aside to say: ' He presents, in his own person, a decisive proof that an American gentleman, without official rank or wide-spread reputation, by mere dint of cour- tesy, candor, an entire absence of pretension, an appreciating spirit, and a cultivated mind, may be received on a perfect footing of equality in the best circles — social, political, and intellectual; which, be it observed, are hopelessly inaccessible to the itinerant note-taker, who never gets beyond the outskirts of the show-houses.' Eight j'ears later yet, he received a compliment, which, from an English bench, is of the rarest occurrence. On an insurance question, before the Court of Ex- chequer, one of the counsel having cited an American case. Baron Parke, the ablest of the English judges, asked him what book he quoted. He replied, 'Sumner's Eeports.' Baron Rolfe 3* 30 MEMOIROF said, 'Is that the Mr. Sumner who was once in Enoland V On receiving a rej)!}' in the affirma- tive, Baron Parke observed, ' We shall not con- sider it entitled to the less attention because re- ported by a gentleman whom we all knew and respected.' Not long ago, some of Mr. Sumner's estimates of war expenses were quoted by Mr. Cubden, in debate, in the House of Commons." In Paris he was received with the same cordial- ity as in England, and was speedily admitted to a familiar intercourse with the highest intellectual classes. " He attended the debates of the Chamber of Deputies, and the lectures of all the eminent pro- fessors in different departments, at the Sorbonne, at the College of France, and particularly in the Law School. lie became personally acquainted, with several of the most eminent jurists — with Baron Degerando, renowned for his works on char- ity ; with Pardessus, at the head of commercial law ; with Fadix, editor of the ' Keview of Foreign Jurisprudence ;' and other famous men. He at- tended a whole term of the Royal Court at Paris, observing the foi-ms of ])rocedure ; received kind- ness from the judges, and was allowed to peruse the pa^iers in the cases. His presence at some of these trials was noticed in the reports in the law journals." HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 31 While residing in Paris, he became intimately acquainted with General Cass, the American min- ister, at whose request he wrote a masterly defence of the American chiim to the northeastern bound- ary, which was received with much favor by our citizens, and republished in the leading journals of tire day. In Italy, Mr. Sumner devoted himself with the greatest ardor to the study of art and literature, and read many of the best works of that classic land, on history, politics, and poetry. In Ger- many, he was also received with that high regard which is justly paid to distinguished talent and transcendent genius. Here he formed an intimate acquaintance with those eminent jurists, Savigny, Thibnut, and Mittermaier. He was kindly i _- ceived by Prince Mctternich, and became ac- quainted witli most of the professors at TT^^'idelberg, and with many other individuals di?tingnished in science and literature, as Humboldt, Ranke, Hit- ter, &c. With his mind richly stored with learning, Mr. Sumner returned from Europe in 1 840. On reach- ing Bost(»n, he met with a cordial reception, and immediately resumed the practice of his profession in his native city. He, however, did not engage in an extensive legal ])ractice, as his chief atten- tion at this time was turned to the science or lite- 32 M E M O I R O F rature of the law, a subject which, to Mr. Snrnner, has always been invested with peculiar charms. Ill 1843 he again occupied the chair as lecturer at the Cambridge Law School. In 1844-6 he edited an edition of Vesey's Keports in twenty volumes. This was a great undertaking, but was ably executed. The critical and explanatory notes which he contributed to the work, and the bio- graphical sketches of eminent lawyers introduced, were exceedingly useful, and tended greatly to enhance the value of the original production. In noticing this work, the Boston Law JReporter speaks in the highest terms of the extensive pro- fessional resources of Mr. Sumner, and of the rare legal knowledge which he displayed in his editorial labors. It says : " Wherever the occasion offers itself, the edito- rial note has been expanded, till it assumes some- thing of the port and stature of a brief legal dis- sertation, in which the topics are discussed in the assured manner of one who feels that his foot is planted on familiar ground, and whose mind is so saturated with legal knowledge, that it readily pours it forth at the slightest pressure, reminding us of those first ' sijrightly runnings' of the wine- press extracted by no force but the mere weight of the grapes. Mr. Sumner has also introduced a new element into his notes. We allude to his bio- HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 33 graphical notes of the eminent men whose names occur in the reports, either in a judicial or forensic capacity, and to his occasional historical, political, and biographical illustrations of the text. In what may be called the literature of the law, — the curi- osities of legal learning — he has no rival among us." On the 4th of July, 1845, Mr. Sumner delivered an oration before the authorities of the city of Boston, entitled The true Grandeur of Nations. This is an admirable production, and contains many passages of remarkable beauty and power, glowing with the noblest expressions which the art of oratory can exhibit. It is, indeed, a won- drous masterpiece of eloquence, and one of Mr. Sumner's finest oratorical eflbrts. Moulded in classic beauty, elegant in diction, and abounding in stirring sentiments and facts, it appeals to the heart with irresistible force. It is hardly neces- sary to add, that this oration, pronounced in those bewitching, musical tones of voice, for which Mr. Sumner is so distinguished, produced an over- M-helming effect upon the audience, and was re- ceived with much applause. As an advocacy of the doctrine of universal peace among nations, we know of nothing of the kind which equals this eflbrt in beauty of conception, force of argument, and elegance of composition. Judge Story, who 34 M E M O I R O F entertained clifterent views from Mr. Sumner as to the jnstifiableness of war in some cases, wrote him in reference to his oration, as follows : " It is certainly a very striking prodnction, and will fully sustain your reputation for high talents, various reading, and exact scholarship. There are a great many passages in it which are wrought out with an exquisite finish, and elegance of dic- tion, and classical beauty. I go earnestly and heartily along with many of your sentiments and opinions. They are such as beiit an exalted mind and an enlarged benevolence. But from the length and breadth of your doctrine as to w^ar, I am compelled to dissent. In my judgment, war is, under sumc (although I agree not under many) circumstances, nut only justifiable, but an indis- pensable part of public duty ; and if the reasoning which you have adopted be sound, it extends far beyond the limits to wdiicli you have now con- fined it. It is not, however, my intention to dis- cuss the matter at all with you. I am too old to desire or even indulge in controversy. No one who knows you can doubt the entire sincerity with which you have spoken. All that I desire to claim is as sincere a conviction that, in the extent to which you seem to press your doctrines, they are not, in my judgment, defensible. In many parts of your discourse, I have been struck with HON. CHAELES SUMNER. .35 the strong resemblances which it bears to tlie manly enthusiasm of Sir James Mackintosh ; but I think that he M'oiild have differed from yuii in respect to war, and would have maintained a mod- eration of view^^, belonging at once to his philoso- phy and his life." One of the most elaborate and beautiful passages in this oration, is that depicting the glories of the universal reign of peace, which we hope is speed- ily to shower its blessings upon the world, and which at least is to prevail in the day of millen- nial ghjiy, when human and divine knowledge shall extend over the whole earth, and when nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither learn war any more. We delight to lay before our readers a passage so happy in its construction, and at the same time so just and pleasing in its senti- ments : " That Future, which filled the lofty visions of the sages and bards of Greece and Rome, which was foretold by the prophets and heralded by the evange- lists, when man, in Happy Isles, or in a new Para- dise, shall confess the loveliness of Peace, may be secured by your care, if not for yourselves, at least for your children. Believe that you can do it, and you can do it. The true golden age is before yuu, not behind you. If man has been driven once from Paradise, while an angel, with a flam- 36. MEMOIROF ing sword, forbade his return, there is another Paradise, even on earth, which lie may form for himself, by the cultivation of knowledge, religion, and the kindly virtues of life ; where the confu- sion of tongues shall be dissolved in the -anion of hearts; and joyous Nature, borrowing prolific charms from the prevailing Harmony, shall spread her lap with unimagined bounty, and there shall be a perpetual jocund spring, and sweet strains borne on ' the odoriferous wing of gentle gales,' through valleys of delight, more pleasant than the Yale of Tempe, richer than the garden of the Hesperides, wdth no dragon to guard its golden fruit. " Let it not be said that the age does not demand this work. The robber conquerors of the Past, from their fiery sepulchres demand it; the pre- cious blood of millions unjustly shed in War, cry- ing from the ground, demands it ; the voices of all good men demand it ; the conscience, even of the soldier, whispers ' Peace.' There are consid- erations, springing from our situation and condi- tion, which fei'vently invite us to take the lead in this work. Here should bend the patriotic ardor of the land ; the ambition of the statesman ; the efforts of the scholar ; the persuasive influence of the press; the mild persuasion of the sanctuary; the early teachings of the school. Here, in ampler HOX. CHARLES SUMNER. 37 ether and diviner air, are untried fields fur ex- alted triumphs, more truly worthy the American name, than any snatched from rivers of blood. War is known as the Last Reason of Kings. Let it be no reason of our Republic. Let us renounce, and throw off forever, the yoke of a tyranny more oppressive than any in the annals of the world. As those standing on the mountain-tops first dis- cern the coming beams of morning, let us, from the vantage-ground of liberal institutions, first recognize the aecending sun of a new era ! Lift high the gates, and let the King of Glory in, — the King of True Glory, — of Peace. I catch the last words of music from the lips of innocence and beauty : * 'And let the whole earth be tilled with His Glory 1' " It is a beautiful picture in Grecian story, that there was- at least one spot, the small Island of Delos, dedicated to the gods, and kept at all times sacred from War. No hostile foot ever soiiffht to press this kindly soil ; and the citizens of all coun- tries here met, in common worship, beneath the segis of inviolable Peace. So let us dedicate our beloved country; and may the blessed consecra- * The services of the choir at the church, where the Oration was delivered, were performed by the youthful daughters of the public schools of Boston. 38 MEMOIR OF tion be felt, in all its parts, everywhere through- out its ample domain ! The Temple of Honor shall be snrroundecl, here at last, bj the Temple of Concord, that it may never more be entered thrungh any pijrtal of War ; the horn of Abun- dance shall overflow at its gates ; the angel of Religion shall be the guide over its steps of flash- ing adamant ; while within its enraptured courts, purged of Violence and Wrong, Justice, returned to the earth from her long exile in the skies, with mighty scales for IS^ations as for men, shall rear her serene and majestic front ; and by her side, greatest of all, Charity, sublime in meekness, hoping all and enduring all, shall divinely temper every righteous decree, and, with words of infinite cheer, shall inspire those Good Works that cannot vanish away. And the future chiefs of the Re- public, destined to ujjliold the Glories of a new era, unspotted by human blood, shall be ' the first in Peace, and the first in the hearts of their coun- trymen.' " But while seeking these blissful glories for ourselves, let us strive to extend them to other lands. Let the bugles sound the Truce of God to the whole world forever. Let the selfish boast of the Spartan women become the grand chorus of mankind, that they ha\'e never seen the smoke of an enemy's camp. Let the iron belt of martial HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 39 music, which now encompasses the earth, be ex- changed for the golden cestns of Peace, clothing all with celestial beauty. History dwells with fondness on the reverent homage that was be- stowed, by massacring soldiers, upon the spot oc- cupied by the sepulchre of the Lord. Yain man ! to restrain his regard to a few feet of sacred mould ! The whole earth is the Sepulchre of the Lord ; nor can any righteous man profane any part thereof. Let us recognize this truth, and now, on this Sabbath of our country, lay a new stone in the grand Temple of Universal Peace, whose dome shall be as lofty as the firmament of heaven, as broad and comprehensive as the earth itself" This is certainly a finished passage, highly char- acteristic of Mr. Smnner, and one of the finest examples which his Peace orations afford for the study and admiration of ingenuous minds. May it inspire the young men of our land with a deep and abiding love of Peace, and lead them to cul- tivate the noble aflection of benevolence. 