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12 - Charles Sumner, The Scholar in Politics by Archibald Grimké · Charles Sumner, The Scholar in Politics

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Speaker 1: Chapter eleven of Charles Sumner, The Scholar in Politics by
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Speaker 1: Archibald Grimkey. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
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Speaker 1: Black Spirits and White, quite one thing it was to
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Speaker 1: repeal the Missouri Compromise, and quite another thing to trammel
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Speaker 1: up the consequences of that act, as the slave power
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Speaker 1: speedily had occasion to experience. As events fell out afterward,
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Speaker 1: the victory of the South proved worse than defeat, the
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Speaker 1: defeat of the North better than victory. The iniquitous deed
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Speaker 1: in the plot leading up to its consummation united the
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Speaker 1: Slave States obliterated their party lines. Southern Whigs vied with
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Speaker 1: Southern Democrats in devotion to their section during the long struggle,
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Speaker 1: which ended in the Act of Abrogation. Northern Whigs drue
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Speaker 1: to the interests of their section, learnt in the desertion
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Speaker 1: of their Southern brethren in that crisis, the grand lesson
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Speaker 1: that the slave power, in its contest for supremacy in
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Speaker 1: the Union knew no party forgot all differences to attain
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Speaker 1: its end. This discovery broke the Whig Party and threw
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Speaker 1: upon the national horizon the gigantic body of a Northern
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Speaker 1: political organization devoted not to the emancipation of slavery, but
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Speaker 1: to the emancipation of the nation from the domination of
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Speaker 1: the slave power. What land slavery had actually got that
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Speaker 1: it might keep, but not another inch of the soil
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Speaker 1: of the republic should it occupy. The hour which recorded
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Speaker 1: the passage of the Kansas Nebraska Bill recorded also this
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Speaker 1: determined purpose on the part of the Free States. The
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Speaker 1: two contrary ideas of freedom as slavery had thus entered
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Speaker 1: afresh and perhaps final stage of counter expansion and conflict.
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Speaker 1: The situation in these circumstances was resolved into a gladiatorial
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Speaker 1: trial of strength and dexterity in the use of means
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Speaker 1: on the part of the wrestlers. Sheer's strength was plainly
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Speaker 1: with the North, while political dexterity was as plainly with
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Speaker 1: the South. Could the Northern giant be in its agile
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Speaker 1: southern adversary to the ground and hold him. There was
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Speaker 1: the momentous question which freedom had now to answer for
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Speaker 1: the first time. The Northern giant fully comprehended that the
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Speaker 1: struggle was a life and death one, and that to
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Speaker 1: prevail he needed the discipline, strength of a powerful party
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Speaker 1: in his right hand, and the Whig Party went to
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Speaker 1: pieces in the storm of passion which swept through the
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Speaker 1: Free States in the wake of the Act of Repeal.
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Speaker 1: There was a moment in the swift current of events
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Speaker 1: when men attempted to reunite its northern and southern wings
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Speaker 1: in a new organization, But the explosive forces which had
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Speaker 1: wrecked the Whig Party made quick work of the American
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Speaker 1: vain was every effort to find common ground for the
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Speaker 1: feet of its northern and southern sides in that storm
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Speaker 1: and stress period, there was none. Meanwhile, the excitement produced
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Speaker 1: by the overthrow of the slave line of eighteen twenty
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Speaker 1: advanced to pace through the Free States. The popular uprising
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Speaker 1: was assuming everywhere the volume and force of a political
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Speaker 1: inundaj and spontaneously irresistibly. At widely separated points, organized movements
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Speaker 1: started up in opposition to the extension of slavery to
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Speaker 1: the free soil of the nation. Anti slavery Whigs, anti
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Speaker 1: slavery democrats, anti slavery Americans, old time abolitionists, and the
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Speaker 1: membership of the then existing Free Soil Party were dissolving
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Speaker 1: under the fervent heat of the crisis and pouring together
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Speaker 1: into the new Northern Party. The rapid rise of the
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Speaker 1: Republican Party is proved positive that the North had learned
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Speaker 1: of the South had last, to erect the slavery question
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Speaker 1: and to a paramount national issue. The movement for the
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Speaker 1: formation of a new party extended during the year of
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Speaker 1: eighteen fifty four to Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, New York,
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Speaker 1: and to several of the New England states like Vermont
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Speaker 1: and Massachusetts. As early as July, the Free Soil Party
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Speaker 1: in the latter state assumed the name of Republican At
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Speaker 1: its annual state convention, appointed to meet in Worcester September seventh,
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Speaker 1: the managers determined to play their best card speaking politically,
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Speaker 1: and this card, it was generally agreed, was the presence
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Speaker 1: of mister Sumner and an address from him before the convention.
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Speaker 1: Notwithstanding the widespread confusion and even chaos into which the
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Speaker 1: two old parties were tumbling in Massachusetts on the subject
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Speaker 1: of slavery extension, there was just enough survival of the
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Speaker 1: traditions of each to prevent affusion of the anti slavery
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Speaker 1: elements of both in a common movement against the common enemy.
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Speaker 1: The increasing popularity of Sumner among all classes of the state.
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Speaker 1: Without regard the party was an important influence which at
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Speaker 1: the moment was strongly making for union of the anti
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Speaker 1: slavery Whigs and Democrats of the Commonwealth with the Free
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Speaker 1: Soil Organization. In the formation of the new Party, Sumner,
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Speaker 1: by his splendid fight in Washington for freedom, had in
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Speaker 1: find become in Massachusetts a moral magnet, a political point
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Speaker 1: of union in the midst of the flooding and confusion
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Speaker 1: of the converging currents of a swiftly changing public opinion.
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Speaker 1: John A. Andrew, chairman of the Republican Provisional Committee of
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Speaker 1: the state, wrote him in regard to the then approaching convention,
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Speaker 1: but more depends upon the aid you can give than
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Speaker 1: upon that of any one man. Your recent battles of
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Speaker 1: the Senate have shut the mouth of personal opposition, wrong
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Speaker 1: applause from the unwilling excited a state's pride and gratitude,
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Speaker 1: such as really it is the fortune of anyone to
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Speaker 1: win Your presence at the nominating convention is a point
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Speaker 1: which must be agreed to at once and later. We
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Speaker 1: can do nothing which will so completely secure a triumphant
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Speaker 1: gathering as to announce your name to this Macedonian appeal
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Speaker 1: of the future war. Governor Sumner, beset as he was
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Speaker 1: by cares and labors at Washington, could not turn a
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Speaker 1: deaf ear. But hearkened to the voice of his friend
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Speaker 1: and went to the aid of the new Party in
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Speaker 1: an address of characteristic power and eloquence. The burden of it,
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Speaker 1: as of all his public utterances. Now Cathago s Delenda.
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Speaker 1: The slave power must and shall be destroyed, broken utterly
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Speaker 1: on the broad field of national politics, broken utterly within
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Speaker 1: the narrower limits of the several free states in general,
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Speaker 1: and of Massachusetts in particular. Opposition to the Fugitive Slave Bill.
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Speaker 1: Opposition to the admission of new slave states, whether from
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Speaker 1: Texas or Cuba, Utah or New Mexico, was the duty
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Speaker 1: of the hour. Duty, Right, justice, liberty, humanity were the
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Speaker 1: commanding entities with which he dealt as a public man,
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Speaker 1: And of all these, separately or together, were thundering through
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Speaker 1: him for the total annihilation of the slave power. They
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Speaker 1: thundered through him on this occasion. His plan for the
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Speaker 1: performance of the duties which the crisis imposed upon the
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Speaker 1: friends of freedom was simple, but effected the most obvious way.
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Speaker 1: He expressed it is by choosing men to represent us
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Speaker 1: in the national government who will not shrink from the
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Speaker 1: conflict with slavery, and also other men at home who
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Speaker 1: will not shrink from the same conflict with slave hunters.
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Speaker 1: In this choice of men, he apprehended, correctly, lay the
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Speaker 1: necessity for the new party. Loyal men must be reinforced
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Speaker 1: by legal safeguards for the protection of the liberty of
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Speaker 1: all who tread the soil of Massachusetts, and these must
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Speaker 1: be vigorously enforced. Massachusetts would do well, he urged, to
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Speaker 1: imitate Vermont, which by special law places the fugitive slave
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Speaker 1: under the safeguard of trial by jury and the rid
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Speaker 1: of habeas corpus. A simple prohibition declaring that no person
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Speaker 1: holding the Commission of Massachusetts, as Justice of the Peace
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Speaker 1: or other magistrate shall assume to act as a slave
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Speaker 1: hunting commissioner or council of any slave hunter under some
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Speaker 1: proper penalty, he thought would go far to render the
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Speaker 1: existing Slave Act inoperative. This radical idea was subsequently embodied
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Speaker 1: in the Massachusetts Personal Liberty Law, enacted by the No
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Speaker 1: Nothing Legislature of eighteen fifty five, which also incorporated the
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Speaker 1: principle of equality before the law announced several years before
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Speaker 1: by Sumner in a bill abolishing all discrimination on account
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Speaker 1: of race or color in the public schools of the Commonwealth.
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Speaker 1: We too, some are pleaded with the Friends of Freedom
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Speaker 1: in his address on the Anti Slavery Enterprise, its Necessity, practicability,
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Speaker 1: and Dignity, delivered in Boston, New York, Brooklyn, and Auburn
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Speaker 1: to large and appreciative audiences during the year eighteen fifty five,
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Speaker 1: we too must be united among us at last. Mutual criticism,
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Speaker 1: crimination of feud must give place to mutual sympathy, trust,
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Speaker 1: and alliance face to face against the slave oligarchy must
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Speaker 1: be rallied the united masses of the North in compact
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Speaker 1: political association, planted on the everlasting base of justice, knit
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Speaker 1: together by instincts of a common danger and holy sympathies
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Speaker 1: of humanity, enkindled by love of freedom, not only for
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Speaker 1: themselves but for others. Determined to enfranchise the National government
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Speaker 1: from degrading thrilledom and constituting the backbone party. Powerful in numbers,
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Speaker 1: wealth and intelligence, but more power still in an inspiring cause.