40 M E M O I R F CHAPTER III. Spoken of as the successor of Jinlge Story in the Law School — Ee- marks of Story and Kent — Espouses the cause of freedom — Com- pared to Charles James Fox — Delivers a speech against the ad- mission of Texas as a slave State — Extracts from the speech. After the death of Judge Story, in 1845, Mr. Sumner was universally pointed out as his suc- cessor in the vacant professorship of the Law School, but he expressed a disinclination to accept the office, and consequently was not appointed. Such an appointment, if made, would have been in accordance with the Mash of Story, who had. frequently remarked, " I shall die content, so far as my professorship is concerned, if Charles Sum- ner is to succeed me." And here, on this point, we would add the opinion of another eminent ju- rist, Chancellor Kent, who declared that Mr. Sum- ner was " the onlj^ person in the country compe- tent to succeed Story." Mr. Sumner early espoused the cause of freedom — a cause which he has never ceased to vindicate, and which, to his noble, generous soul is dearer than life itself. Since 1845, when his political HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 41 career may be said to have fairly comitienced, he has been the worthy chain pion fur oppressed hn- maiiity — the uncompromising ojipDnent of the in- stitution of slavery. The one grand end of his political life has been the same which actuated that noble British states- man, Charles James Fox, who expressly asserted that his great object was " to widen the basis of freedom — to infuse and circulate the spirit of lib- erty." From the pure fountain of liberty em- anated the political principles of Fox, and it has been said, that he drew from this source the most inspiring strains of his eloquence. No English speaker, not even Lord Chatham himself, dwelt so often on this theme ; no one had his generous sen- sibilities more completely roused; no one felt more strongly the need of a growing infusion of this spirit into the English government, as the great means of its strength and renovation. The same glorious principle, we repeat, has stirred the spirit of Charles Sumner, and been the occasion of some of his grandest efforts, and the most " in- spiring strains of his eloquence." We shall presently have occasion to lay before our readers some of his most forcible and eloquent appeals on the unspeakable evils of slavery, which, we fear, is destined to shake the fabric of our gov- ernment to its centre, and which is at present the 4* 4:2 MEMOIROF foulest blut in our national chai'acter. On the -itli of November, 1845, during the agitation which prevailed through the north, in consequence of the proposed annexation of Texas as a slave State, Mr. Sumner delivered a thrilling speech at a pub- lic meeting in Faneuil Hall, Boston, against such an admission by which the slave power would be so widely extended. It was a speech worthy of its author, and of the great principles of liberty. In tones of glowing eloquence the speaker ex- claimed : " I cannot banish from my view the great shame and wi'ong of slavery. The Judges of our courts have declared it to be contrary to the law of na- ture, finding its support only in the positive enact- ments ot men. Its horrors wdio can tell ? Lan- guage fails in the vain effort to depict them. " By the proposed measure, we not only become parties to the acquisition of a large population of slaves, with all the crime of slavery ; but we open a new market for the slaves of Virginia and the Carolinas, and legalize a new slave-trade. A new slave-trade ! Consider this well. You cannot forget the horrors of what is called 'the middle passage,' wdien the crowds of unfortunate human beings, stolen, and borne by sea far from their warm African homes, are pressed on shipboard into spaces of smaller dimensions for each than a HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 43 coffin. And jet the cleadlj- consequences of this middle jmssage have been supposed to fall short of those which are sometimes undergone by the wretched caravans, driven from the exhausted lands of the JSTorthern slave States to the sugar j^lanta- tions nearer to the sun of the South. It is sup- posed that one-quarter part often perish in these removals. I see them, in imagination, on this pain- ful passage, chained in bauds or troops, and driven like cattle, leaving lichind "what has become to them a home and a country (alas ! what a home, and what a countiy !) — husband torn from wife, and parent from child, and sold anew into a more direful captivity. Can this take ])lace with our consent, nay, without our most determined opposi- tion? If the slave-trade is to receive a new adop- tion from our country', let us have no part or lot in it. Let us wash our hands of this great guilt. As we read its hori'ors, may each of us be able to ex- claim, WMth a conscience void of offence, 'Thou canst not say I did it.' Godforhid., that the votes and voices of the freemen of the North should help to hind aneio the fetter of the slave/ — God forbid, that the lash of the slave-dealer should he nerved hij any sanction from New England! Godforhid, that the hlood which spirts from the lacerated, quivering flesh of the slave, should soil the hem of the white garments of Massachusetts /" 44 MEMOIROF The stirring a])peal to Massachusetts which oc- curs in this address, we trust, will never be forgot- ten by her patriotic sons — descendants of the Pil- grim Fathers, and of those whose blood moistened the sod of Bunker Hill, of Lexington, of Concord, and of many a well-fought battle-field. " Let Massachusetts, then, be aroused. Let all her children be summoned to join in this holy cause. There are questions of ordinary politics in which men may remain neutral ; but neutrality now is* treason to liberty, to humanity, and to the fundamental principles of our free institutions. Let her united voice, with the accumulated echoes of freedom that fill this ancient Hall, go forth with comfort and cheer to all who labor in the same cause everywhere throughout the land. Let it help to confirm the wavering, and to reclaim those who have erred from the right path. Especially may it exert a proper influence in Congress upon the representatives of the free States. May it serve to make them as firm in the defence of free- dom as their opponents are pertinacious in the cause of slavery. " Let Massachusetts continue to be known as foremost in the cause of freedom ; and let none of her children yield to the fatal dalliance with slave- ry. You will remember the Arabian story of the magnetic mountain, under whose irresistible attrac- H O X . CHARLES S U -M X E R . 45 tion the iron bolts which held together the strong timbere of a stately ship were drawn out, till the whole fell apart, and became a disjointed wreck. Do we not find in this storj an image of what happens to many Northern men, under the potent magnetism of Southern companionship or Southern influence? Those principles, which constitute the individuality of the Northern character, which render it staunch, strong, and seaworthj-, which bind it together, as with iron, are drawn out one by one, like the bolts from the ill-fated vessel, and out of the miserable loosened fragments is formed that human anomaly — a Northern nnan with Southern princij)les. Such a man is no true son of Massachusetts. '''' 46 MEMOIROF CHAPTER IV. Pronounces an oration before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Har- vard University — beautiful extracts — sentiment of John Qiiincy Adams — delivers a speech on the anti-slavery duties of the Whig party — glowing passages from this speech — delivers a brilliant lecture on white slavery in the Barbary States. On the 27tli of August, 1846, Mr. Sumner de- livered an oration before tlie Plii Beta Kappa So- ciety of Harvard University, entitled The Scholar, the Jurist, the Artist^ the Philanthropist, in which we have toncliing and eloqnent tributes to tlie memory of John Pickering, the scholar; Joseph Story, the jurist ; Washington Allston, the artist ; William Ellery Channing, the philanthroj)ist. This beautiful oration, which is well worthy the study of the student and admirer of eloquence, as well as the lover of law, art, and literature, con- cludes in the following lofty strains : " Thus have I attempted, hunib''' and affection- ately, to bring before you the images of our de- parted brothers, while I dwelt on the great causes in which their lives were made manifest. Ser- vants of Knowledge, of Justice, of Beauty, of Love, they have ascended to the great Source of Know- HON. CHAELES SUMNER. 47 lege, Justice, Beantj, Love. Each of our brothers is removed ; but though dead, yet speaketh, in- forming our understandings, strengtliening our sense of justice, refining our tastes, enhxrging our sympathies. The body dies; but the page of the scholar, the interpretation of the jurist, the crea- tion of the artist, the beneficence of the phihm- thropist, cannot die. " 1 have dwelt upon their lives and characters, less in grief for what we have lost, than in grati- tude for what we so long possessed, and still re- tain in their precious example. In proud recol- lection of her departed childi-eu, Alma Mater might well exclaim, in those touching woi'ds of parental grief, that she would not give her dead sons f(jr any living sons in Christendom. Picker- ing, Channing, Story, Allston ! A grand Quater- nion ! Each, in his peculiar sphere, was foremost in-his country. Each might have said, what the modesty of Demosthenes did not forbid him to boast, that, through him, his country had been crowned abroad. Their labors were wide as the Coinmonwealtli ioY Letters, Laws, Art, Humanit}^, and have found acceptance wherever these have dominion. " Their lives, which overflow with instruction, teach one persuasive lesson, which spea,ks alike to all of every calling and pursuit, — not to live for 48 MEMOIROF ourselves alone. They lived for knowledge, jus- tice, beauty, humanity. Withdrawing from the strifes of the world, from the allurements of office, and the rage for gain, they consecrated themselves to the pursuit of excellence, and each, in his own vocation, to beneficent labor. They were all philanthropists ; for the labors of all promoted the welfare and happiness of mankind. " In the contemplation of their generous, un- selfish lives, we feel the insignificance of office and wealth, which men so hotly pursue. What is office ? and what is wealth ? They are the ex- pressions and representatives of what is present and fleeting only, investing their possessor, per- haps, with a brief and local regard. But let this not be exaggerated ; let it not be confounded with the serene fame which is the reflection of impor- tant labors in great causes. The street lights, within the circle of their nightly scintillation, Beem to outshine the distant stars, observed of men in all lands and times ; but gas-lamps are not to be mistaken for the celestial luminaries. They who live only for wealth, and the things of this world, follow shadows, neglecting the great reali- ties which are eternal on earth and in heaven. After the perturbations of life, all its accumulated possessions must be resigned, except those alone which have been devoted to God and mankind. HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 49 "What we do for ourselves, perishes with this mortal dust ; what we do for others, lives in the grateful hearts of all who know or feel the bene- faction. Worms may destroy the body ; but they cannot consume such a fame. It is fondly cher- ished on earth, and never forgotten in heaven. " The selfish struggles of the crowd, the clamors of a false patriotism, the suggestions of a sordid ambition, cannot obscure that great commanding duty, which enjoins perpetual labor^ without dis- tinction of country, of color, or of race, for. the welfare of the whole human family. In this mighty Christian cause,' knowledge, jurispru- dence, art, philanthropy, all are blessed minis- ters. More puissant than the sword, they shall lead mankind from the bondage of error into that service which is perfect freedom : ' Ha3, tibi erunt artes, poQisque einponere morem.''* " Our departed brothers join in summoning you to this gladsome obedience. Their examples speak far them. Go forth into the many mansions of the house of life ; scholars ! store them with learning; — ^jurists ! build them with justice — artists ! adorn them with beauty — philanthropists ! let them re- * Jineid, VI., 852.— Dryden, translating this passage, introduces a duty whioh Virgil omits : "The fettered slave set free, These are imperial arts, and worthy thee !" 5 50 MEMOIROF sound with love. Be servants of truth, each in his vocation ; doers of the word and not hearers only. Be sincere, pure in heart, earnest, enthusiastic. A virtuous enthusiasm is always self-forgetful and noble. It is the only inspiration now vouchsafed to man. Like Pickering, blend humility with learning. Like Story, ascend above the present, in place and time. Like Allston, regard fame only as the eternal shadow of excellence. Like Channing, bend in adoration before the right. Cultivate alike the wisdom of experience and the wisdom of hope. Mindful of the future, do not neglect the past ; awed by the majesty of antiqui- ty, turn not with indiiference from the future. True wisdom looks to the ages before us, as well as behind us. Like the Janus of the Capitol, one front thoughtfully regards the past, rich with ex- perience, with memories, with the priceless tradi- tions of virtue ; the other is earnestly directed to the All Hail Hereafter, richer still with its tran- scendent hopes and unfulfilled prophecies. " We stand on the threshold of a new age, which is preparing to recognize new influences. The ancient divinities of violence and wrong are retreating to their kindred darkness. The sun of our moral universe is entering a new eclij)tic, no longer deformed by those images of animal rage. Cancer, Taurus, Leo, Sagittarius, but beaming HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 51 with mild radiance of those heavenly signs, Faith, Hope, and Charity : ' There's a fount about to stream, There's a light about to beam, There's a warmth about to glow, There's a flower about to blow ; There's a midnight blackness changing Into gray ; Men of thought, and men of action, Clear the way. * Aid the dawning, tongue aud pen ; Aid it, hopes of honest men ; Aid it, paper ; aid it, type ; Aid it, for the hour is ripe, And our earnest must not slacken Into play ; Men of thought, and men of aoti jn, Clear the way? " The age of chivalry has gone. An age of hu- manity has come. The horse, whose importance, more than human, gave the name to that early period of gallantry and war, now yields his fore- most place to man. In serving bim, in promoting his elevation, in contributing to his welfare, in do- ing him good, there are fields of bloodless triuin])]i, nobler far than any in which Bayard or Du Gues- clin ever conquered. Here are spaces of labor, wide as the world, lofty as heaven. Let me say, then, in the benison once bestowed upon the youthful knight, — Scholars ! jurists ! artists ! phi- lanthropists ! heroes of a Christian age, compan- ions of a celestial knighthood, ' Go forth, be bravo, loyal, and successful !' 52 MEMOIROF "And may it be our office to-day to light a fresh beacon-fii-e on the venerable walls of Har- vard, sacred to Truth, to Christ, and the Church,* ■ — to Truth Immortal, to Christ, the Comforter, to the Holy Church Universal. Let the flame spread from steeple to steeple, from hill to hill, from island to island, from continent to continent, till the long lineage of fires shall illumine all the nations of the earth ; animating them to the holy contests of knowledge, justice, beauty, love." The beautiful sentiment of John Quincy Adams, proposed at a festival after the delivery of this oration, will, perhaps, occur to the mind of the reader : — " Tlie memory of the scholar, the jurist, the artist, and the philanthropist ; and not the memory, but the long life of the kindred spirit who has this day embalmed them all." A very appropriate sentiment for so splendid an effort. On the 23d of September, 1846, Mr. Sumner delivered a speech of thrilling power and elo- quence, before the Whig State Convention, at Fa- neuil Hall, in Boston, on the Anti-Slavery duties of the Whig Party. In this speech he boldly says : " The time, I believe, has gone by, when the question is asked. What has the North to do with * The legend on tlie early seal of Harvard University was Veritas. Tlio present legend is Ck)-lsto et EccUsim. HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 53 Slavery ? It might almost be answered, that, po- litically, it had little to do with any thing else, so are all the acts of onr government connected, di- rectly or indirectly, "^dth this institution. Slavery is everywhere. It constitutionally enters the halls of Congress, in the disproportionate representation of the slave States. It shows its disgusting front in the District of Columbia, in the shadow of the capitol, under the legislative jurisdiction of the nation ; of the north as well as the south. It sends its miserable victims on the high seas, from the ports of Virginia to the ports of Louisiana, beneath the protecting flag of the Eepublic. It follows into the free States, in pursuance of a provision of the Constitution, those fugitives, who, under the inspiration of freedom, seek our altars for safety ; nay, more, with profane hands it seizes those who have never known the name of slave, colored free- men of the north, and dooms them to irremediable bondage. It insults and exiles from its jurisdiction the honored representatives of Massachusetts, who seek, as messengers of the Commonwealth, to se- cure for her colored citizens the peaceful safeguard of the laws of the Union. It not only uses tlie Constitution for its purposes, but abuses it also. It violates the Constitution at pleasure, to build up new slaveholding States. It seeks perpetually to widen its arena, while professing to extend the 5» 54 M E M O I R O f ■ arena of freedom. By tlie spirit of union among its supporters, it controls the afFaii's of government ; interferes with the cherished interests of the north, enforcing and then refusing protection to her manu- factures ; makes and unmakes presidents ; usurps to itself the larger portion of all offices of honor and profit, both in the army and navy, and also in the civil department ; and stamps upon our whole country, the character, before the world, of that monstrous anomaly and mockery, a slameliolding rejniblic^ with the living truths of freedom on its lips, and the dark mark of slavery printed on its brow." * * * " It will not be questioned by any competent authority, that Congress may, by express legislation, abolish slavery, 1st, in the Dis- trict of Columbia ; 2d, in the territories, if there should be any ; 3d, that it may abolish the slave- trade on the high seas between the States ; 4th, that it may refuse to admit any new State, with a constitution sanctioning slavery. ISTor can it be questioned that the people of the United States may, in the manner pointed out by the Constitu- tion, proceed to its amendment. It is, then, by constitutional legislation, and even by an amend- ment of the Constitution, that slavery may be reached. '* And here the question arises, are there any compromises in the Constitution of such a charac- HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 55 ter as to prevent action on this subject ? The word covvprmnises is invoked by many honest minds as the excuse for not joining in this cause. Let me meet this question frankly and fairly. It is said that the Constitution of the United States was the result of a compromise between the free and the slave States, which it would be contrary to good faith to break. To this it might be replied, that the slave States, by their many violations of the Constitution, have already overturned all the ori- ginal compromises, if there were any of a per- petual character. But I do not content myself with this answer. I wish to say, distinctly, that there is no compromise on the subject of slavery, of a character not to be reached legally cmd con- siitutionally^ which is the only way in which I propose to reach it. Wherever power and jm'is- diction are secured to Congress, they may unques- tionably be exercised in conformity with the Con- stitution. And even in matters beyond existing powers and jurisdiction, there is a constitutional method of action. The Constitution contains an article pointing out how, at any time, amendments may be made thereto. This is an important ele- ment, giving to the Constitution a progressiA)e char- acter ; and allowing it to be moulded to suit new exigencies and new conditions of feeling. The wise framers of this instrument did not treat the 56 MEMOIROF coimtrj as a Chinese foot — never to grow after its infancy — but anticipated the changes incident to its growth. ' Provided^ that no amendment which may be made prior to the year 1808 shall in any man- ner afiect tlie 1st and ttth clauses, in the 9th section of the 1st ai'ticlc, and that no State, without its con- sent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.' These are the words of the Constitution. They expressly designate what shall be sacred from amendment, what compromises shall be perpetual ; and in doing so, according to a familial* rule of law and of natural logic, virtually declare that the remainder of tlie Constitution may be amended. Already, since its adoption, twelve amendments have been made, and every year produces new projects. It has been pressed on the floor of Con- gress to abrogate the power of the veto, and also to limit the tenure of office of the President. Let it be distinctly understood, then, and this is my an- swer to the suggestion of binding compromises, that, in conferring upon Congress certain s}>ecified powers and jurisdiction, and also in providing for the amendment of the Constitution, its framei-s ex- pressly established the means for setting aside what are vaguely called the compromises of the Consti- tution. They openly declare, ' Legislate, as you please, in conformity with the Constitution ; and even make amendments in this instrmnent, ren- HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 57 dered proper by change of opinion or character following always the manner therein prescribed.' " Nor can we dishonor the memories of the revered authors of the Constitution, by supposing that they set their hands to it, believing that slavery was to be jperpetual — that the republic, which, reared by them to its giant stature, had snatched from heaven the sacred fire of freedom, was to be bound, like another Prometheus, in the adamantine chains of fate, while slavery, like another vulture, preyed upon its vitals. Let Franklin speak for them. He was President of the earliest 'Abolition Society' in the United States, and in 1790, only two years after the adoption of the Constitution, addressed a petition to Congress, calling upon them ' to step to the . very verge of the power vested in them for dis- couraging eveiy species of traffic in our fellow- men.' Let Jefferson speak for them. His desire for the abolition of slavery was often expressed with philanthropic warmth and emphasis. Let "Washington speak for them. 'It is among my first wishes,' he said, in a letter to John Fenton Mercer, 'to see some plan adopted by which slavery in this country may he abolished hy law? And in his will, penned with his o\vn hand, in the last year of his life, he bore his testimony again, by providing for the emancipation of al^ ^^7 58 MEMOIROF his slaves. It is thus that Washington speaks, not only by words, but by actions louder than words, ' Give freedom to your slaves.' The father of his country requires, as a token of the filial piety which all profess, that his example should be followed. I am not insensible to the many glories of his character ; but I cannot contemplate this act, without a fresh gush of admiration and gratitude. The martial scene depicted on that votive canvas may fade from the memories of men ; but this act of justice and benevolence shall never jDerish : ' Et inagis, magisque viri nunc gloria claret.' " On the 17th of February, 1847, Mr. Sumner delivered a brilliant lecture before the Boston Mercantile Library Association, entitled White Slavery in tlie Barhar^y States^ in which he de- picts, in glowing colors, the horrors of that revolt- ing custom of stealing and reducing white men to wretched and hopeless bondage, which so long prevailed in that unhappy country. This lecture is an extremely interesting one, and is full of startling facts and shocking details of cruelty. It is the production of a rijje scholar and a noble philanthrojjist, and should be studied by every free citizen who values the blessings of liberty. HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 59 CHAPTER V. Pronounces an Oration before the Literary Societies of Amherst College — extracts — delivers an oration before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Union College— splendid passages from this address — makes a speech before the Whig State Convention of Massachu- setts, at Springfield — forcible passages quoted from this address — remarks. On the 11th of August, 1847, Mr. Sumner pro- nounced a beautiful oration before the Literary Societies of Amherst College, on Fame and Glory ^ in which we have unanswerable arguments on the superior honors of peace. This subject was con- genial to Mr. Sumner, and was ably and elo- quently handled by him. In setting forth the common ideas of fame and glory, which have long prevailed among several nations, he says : " It appears from the early literature of Sj^ain, where chivalry found a favorite haunt, that bru- tality, assassination, and murder were often ac- counted glorious, and that adventure in robbery and promptitude in vengeance were favorite feats of heroism. The Life of the Yaliaut Cespedez, a Spanish knight of high renown, by Lope de Vega, reveals a succession of exploits, wliich were the 60 MEMOIROF performances of a brawny jwrter and a bully. All the jiassious of a rude nature were gratified at will. Sanguinary revenge and inhuman harsh- ness were his honorable piu-suit. With a furious blow of his clenched fist, in the very palace of the Emperor at Augsburg, he knocked out the teeth of a heretic, — an achievement which was hailed with honor and congratulation by the Duke of Alva, and by his master, Charles the Fifth. Thus did a Spanish gentleman acquire Fame in the sixteenth centurj^ !* " Such have been some of the objects of praise in other places and times. Such has been the glory achieved. Men have always extolled those characters and acts, which, according to their knowledge or ignorance, they were best able to ai^preciate. jN"or does this rule fail in its applica- tion to our day. The ends of pursuit vary still, in dififerent parts of the globe and among dififerent persons ; and Fame is awarded, in some places or by some persons, to conduct which elsewhere or by others is regarded as barbarous. The Korth American savage commemorates the chief who is able to hang at the door of his wigwam a heavy string of scalps, the spoils of war. The New Zealander honors the sturdy champion who slays and then eats his enemies. The cannibal of the * Sismondi's Literature of the South of Europe, vol. iv. pp. 5-19. HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 61 Feejee Islands— only recently explored by an ex- pedition from oiu- shores — is praised for his adroit- ness in lying; for the dozen men he has killed with his own hand; for his triumphant capture, in battle, of a piece of tapa-cloth attached to a staff, not unlike one of our flags ; and when he is dead, his club is placed in his hand, and extended across the breast, to indicate in the next world that the deceased was a chief and a warrior * This is barbarous glory ! But among the nations professing Christianity, in our day, there is a powerful public opinion which yields honor to conduct from which we turn with disgust, as we discern it among the savages of our forest, or the eannibals of the Pacific. Tlie triumphs of animal strength and of brutish violence are hailed as worthy sources of renown. With a perverse in- sensibility to the relative value of different ser- vices, the chances and incidents of war are ex- alted above all the pui-suits of peace. Victors, from a field moistened with a murdered brother's blood, are greeted with the grateful salutations that are justly due to those only who have tri- umphantly fulfilled the commandments on which hang all the law and the j^rophets. * ^ * " The same mortification and regret with which * Narrative of the United States Exploring Kxpedition, vol. iii. pp. 76, 80, 08. 6 62 MEMOIROF we regard the dismal contest between the brothers of one household, the kinsmen of one ancestry, the citizens of one country, must attend the contem- plation of every scene of strife ; for are we not all^ in a just and Christian sense, brethren of one household, kinsmen of one ancestry, citizens of one coimtry — the world? It is clear, then, that no success in arms against our fellow-men — no triumph over brothers, who are flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone — no destruction of the life which God has given to his children — no assault upon his sacred image in the upright form and countenance of man — no effiision of the blood of any human being, under whatever apology of necessity it may he vindicated, can be the foundation of Christian Fame."