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Speaker 1: Let this be done, and victory will be ours. Though
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Speaker 1: the Republican Party says Wilson's rise and fall of the
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Speaker 1: slave power in America was not immediately organized in the
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Speaker 1: Free States, its spirit inspired and its ideas largely pervaded
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Speaker 1: the North. Within one year, eleven Republican senators were elected
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Speaker 1: in fifteen states had secured anti Nebraska majorities. Out of
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Speaker 1: one hundred and forty two Northern members of the House,
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Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty were opposed to the iniquitous measure.
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Speaker 1: They were in sufficient numbers not only to control the
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Speaker 1: election of Speaker, but they were able by a majority
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Speaker 1: of fifteen to declare that, in the opinion of this House,
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Speaker 1: the repeal of the Missouri Compromise of eighteen twenty, prohibiting
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Speaker 1: slavery north of thirty six degrees thirty minutes, was an
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Speaker 1: example of useless and factious agitation of the slavery question,
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Speaker 1: unwise and unjust to the American people. Meanwhile, fast thickening
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Speaker 1: was the plot of the national tragedy. As soon as
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Speaker 1: the government had adopted the squatter sovereignty scheme of Douglas
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Speaker 1: in settling territorial question, the two sections precipitated their forces
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Speaker 1: upon the debatable land and closed in a death struggle
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Speaker 1: for its possession. For the first time, the antagonistic social
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Speaker 1: systems of the Union came into physical collision. Showers of
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Speaker 1: bullets and blood dashed from the darkening skies above Kansas.
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Speaker 1: Civil war between the North and the South had actually begun.
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Speaker 1: According to the new dogma, the territories were to belong
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Speaker 1: to that section which should succeed in making the greatest
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Speaker 1: show of heads. The fate of slavery, that is, whether
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Speaker 1: it should be voted up or voted down, was committed
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Speaker 1: by the authors of the abrogation of the Missouri Compromise
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Speaker 1: due to the arbitrament of the ballot in the trial
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Speaker 1: of strength. In this regard, which followed, the decided superiority
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Speaker 1: of the Free States was demonstrated. Their superior colonizing resources
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Speaker 1: gave them at once an immense advantage in the contest
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Speaker 1: for possession. Certainly, Kansas could not be captured for slavery
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Speaker 1: by numerical strength, whorst it as it clearly was in
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Speaker 1: the account of polls. The South straet we threw itself
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Speaker 1: back upon fraud and force as allies in the struggle
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Speaker 1: with its powerful free rival. The cartridge box was at
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Speaker 1: every election in the territory substituted for the ballot box
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Speaker 1: by bands of border ruffians from Missouri under the leadership
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Speaker 1: of a United States Senator. The history of Kansas during
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Speaker 1: this period as a history of anarchy and terror. Monstrous
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Speaker 1: frauds waltzed back and forth with monstrous crimes against freedom,
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Speaker 1: popular sovereignty, private rights, public order were all outraged by
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Speaker 1: the instruments of the slave power. From the chief Magistrate
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Speaker 1: of the nation to the lawless Missouri raiders. This bloody
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Speaker 1: duel between freedom and slavery agitated the North to depths
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Speaker 1: not stirred before it riveted the attention of Congress and President.
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Speaker 1: The smell of powder from that far off battlefield was
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Speaker 1: to the country what the smell of meat is to
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Speaker 1: a cage of wild beasts. The counter currents of the storm,
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Speaker 1: with its double electric centers, accumulated and escaped chaotically as
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Speaker 1: lions enraged, roar, and plunged against prison bars. The secondary
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Speaker 1: center of the disturbance was above Kansas, the primary over
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Speaker 1: the seat of government at Washington. From storm center to
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Speaker 1: storm center, the life thunder leaped when Kansas began its
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Speaker 1: opposite and discordant wraps upon the door of Congress. Admission
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Speaker 1: into the Union at this juncture, someone delivered in the
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Speaker 1: Senate during two days May nineteenth and twenty eighteen fifty six,
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Speaker 1: a Philippic of extraordinary range and power against the oppressors
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Speaker 1: of a free, suffering and heroic people. His crime against
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Speaker 1: Kansas was another speech crisis born. It was an explosive
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Speaker 1: outbreak of the forces of a long gathering tempest, its
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Speaker 1: terrific lightning, flash and stroke, the sulfurous throat and vent
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Speaker 1: of the hot, surcharged heart of the North. Contemporary accounts
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Speaker 1: agreed that the Great Orator was at his best during
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Speaker 1: those two May days. The unmeasured, contumely and insolence of
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Speaker 1: the representatives of the slave power had aroused him to
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Speaker 1: such militancy and fire of manner, argument, rejoinder, and invective
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Speaker 1: as he had not before displayed on the floor of
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Speaker 1: the Senate. For two months, Kansas had been the subject
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Speaker 1: of debate in that body, and for two months he
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Speaker 1: had listened to the stream of Southern insult and denunciation
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Speaker 1: poured upon himself and associates, and upon the friends of
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Speaker 1: freedom at the North and in Kansas. Contemporary accounts agree
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Speaker 1: also that the audience was in keeping with the character
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Speaker 1: of the occasion and the fame of the orator. With
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Speaker 1: one or two exceptions, the members of the Senate were
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Speaker 1: in their seats, and the lobbies crowded with powerful politicians
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Speaker 1: such as Robert J. Walker, Francis P. Blair, and Thurlow Wheed.
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Speaker 1: Among these were visible many of the leading spirits of
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Speaker 1: the House. The ladies gallery could not contain the fair
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Speaker 1: ones who overflowed into the ante room of the Senate Chamber.
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Speaker 1: There within his eye the Orator had his assailants. They fell,
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Speaker 1: and determined face of Douglas watched him with ill concealed
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Speaker 1: hate and raged from the flour while he spoke. And
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Speaker 1: their darkening hardby with violent and malignant passions, was the
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Speaker 1: heart and bitter countenance of his old enemy James M. Mason.
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Speaker 1: The bevy and supercilious visage of his other old enemy,
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Speaker 1: ap Butler of South Carolina, crowned with silver locks, was however,
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Speaker 1: missing from the concourse of hostile faces which confronted Sumner
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Speaker 1: during these two days in which he held the attention
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Speaker 1: of the Senate, the lobbies, and the galleries. The Senator
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Speaker 1: from South Carolina, having shot his quiver of shafts during
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Speaker 1: the debate, had left for his southern home, little dreaming
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Speaker 1: doubtless of the discomfiture which was to overtake him from
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Speaker 1: the strong arm and long bow of the northern giant
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Speaker 1: expectation looked that first day from the eyes of friends
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Speaker 1: and foes alike, and from the opening and solemn sentences
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Speaker 1: of the famous speech beginning, Mister President, you are now
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Speaker 1: called to redress a great wrong. Seldom in the history
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Speaker 1: of nations as such a question presented. Tariff, army bills,
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Speaker 1: navy b land bills are important, and justly occupy your care.
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Speaker 1: But these all belong to the courses of ordinary legislation,
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Speaker 1: et cetera. To the impassioned and imposing peroration, closing in
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Speaker 1: just regard for free labor, which you would blast by
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Speaker 1: deadly contact with slave labor, in Christian's sympathy with the
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Speaker 1: slave whom you would task and sell, In stern condemnation
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Speaker 1: of the crime consummated on that beautiful soil, In rescue
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Speaker 1: of fellow citizens now subjugated to tyrannical usurpation, In dutiful
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Speaker 1: respect for the early fathers, whose aspirations are ignobly thwarted
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Speaker 1: in the name of the Constitution, Outraged of the laws,
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Speaker 1: trampled down of justice, banished of humanity, degraded of peace,
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Speaker 1: destroyed of freedom, crush to earth. And in the name
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Speaker 1: of the heavenly Father, whose service is perfect freedom, I
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Speaker 1: make this last appeal. It is no exaggeration to say
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Speaker 1: that the expectation excited by the orator and the occasion
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Speaker 1: were fully realized, and indeed surpassed by the force and
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Speaker 1: grandeur of the performance. There are passages that make one
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Speaker 1: think of Burke and of those unequal descriptions of his
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Speaker 1: in the Impeachment of War and Hastings of the sufferings
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Speaker 1: of India. Here is one Sumner has been commenting upon
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Speaker 1: the character of the people of bleeding Kansas as peaceful
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Speaker 1: tillers of the soil, and continues thus, such are the
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Speaker 1: people of Kansas, whose security has been overthrown. Scenes from
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Speaker 1: which civilization averts her countenance are part of their daily life.
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Speaker 1: Border incursions, which in barbarous lands threaded, unharried and exposed people,
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Speaker 1: are here renewed with this peculiarity that our border robbers
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Speaker 1: do not simply levy blackmail and drive off a few cattle,
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Speaker 1: like those who acted under the inspiration of the douglas
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Speaker 1: of other days. They do not seize a few persons
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Speaker 1: and sweep them away into captivity, like the African slave
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Speaker 1: traders whom we brand as pirates, but they commit a
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Speaker 1: succession of deeds in which border tars and African wrongs
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Speaker 1: are revived together on American soil, while for the time
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Speaker 1: being all protection is and gnulled, and the whole territory
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Speaker 1: is enslaved. Private griefs mingle their poignancy with public wrongs.
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Speaker 1: I do not dwell on the anxieties of families exposed
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Speaker 1: to sudden assault and lying down to rest with the
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Speaker 1: alarms of war ringing in the ears, not knowing that
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Speaker 1: another day may be spared to them. Throughout this bitter winter,
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Speaker 1: with the thermometer thirty degrees below zero, the citizens of Lawrence
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Speaker 1: were constrained to sleep under arms, with sentinels pacing constant
20:55
Speaker 1: watched against surprise. Our souls are run by individual, dual
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Speaker 1: instances in vain. Do we condemn the cruelties of another age,
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Speaker 1: the refinements of torture to which men were doomed, the
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Speaker 1: rack and thumbscrew of the Inquisition, the last agonies of
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Speaker 1: the Rajasi Ravaillac, Luke's iron crown, and Damien's bed of steel.