* On the 25th of July, 1848, Mr. Sumner delivered another glowing oration before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Union College, Schenectady, entitled The Law of Human Progress. Presenting a his- tory, recognition, and vindication of the great doc- trine of the progress of the human race, this dis- course displays in an admirable manner the exten- * Ah ! little did Mr. Sumner imagine, while uttering these truth- ful words, that he himself was to be the subject of a personal assault, as violent, cowardly, and brutal as has ever been committed in a legislative body in ancient or modern times— an outrage so inhuman that it utterly shocks the sensibilities of our nature, and one per- petrated, too, in the middle of the nineteenth century, in the Ameri- can capital, and in the land of boasted freedom ! HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 63 sive learning of its author, and the skill with which he employs his intellectual ti-easui-es to the attain- ment of the grand object in view. In speaking of the ancient and modern standards of civilization, he says, with much beauty and force : " Without here undertaking to decide the ques- tion of the supremacy of Greek or Roman genius, as displayed in indi\-idnal minds, it would be easy to show, that the ancient standard of ci\dlization never reached the heights of many modern States. The people were ignorant, vicious, and poor, or de- graded to abject slavery — slavery itself the sum of all injustice and all vice. And even the most illustrious characters, whose names still shine from that distant night with stellar brightness, were little more than splendid barbarians. Architectm-e, sculpture, painting, and vases of exquisite perfec- tion, attested their appreciation of the beauty of form ; but they were strangers to the useful arts, as well as to the comforts and virtues of home. Abounding in what to us are luxuries of life, they had not what to us are its necessaries. " Without knowledge there can be no sure Pro- gress. Yice and barbarism are the inseparable companions of ignorance. Nor is it too much to say, that, except in rare instances, the highest vir- tue is attained only through intelligence. And this is natm-al ; for in order to do right, we must 64 MEMOIROF first understand what is right. But the people of Greece and Rome, even in the brilliant days of Pericles and Augustus, were unable to arrive at this knowledge. The sublime teachings of Plato and Socrates — calculated in many respects to pro- mote the best interests of the race — were restrained in their influence to the small company of listeners, or to the few who could obtain a copy of the costly manuscript in which they were preserved. Thus the knowledge and virtue, acquired by individuals, failed to be diffused in their own age or secured to posterity. " But now at last, through an agency all unknown to antiquity, knowledge of every kind has become general and permanent. It can no longer be con- fined to a select circle. It cannot be crushed by tyranny or lost by neglect. It is immortal, as the soul from w^hich it proceeds. This alone renders all relapse into barl^arism impossible, w^hile it af- fords an unquestionable distinction between An- cient and Modern Times. The Press, watchful with more than the hundred eyes of Argus — strong with more than the hundred arms of Briareus — not only guards all the conquests of civilization, but leads the way to future triumphs. Through its un- tiring energies, the meditations of the closet, or the utterances of the human voice, which else would die away within the precincts of a narrow HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 65 room, are prolonged to the most distant nations and times, with winged words circling the globe. "We admire the genius of Demosthenes, of Sopho- cles, of Plato, and of Phidias ; but the printing- press is a higher gift to man than the eloquence, the di'ama, the philosophy, and the art of Greece." Farther on in this address we have another pas- sage which happily illustrates the subject: " Look at the cradles of the nations and races which have risen to grandeur, and learn from the barbai'ous wretchedness by which they were origin- ally surrounded, that no lot can be removed from the influence of the Law of Progress. The Fee- jee Islander, the Bushman, the Hottentot, the Congo negro cannot be too low for its care. 'No term of imagined ' finality ' can arrest it. The polished Briton, whose civilization we now admire, is a descendant, perhaps, of one of those painted barbarians, whose degradation still lives in the pages of Julius Caesar. Slowly and by degrees, he has reached the position where he now stands ; but he cannot be stayed here. The improvement of the Past is the earnest of still further improve- ment in the long ages of the Future. And who can dou.bt, that, in the lapse of time, as the Christian Law is gradually fulfilled, the elevation which tlie Briton may attain will be shared by all his fellow-men? " The signs of improvement may appear at a 6* 66 MEMOIROF special period — in a limited circle onlj — among the people favored of God, who have enjoyed the peculiar benefits of commerce and of Christianity ; but the blessed influence cannot be restrained to any time, to any place, or to any people. Every victory over evil redounds to the benefit of all. Every discovery, ever humane thought, every truth, when declared, is a conquest of which the whole human family are partakers. It extends by so much their dominion, while it lessens by so much the sphere of their future struggles and trials. Thus it is, while nature is always the same, the power of Man is always increasing. Each day gives him some new advantage. The mountains have not grown in size ; but man has broken through their passes. The winds and waves are capricious ever, as when they first beat upon the ancient Silurian rocks ; but the steamboat, 'Against the wind, against the tide, Now steadies on with upright keel.' " Tlie distance between two places upon the sur- face of the globe is the same to-day, as when the continents were first heaved from their ocean bed ; but the inhabitants can now, by the art of man, commune together. Much still remains to be done ; but the Creator did not speak in vain, when he blessed his earliest children, and bade them to multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it." HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 67 The oration concludes witli the following words of consolation and advice, which individuals and- nations would do well to regard : " And, finally, let a confidence in the Progress of our race be, under God, our constant faith. Let the sentiments of loyalitj, earth-born, which once lavished itself on King or Emperor, give place to that other sentiment, heaven-born, of devotion to Humanity. Let Loyalty to one Man be exchanged for Love to Man. And be it our privilege to ex- tend these sacred infiuences throughout the land. So shall we open to our country new fields of peaceful victories, which shall not want the sym- pathies and gratulations of the good citizen, or the praises of the just historian. Go forth, then, my country, ' conquering and to conquer,' not by brutish violence ; not by force of arms ; not, oh ! not, on dishonest fields of blood ; but in the ma- jesty of Peace, of Justice, of Freedom, by the ir- resistible might of Christian Institutions." At Springfield, September 29, 1847, Mr. Sum- ner made a powerful speech at the Whig State Convention of Massachusetts, on Political Action against the Slave Power and the Extension of Slavery. In this address we find the following just and noble sentiments, which are well worthy of the serious consideration of all American citi- zens, north and south : 68 M E M O I R O F " And is not strange, Mr, President, that we, in tliis nineteenth century of the Christian era — in a country whose earliest charter declares that ' All men are born equal' — under a Constitution, one of whose express objects is, ' to secure the blessings of liberty' — is it not passing strange, that we should be now occupied in considering how best to pre- vent the ojjening of new markets in human flesh ? Slavery, which has been expelled from distant despotic States, seeks shelter here by the altars of freedom. Alone in the company of nations does our country assume the championship of this hate- ful institution. Far away in the East, at ' the gateways of the day,' by the sacred waters of the Ganges, in effeminate India, Slavery has been con- demned; in Constantinople, the queenly seat of the most powerful Mahomedan empire, where bar- barism still mingles with civilization, the Ottoman Sultan has fastened ujDon it the stigma of disappro- bation ; the Barbary States of Africa have been changed into Abolitionists ; from the imtutored ruler of Morocco comes the expression of his desire, stamped in the formal terms of a treaty, that the very name of Slavery may jDerish from the minds of men ; and only recently, from the Dey of Tunis has proceeded that noble act, by which, ' In honor of God, and to distinguish man from the brute creation' — I quote his own words— he decreed its HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 69 total abolition throughout his dominions. Let Christian America be willing to be taught by these despised Mahomedans. God forbid that our republic — ' heir of all the ages, foremost in the files of time, — should adopt anew the barbarism and cruelty which they have renounced or con- demned ! "The early conduct of our fathers, at the time of the formation of the Constitution, should be our guide now. On the original suggestion of Jef- ferson, subsequently sustained and modified by others, a clause was introduced into the funda- mental law of the Korthwest Territory, by virtue of which Slavery has been forever excluded from that extensive region. This act of wisdom and justice is a source of prosperity and pride to the millions who now live beneath its influence. And shall we be less true to the principles of free- dom than the authors of that instrument ? Their spirits encourage us to constant and uncompromis- ing devotion to its cause. With the promptings from their example may properly mingle the words of that evangelist of Liberty, Lafayette, who, though born on a foreign soil, by his earnest labors, by his blood shed in our cause, by the friendship of Washington, by the gratitude of every American heart, is enrolled among the pa- triots and fathers of tlie land. His opinions of 70 MEMOIROF Slavery have only recently been revealed to the world. From the pen of the philanthropist, Clark- son, we learn that his amiable nature was s}>ecially roused on this subject. ' He was a real gentle- man,' says Clarkson, ' and of soft and gentle man- ners. I have seen him put out of temper, but never at any time except when Slavery was the subject.' To Clarkson, Lafayette said expressly, ' I loould never have drawn my swm'd in the cause of America^ if I coidd have conceived that thereby I was founding a land of slavery? Shall we, whom his sword helped to make free, now found a new land of Slavery ? * * * " "With every new extension of Slavery, fresh strength is imparted to the political influence, monstrous offspring of Slavery, known as the Slave Power. This influence, beyond any other under our government, has deranged our institu- tions. To this the great evils which have afflicted the country — ^the diflerent perils to the Constitu- tion — may all be traced. The Missouri Compro- mise, the annexation of Texas, the war M'ith Mex- ico, are only a portion of the troubles caused by the Slave Power. It is an ancient ftible, that the eruptions of Etna were produced by the restless movements of the giant Enceladus, who was im- prisoned beneath. As he turned on his side, or stretched his limbs, or struggled, the conscious HON. CHARLES SUMNER, 71 mountain belched forth flames, fiery cinders, and red-hot lava, carrying destruction and dismay to all who dwelt upon its fertile slopes. The Slave Power is the imprisoned giant of our Constitution. It is there confined and bound to the earth. But its constant and strenuous struggles have caused, and ever will cause, eruptions of evil to our happy country, in comparison with which, the flames, the fiery cinders, and the red-hot lava of the volcano are trivial and transitory. Tlie face of nature may be blasted — the land may be struck with sterility — villages may be swept by floods of flame, and whole families entombed alive in its burning em- brace ; bvit all these evils shall be small by the side of the deep, abiding, unutterable curse of a'' act of national wrong. " Let us, then, pledge ourselves, in the most so\. emn form, by united exertions, at least to restrain this destructive influence within its original con- stitutional bounds. Let us, at all hazards, prevent A the extension of slavery, and the strengthoning of , the Slave Power. Our opposition must keep ; right on, and not look back : -' Like the Pontic sea, Whose icy current and compulsive course Ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on To the Propontic and the Hellespont.' In this contest, let us borrow from the example of the ancient Greek, who, when his hands were cut 72 MEMOIROF off, fought with his stumps, and even with his teeth. Let us borrow from the example of the slaveholders themselves, who are united and un- compromising in their unholy cause. Let us strug- gle for Freedom as earnestly as they struggle for Slavery. Let us rally under our white pavilion, resplendent with the troj)hies of Justice, Freedom, and Humanity, as enthusiastically as they troop together beneath their black flag, pictured over with whips, chains, and manacles." Should not such language stir up every freeman of the ISTorth to contend against an evil which has so long tarnished this Republic, and disgraced the name of Christian America ? Shall we of the IS^orth tamely suffer the slave power to encroach and trample upon us, or shall we arise, and with united voice declare of that dark ocean of evil whose flood tide has been impelled over free soil, Thus far shalt thou come, but no farther ; and here shall thy p-oud waves be stayed ? Freemen of the North, it is for you to answer this momen- tous question. Awake, then, and declare, in fear- less and determined tones, that the soil of that portion of our country which has not yet been sul- lied by slavery, shall be fkee forever. HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 73 CHAPTER VI. Delivers a Speech in a Mass Convention at Worcester, Massachu- setts — extracts — delivers an address before the American Peace Society in Boston — admiraljle passages quoted from this eifort — remarks, &c. In a Mass Convention at Worcester, Mass., June 28, 1848, Mr. Sumner made an able speech. For union among men of all parties against the Slave power and the extension of Slavery, in which he says : " As I reflect upon the transactions in which we are now engaged, I am reminded of an incident in French liistory. It was late in the night, at "Ver- sailles, that a courtier of Louis XVI., penetrating the bed-chamher of his master, and arousing him from his slumbers, communicated to him the in- telligence — big with gigantic destinies — that the people of Paris, smarting under wrong and false- hood, had risen in their might, and, after a severe contest with the hireling troops, destroyed the Bas- tile. The unhappy monarch, turning upon his couch, said, 'It is an insurrection.'* 'Wo, Sire,' was the reply of the honest courtier, 'it is a revo- 7 74 MEMOIR OF lution.^ And such is our movement to-day. It is a Revolution— not beginning with the destruc- tion of a Bastile, but destined to end only with the overthrow of a .tyranny, differing little in hardship and audacity from that which sustained the Bas- tile of France — I mean the Slave Power of the United States. Let not people start at this simili- tude. I intend no unkindness to individual slave- holders, many of whom are doubtless humane and honest. And such was Louis XYI. ; and yet he sustained the Bastile, with the untold horrors of its dmigeons, where human beings were thrust into companionship with toads and rats. " By the Slave Power, I understand that com- bination of j^ersons, or, perhaps, of politicians, whose animating principle is the perpetuation and extension of Slavery, and the advancement of slaveholders. That such combination exists, will be apparent from a review of our history. It shows itself, in the mildest and perhaps the least oflFensive form, in the undue proportion of offices under the Federal Constitution, which has been held by slaveholders. It is still worse apparent in the succession of acts by which the Federal Government has been prostituted to the cause of Slavery. Among the most important of these is the Missouri Compromise, the Annexation of Texas, and the "War with Mexico. Mindful of the HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 75 sanctions, -wliicli Slavery derived under the Con- stitution — from the Missonri Compromise — of tlie fraud and iniquity of the Annexation of Texas — and of the great crime of waging an unnecessary and unjust war with Mexico — of the mothers, wives, and sisters, compelled to mourn sons, hus- bands, and brothers, untimely slain, — as these things, dark, dismal, atrocious, rise to the mind, may we not brand their author, the Slave Power, as a tyranny hai-dly less hateful than that which sustained the Bastile ? "This combination is unknowm to the Constitu- tion ; nay, it exists in defiance of the spirit of that instrument, and of the recorded opinions of its founders. The Constitution was the crownino; la- bor of the authors of the Declaration of Independ- ence. It was established to perpetuate, in the form of an organic law, those rights which the Decla- ration had promulgated, and which the sword of Washington had secured — 'We hold these truths to be self-evident — that all men are created equal, that they are endowed with certain inalienable rights,' — that among these are life^ liberty^ and the jpursuit of haj)jpiness? Such are the emphatic words our country took upon its lips, when it first claimed its place among the nations of the earth. These were its baptismal vows. And the preamble of the Constitution renews them, when it declares 76 MEMOIROF its objects to be, among other things, ' to establish justice, to promote the general welfare, and secnre the hlessings of liberty to ourselves and our poster- ity.' Mark, it is not to establish injustice — not to promote the welfare of a class, or a few slave- holders, bnt the general welfare ; not to foster the cm-se of slavery, but to secure the blessings of lib- erty. And the declared opinions of the fathers were all in harmony with these instruments. ' I can only say,' said Washington, ' that there is not a man living, who wishes more sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of slavery ; but there is only one proper and effectual mode by which it can be accomplished, and that is by legis- lative authority ; and this, as far as my suffrage will go, shall not be wanting.' Patrick Henry, while confessing that he was a master of slaves, said, ' I will not, I cannot justify it. However culpable my conduct, I will so far pay my devoir to virtue, as to own the excellence and rectitude of her precepts, and lament my want of conformity to them. I believe a time will come, when an op- portunity will be offered to abolish this lamentable evil.' And Franklin, as President of the earliest Abolition Society of the country, signed a petition to the iirst Congress, in which he declared that he ' considered himself bound to use all justifiable endeavors to loosen the bands of slavery, and pro- HO]S'. CHARLES SUMNER. 77 mote a general enjoyment of tlie blessings of free- dom,' Thus the soldier, the orator, and the phi- losopher of the Eevohition, all unite in homage to Freedom. Washington, so wise in counsel and in battle ; Patrick Henrj, with his tongue of flame ; Franklin, with his heaven-descended sagacity and humanity, all bear testimony to the true spirit of the times in which they lived, and of the institu- tions which they helped to establish. " It is apparent that our Constitution was form- ed by the k)vers of Human freedom ; that it was animated by their divine spirit ; that the institu- tion of Domestic Slavery was regarded l)y them witli aversion, so that, though covertly, alluded to, it was not named in the instrument ; and that they all looked forward to the day when this evil and shame w^ould be obliterated from the land. Sure- ly, then, it is riglit to say that the combination, whose object is to perpetuate and extend Slavery, is unknown to the Constitution, and exists in defi- ance of the spirit of that instrument, and the re- corded opinions of its founders. "Time would fail me to dwell on the o-rowinff influence, which it has exerted from the foundation of the government. In the earlier periods of our history it was moderate and reserved. The spirit of the founders still j^revailed. But with the advance of time, and as these earlier champi- 7* 78 MEMOIR OF ons passed from the scene, it became more auda- cious, aggressive, and tyrannical, till at last it has obtained the control of the government, and caused it to be administered, not in the spirit of Freedom, but in the spirit of Slavery. Yes ! the govern- ment of the United States is now (let it be said with shame) not what it was at the beginning, a government merely permitting, while it regretted slavery, but a government openly favoring and vindicating it, visiting also with its displeasure all who oppose it. " It is during late years that the Slave Power has introduced a new test for office — a test which would have excluded Washington, Jefi'erson, and Franklin. It applies an arrogant and unrelenting ostracism to all who express themselves against Slavery. And now, in the madness of its tyran- ny, it proposes to extend this curse to new soils not darkened by its presence. It seeks to make the flag of our country the carrier of Slavery into distant lands ; to scale the mountain fastnesses of Oregon, and descend with its prey upon the shores of the Pacific ; to cross the Kio Grande, and there, in broad territories, recently obtained by robber bands from Mexico, to plant a shameful institution, which that republic has expressly abolislied." The next most important oratorical effort of Mr. Sumner, is an address delivered on the 28th of HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 79 May, 1849, before tlie American Peace Society at its anniversary in Boston, on The War System of the Commonwealth of Nations. In the opening of this discourse we have the blessings of peace admirably set forth in the following graceful pas- sage : "Peace is the grand Christian charity, the fountain and parent of all other charities. Let Peace be removed, and all other charities sicken and die. Let Peace exert her gladsome sway, and all other charities quicken into celestial life. Peace is a distinctive promise and possession of Christianity. So much is this the case, that, where Peace is not, Christianity cannot be. There is nothing elevated which is not exalted by Peace. There is nothing valuable which does not con- tribute to Peace. Of wisdom herself it has been said, that all her ways are pleasantness, and all her paths are Peace. Peace has ever been the lono-ing and aspiration of the noblest souls — whether for themselves or for their country. In the bitterness of exile, away from the Florence which he has immortalized by his Divine Poem, pacing the cloisters of a convent, in response to the inquiry of the monk,—' What do you seek ?' Dante said, in words distilled from his heart, Peace^ peace. In the memorable English strug- o-les, while king and parliament were rending the 80 MEMOIROF land, a gallant supj)orter of the monarchy, the chivalrous Falkland, tonched by the intolerable woes of war, cried in words which consecrate bis memory more than any feat of arms, Peace^peace^ peace. Not in asj^iration only, but in benediction is this word uttered. As the apostle went forth on his errand, as the son left his father's roof, the choicest blessing was. Peace he with you. As the Saviour was born, angels from Heaven, amidst quiring melodies, let foil that supreme benedic- tion, never before vouchsafed to the children of the Human Family, Peace on earthy and good will towards men.'''' With this passage let us contrast one in the same address, which exhibits the true character of the Institution of "War. The passage is a choice one ; indeed, we hardly know where to find its equal of a kindred nature, in ancient or modern literature. It~ excels in felicity of conception, and in beauty of construction, and presents one of the most graphic descriptions which the ]3encil of the orator or the man of letters has ever drawn. And it, moreover, aifords an admirable illustration of Mr. Sumner's vivid and lofty imagination, and his happy art in the disposal of his varied intel- lectual attainments. We may add that it will, perhaps, be admired as long as the English lan- guage is spoken, and the cruel system of war de- HON. CHARLES SUMXER, 81 tested by Christian nations. It presents an excel- lent specimen of Mr. Sumner's style of composi- tiou, and reflects mncli credit npon his literary genius. " I need not dwell on the waste and cruelty thns authorized. These stare us wildly in the face, wherever we tui-n, as we travel the page of history. We see the desolation and death that pursue War's demoniac footsteps. We look upon sacked towns, upon ravaged territories, upon vio- lated homes ; we behold all the sweet charities of life changed to wormwood and gall. Our soul is penetrated by the sharp moan of mothers, sisters, and daughters — of fathers, brotliers, and sons, who, in the bitterness of bereavement, refuse to be comforted. Our eyes rest at last on one of those fair fields, where nature, in her abundance, spreads her cloth of gold, spacious and apt for the entertainment of mighty multitudes — or, perhaps, from the curious subtlety of its position, like the carpet in the Arabian tale, seeming to contract so as to be covered by a few only, or to dilate so as to receive an innumerable host. Here, under a bright sun, such as shone at Austerlitz or Buena Vista — amidst the peaceful harmonies of nature — on the Sabbath of Peace — we behold bands of brotliers, children of a common Father, heirs to a common happiness, struggling together in the 82 M E M O I R O F deadly fight; with the madness of fallen spirits seeking with murderous weapons the lives of brothers who have never injured them or their kindred. The havoc still rages. The ground is soaked with their commingling blood. The air is rent by their commingling cries. Horse and rider .are stretched together on the earth. More revolt- ing than the mangled victims, than the gashed limbs, than the lifeless trunks, than the spattering brains, are the lawless jiassions which sweep, tempest-like, through the fiendish tumult. * Nearer comes the storm and nearer, Eolling fast and frightful on. Speak, Xiinena, speak and tell us, Who has lost and who has won ? " Alas ! alas ! I know not ; Friend and foe together fall, O'er the dying rush the living; Pray, my sister, for them all !" Horror-struck, we ask, wherefore this hateful con- test ? The melancholy, but truthful answer, comes, that it is the established method of determining justice between nations ! " The scene changes. Far away on the distant pathway of the ocean two ships approach each other, with white canvas broadly spread to receive the flying gales. They are proudly built. All of human art has been lavished in their graceful proportions, and in their well-compacted sides, while they look in dimensions like floating hajjpy HON. CHARLES SUMNER. '^H islands of tlie sea. A niimerons crew, with costly appliances of comfort, hives in their secure shel- ter. Surely those two travellers shall meet in joy and friendship ; the flag at the mast-head shall give the signal of fellowship ; the delighted sailors shall cluster in the rigging, and even on the yard- arms, to look each other in the face, while tlie exhilarating voices of both crews shall mingle in accents of gladness uncontrollable. It is not so. Not as brothers, not as friends, not as wayfarers of the common ocean, do they come together ; but as enemies. The gentle vessels now bristle fiercely with