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Speaker 1: Four kindred outrages disgrace. These borders murders, dogs, assassinations, skulks
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Speaker 1: in the tall grass of the prairie, and the vindictiveness
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Speaker 1: of man assumes unwonted forms. A preacher of the Gospel
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Speaker 1: has been ridden on a rail, then thrown into the Missouri,
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Speaker 1: fastened to a log, and left to drift down its muddy,
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Speaker 1: tortuous current. And lately we have the tidings of that
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Speaker 1: enormity without precedent, a deed without a name, where a
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Speaker 1: candidate for the legislature was most brutally gashed with knives
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Speaker 1: and hatchets, and then, after weltering in blood on the
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Speaker 1: snow clad earth, trundled along with gaping wounds, to fall
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Speaker 1: dead before the face of his wife. More than one
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Speaker 1: slave champion during these two days encountered the shock of
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Speaker 1: Sumner's powerful lance recoiled from the master of light, glare
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Speaker 1: and spring of invective and rejoinder. Two senators in particular
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Speaker 1: suffered severely in this regard. They were Stephen A. Douglas
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Speaker 1: and Arthur P. Butler, whom Sumner dubbed, respectively, the Don
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Speaker 1: Quixote and the Sancho Panza of slavery. The physical dissimilarity
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Speaker 1: of the senatorial pair and resemblance to the famous Knight
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Speaker 1: and Squire of Savantes, rendered the characterization of palpable parliamentary hit.
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Speaker 1: Sumner's punishment of these gentlemen was merciless, terrible, but all
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Speaker 1: the same it was to the last degree deserved. The
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Speaker 1: defender of humanity got no quarter and gave none. The
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Speaker 1: Senator copies the British officer. This speakers, now bringing the
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Speaker 1: northern hammer crashing upon the helmet of the little giant.
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Speaker 1: The Senator copies the British officer, who, with boastful swagger,
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Speaker 1: said that with the end of his sword he would
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Speaker 1: cram the stamps down the throats of the American people,
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Speaker 1: and he will meet a similar failure. He may convulse
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Speaker 1: this country with civil feud like the ancient madman. He
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Speaker 1: may set far to this temple of constitutional liberty, grander
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Speaker 1: than Ephesian Dome, but he cannot enforce obedience to that
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Speaker 1: tyrannical usurpation. The Senator dreams that he can subdue the North.
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Speaker 1: He disclaims the open threat but his conduct implies it
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Speaker 1: how little that Senator knows himself, for the cause which
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Speaker 1: he persecutes against him are stronger battalions than any marshaled
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Speaker 1: by mortal arm, the inborn, ineradicable, invincible sentiments of the
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Speaker 1: human heart against him, his nature with all her subtle
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Speaker 1: forces against him, as God, let him try to subdue these.
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Speaker 1: Here is a specimen of the way in which the
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Speaker 1: don quixote of slavery was handled. With regret, I come
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Speaker 1: again upon the Senator from South Carolina, mister Butler, who,
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Speaker 1: on the present in this debate, overflows with rage at
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Speaker 1: the simple suggestion that Kansas has applied for admission as
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Speaker 1: a free state, and within coherent phrase, discharges the loose
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Speaker 1: expectoration of his speech, now upon her representatives, and then
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Speaker 1: upon her people. There was no extravagance of the ancient
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Speaker 1: parliamentary debate which he did not repeat, nor was there
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Speaker 1: any possible deviation from truth which he did not make
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Speaker 1: with so much of passion. I gladly add, as to
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Speaker 1: save him from the suspicion of intentional aberration. But the
24:50
Speaker 1: Senator touches nothing which he does not disfigure with error.
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Speaker 1: Sometimes of principle sometimes of fact, he shows an incapacity
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Speaker 1: of accuracy, whether in stating the Constitution or in stating
25:02
Speaker 1: the law, whether in details of statistics or diversions of scholarship,
25:07
Speaker 1: he cannot ope his mouth but out their flies of blunder.
25:11
Speaker 1: By the time that the great Speech was ended, the
25:13
Speaker 1: representatives of the slave power were overflowing with rage and vindictiveness,
25:18
Speaker 1: bordering closely on open violence. Douglas in particular signalized himself
25:23
Speaker 1: by the fury and ferocity with which he threw himself
25:26
Speaker 1: upon speech and speaker, nothing if not savage and audacious
25:31
Speaker 1: in debate. Douglas was certainly savage and audacious enough. Then
25:36
Speaker 1: beside himself he foamed with collar and by duperation. Once
25:40
Speaker 1: during the turbid stream of personalities emitted by him, he exclaimed,
25:44
Speaker 1: is it his object to provoke some of us to
25:47
Speaker 1: kick in, as we would a dog in the street,
25:50
Speaker 1: that he may get sympathy upon the chastisement. No doubt
25:55
Speaker 1: now that the Northern hammer, in the hands of the
25:58
Speaker 1: Northern Giant, had inflicted serious execution upon the forces of slavery.
26:03
Speaker 1: It had struck home among them which the frenzied outcries
26:07
Speaker 1: and execrations of the wounded fully attested. James immation followed
26:12
Speaker 1: in a personal assault which showed how deep a wound
26:15
Speaker 1: he received at the hand of Sumner two years before,
26:18
Speaker 1: and how freshly is still rankled. I've said that the
26:22
Speaker 1: necessity of political position stormed mister Mason alone brings me
26:27
Speaker 1: into relations with men upon this, For who elsewhere I
26:30
Speaker 1: cannot acknowledge us possessing manhood in any form. I am
26:34
Speaker 1: constrained to hear here depravity viceed in its most odious form,
26:39
Speaker 1: uncoiled in this presence, exhibiting its loathsome deformities, and accusation
26:43
Speaker 1: of vilification against the quarter of the country from which
26:47
Speaker 1: I come. And I must listen to it, because it
26:50
Speaker 1: is a necessity of my position under a common government
26:53
Speaker 1: to recognize as an equal politically, one whom to see
26:57
Speaker 1: elsewhere is to shun and despise. But Sumner was not
27:01
Speaker 1: yet done with these gentlemen, and so when the tempest
27:04
Speaker 1: and the Senate had somewhat abated, he arose, and, seizing
27:07
Speaker 1: the great Northern hammer, threw himself upon Douglas and Mason
27:11
Speaker 1: in a fierce and final rejoinder which must have left
27:15
Speaker 1: no doubt in the minds of his assailants, that if
27:17
Speaker 1: they were disposed to continue their assault upon him, he
27:21
Speaker 1: was likewise ready to receive them to return them blow
27:24
Speaker 1: for blow to Douglas. Sumner addressed himself thus to the
27:30
Speaker 1: Senator from Illinois, I shall willingly yield the privilege of
27:33
Speaker 1: their common scold the last word. But I will not
27:37
Speaker 1: yield to him in any discussion with me the last
27:40
Speaker 1: argument or the last semblance of it. He is crowned
27:43
Speaker 1: the outrage of this debate by venturing to rise here
27:47
Speaker 1: and calumniate me. He has said that I came here,
27:51
Speaker 1: took an oath to support the Constitution, and yet determined
27:54
Speaker 1: not to support a particular clause in that Constitution. To
27:58
Speaker 1: that statement, I give to his face the flattest denial
28:02
Speaker 1: when it was made previously on this floor by the
28:04
Speaker 1: absent Senator from South Carolina, mister Butler. I then repelled it.
28:09
Speaker 1: You shall see how explicitly and completely here mister Sumner
28:13
Speaker 1: paused to read extracts from his speech May June twenty eight,
28:17
Speaker 1: eighteen fifty four, in proof of his allegation, and then
28:21
Speaker 1: went on yes, in face of all this which occurred
28:24
Speaker 1: in open debate on the floor of the Senate, which
28:27
Speaker 1: is here in the records of the country, and has
28:29
Speaker 1: been extensively circulated, quoted, disgust criticized. The Senator from Illinois,
28:34
Speaker 1: in the swiftness of his audacity, presumes to assail me.
28:38
Speaker 1: Perhaps I had better leave that Senator without a word more.
28:42
Speaker 1: But this is not the first, of the second, or
28:44
Speaker 1: the third, or the fourth time that he has launched
28:46
Speaker 1: against me his personalities. Sir, If this be agreeable to him,
28:51
Speaker 1: I make no complaint, though for the sake of truth
28:54
Speaker 1: and the amenities of debate, I would wish that he
28:56
Speaker 1: had directed his assaults upon my arguments, as he has
29:00
Speaker 1: presumed to touch me. He will not complain if I
29:03
Speaker 1: administer to him a word of advice, Sir. This is
29:09
Speaker 1: the Senate of the United States, an important body under
29:12
Speaker 1: the Constitution, with great powers. Its members are justly supposed
29:16
Speaker 1: from years to be about the intemperance of youth, and
29:19
Speaker 1: from character to be above the guests of vulgarity. They
29:23
Speaker 1: are supposed to have something of wisdom and something of
29:25
Speaker 1: that candor which is the handmaid of wisdom. Let the
29:29
Speaker 1: Senator bear those things in mind, and remember hereafter that
29:32
Speaker 1: the bowie knife and bludgeon are not proper emblems of
29:36
Speaker 1: senatorial debate. Let him remember that the swagger of bob
29:40
Speaker 1: acres and the ferocity of the melee cannot add dignity
29:43
Speaker 1: to this body. I will not descend to things which
29:47
Speaker 1: drop so naturally from his tongue. I only brand them
29:50
Speaker 1: to his face as false. I say also to that senator,
29:55
Speaker 1: and I wish him to bear it in mind, that
29:57
Speaker 1: no person with the upright form of man can be
30:00
Speaker 1: allowed hesitation. Mister Douglas, say it, mister Sumner, I will
30:07
Speaker 1: say it. No person with the upright form of man
30:10
Speaker 1: can be allowed, without violation of all decency, to switch
30:13
Speaker 1: out from his tongue the perpetual stint of offensive personality. Sir,
30:19
Speaker 1: this is not a proper weapon of debate, at least
30:22
Speaker 1: on this for the noisome, squat and nameless animal to
30:26
Speaker 1: which I now refer is not the proper model for
30:29
Speaker 1: an American senator. Will the senator from Illinois take notice,
30:34
Speaker 1: mister Douglas, I will, and therefore will not imitate you, sir,
30:39
Speaker 1: mister Sumner. I did not hear the senator, mister Douglas,
30:43
Speaker 1: I said, if that be the case, I would certainly
30:46
Speaker 1: never imitate you in that capacity. Recognizing the force of
30:50
Speaker 1: the illustration, mister Sumner, mister President, again the Senator switches
30:55
Speaker 1: his tongue, and again he fills the Senate with his
30:58
Speaker 1: offensive odor dropped the Senator. Having settled his account with Douglas,
31:04
Speaker 1: mister Sumner turned and fired this parting shot at Mason.