death-dealing instruments. On their spacious decks, aloft on all their masts, flashes the deadly musketry. From their sides spout cataracts of flame, amidst the pealing thunders of a fatal ar- tillery. They, who had escaped the dreadful touch of merchant-marring rocks ; who on their long and solitary way had sped unharmed by wind or wave ; whom the hurricane had spared ; in whose favor storms and seas had intermitted their unmitlgable war ; now at last fall by the hand of each other. The same spectacle of horror greets us from both ships. On their decks, reddened with blood, the murders of St. Bartholomew and the Sicilian Ves- pers, with the fires of Smithfield, seem to break forth anew^, and to concentrate their rage. Each has now become a swimming Golgotha. At length 84: MEMOIROF these vessels — such pageants of the sea — once so stately, so proudly built — but now rudely shattered by cannon-balls — with shivered masts and ragged sails — exist only as unmanageable wrecks, wel- tering on the uncertain waves, whose temporary lull of peace is their only safety. In amaze- ment at this strange, unnatural contest — away from country and home — where there is no coun- try or home to defend — we ask again, wherefore this dismal duel ? Again the melancholy, but truthful answer promptly comes, that this is the estaUislied method of determining justice between nations." In a literary point of view, the reader of taste will derive pleasure from the perusal of this highly finished description of war, and the student of oratory will often turn to it with renewed delight. It fiu'nishes young students in our schools and academies with an excellent piece for declamation, and conveys wholesome truths to all. HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 85 CHAPTER VII. Delivers a Speech at the Free Soil State Convention— remarks on this etibrt — forcible extracts— Mr. Sumner ever true to the cause of Freedom. On tlie 3d of October, 1850, Mr. Sumner deliv- ered a most eloquent and impassioned speech at the Free Soil State Convention in Boston, on Our present Anti-Slavery Duties. This speccli was delivered with overwhelming force, and was re- sponded to by a whirlwind of enthusiasm, which has rarely been exceeded in the history of oratory. One writer states that it was received with " thim- ders of applause ;" another adds, " It is the most graphic and eloquent address he has uttered." Those who were present on that occasion can never forget the music and melody of tone, the vehemence of manner, the gracefulness of action, and the majesty of countenance with which the speaker swayed and fascinated his audience. Never, perhaps, did Mr. Sumner rise to a higher pitch of eloquence than when he uttered some of the thrilling sentiments in which this speech abounds. He seemed to display all the grandeur 86 M E M O I R O F of oratory, while (to borrow tlie language of one, when describing a great oratorical eflbrt of Daniel Webster) " eye, brow, each feature, every line of the face seemed touched, as with celestial fire. All gazed as at something more than human." All, we may add, were enchained by the irresisti- ble might of his eloquence ; for all felt that the speaker was sincere in his remarks — that his words came from the heart. It was a noble triumph of genuine oratory, one of the grandest that has ever swayed the feelings of a popular au- dience. His indignant strictures on the Fugitive Slave Bill, which had but recently been passed, and his scathing remarks on Millard Fillmore who signed this iniquitous bill, possess a power which thrill the very soul. Let the following passage from this speech be carefully perused by every lover of freedom at the North. Candid reader, we ask you to consider these words : " The soul sickens in the contemplation of this outrage. In the dreary annals of the past, there are many acts of shame — there are ordinances of monarchs, and laws, which have become a by- word and a hissing to the nations. But, Avhen we consider the country and the age, I ask fearlessly. What act of shame, what ordinance of monarch, what law can compare in atrocity with this enact- HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 8( ment of an American Congress ? I do not forget Appins Claudius, the tyrant Decemvir of ancient Rome, condemning Virginia as a slave ; nor Louis XIV., of France, letting slip the dogs of reli- gious persecution by the revocation of the edict of Nantes ; nor Charles I., of England, arousing the patriot-rage of Hampden by the extortion of ship-money ; nor the British Parliament, provok- ing, in our country, spirits kindred to Hampden, by the tyranny of the Stamp Act and the Tea Tax. I would not exaggerate ; I wish to keep within bounds ; but I think no person can doubt that the condemnation now affixed to all these ti-ansactions, and to their authors, must be the lot hereafter of the Fugitive Slave Bill, and of every one, accord- ing to the measure of his influence, who gave it his support. Into the immortal catalogue of na- tional crimes this has now passed, drawing after it, by an inexorable necessity, its authors also, and. chiefly him, who, as President of the United. States, set his name to the Bill, and breathed into it that final breath without which it would have no life. Other Presidents may be forgotten ; but the name signed to the Fugitive Slave Bill can never be forgotten. There are depths of infamy, as there are height^ of fame. I regret to say what I must ; but truth compels me. Better for him had he never been born ! Better far for his mem- 88 MEMOIPwOF oiy, and for the good name of liis children, had he never been President ! " Surely the love of Freedom cannot have so far cooled among us, the descendants of those op- posing the Stamp Act, that we are insensible to the Fugitive Slave Bill. The unconquerable rage of the people in those other days, compelled the Stamp-distributors and inspectors to renounce their oflSces, and held up to detestation all who dared to speak in favor of the Stamps. And shall we be more tolerant of those who volunteer in favor of this Bill ? — more tolerant of the slave-hunter, who, under its safeguard, pursues his prey upon our soil? The Stamp Act could not be executed here ! Can the Fugitive Slave Bill ? " And here, sir, let me say, that it becomes me to speak with peculiar caution. It happens to me to sustain an important relation to this Bill. Ear- ly in professional life I was designated by the late Mr. Justice Story one of the Commissioners of the Courts of the United States, and though I have not very often exercised the functions of this post, yet my name is still upon the list. As such I am one of those before whom, under the recent Act of Congress, the panting fugitive may be brought for the decision of the question whether he is a free- man or slave. But while it becomes me to speak with caution, I shall not hesitate to speak with HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 89 plainness. I cannot forget that I am a man, al- thongli I am a Commissioner. " Did the same spirit which inspired onr fathers, inspire the community now, the marshals, and every magistrate who regarded this law as having any constitutional obligation, would resign rather than presume to execute it. This, however, is too much to expect from all at present. But I will not judge them. To their own consciences I leave them. Surely no person of humane feelings, and with any true sense of justice — living in a land ' where bells have tolled to church' — whatever may be the apology of public station, could fail to re- coil from such service. For myself, let me say that I can imagine no office, no salary, no consider- ation, which I would not gladly forego, rather than become in any way an agent in enslaving my brother man. "Where for me would be comfort and solace, after such a work ? In dreams and in waking hours, in solitude and in the street, in the meditations of the closet, and in the affairs of men, wherever I turned, there my victim would stare me in the face ; from the distant rice-fields and cotton-plantations of the South, his cries beneath the vindictive lash, his moans, at the thought of liberty once his, now, alas! ravished from him, would pursue me, telling the tale of his fearful doom, and sounding in my ears, ' Thou art the man !' 90 MEMOIROF " Sir, I will not dishonor this home of the Pil- grims, and of the Revolution, by admitting — nay, I cannot believe — that this Bill will be executed here. Individuals among us, as elsewhere, may forget humanity in a fancied loyalty to law ; but the public conscience will not allow a man, who has trodden our streets as a freeman, to be dragged away as a slave. By his escape from bondage, he has shown that true manhood, which must grapple to him every honest heart. He may be ignorant, and rude, as he is poor, but he is of true nobility. The Fugitive Slaves of the United States are among the heroes of our age. In sacrificing them to this foul enactment of Congress, we should violate every sentiment of hospitality, every whispering of the heart, every dictate of religion. " There are many who will never shrink at cost, and notwithstanding all the atrocious penalties of this Bill, from efforts to save a wandering fellow- man from bondage ; they will offer him the shelter of their houses, and if need be, will protect his liberty by force. But, let me be understood, I counsel no violence. There is another power — stronger than any individual arm — which I invoke ; I mean that invincible Public Opinion, inspired by love of God and man, which, without violence or noise, gently as the operations of nature, makes and unmakes laws. Let this opinion be felt in its HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 91 Christian might, and the Fugitive Slave Bill will become everywhere upon our soil, a dead letter. No lawyer will aid it by counsel ; no citizen will become its agent ; it will die of inanition — ^like a spider beneath an exhausted receiver. Oh! it were w^ell the tidings should spread throughout the land, that here, in Massachusetts, this accursed bill has found no servants. ' Sire, I have found in Bayonne honest citizens and brave soldiers only ; but not one executioner,' was the reply of the governor of that place to the royal mandate of Charles IX., of France, ordering the massacre of St. Bartholomew. " But it rests with you, my fellow-citizens, by your works and your words and your example, by your calm determinations and your devoted lives, to do this work. From a humane, just, and re- ligious people, shall spring up a public opinion, to keep perpetual guard over the liberties of all within our borders. 'Naj, more, like the flaming sw^ord of the cherubim at the gates of Paradise, turning on every side, it shall prevent any Slave-hunter from ever setting foot in this Commonwealth ! Elsewhere, he may pursue his human prey ; he may employ his congenial blood-hounds, and exult in his successful game. But into Massachusetts he must not come ! And yet again I say, I counsel no violence. I would not touch his person. Not 92 ]\t E M O I R O F with whips and thongs would I scourge him from the land. The contempt, the indignation, the ab- horrence of the community, shall be our weapons of oifence. Wherever he moves, he shall find no house to receire him — no table spread to nom-ish him — no welcome to cheer him. The dismal lot of the Koman exile shall be his. He shall be a wanderer, without roof, fire, or water. Men shall point at him in the streets, and on the highways : ' Sleep shall neither night nor day Hang on his pent-house lid ; He shall live a man forbid. Weary seven nights, nine times nine, Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine.' The villages, towns, and cities shall refuse to re- ceive the monster; they shall vomit him forth, never again to distm-b the repose of our com- munity." The grand aims of the Free Soil party are thus clearly stated in this address : " It is a mistake to say, as is often charged, that we seek to interfere, through Congress, with Slave- ry in the States, or in any way to direct the legis- lation of Congress upon subjects not within its jurisdiction. Our j^olitical aims, as well as om- political duties, are coextensive with ouv political responsibilities. And since we at the North are responsible for Slavery, wherever it exists under HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 03 the jurisdiction of Congress, it is unpardonable in us not to exert every power we possess to enlist Congress against it. " Looking at details : "We demand, first and foremost, the instant Kej^eal of the Fugitive Slave law. "We demand the abolition of Slaveiy in the District of Columbia. " We demand the exercise by Congress, in all Territories, of its time-honored power to prohibit Slavery. " We demand of Congress to refuse to receive into the Union, any new Slave State. " We' demand the abolition of the domestic slave-trade, so far as it can be constitutionally reached ; but particularly on the high seas imder the National Flag. " And, generally, we demand from the Federal Government the exercise of all its constitutional power to relieve itself from responsibility for Slavery. " And yet one thing further must be done. The Slave Power must be overturned ; so that the Fed- eral Government may be put openly, actively, and perpetually on the side of Freedom." In the conclusion of this speech Mr. Sumner points out, in language of surpassing beauty, the course of his own future political action, and states 94 MEMOIROF the great cause which he would ever strive to maintain — the principles of Freedom. " To vindicate Freedom, and to oppose Slavery, so far as I might constitutionally — with earnest- ness, and yet, I trust, without any personal unkind- ness, on my part — has been the object near my heart. Would that I could impress upon all who now hear me something of the strength of my own conviction of the importance of this work ! "Would that my voice, leaving this crowded hall to-night, could traverse the hills and valleys of New England, that it could run along the rivers and the lakes of my country, lighting in every hu- mane heart a beacon-flame to arouse the slumberers throughout the land. In this cause I care not for the name by which I may be called. Let it be democrat, or ' loco-foco,' if you please. No man who is in earnest will hesitate on account of a name. I shall rejoice in any associates from any quarter, and shall ever be found with that party which most truly represents the principles of Freedom. Others may become indifferent to these principles, bartering them for political suc- cess, vain and short-lived, or forgetting the visions of youth in the dreams of age. Whenever I shall forget them, whenever I shall become indifferent to them, whenever I shall cease to be constant in maintaining them, through good report and evil HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 95 report, in any future combinations of party, tlien may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, may my right hand forget its cunning !" "We all know with what ability and faithfulness Mr. Sumner has vindicated those principles which have just been stated, during his past senatorial career. Every one knows that he has never yet flinched from his duty in this respect. Up to the very time when his blood was spilled upon the Senate Chamber, by the hand of brutal violence, he was ever true to the great principles of Peace, Justice, and Freedom. 96 MEMOIROF CHAPTER Vin. Elected to the United States Senate— Letter of Acceptance— Speeches on the Iowa Kailroad Bill — An extract— delivers his celebrated Speech in the Senate, entitled Freedom National, Slavery Sec- tional—passage quoted on Freedom of Speech— the Peroration- remarks. On the 24th of April, 1851, Mr. Sumner was elected by the Massachusetts Legislature to the office of United States Senator, as the successor of Daniel Webster. In accepting this honorable post he addressed the following patriotic and eloquent letter to the Legislature, which was read in the Senate by Hon. Henry Wilson, President, and in the House of Eepresentatives by Hon. N. P. Banks, Speaker. " Fellow-citizens of the Senate and House of Kepkesentatives : " I have received by the hands of the Secretary of the Commonwealth a certificate, that, by con- current votes of the two branches of the Legisla- ture, namely, by the Senate, on the 22d day of January, and by the House of Eepresentatives, on the 24th day of April, I was duly elected, in con- H O X . CHARLES SUMNER. 97 f()rmity to the provisions of the Constitution and Laws of the United States, a Senator to represent the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in the Senate of tlie United States, for the term of six years, commencing on the 4th day of March, 1851. " If I were to follow the customary coui'se, I should receive this in silence. But the protracted and imprecedented contest which ended in my election, — the interest it awakened, — the impor- ' tance universally conceded to it, — the ardor of opposition and the constancy of support which it aroused, — also the principles, which more than ever among us, it brought into discussion, seem to justify, what my own feelings iri-esistibly prompt, a departure from this rule. If, beyond these con- siderations, any apology may be needed for thus direct!}^ addressing the Legislature, I may find it in the example of an illustrious predecessor, whose clear and venerable name will be a sufficient au- thority.* " The trust conferred on me is one of the most weighty which a citizen can receive. It concerns the grandest interests of our own Commonwealth, and also of the Union whereof we are an indisso- luble part. Like every post of eminent duty, rt is a post of eminent honor. A personal ambition, such as I cannot confess, might be satisfied to pos- * Jolin Quincy Adams. 98 M E M O I R O F sess it. But when I think what it requires, I am obliged to say, that its honors are all eclij^sed iu my sight by its duties. " Your appointment finds ine in a private sta- tion, with which I am entirely content: But this is not all. F(_)r the first time in my life, I am now called to political oflice. With none of the expe- rience so amply possessed by others, to smooth the way of labor, I might M-ell hesitate. But I am cheered by the generous confidence, which, throughout a lengthened contest, j)ersevered in sustaining me, and by the conviction that, amidst all seeming differences of party, the sentiments, of which I am the known advocate, and which led to my original selection as. a candidate, are dear to the hearts of a large majority of the j)eople of this Commonwealth. I derive, also, a most grate- ful consciousness of personal independence from the circumstance, which I deem it fiank and proper thus iDublicly to declare and place on record, that this office comes to ine, unsought and undesired. " Acknowledging the right of my country to the service of her sons, wherever she chooses to place them, and with a heart full of gratitude that a sacred cause has been permitted to triumph through me, I now accejjt the i)Ost of Senator. " I accept it as the servant of Massachusetts ; HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 09 mindful of the sentiments solemnly nttered by her successive Legislatures ; of the genius which in- spii'es her history ; and of the men, her perpetual pride and ornament, who breathed into her that breath of Liberty, which early made her an exam- ple to her sister States. In such a service, the Avay, though new to my footsteps, will be ilhyuined by lights which cannot be missed. " I accept it as the servant of the Union ; bound to study and maintain, with equal patriotic care, the interests of all parts of our countiy ; to dis- countenance every effort to loosen any of those ties by which our fellowship of States is held in fraternal company ; and to oppose all sectionalism^ whether it appear in unconstitutional efforts by the North to carry so great a boon as Freedom into the slave States, or in unconstitutional efforts by the South, aided by Northern allies, to carry the sectional evil of Slavery into the free States; or in whatsoever efforts it may make to extend the sectional domination of Slavery over the National Government. "With me the Union is twice-blessed ; first, as the powerful guardian of the repose and happiness of thirty-one sovereign States, clasped by the endearing name of coimtry ; and next, as the model and beginning of that all-embracing Federation of States, by which unity, peace, and concord will finally be organized among the na- 100 MEMOIR OF tions. Nor do I believe it possible, whatever may be tbe delusion of the hour, that any part thereof can be permanently lost from its well-compacted bulk. E Plurilus TJmim is stamped upon the national coin, the national territor}^, and the na- tional heart. Though composed of many parts imited into one, the Union is separable only by a crash which shall destroy the whole. " Entering now upon the public service, I ven- ture to bespeak for what I may do or say that candid judgment, which I trust always to extend to others, but which I am well aware the preju- dices of party too rarely concede. I may fail in ability ; but not in sincere efforts to promote the general weal. In the conflicts of opinion, natural to the atmosphere of liberal institutions, I may err ; but I trust never to forget the prudence which should temper firmness, or the modesty which becomes the consciousness of right. If I decline to recognize as my guides any of the men of to-day, I shall feel safe, while I follow the master piinciples which the Union was establishe'd to secin-e, and lean for support on the great trium- virate of American Freedom — Washington, Frank- lin, and Jefferson. And since true politics are simply morals applied to public affairs, I shall find constant assistance from those everlasting rules of right and wrong, which are a law alike HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 101 to individuals and communities; nay, wliich con- strain the omnipotent God in self-imposed bonds. " Let me borrow, in conclusion, the langnage of another: 'I see my duty; that of standing np f(»r the liberties of my country; and whatever diffi- culties and discouragements lie in my way, I dare not shrink from it ; and I rely on that Being, who has not left to ns the choice of duties, that whilst I shall conscientiously discharge mine, I shall not finally lose my reward.' These are tlie words of Washington, nttered in the early darkness of the American Kevolution. The rule of duty is the same for the lowly and the great ; and I hope it may not seem presumptuous in one so humble as myself to adopt his determination, and to avow his confidence. " I have the honor to be, fellow-citizens, " With sincere regard, " Tonr faithful friend and servant, "CHARLES SUMNER. " Boston, May 14, 1S51." Among his first important efforts in the Senate was his defence of the policy of Kailroads, in the new and enterprising States of the West. On the 27th of January, ITth of February, and ICth of March, 1852, he spoke ably and efficiently on the Iowa Kailroad Bill — a bill granting the right 9« 102 MEMOIR OF of way, and making a grant of land to the State of Iowa, in aid of the construction of certain Kail- roads, in said State. While showing the great ad- vantages which would be derived to the whole Union, from the construction of Railroads through- out the States and territories of the great West, he very beautifully and eloquently remarked : " Thus much for what I have to saj in favor of this bill, on the ground o^ justice to the States in which the lands lie. If this argument did not seem suffi- ciently conclusive to render any further discussion superfluous, at least from me, I might go forward, and show that the true interests of the whole coun- try — of every State in the Union, as of Iowa itself — are happily coincident with this claim of justice. "It will readily occur to all, that the whole country will gain by the increased value of the lands still retained and benefited by the proposed road. But this advantage, though not unimpor- tant, is trivial by the side of the grander gains — commercially, politically, socially, and morally — which will necessarily accrue from the opening of a new communication, by which the territoi-y be- yond the Mississippi will be brought into connec- ticm with the Atlantic seaboard, and by"^hich the distant post of Council Bluffs will become a suburb of Washington. It would be difficult to exagger- ate the influence of roads as means of civilization. HON. CHARLES SUMNER.' 103 This, at least, may be said : "Where roads are not, civilization cannot be; and civilization advances as roads are extended. By these, religion and knowledge are diffused ; intercourse of all kinds is promoted ; the producer, the manufacturer, and the consumer, are all brought nearer together; commerce is quickened ; markets are opened ; property, wherever touched by these lines, is changed, as by a magic rod, into new values ; and the great current of travel, like the stream of clas- sic fable, or one of the rivers of our own California, hurries in a channel of golden sand. The roads, together with the laws, of ancient Rome, are now better remembered than her victories. The Fla- minian and Appian "Ways — once trod by returning proconsuls and tributary kings — still remain as beneficent representatives of her departed gran- deur. Under God, the road and the schoolmaster are the two chief agents of human improvement. The education begun by the schoolmaster is ex- panded, liberalized, and completed, by intercourse witli the world ; and this intercourse finds new op- portunities and inducements in every road that is built. "Our countr}^ has already done much in this regard. Through a remarkable line of steam com- munications, chiefly by railroad, its whole popula- tion is now, or will be soon, brought close to the 104 M E M I K OF borders of Iowa. The cities of the Southern seaboard — Charleston, Savannah, and Mobile — are already stretching their lines in this direction, soon to be completed conductors; while the traveller from all the princi23al points of the Northern seaboard — from Portland, Boston, Providence, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington — now passes without impediment to this remote region, traversing a territory of unexampled resources — at once a magazine and a granary — the largest coal- field, and at the same time the largest corn-field, of the known globe — winding his way among churches and school-houses, among forests and gardens, by villages, towns, and cities, along the sea, along rivers and lakes, with a speed which may recall the gallop of the ghostly horseman in the ballad : 'Fled past on right and left how fast Each forest, grove, and bower ! On riglit and left fled past how fast Each city, town, and tower ! ' Tramp ! tramp ! along the land they speed, Splash ! splash ! across the sea.' " On the banks of the Mississippi he is now ar- rested. The proposed road in Iowa will bear the adventurer yet further, to the banks of the Mis- souri ; and this distant giant stream, mightiest of the earth, leaping from its sources in the Rocky Moun- HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 105 tains, will bf? clasped with the Atlantic in the same iron bracelet. In all this I see not only fnr- ther opportunities for commerce, but a new exten- sion to civilization and increased strength to our JSTational Union. " A heathen poet, while picturing the golden age, has perversely indicated the absence of long lines of road as creditable to that imaginary pe- riod in contrast with his own. ' How well,' ex- claimed the youthful Tibullus,* 'they lived while Saturn ruled — lefore the earth was opened hj long ways ;' 'Quam bene Saturno vivebant rege, priusquam Tellus in longas estpaUfacta vias.'' " But the true golden age is before us, not be- hind us ; and one of its tokens will be the com- pletion of those long ways^ by which villages, towns, counties, states, provinces, nations, are all to be associated and knit together in a fellowship that can never be broken." On the 26th of August, 1852, Mr. Sumner made one of his grandest efforts in behalf of human Freedom — his speech in the Senate of the United States, on his motion to repeal the Fugitive Slave Bill, entitled, Freedom National^ Slavei^ Sec- tional. * Opera, Lib. i. Eleg. 3, v. 85. 