31:08
Speaker 1: There was still another, the Senator from Virginia, who is
31:11
Speaker 1: now also in my eye. That Senator said nothing of argument,
31:15
Speaker 1: and therefore there is nothing of that to be answered.
31:18
Speaker 1: I simply say to him that hard words are not arguments.
31:22
Speaker 1: Frowns are not reasons, nor do scowls belong to the
31:25
Speaker 1: proper arsenal of parliamentary debate. The Senator has not forgotten
31:29
Speaker 1: that on a former occasion I did something to exhibit
31:32
Speaker 1: the plantation manners with he displays. I will not do
31:36
Speaker 1: any more now. When Sumner had finished his speech in Assailants,
31:42
Speaker 1: John A. Bingham, a member of the House from Ohio,
31:45
Speaker 1: who had come over to the Senator, listened to the
31:47
Speaker 1: Great Philippic, and it was an eye and ear witness
31:51
Speaker 1: of the scenes in the Senate chamber which followed its delivery,
31:54
Speaker 1: became convinced that Sumner was in danger of personal violence.
31:58
Speaker 1: Upon the adjournment that body, this apprehension he communicated to
32:03
Speaker 1: mister Sumner's colleague, Henry Wilson, who was so much struck
32:06
Speaker 1: with the force of it that he lost no time
32:09
Speaker 1: in communicating it in turn to his friend, and going
32:12
Speaker 1: home with you today, said he to Sumner. Several of
32:15
Speaker 1: us are going home with you, to which his friend
32:18
Speaker 1: made short answer, none of that, Wilson. If Sumner was
32:22
Speaker 1: absolutely fearless in debate, he was absolutely fearless in other
32:26
Speaker 1: respects also, And so instead of allowing Wilson and other
32:29
Speaker 1: friends to accompany him home that day, he eluded their
32:33
Speaker 1: prudence by shooting off, as on other days, without them,
32:37
Speaker 1: not thinking that the object of their anxious care had
32:40
Speaker 1: already left the capital. Henry Wilson, Anson, Berlingain, and Schuyler
32:46
Speaker 1: Colfax waited for him on the floor of the Senate.
32:48
Speaker 1: By perceiving after a while that he was not visible,
32:51
Speaker 1: they too left the Capital, but stopped for some time
32:54
Speaker 1: at the Porter's lodge until they learned that he had
32:56
Speaker 1: gone home. Meanwhile, Sumner, going his wonted Gate along Pennsylvania Avenue,
33:03
Speaker 1: overtook William H. Seward with whom he had an engagement
33:06
Speaker 1: to dine that day. Together, the two statesmen walked on
33:10
Speaker 1: as far as the Omnibuses, when mister Seward proposed that
33:13
Speaker 1: they take one of these vehicles as someone who had
33:17
Speaker 1: an errand to the government printing office to look over proofs,
33:21
Speaker 1: possibly of the speech he had just delivered, excused himself
33:23
Speaker 1: and pursued his walk along without encountering anyone to disturb
33:27
Speaker 1: the even tenor of his way. The next day, the
33:30
Speaker 1: calm continued. The hate was there, the vindictive disposition was there.
33:34
Speaker 1: The sultry atmosphere hung heavy with passion over the capital.
33:39
Speaker 1: But so it had for months before. The twenty first
33:42
Speaker 1: day of May was not different from one hundred other
33:44
Speaker 1: days which had preceded it, And so it rose and
33:47
Speaker 1: died like them, without the happening of anything out of
33:50
Speaker 1: the ordinary course of events. But it was the eve
33:52
Speaker 1: of a startling act, dark and notable in the annals
33:55
Speaker 1: of political crimes in America. When the Senate convened on
34:00
Speaker 1: the twenty second, mister Summit was in his place and
34:03
Speaker 1: wholly unconscious of the dreadful scene which was then shortly
34:06
Speaker 1: to be enacted in that chamber about his person of
34:09
Speaker 1: the cloud of malignant passion, which was impending low above
34:13
Speaker 1: him and was soon to burst in fury on his head.
34:17
Speaker 1: The session of the Senate was brief owing to the
34:19
Speaker 1: death of a member of the House from Missouri. After
34:22
Speaker 1: listening to a tribute of respect to the dead legislator,
34:26
Speaker 1: the Senate, according to custom, immediately adjourned the knock of
34:30
Speaker 1: death at the door of either branch of the National
34:32
Speaker 1: Legislature hushes for it that day the wants and the
34:36
Speaker 1: voices of the living within them, the halls become deserted
34:39
Speaker 1: and silent, gloomily in keeping with the tenement of clay vacated,
34:43
Speaker 1: and the everlasting quiet of the grave, settling about one
34:47
Speaker 1: whom those scenes and seats of earthly power are to
34:51
Speaker 1: know no more forever. On this particular occasion, the Senators,
34:57
Speaker 1: or at least the most of them, upon the ad
34:59
Speaker 1: German of the s Senate, presently dispersed and went their
35:02
Speaker 1: several ways, leaving the chamber and the ante room to
35:04
Speaker 1: a few of their number, among whom was mister Sumner.
35:08
Speaker 1: There lingered, besides one or two members from the House
35:11
Speaker 1: and sundry visitors, some of whom desired to meet the
35:14
Speaker 1: Massachusetts senator, who, having managed to put them off to
35:18
Speaker 1: a more convenient hour, had seated himself at his desk
35:21
Speaker 1: and was busily preparing his mail for the afternoon post.
35:25
Speaker 1: North Sumner, with his armchair close to his desk, with
35:28
Speaker 1: his long legs well under it, which by the way
35:32
Speaker 1: was not movable, was screwed firmly to the floor, and
35:34
Speaker 1: with his head bent low, was writing very rapidly, for
35:38
Speaker 1: he was, as he expressed it, writing on time and
35:41
Speaker 1: needed to make haste. He was oblivious of everything about
35:44
Speaker 1: him but that upon which he was engaged. He would
35:47
Speaker 1: have made a capital representation of indefatigable attention, of supreme
35:51
Speaker 1: mental absorption for the chisel of some Michaelangelo or thor Waldson.
35:57
Speaker 1: There was the broad and powerful back, the herculean shoulders
36:00
Speaker 1: and arms, the splendid leonine head covered with masses of
36:04
Speaker 1: thick air, the whole thrown forward and down into position,
36:08
Speaker 1: which together gave an impression of such concentration and strength
36:12
Speaker 1: as one would have to look long and far to find.
36:17
Speaker 1: He had been thus intently employed for perhaps fifteen or
36:20
Speaker 1: thirty minutes, when hearing his name pronounced, and looking up,
36:23
Speaker 1: he saw a tall man unfamiliar countenance, standing in front
36:26
Speaker 1: of and directly over him. The strange man was speaking,
36:30
Speaker 1: and Sumner heard the words I have read your speech
36:33
Speaker 1: twice over carefully. It is a libel on South Carolina
36:37
Speaker 1: and mister Butler, who is a relative of mine. And
36:40
Speaker 1: then he heard no more, but received without warning a
36:43
Speaker 1: murderous blow upon his head, which the tall man dealt
36:46
Speaker 1: with a stout walking stick which he held in his hand.
36:49
Speaker 1: This blow was repeated in quick succession upon the uncovered
36:53
Speaker 1: and now bleeding head of mister Sumner, who was stunned
36:55
Speaker 1: and blinded by the first terrible stroke from the stick.
36:59
Speaker 1: Dazed in the law, able to distinguish the ruffian who
37:02
Speaker 1: was assaulting him, or any object in the room, but
37:05
Speaker 1: impelled by the instinct of self defense, Sumner tried to
37:08
Speaker 1: rise to grapple with and disarm his brutal foe, but
37:11
Speaker 1: the desk under which his legs were thrust held him
37:14
Speaker 1: a prisoner, and though thus pinioned and helpless, the assault
37:18
Speaker 1: went on with the greatest ferocity until the desk, screwed
37:21
Speaker 1: to the floor, was wrenched up by the agonized struggles
37:24
Speaker 1: of the eloquent friend of man, released with bloody bent
37:28
Speaker 1: forward and arms thrown up to protect his bleeding head.
37:31
Speaker 1: He staggered to his feet, only to fall insensible over
37:34
Speaker 1: his desk to the floor, where his assailant continued the
37:37
Speaker 1: shower blows until seized and pulled off of his noble
37:40
Speaker 1: victim by Messrs Morgan and Murray, two congressmen from the
37:44
Speaker 1: State of New York. On the floor of the Senate,
37:47
Speaker 1: Sumner lay with blood upon his head and garments, with
37:50
Speaker 1: blood flowing from many wounds and soaking into the carpet
37:54
Speaker 1: under him, with the pallor of death upon face and brow,
37:57
Speaker 1: unconscious alike, of pain and his enemies, and the awful
38:00
Speaker 1: horror of it all. He was presently suffered by faithful friends,
38:04
Speaker 1: and born to a sofa in the lobby, where doctors
38:07
Speaker 1: dressed his wounds, and thence he was carried to his lodgings, there, suffering, bewildered,
38:12
Speaker 1: almost speech, as he spent the first night of the
38:15
Speaker 1: tragedy of his long years of martyrdom. The author of
38:19
Speaker 1: this murderous and dastardly assault was pressed in s Brooks,
38:22
Speaker 1: a member of Congress from South Carolina, a nephew of Butler,
38:26
Speaker 1: Mister Sumner's old enemy, they were associated with him in
38:31
Speaker 1: the commission of the crime. Two Southern accomplices, Lawrence M. Keat,
38:35
Speaker 1: member of Congress from South Carolina, and Henry A. Edmondson,
38:39
Speaker 1: a member from Virginia. Mister James W. Simonton, reporter of
38:44
Speaker 1: the New York Times, and who was an eye witness
38:46
Speaker 1: of the appalling date, testified before the Congressional Investigation Committee
38:51
Speaker 1: concerning the part born by Keat in connection with the outrage.