106 MEMOIR OF He was for a long time deprived of a hearing on tliis iin]3ortant subject, the pro-slavery members of the Senate having determined to deny and trample upon the freedom of speech on all ques- tions touching slavery. Mr. Sumner at lengtli seized the opportunity for which he had long been watching, when, according to the rules of the Sen- ate, he might be heard without impediment, and addressed the Senate in a speech of remarkable compass, eloquence, and power. In the opening of this speech, he refers in lofty tones of bold and glowing eloquence to the proposition which had been made to trample upon the freedom of speech in public debate — a subject which has just elicited many stirring and forcible remarks from many of the ablest men in the country, in consequence of the brutal assault upon Mr. Sumner for exercising this great privilege, a privilege secured by the constitution, and without which no free govern- ment can exist. lie says : " But, sir, this effort is impotent as tyrannical. The convictions of the heart cannot be repressed. Tlie utterance of conscience must be heard. They break forth with irrepressible might. As well at- tenvpt to check the tides of ocean ^ the currents of the Mississippi^ or the rushing waters of Niagara. The discussion of Slavery will proceed, wherever two or three are gathered together — by the fire- HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 107 side, on the highway, at the public meeting, in tlie church. The movenient against Slavery is from the Everlasting arm. Even now it is gather- ing its forces, soon to be confessed everywhere. It may not yet be felt in the high places of office and power ; but all who can put their ears hum- bly to the ground, will hear and comprehend its incessant and advancing tread." Having gone through with the discussion of the most important points involved in his motion, and having presented the subject in the clearest light, and defended it with unanswerable arguments, he closes as follows : " Mr. President, I have occupied much time ; but the great subject still stretches before us. One other point yet remains, which I should not leave untouched, and which justly belongs to the close. The Slave Act violates the Constitution and shocks the Public Conscience. "With modesty, and yet with firmness, let me add, sir, it offends against the Divine Law. No such enactment can be entitled to support. As the throne of God is above every earthly throne, so are his laws and statutes above all the laws and statutes of man. To question these is to question God himself. But to assume that human laws are beyond question, is to claim for their fallible authors infallibility. To assume that the\' are always iu conformity with the la^vs 108 MEMOIR OF of God is presumptnonslj and impiously to exalt man to an equality with God. Clearly human laws are not always in such conformity ; nor can they ever be beyond question from each individual. Where the conflict is oj^en, as if Congress should command the perpetration of murder, the office of conscience as final arbiter is undisputed. But in every conflict the same queenly ofiice is hers. By no earthly power can she be dethroned. Each person, after anxious examination, without haste, without passion, solemnly for himself must decide this great controversy. Any other rule attributes infallibility to human laws, places them beyond question, and degrades all men to an unthinking passive obedience. " According to St. Augustine, an unjust law does not appear to be a law ; lex esse ?ion videtur qucB justa non fuerit : and the great fathers of the Church, while adopting these words, declare openly that unjust laws are not binding. Some- times they are called ' abuses,' and not laws ; some- times ' violences,' and not laws. And here again the conscience of each person is the final arbiter. But this lofty principle is not confined to the Church, A master of philosophy in early Europe, a name of intellectual renown, the eloquent Abe- lard, in Latin verses addressed to his son, has cleai ly expressed the universal injunction : HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 109 ' Jussa potestatis terrenje discntienda Ccelestis tibi mox perflcienda scias. Siquis divinis jubeat contraria jussis Te contra Domiuum pactio nuUo trahat.' " The mandates of an earthly power are to be discussed ; those of Heaven must at once be per- formed ; nor can any agreement constrain us against God. Sucli is the rule of morals. Such, also, by the lips of judges and sages, lias been the proud declaration of the English law, whence our own is derived. In this conviction patriots have fearlessly braved unjust commands, and martyrs have died. And now, sir, the rule is commended to us. The good citizen, as he thinks of the shivering fu- gitive — guilty of no crime — pursued — hunted down like a beast, while praying for Christian help and deliverance, and as he reads the requirements of this Act, is filled with horror. Here is a despotic mandate, ' to aid and assist in the prompt and effi- cient execution of this law.' Again let me speak frankly. Not rashly would I set myself against any provision of law. This grave responsibility I would not lightly assume. But here the path of duty is clear. By the Supreme Law, which com- mands me to do no injustice ; by the comprehen- sive Christian Law of Brotherhood ; hy the Con- stitution^ which I have sworn to support / I am BOUND TO DISOBEY THIS ACT. Ncvcr, ill any capa- city, can I render voluntary aid in its execution. 10 110 MEMOIR OF Pains and penalties I will endnre ; but tliis great wrong I will not do. ' I cannot obey ; but I can suffer,' was the exclamation of tlie author of Pil- grim's Progress, when imprisoned for disobedience to an earthly statute. Better suffer injustice than do it. Better be the victim than the instrument of wrong. Better be even the poor slave, returned to bondage, than the unhappy Commissioner. " There is, sir, an incident of histoiy, which sug- gests a parallel, and affords a lesson of fidelity. Under the triumphant exertions of that Apostolic Jesuit, St. Francis Xavier, large numbers of the Japanese, amounting to as many as two hundred thousand — among them princes, generals, and the flower of the nobility — were converted to Chris- tianity. Afterwards, amidst the phrensy of civil war, religious persecution arose, and the penalty of death was denounced against all who refused to trample upon the effigy of the Redeemer. This was the Pagan law of a Pagan land. But the de- lighted historian records that scarcely one from the multitude of converts was guilty of this apostasy. The law of man was set at naught. Imprisonment, torture, death, M'ere preferred. Thus did this people refuse to trample on the painted image. Sir, multitudes among us will not be less steadfast in refusing to trample on the living image of their Redeemer. HON. CHARLES SUMNER. Ill " Finally, sir, for the sake of peace and tran- qnillity, cease to shock the Public Conscience ; for the sake of the Constitution, cease to exercise a power which is nowhere granted, and which violates inviolable rights expressly secured. Leave this question where it was left by our fathers, at the formation of our national government, in the absolute control of the States, the appointed guar- dians of personal liberty. Eepeal this enactment. Let its terrors no longer rage through the land. Mindful of the lowly whom it pursues ; mindful of the good men perplexed by its requirements ; in the name of charity, in the name of the Consti- tution, repeal this enactment, totally and without delay. Be inspired by the example of Washing- ton. Be admonished by those words of Oriental piety : ' Beware of the groans of the wounded souls. Oppress not to the utmost a single heart ; for a solitary sigh has power to overset a whole world.' " Though this speech failed to accomplish the de- sired elfect, yet, like the imperishable orations of Demosthenes, Cicero, Chatham, and Burke, it will be studied and admired by posterity, when, per- haps, the great national evils upon which it dwells shall have been forever banished the country. 112 MEMOIR OF CHAPTER IX. Delivers a Speech at the Plymouth Festival — its peroration quoted — makes his memorable Speech in the Senate, The Landmark of Freedom ; Freedom National — extracts — his final protest for him- self and the Clergy of New England against Slavery in Nebraska and Kansas — his remarks on that occasion. On tlie 1st of August, 1853, Mr. Sumner made a brilliant speech at the Plymouth Festival in commemoration of the embarkation of the Pil- grims. His remarks on that interesting occasion were particularly felicitous, glowing with the flame of patriotic eloquence. Ilis address was truly a noble " Finger-'point frotn Plymouth Hock^'^ in the closing sentiments of which we have these woi*ds : " Sir, if the honors of this day are not a mock- ery ; if they do not expend themselves in mere selfish gratulation ; if they are a sincere homage to the character of the Pilgrims — and I cannot suppose otherwise, — then is it well for us to be here. Standing on Plymouth Rock, at their great anniversary, we cannot fail to be elevated by their example. We see clearly what it has done for the HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 113 \vor]«], and what it lias done fur tlieir fame. Ko pusillanimous soul here to-day will declare their self-sacrilice, their deviation from received opin- ions, their unquenchable thirst for liberty, an error or illusion. From gushing multitudinous hearts we now thank these lowly men that they dared to be true and brave. Conformity or compromise might, perhaps, have purchased for them a profit- able peace, but not peace of mind ; it might have secured place and power, but not repose ; it might have opened a present shelter, but not a home in history and in men's hearts till time shall be no more. All will confess the true grandeur of their example, while, in vindication of a cherished principle, they stood alone, against the madness of men, against the law of the land, against their king. Better be the despised Pilgrim, a fugitive for freedom, than the halting politician, forgetful of principle, 'with a Senate at his heels.' " Such, sir, is the voice from Plymouth Rock, as it salutes my ears. Others may not hear it. But to me it comes in tones which I cannot mis- take. I catch its words of noble cheer : ' New occasions teach new duties ; Time makes ancient good un- couth; They must upward still and onward, wlio would keep abreast of Truth : Lo, before us gleam her camp-fires ! we ourselves must Pilgrims be, Launch our Mayflower, and steer boldly through the desperate win- ter sea.' " 10* 114 MEMOIROF The next great senatorial effort of Mr. Sumner was his speech against the repeal of the Missouri prohibition of Shivery north of 36° 30' in the Ne- braska and Kansas Bill, delivered in the Senate, February 21, 1854. This speech, which is known by the title of J lie Lan&marh of Freedom / Free- dom National^ is one of the ablest and most ear- nest vindications of national justice ever made in a legislative body. The opening remarks, which we quote, are very forcible and eloquent, and af- ford an excellent example of Mr. Sumner's char- acter as a lover of right and a defender of freedom. " Mr. Pkesident : I approach this discussion with awe. The mighty question, with its untold issues, oppresses me. Like a portentous cloud, surcharged with irresistible storm and ruin, it seems to fill the whole heavens, making me pain- fully conscious how unequal I am to the occasion — how unequal, also, is all that I can say, to all that I feel. " In delivering my sentiments here to-day, I shall speak frankly — according to my convictions, without concealment or reserve. But if any thing fell from the Senator from Illinois [Mr. Douglas], in opening this discussion, which nn'ght seem to challenge a personal contest, I desire to say that I shall not enter upon it. Let not a word or a tone pass my lips, to direct attention, for a moment, HON. CHARLES S U M :N E R . 115 from the transcendent theme, — bj the side of which Senators and Presidents are but dwarfs. I would not forget those amenities which behOTg to this phice, and are so well calculated to temper the antao-onism of debate ; nor can I cease to re- member and to feel, that, amidst all diversities of opinion, we are the representatives of thirty one sister rej^ublics, knit together by indissoluble tie, and constituting that Plural Unit, which we all embrace by the endearing name of country. " The question presented for yonr consideration is not surpassed in grandeur by any which has occurred in our national history since the Declara- tion of Independence. In every aspect it assumes gigantic proportions, whether we simply consider the extent of territory it concerns, or the public fuith and national policy wdiich it assails, or that higher question — that Question of Questions^ — as far above others as Liberty is above the common things of life — which it opens anew for judgment. " It concerns an immense region, larger than the original thirteen States, vying in extent with all the existing free States — stretching over prairie, field, and forest — interlaced by silver streams, skirted by protecting mountains, and constituting the heart of the North American continent — only a little smaller, let me add, than the three great Eui'opean countries combined — Italy, Spain, and 116 MEMOIROF France — each of which, in succession, has dom- inated over the globe. This territory has ah-eadj been likened, on this floor, to the Garden of God. The similitude is fonnd, not merely in its present pure and virgin character, but in its actual geo- graphical situation, occupying central spaces on this hemispliere, which, in their general relations, may well compare with that early Asiatic home. "We are told that, 'Southward througli Eden went a river large ;' SO here a stream flows southward which is larger than the Euphrates. And here, too, amidst all the smiling products of nature, lavished by the hand of God, is the lofty tree of Liberty, planted by our fathers, which, without exaggeration, or even imagination, may be likened to the tree of life, High eminent, blooming ambrosial fruit Of vegetable gold.' " The closing passages of this speech exhibit a high order of declamation : " The Prohibition of Slavery in the territory of Kansas and Nebraska stands on foundations of ad- amant, upheld by the early policy of the Fathers, by constant precedent, and time-honored compact. It is now in your power to overturn it ; }0u may remove the sacred landmark, and open the whole vast domain to Slavery. To you is committed this HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 117 bio-h prerogative. Our fathers, on the eve of the Kevohiti