38:55
Speaker 1: Seeing that Brooks was striking mister Sumner, who had already
38:58
Speaker 1: fallen to the flour, Mister Simonton with others ran towards
39:02
Speaker 1: them to interfere when Keat rushed in, running around mister
39:06
Speaker 1: Sumner and mister Brooks with his cane raised, crying let
39:09
Speaker 1: them alone, God damn you. At the time of the assault,
39:14
Speaker 1: they were in the ante room of the Senate several
39:17
Speaker 1: senators known to be hostile to mister Sumner. Among these
39:20
Speaker 1: was Douglas, who had two days before asked in debate
39:23
Speaker 1: whether it was mister Sumner's intention to provoke some of
39:26
Speaker 1: them to kick him as they would a dog in
39:29
Speaker 1: the street. There was also Robert Toomes, who on that
39:32
Speaker 1: day and a subsequent one from his place in the
39:35
Speaker 1: Senate boldly approved the act. There was besides John Slidell
39:39
Speaker 1: of Louisiana, who was who, with Mason of Virginia, were
39:43
Speaker 1: to cut such a sorry figure in the rebellion. That
39:47
Speaker 1: beautiful specimen of Southern chivalry avowed without a blush in
39:50
Speaker 1: the Senate that he and his friends in the anteroom
39:55
Speaker 1: heard without any particular emotion that somebody was beating mister Sumner.
39:59
Speaker 1: On the next day, when the Senate convene, mister Wilson,
40:02
Speaker 1: immediately after the reading of the journal, called the attention
40:05
Speaker 1: of that body to the outrage which had been enacted
40:08
Speaker 1: in that chamber of the preceding day upon his colleague,
40:11
Speaker 1: and suggested that seb to be taken to redress the
40:14
Speaker 1: wrong and to vindicate the honor and dignity of the Senate.
40:18
Speaker 1: Mister Seward thereupon moved the appointment by the President of
40:21
Speaker 1: a committee to inquire into the circumstances attending the tragic affair.
40:26
Speaker 1: The appointment of the committee, on motion of mister Mason,
40:30
Speaker 1: it was taken out of the hands of the President,
40:32
Speaker 1: had put in those of the Senate, who proceeded to
40:35
Speaker 1: exhibit its animus in respect of the matter by ignoring
40:38
Speaker 1: the parliamentary claims of monsieurs Seward and Wilson to places
40:42
Speaker 1: on the Committee, and by electing instead two Southern senators
40:45
Speaker 1: and three Northern ones under Southern influences to conduct the
40:48
Speaker 1: proposed investigation. The northern dough faces, it is well to
40:54
Speaker 1: name they were a mister Allen of Rhode Island, a
40:58
Speaker 1: mister Doddge of Wisconsin, and one Lewis Cass of miss Michigan,
41:02
Speaker 1: who the reader will recall as having, for the sake
41:04
Speaker 1: of the Presidency, recanted his free State opinion touching the
41:08
Speaker 1: prohibition of slavery in the national territories. The Committee performed,
41:12
Speaker 1: to the satisfaction of those who appointed it, its partisan
41:16
Speaker 1: and non committal part, merely giving in its report a
41:19
Speaker 1: brief statement of the facts of the case, without any
41:22
Speaker 1: expression of opinion thereon. Though it was distinctly instructed by
41:26
Speaker 1: the resolution of mister Sewart that so it should do.
41:30
Speaker 1: It begged to inform the Senate that it could not
41:32
Speaker 1: arrest or punish a member of the House for breach
41:35
Speaker 1: of its privileges, and that the most that it could do,
41:37
Speaker 1: in the premises was to make a complaint to the House,
41:41
Speaker 1: of which Brooks was a member. That is what the
41:44
Speaker 1: Senate did by simply ordering that a copy of this
41:47
Speaker 1: report and the affidavits accompanying the saint be transmitted to
41:50
Speaker 1: the House of Representatives, and there the pro slavery Senate
41:54
Speaker 1: dropped the matter. Quite otherwise was the subject treated by
41:58
Speaker 1: the House, which was at that time presided over by
42:01
Speaker 1: Northern speaker with Northern principles and control by a strong
42:05
Speaker 1: anti Nebraska membership. The committee appointed to investigate the matter
42:09
Speaker 1: was composed, as was that of the Senate, of three
42:12
Speaker 1: from the North and two from the South, with this
42:15
Speaker 1: decided difference, however, that in the case of the House committee,
42:18
Speaker 1: the three from the North were not of the breed
42:20
Speaker 1: of northern dough faces. They accordingly concluded their report to
42:24
Speaker 1: the House with resolutions expelling books and centering Keat and Edmondson.
42:30
Speaker 1: The northern members of the committee were Lewis D. Campbell
42:33
Speaker 1: of Ohio, Traves E. Spinner of New York, and ACM.
42:37
Speaker 1: Pennington of New Jersey. The two southern members, one of
42:42
Speaker 1: whom was HAWL. Cobb of Georgia, and the other some
42:45
Speaker 1: southern obscurity from Arkansas of the name of Greenwood signed
42:49
Speaker 1: a minority report which concluded with a resolution of want
42:52
Speaker 1: of jurisdiction over the alleged assault case on the part
42:56
Speaker 1: of the House, and with a cool refusal to express
42:58
Speaker 1: any opinion on the subject, which the House promptly voted
43:01
Speaker 1: down by a large majority. Owing to the rule requiring
43:04
Speaker 1: a two thirds vote to expel a member, the resolution
43:06
Speaker 1: of expulsion was lost the vote standing Yea's one twenty
43:10
Speaker 1: one days ninety five Ked was censured, while Edmondson, probably
43:14
Speaker 1: for lack of direct evidence implicating him in the attack
43:18
Speaker 1: on mister Sumner, escaped. Brooks, in anticipation of the adverse
43:22
Speaker 1: action of the House, had placed his resignation in the
43:25
Speaker 1: hands of the Governor of South Carolina, to take effect
43:28
Speaker 1: on the announcement by him to the House of his resignation.
43:31
Speaker 1: After the vote on the resolution of expulsion, seeing how
43:34
Speaker 1: matters would go with him next, and to avoid a
43:36
Speaker 1: vote of censure which would have certainly followed, the Southern
43:40
Speaker 1: Bully obtained the floor and addressed the House and vindication
43:43
Speaker 1: of himself, at the close of which he announced that
43:45
Speaker 1: he was no longer a member of the thirty fourth Congress.
43:50
Speaker 1: In the course of his vindication, which was altogether worthy
43:54
Speaker 1: of him. The Congression of Ruffian let the House into
43:56
Speaker 1: his confidence. Thus and went to work very deliberately as
43:59
Speaker 1: I am charged, and this is admitted, and speculated somewhat
44:03
Speaker 1: as to whether I should employ a horsewhip or cowhight.
44:06
Speaker 1: But knowing that the Senator was my superior in strength,
44:09
Speaker 1: it occurred to me that he might wrest it from
44:11
Speaker 1: my hand. And then, for I never attempt anything I
44:14
Speaker 1: do not perform, I might have been compelled to do
44:17
Speaker 1: that which I would have regretted the balance of my
44:19
Speaker 1: natural life. At this point of voice from the house
44:22
Speaker 1: said he would have killed him. Brooks's constituency vindicated their
44:27
Speaker 1: knight of the bludgeon by triumphantly re electing him to
44:30
Speaker 1: the thirty fourth Congress, where in that August, following his resignation,
44:35
Speaker 1: he again took his seat. The fact is, at President
44:38
Speaker 1: s Brooks's re election depended not the own loan upon
44:42
Speaker 1: the districting South Carolina, but upon the whole South. He
44:45
Speaker 1: would have received it not less triumphantly. After the commission
44:48
Speaker 1: of the crime. He became the hero of that section
44:51
Speaker 1: was held up for the imitation of its youth, the
44:54
Speaker 1: admiration of its manhood, and for the enthusiastic supporting gratitude
44:58
Speaker 1: of every white man, woman and child true to its
45:00
Speaker 1: interests Brooks had verily become the Southern darling of the hour.
45:06
Speaker 1: At a meeting of some of his admirers, guttaperche was
45:09
Speaker 1: highly commended as a proper weapon of reply to Northern fanatics.
45:14
Speaker 1: Another meeting voted the champion a cane with the inscription
45:18
Speaker 1: used knockdown arguments. Another still presented him with a new
45:22
Speaker 1: symbol of Southern chivalry bearing the classic legend hit him again,
45:27
Speaker 1: while yet a fourth proposed to garnish another of the
45:29
Speaker 1: noble parliamentary weapons with a device of the human head
45:34
Speaker 1: badly cracked and broken. The South had gone mad, was
45:37
Speaker 1: indeed well advanced in the terrible, suicidal and homicidal mania,
45:41
Speaker 1: which was four years later to reach its climax, and
45:44
Speaker 1: the great Rebellion. The fever which precedes the delirium of
45:48
Speaker 1: war had attacked the much suffering North. Also the Kansas
45:52
Speaker 1: iniquity and the outrage upon some tended to send the
45:56
Speaker 1: blood of the Free States to the point where peace
45:58
Speaker 1: becomes impossible, and an appeal to force in the settlement
46:02
Speaker 1: of their long standing account with the Slave States, inevitable
46:06
Speaker 1: excitement was everywhere. Excitement was filling the land with the wide,
46:11
Speaker 1: chaotic rumblings of the gathering tempest. Flashes of the pent
46:14
Speaker 1: up passions of a day of wrath, which were leaping
46:17
Speaker 1: from the southern skies, were breaking likewise out of the
46:20
Speaker 1: thundercloud which had risen in the northern air and was
46:23
Speaker 1: spreading over the Free States. Two circumstances going out of
46:27
Speaker 1: the assault upon mister Summer indicated that the tension of
46:31
Speaker 1: the storm would presently reach its point of explosion. One
46:35
Speaker 1: of these is the story of Henry Wilson's denunciation in
46:37
Speaker 1: the Senate of the attack as a brutal, murders and
46:40
Speaker 1: cowardly assault, and what came of it. The first thing
46:44
Speaker 1: which came of it was mister Butler's exclamation from his seat,
46:47
Speaker 1: you are a liar, which seemed to signify that the
46:50
Speaker 1: period of argument was fast passing away and that the
46:53
Speaker 1: period of violence was fast coming in the second thing
46:56
Speaker 1: which came of it were threats of personal violence from
46:59
Speaker 1: Brooks's friends and a challenge from the bully himself. The
47:03
Speaker 1: manner in which mister Wilson met the letter was simply admirable,
47:06
Speaker 1: at once dignified and spirited, altogether worthy of the superior
47:10
Speaker 1: civilization of his section. I characterized so runs Wilson's reply
47:16
Speaker 1: to the challenge. I characterized on the floor of the
47:19
Speaker 1: Senate the assault upon my colleague as brutal, murderous, and cowardly.
47:24
Speaker 1: I thought so, then, I think so now I've no
47:27
Speaker 1: qualification whatever to make in regard to those words. I've
47:30
Speaker 1: never entertained in the Senate or elsewhere, the idea of
47:33
Speaker 1: personal responsibility in the sense of the duellist. I've always
47:37
Speaker 1: regarded dueling as the lingering relic of a barber or
47:40
Speaker 1: his selvilization, which the law of the country has branded
47:43
Speaker 1: as a crime. While therefore I religiously believe in the
47:47
Speaker 1: right of self defense in its broader sense, the law
47:50
Speaker 1: of my country and the matured convictions of my whole
47:53
Speaker 1: life alike forbid me to meet you for the purpose
47:55
Speaker 1: indicated in your letter. After this, Wilson armed himself free
47:59
Speaker 1: as to German, if assailed to defend his life at
48:02
Speaker 1: any cost. The other circumstance was Ansom berlin Game's stern
48:08
Speaker 1: denunciation of the outrage on the floor of the House,
48:10
Speaker 1: and what came of that Berlin Game pictured how the
48:14
Speaker 1: Senator from Massachusetts sat in the silence of the Senate Chamber,
48:17
Speaker 1: engaged in the employments not pertaining to his office, when
48:20
Speaker 1: a member from this House, who had taken an oath
48:23
Speaker 1: to sustain the Constitution, stolen to the Senate that place
48:26
Speaker 1: which had hitherto been held sacred against violence, and smote
48:30
Speaker 1: him as Kane smote his brother, whereupon the following threatening
48:34
Speaker 1: scene ensued. Mister Keat in his seat. That is false,
48:38
Speaker 1: mister Burlingame, I would not bandy epithets with the gentleman.
48:42
Speaker 1: I am responsible for my own language. Doubtless he is
48:45
Speaker 1: responsible for his, Mister Keat, I am, mister Burlingame. I
48:50
Speaker 1: shall stand by mine, Sir berling Game continued. The act
48:54
Speaker 1: was brief, and my comments on it shall be brief. Also.
48:57
Speaker 1: I denounced it in the name of the constitution it violated.
49:01
Speaker 1: I denounced it in the name of the sovereignty of Massachusetts,
49:04
Speaker 1: which was stricken down by the blow. I denounced it
49:07
Speaker 1: in the name of civilization, which it outraged. I denounced
49:10
Speaker 1: it in the name of humanity. I denounced it in
49:12
Speaker 1: the name of that fair play which bullies and prize
49:16
Speaker 1: fighters respect. The author of this five time denounced crime,
49:22
Speaker 1: was of course ready with a challenge, which was promptly
49:24
Speaker 1: accepted by Berlin Game, who named the following Burns weapons, rifles, distance,
49:29
Speaker 1: twenty paces plays, district of Columbia, time of meeting the
49:33
Speaker 1: next morning. These terms were modified by Congressman Campbell, who
49:37
Speaker 1: acted as mister Burling Game's friends, so that the place
49:40
Speaker 1: of meeting read Clifton House, Canada instead of District of
49:44
Speaker 1: Columbia as in the original. To mister Campbell's substitute, Brooks's
49:48
Speaker 1: friends made great adut alleging that it would not be
49:52
Speaker 1: safe for their principle to travel through the north to
49:54
Speaker 1: the place of meeting, and according the refused agree to
49:57
Speaker 1: the terms, which had the effect to prevent the meeting
49:59
Speaker 1: from taking place. It is possible that the choice of weapons,
50:03
Speaker 1: as well as the choice of place exerted upon the
50:06
Speaker 1: Southern fire reaches a deterrent influence, for it was understood
50:09
Speaker 1: that Burlingame was a dead shot with a rifle. In
50:13
Speaker 1: naming it, the Massachusetts Congressman meant, without doubt to kill
50:17
Speaker 1: his antagonists. The meeting between Berling Game and Brooks never
50:21
Speaker 1: took place, but the duel between Massachusetts and South Carolina
50:24
Speaker 1: freedom and slavery was only postponed. The legislature of a
50:30
Speaker 1: Massachusetts launched against the outrage, his stern condemnation, and called
50:34
Speaker 1: doubly upon Congress to punish the wrongdoer. Public meetings throughout
50:37
Speaker 1: the state, and for that matter, throughout the Free States,
50:40
Speaker 1: testified to the universal horror excited by the crime at
50:43
Speaker 1: the north, and vehemence of the tide of indignant feeling
50:46
Speaker 1: which then swept over the face of that section. Men
50:50
Speaker 1: without regard to party, shouted shame on the dastard and
50:53
Speaker 1: his deed. A tremendous course of popular amazement and indignation
50:57
Speaker 1: burst like thunder from one end of the Free States
50:59
Speaker 1: to the other. President Whyland of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island,
51:04
Speaker 1: threw in eighteen thirty five k the abolitionist, the cold
51:07
Speaker 1: shoulder and actually defended to Harriet Martineau. The broadcloth mob
51:12
Speaker 1: which dragged Garrison through the streets of Boston was in
51:15
Speaker 1: eighteen fifty six in a wholly different mood. At an
51:18
Speaker 1: indignation meeting in Providence, he declared, I was born free
51:22
Speaker 1: and I cannot be made a slave. I bow before
51:25
Speaker 1: the universal intelligence and conscience of my country. And when
51:28
Speaker 1: I think this defective, I claim the privilege of using
51:30
Speaker 1: my poor endeavors to enlighten it. But to submit my
51:34
Speaker 1: reason to the bludgeon of a bully or the pistol
51:36
Speaker 1: of an assassin, I cannot, nor can I tamely behold
51:39
Speaker 1: a step take, and which leads inevitably to such a consummation. P.
51:45
Speaker 1: L Ake W. Chandler of Boston, who for ten years
51:48
Speaker 1: had been mister Summer's political opponent, said at a great
51:51
Speaker 1: meeting in Thunderview Hall, that the blow struck at some.
51:54
Speaker 1: It was a blow not merely at Massachusetts, a blow
51:57
Speaker 1: not merely at the name and fame of our common country.
52:00
Speaker 1: It is a blow at constitutional liberty all the world over.
52:03
Speaker 1: It is a stab at the cause of universal freedom.
52:06
Speaker 1: It is aimed at all men everywhere who are struggling
52:09
Speaker 1: for what we now regard as our great birthright, and
52:12
Speaker 1: which we intend to transmit unimpaired to our latest posterity.
52:16
Speaker 1: Professor C. C. Filton, whose early intimacy with Sumner the
52:21
Speaker 1: reader will recall, but which the latter's political course had
52:24
Speaker 1: brought to an end at a public meeting in Cambridge,
52:27
Speaker 1: confess that while he had nothing to do with the
52:30
Speaker 1: election of his sometime friend to the Senate, Yet that
52:34
Speaker 1: under the then circumstances, had he five hundred votes, everyone
52:38
Speaker 1: should be given to send him back again at Concord.
52:42
Speaker 1: Ralph Waldore Emerson, who, when he spoke like the shot
52:45
Speaker 1: fired by the farmers in seventeen seventy five, was heard
52:48
Speaker 1: round the world, said, as only he could say it.
52:50
Speaker 1: But I wish, sir, that the high respects of this
52:53
Speaker 1: meeting shall be expressed to mister Sumner, that a copy
52:56
Speaker 1: of the resolutions that have been read may be forwarded
52:59
Speaker 1: to him. I wish that he may know the shudder
53:02
Speaker 1: of terror that ran through all this community on the
53:05
Speaker 1: first tidings of this brutal attack. Let him hear that
53:09
Speaker 1: every man of worth in New England loves his virtues,
53:13
Speaker 1: that every mother thinks of him as the protector of families,
53:16
Speaker 1: that every friend of freedom thinks him the friend of freedom.
53:19
Speaker 1: And if our arms, at this distance cannot defend him
53:21
Speaker 1: from assassins, we confine the defense of a life so
53:24
Speaker 1: precious to all honorable men and true patrioson to the
53:28
Speaker 1: almighty maker of men, Oliver Wind to Holmes, whom his
53:32
Speaker 1: best friend or worst enemy, could not accuse of sympathy
53:35
Speaker 1: for the slave. Proposed at the dinner of the Massachusetts
53:38
Speaker 1: Medical Society the Revere House, Boston, this sentiment the surgeons
53:42
Speaker 1: of the city of Washington, God grant them wisdom, for
53:45
Speaker 1: they are dressing the wounds of a mighty empire and
53:48
Speaker 1: of uncountered generations. It was, in truth exactly as Henry
53:53
Speaker 1: Wilson declared in the floor of the Senate, and replied
53:55
Speaker 1: to Butler of South Carolina, that of the twelve hundred
53:58
Speaker 1: thousand people of massachuffs as you cannot find in the
54:01
Speaker 1: state one thousand administration office soldiers who do not look
54:06
Speaker 1: with loathing and execration upon the outrage on the person
54:08
Speaker 1: of their senator and the honor of their state. And
54:11
Speaker 1: he went on to add what the facts would have
54:14
Speaker 1: borne out, that the sentiment of Massachusetts, of New England,
54:17
Speaker 1: of the North approaches unanimity. Indeed, indeed, thanks to the
54:21
Speaker 1: violence of the Southern Desperado, what became of Brooks, We
54:26
Speaker 1: may as well tell now what remains to be told
54:29
Speaker 1: in regard to him. And thus with these pages of
54:31
Speaker 1: the infamous man, he was indicted by the Grand Jury
54:34
Speaker 1: of the District of Columbia, tried and convicted of the crime,
54:37
Speaker 1: and sentenced to pay a fine of three hundred dollars.
54:40
Speaker 1: Eight months after the commission of the outrage, he expired
54:43
Speaker 1: in great agony of membraneous group in the city of Washington.
54:48
Speaker 1: So terribly did he suffer just before dying, that it
54:51
Speaker 1: was reported in the newspapers the next morning that he
54:54
Speaker 1: endeavored to tear his own throat open to get breadth.
54:57
Speaker 1: His uncle's Senator Butler did not survive him law, but
55:00
Speaker 1: passed away at his far away Carolina home in that
55:03
Speaker 1: very month of May, and almost on the very date
55:05
Speaker 1: on which, a year before, the assault of mister Sumner
55:08
Speaker 1: was made. The two deaths falling so quickly upon that horror,
55:13
Speaker 1: the one upon the other, seemed to tens of thousands
55:15
Speaker 1: at the north, like a direct interposition of a just
55:18
Speaker 1: God in the affairs of the nation. And until we
55:20
Speaker 1: know more about the occult ways of the divine governor
55:24
Speaker 1: of this world of ours, who shall say that this
55:26
Speaker 1: popular feeling was only a silly popular superstition. Not the
55:30
Speaker 1: writer of these pages, certainly. But to return to Sumner
55:34
Speaker 1: on the wings of the murder's assault upon him, he
55:37
Speaker 1: mounted to an enduring place in the pantheon of the Republic.
55:42
Speaker 1: He became associated thenceforth with the wheel of states, his
55:45
Speaker 1: fate with the fortunes of a great people. The mad
55:48
Speaker 1: act had done for him what similar madness had done
55:50
Speaker 1: for similar victims, magnified immensely, his name and influence secured
55:54
Speaker 1: forever his position as an imposing historic character. The New
55:58
Speaker 1: York Courier and Inquirer observed on this head in the
56:01
Speaker 1: summer of eighteen fifty six. S follows. The fact is
56:05
Speaker 1: incontestable that when the Massachusetts Senator again crosses the threshold
56:09
Speaker 1: of that Senate chamber, slavery will have to confront the
56:12
Speaker 1: most formidable foe it ever had to face before the
56:15
Speaker 1: public eye. Hitherto he has figured but in one character,
56:19
Speaker 1: the assailant of slavery. Henceforth he will be also the
56:22
Speaker 1: accredited asserter and champion of the most sacred writer freedom
56:26
Speaker 1: of speech, and as such will command tenfold greater consideration
56:30
Speaker 1: his antagonists have affected to despise him before, and to
56:34
Speaker 1: treat him with scorn. The day for that has passed.
56:36
Speaker 1: The public man, who has once been the casion of
56:39
Speaker 1: such an outburst of sympathy and goodwill, as has within
56:43
Speaker 1: the last week sprung from the mouth of Milligans the
56:45
Speaker 1: pumblions of his countrymen. Is no longer a man to
56:48
Speaker 1: be disdained. He is henceforth position power and security beyond
56:52
Speaker 1: any of his adversaries. It was the old wonderful story.
56:58
Speaker 1: The miracle of miracles was again formed. The good Man's
57:01
Speaker 1: blood had turned into the sea corn of his cause.
57:04
Speaker 1: The story of the good Man's sufferings reveals a long
57:07
Speaker 1: and harrowing struggle for health. He had upon the head
57:10
Speaker 1: two deep gashes which laid the scalp open to the bone.
57:14
Speaker 1: The strength of the cranium and the thick mass of
57:16
Speaker 1: hair which covered the scalp together saved him, probably from
57:20
Speaker 1: a fatal fracture of the skull. Besides these injuries, there
57:23
Speaker 1: were bruises on his face, hands, and arms, but as
57:25
Speaker 1: these were, they were not the worst hurt which followed
57:28
Speaker 1: the assault. Had there been no nervous shock, some that
57:32
Speaker 1: would have speedily recovered from the effects of those. But
57:35
Speaker 1: there was a serious nervous shock as the case progressed.
57:38
Speaker 1: This was plainly manifested in the patients sleeplessness and loss
57:42
Speaker 1: of flesh in his incapacity of the briefest mental effort
57:46
Speaker 1: without pain and pressure in the head and soreness in
57:49
Speaker 1: the spine. Also, it appeared like a partial paralysis of
57:52
Speaker 1: the motor muscles of the lower limbs, which rendered physical
57:55
Speaker 1: exertion extremely exhausting to the physicians who were watching over
57:59
Speaker 1: them the invalid, it was clearly evident that the brain
58:02
Speaker 1: and spinal court had been the seat of a grave
58:04
Speaker 1: and formidable lesion, such as would sometimes require months and
58:08
Speaker 1: even years to heal. It did actually require years, in
58:11
Speaker 1: the case of Sumner, from land to land during four
58:14
Speaker 1: years he passed pursuing the phantom of a cup that
58:17
Speaker 1: comes and goes. It was at first almost impossible for
58:20
Speaker 1: him to understand the extreme gravity of his injuries. He
58:23
Speaker 1: was sure that he would be well in two weeks
58:26
Speaker 1: and that his post in the Senate. But the weeks
58:28
Speaker 1: became months, and still he was not well or able
58:31
Speaker 1: to resume his seat from Washington. When he could endure
58:34
Speaker 1: the fatigue of so short a journey, he went to
58:36
Speaker 1: Silver Springs nearby, where he was the guest of the
58:39
Speaker 1: Venerable Francis P. Blair. In July, he reached Philadelphia, where
58:44
Speaker 1: he was tenderly entertained at the home of his friend,
58:47
Speaker 1: Reverend W. H. Furnas, and later received similar entertainment at
58:50
Speaker 1: the cottage of mister James T. Furnace at Cape May.
58:53
Speaker 1: Thence he betook himself to Cresson in Pennsylvania, where he
58:57
Speaker 1: tried the effect of mountain air upon his painful malady.
59:00
Speaker 1: Here he showed signs of gratifying improvement. By his impatience
59:04
Speaker 1: of further inaction, and a desire to go home to
59:06
Speaker 1: vote for Freemont and Dayton, and for his gallant and
59:09
Speaker 1: devoted friend and son Burlingame led him to turn his
59:12
Speaker 1: face homeward at the beginning of November. The popular reception
59:16
Speaker 1: which his return to Boston invoked was splendid, enthusiastic, imposing,
59:20
Speaker 1: rivaling in magnitude and impressiveness that other which he was
59:24
Speaker 1: to receive eighteen years afterward. It was, in truth a
59:27
Speaker 1: vast ground swell and surge of the overflowing sympathy, admiration,
59:31
Speaker 1: and love felt for him within the mighty another Heart
59:34
Speaker 1: of Grand Ol, Massachusetts. On Sunday morning, November two, mister
59:40
Speaker 1: Summer arrived in the vicinity of Boston and went direct
59:43
Speaker 1: to the home of his friend Professor H. W. Longfellow,
59:46
Speaker 1: in Cambridge. On Monday morning, he and others drove to
59:49
Speaker 1: the house of Amos, a Lawrence at Longwood in the
59:52
Speaker 1: town of Brookline, where in the afternoon he was joined
59:55
Speaker 1: by a large number of invited guests who had driven
59:58
Speaker 1: to Longwood from the State House. From this point the
1:00:01
Speaker 1: triumphal journey into Boston began. When the carriages reached the
1:00:04
Speaker 1: boundary line of the city, they were met by a
1:00:07
Speaker 1: cavalcade of a thousand horsemen and the Committee of Arrangements,
1:00:11
Speaker 1: with the Mayor of Boston, Alexander H. Rice, and the
1:00:14
Speaker 1: venerable and illustrious patriot Josiah Quincy at their head. Eloquent
1:00:19
Speaker 1: words of introduction by Professor F. D. Huntington, now a
1:00:22
Speaker 1: bishop in Depositant Episcopal Church, of welcome by mister Quincy,
1:00:26
Speaker 1: and a reply by mister Summit followed. When the long
1:00:29
Speaker 1: enormous royal progress through the city commenced. Along the line
1:00:33
Speaker 1: of March, the people had gathered by the tens of thousands,
1:00:36
Speaker 1: demonstrative eager to catch a glimpse of the defender humanity
1:00:40
Speaker 1: and of their liberties. What the multitude could not express
1:00:43
Speaker 1: by looking shout inscriptions upon the houses, help to review
1:00:47
Speaker 1: inscriptions grimly commemorative of that black day of May, when
1:00:50
Speaker 1: the black deed was done, which had laid their leader him,
1:00:54
Speaker 1: who then was returning to them bearing his sheaves and
1:00:57
Speaker 1: to lack his wounds. Also wonder that they filled the
1:01:01
Speaker 1: laruge in which he rode with flowers, and the city
1:01:05
Speaker 1: with loudhouses. At the State House, amid indescribable scenes, Professor
1:01:10
Speaker 1: Huntington again spoke eloquent words of introduction, while the Governor
1:01:13
Speaker 1: of the Commonwealth, Henry J. Gardner, greeted the illustrious symbolot
1:01:17
Speaker 1: in a welcome, warm and gushing as from the heart
1:01:20
Speaker 1: of the people whom he represented, and then semi replied,
1:01:24
Speaker 1: or at least he attempted to reply, who was obliged,
1:01:26
Speaker 1: owing to failure voice and strength to desist after speaking
1:01:29
Speaker 1: for the space of three minutes. Only other expressions of
1:01:34
Speaker 1: the State's sympathy and affection for the distinguished sufferer there
1:01:37
Speaker 1: would have been, had he not himself checked them. In
1:01:41
Speaker 1: the summer of eighteen fifty six, Governor Gardner recommended the
1:01:44
Speaker 1: assumption of the expenses of mister Sumner's illness by the Commonwealth,
1:01:48
Speaker 1: and the Senate promptly adopted a resolve to the same effect.
1:01:52
Speaker 1: As soon as mister Sumner heard of the motion, he
1:01:55
Speaker 1: instructed mister burning Game to telegraph his positive declination, adding,
1:02:00
Speaker 1: at the same time, whatever Massachusetts can give, let it
1:02:03
Speaker 1: all go to suffering Kansas. About the same time, a
1:02:08
Speaker 1: subscription was started to express to the Honorable Charles Sumner,
1:02:11
Speaker 1: in some permanent and appropriate form, our admiration of his
1:02:15
Speaker 1: spotless private and public character, and of our lively gratitude
1:02:19
Speaker 1: for his dauntless courage in the defense of freedom on
1:02:21
Speaker 1: the floor of Congress, and especially our unqualified approbation of
1:02:25
Speaker 1: his speech in behalf of Free Kansas, delivered in the
1:02:28
Speaker 1: Senate on the twentieth of May last, etc. Center. Among
1:02:31
Speaker 1: the early signers of the paper were Josiah Quincy, Henry W. Longfellow,
1:02:36
Speaker 1: Jared Sparks, FD. Huntington, R. H. Dana Junior, Edward Everett,
1:02:42
Speaker 1: Edwin P. Whipple, Alexander H. Rice, Charles, Francis Adams, AMESA. Walker,
1:02:47
Speaker 1: William Claflin, and Eli Thayer. One thousand dollars were already
1:02:52
Speaker 1: subscribed when guidings of this movement reached Sumner, grateful as
1:02:56
Speaker 1: the action was to him, he did not hesitate a
1:02:58
Speaker 1: moment as to the to pursue in regard to the matter.
1:03:02
Speaker 1: From his sick bit, he dictated an explicit refusal to
1:03:05
Speaker 1: allow the movement to proceed further, and sent it to
1:03:08
Speaker 1: mister Carlos Pears, the reputed originator of the flattering project.
1:03:13
Speaker 1: It is enough for me so round the note that
1:03:15
Speaker 1: you and your generous associates approve what I had said.
1:03:18
Speaker 1: Such sympathy and support in the cause of which I
1:03:21
Speaker 1: am a humble representative is all that I ask for
1:03:24
Speaker 1: myself or am willing to accept. But the cause itself
1:03:27
Speaker 1: has constant claims on us all, and I trust you
1:03:30
Speaker 1: will not deem me too both if I express a
1:03:33
Speaker 1: desire that the contributions intended for the testimonial to me
1:03:37
Speaker 1: may be applied at once and without abatement of any kind,
1:03:40
Speaker 1: to the recovery and security of freedom in Kansas. And
1:03:45
Speaker 1: this was done at a meeting of the subscribers after
1:03:48
Speaker 1: the receipt of this letter. It was resolved that the
1:03:51
Speaker 1: secretary of this meeting be instructed to subscribe the amount
1:03:54
Speaker 1: of funds in his hands to aid the cause of
1:03:57
Speaker 1: freedom in Kansas. In the name of honor Charles Sumner,
1:04:01
Speaker 1: and so were the words of the brave soul on
1:04:03
Speaker 1: behalf of outrage Kansas hardened entities. But he was not
1:04:07
Speaker 1: content with merely diverting to Kansas contributions intended for himself.
1:04:11
Speaker 1: He contributed directly and generously from his own pocket, many
1:04:14
Speaker 1: times over timely aid to the same noble object. In
1:04:19
Speaker 1: January eighteen fifty seven, he received his re election as
1:04:23
Speaker 1: a Senator of the United States, practically with no about
1:04:26
Speaker 1: position within or without the legislature. In the Senate, the
1:04:29
Speaker 1: vote was unanimous. In the House, where it was otherwise.
1:04:33
Speaker 1: Mister Summer got all but twelve of the three hundred
1:04:36
Speaker 1: and forty five votes cast. These twelve non concerning votes
1:04:40
Speaker 1: were distributed among not less than nine candidates, Robert C. Winthrop,
1:04:44
Speaker 1: Sumner's old opponent, getting exactly three of them. The Boston
1:04:50
Speaker 1: Daily Advertiser, commenting on the election, made some interesting and
1:04:54
Speaker 1: significant comparison, said that with the one which occurred six
1:04:58
Speaker 1: years before. It said, it is as impossible able to
1:05:00
Speaker 1: refrain from comparing the election of yesterday with mister Sumner's
1:05:03
Speaker 1: previous election in the same place six years ago. Now
1:05:07
Speaker 1: he receives nearly all the votes on the first ballot
1:05:11
Speaker 1: taken on the third day of the session. Every member
1:05:13
Speaker 1: speaking allowed his vote. Then he received only the exact
1:05:16
Speaker 1: number necessary for a choice one, more than half the
1:05:19
Speaker 1: whole number, and the election was not effected until the
1:05:22
Speaker 1: twenty sixth ballot taken on the one hundred and fourteenth
1:05:25
Speaker 1: day of the session April twenty four, eighteen fifty one,
1:05:28
Speaker 1: and the votes were thrown in sealed envelopes. Then he
1:05:32
Speaker 1: was the candidate of a party which drew twenty seven thousand,
1:05:35
Speaker 1: six hundred and thirty six votes in the state at
1:05:38
Speaker 1: the preceding popular election, or about one fifth of the
1:05:41
Speaker 1: whole number. Now he is the candidate of a party
1:05:44
Speaker 1: which threw one hundred and eighty one hundred and ninety
1:05:47
Speaker 1: votes in the state at the last popular election, or
1:05:50
Speaker 1: about two thirds of the whole number. Then he was
1:05:52
Speaker 1: chosen to a body where he could expect to find
1:05:54
Speaker 1: but two or three associates sympathizing with his sentiments. Now
1:05:58
Speaker 1: he is a member of a party which has a
1:06:00
Speaker 1: majority in the lower House of Congress and numbers a
1:06:03
Speaker 1: quarter of the members even of the Senate of the
1:06:06
Speaker 1: United States. Truly tempora mutantur knows that moot tamur in
1:06:12
Speaker 1: illis still and nevertheless, and notwithstanding, as Professor Jenning of
1:06:17
Speaker 1: Harvard University once began a sentence, mister Sumner's disability continued.
1:06:22
Speaker 1: On the fourth of March, he was sworn a senator
1:06:25
Speaker 1: for the second term, and three days later sailed for
1:06:27
Speaker 1: Harvre in search of health. In December, at the opening
1:06:30
Speaker 1: of Congress, he resumed a seat, only to find himself,
1:06:33
Speaker 1: as he expressed it, within the circumscriptions of an invalid,
1:06:38
Speaker 1: fully aware at last, through a succession of relapses, of
1:06:41
Speaker 1: the gravity of his disease and of the necessity letting
1:06:44
Speaker 1: patients have its perfect work, another endeavor to recover his
1:06:48
Speaker 1: lost figure of body. He sailed a second time for
1:06:51
Speaker 1: Havre on May twenty two, eighteen fifty eight, just to
1:06:55
Speaker 1: years the reader will proceed. After he was assaulted in
1:06:58
Speaker 1: the Senate at parents, he found placed himself under the
1:07:01
Speaker 1: medical care of doctor Brown, sequa who to mister Sumner's
1:07:05
Speaker 1: inquiry as to the remedy, replied with laconic brevity. Fire
1:07:09
Speaker 1: Sumner's resolution was instantly taken. When can you apply, he asked, tomorrow,
1:07:14
Speaker 1: if you please. The doctor answered, why not this afternoon?
1:07:18
Speaker 1: Was the patient's next question, and that afternoon, without anesthetics
1:07:22
Speaker 1: of any count, he submitted to the treatment by fire,
1:07:24
Speaker 1: the torture of the maxa, which Brown Sequa has pronounced
1:07:28
Speaker 1: the greatest suffering that can be inflicted on mortal man. Indeed,
1:07:32
Speaker 1: not once, but seven times did he submit himself to
1:07:35
Speaker 1: its agonies. In addition to the maxa, he took cold
1:07:38
Speaker 1: and hot dishes, headaches, and sea baths. At harvar edmind Pellier,
1:07:43
Speaker 1: in the south of Franceburry spent the winter. He was
1:07:46
Speaker 1: cupped daily on the spine, and passed eighteen of the
1:07:49
Speaker 1: twenty four hours in a horizontal position. In the spring,
1:07:52
Speaker 1: he made a hurried visit to Italy and back again
1:07:54
Speaker 1: to Paris, where he reported himself to doctor Brown Saqua,
1:07:58
Speaker 1: who pronounced him well. Congress began in December eighteen fifty nine.
1:08:02
Speaker 1: The Defender of humanity was again in his seat with
1:08:05
Speaker 1: a certain consciousness of restored health, as he records, although
1:08:09
Speaker 1: had managed to enter upon work slowly, his empty seat
1:08:13
Speaker 1: during those years was the precious, the inestimable contribution of
1:08:19
Speaker 1: Massachusetts of the holy cause in which he was stricken
1:08:21
Speaker 1: down vacant. It stared voicing as no lips could speak
1:08:25
Speaker 1: her eloquent purpose and her mighty passion. But now it
1:08:29
Speaker 1: behooves reader and writer to catch up with the progress
1:08:32
Speaker 1: of the national tragedy during the eventful and exciting years
1:08:35
Speaker 1: covered by the term of Suman's disability. This, however, must
1:08:39
Speaker 1: be done not at the end of the present chapter,
1:08:41
Speaker 1: but at the beginning of the next. End of chapter eleven,