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

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Speaker 1: Chapter eight 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: The conflict thickens defeated in the Whig State Convention of
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Speaker 1: eighteen forty six, Sumner carried his cause directly to the people.
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Speaker 1: Perhaps they could put an anti slavery soul into the
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Speaker 1: Whig body. Thenceforth, his hammering on the anvil of public
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Speaker 1: opinion was incessant. The sparks began to fly fast and
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Speaker 1: far gloriously. In earnest was the man. He glowed and
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Speaker 1: flamed with an unconquerable spirit and purpose. Such tremendous ardor
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Speaker 1: as was his, became contagious from mind to mind, The
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Speaker 1: kindling frenzy past, until in time Massachusetts was a light
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Speaker 1: and ablaze from the hills to the sea. Now, as
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Speaker 1: we have seen, his folkrum was the Mexican War. Now
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Speaker 1: the lack of an anti slavery backbone in a national
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Speaker 1: statesman like Winthrop. Now it was white slavery in the
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Speaker 1: Barbary States. With a strong lever of humanity, he was
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Speaker 1: steadily tilting to its downfall. A world of pro slavery, prejudice,
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Speaker 1: and sympathy in the Bay State. From the platform at
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Speaker 1: the bar. Through the press, he was scattering burning coal
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Speaker 1: seeds of high resolves. The coals were throwing the ice
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Speaker 1: from the popular heart. The seeds were to spring up
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Speaker 1: in an abundant crop of anti slavery zeal And action.
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Speaker 1: Sumner expected that this rising tide of opposition to slavery
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Speaker 1: would take one of two courses, either through the old
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Speaker 1: Whig channel, or, if obstructed, then by a new one,
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Speaker 1: which it would make for itself. This expectation was not disappointed.
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Speaker 1: The swelling flows sought at first to pour itself through
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Speaker 1: the existing political conduit. The attempt was not successful. With
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Speaker 1: accumulated strength and volume, it was ultimately thrown back upon
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Speaker 1: the second way. The young anti slavery leader, at a
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Speaker 1: meeting held in Boston September fifteen, eighteen forty seven, for
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Speaker 1: the purpose of choosing delegates to the annual Whig State
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Speaker 1: Convention in anticipation of the acquisition of new national territory
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Speaker 1: at the close of the war with Mexico, tried without avail,
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Speaker 1: to commit the meeting to the demand that there shall
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Speaker 1: be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude therein otherwise than for
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Speaker 1: the punishment of crime. Undiscouraged by this fresh proof of
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Speaker 1: the incorrigibility of the Whigs in regard to slavery, Sumonlar
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Speaker 1: at the head of the Whig delegation to the State Convention,
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Speaker 1: made in the Convention of final effort to bring the
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Speaker 1: Whig party to an avowal of anti slavery principles. The
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Speaker 1: Convention was hopelessly split into two hostile wings, designated in
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Speaker 1: the political nomenclature of the day Cotton Whigs and Conscience Whigs.
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Speaker 1: The former, for the sake of material interests, were for
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Speaker 1: pursuing the old time policy of silence and oblivion on
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Speaker 1: the slavery question, while the letter for the sake of freedom,
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Speaker 1: were for the adoption of an anti slavery test. In
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Speaker 1: the selection of candidates by the next National Whig Convention
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Speaker 1: for the presidency and vice presidency of the United States,
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Speaker 1: a resolution was introduced recommending Webster, who was President, to try,
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Speaker 1: doubtless upon the two warring wings of the Convention the
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Speaker 1: spell of his imposing influence and eloquence as a candidate
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Speaker 1: for the presidency. But nothing daunt did the Conscience Whigs,
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Speaker 1: through John G. Palfrey move the following amendment to the
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Speaker 1: Resolution VS. Resolved that the Whigs of Massachusetts will support
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Speaker 1: no men for the offices of President and Vice President
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Speaker 1: as such as are known by their acts or declared
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Speaker 1: opinions to be opposed to the extension of slavery. This
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Speaker 1: amendment brought on a sharp engagement between the two hostile
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Speaker 1: camps of the Convention. Conspicuous in this struggle on the
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Speaker 1: one side where Robert C. Winthrop and John C. Gray,
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Speaker 1: and on the other were Palfrey, Charles Francis Adams, and
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Speaker 1: Charles Sumner. Sumner's speech and support of the amendment was
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Speaker 1: startlingly bold and defiant of consequences. Alone in the company
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Speaker 1: of nations, he thundered, our country assumes the championship of
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Speaker 1: this hateful institution far away in the east, at the
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Speaker 1: gateways of the day, by the sacred waters of the Ganges,
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Speaker 1: in effeminate India, slavery is condemned. In Constantinople, queenly seat
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Speaker 1: of the most powerful Mahatminton Empire, where barbarism still mingles
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Speaker 1: with civilization. The Ottoman Sultan brands it with the stigma
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Speaker 1: of disapprobation. The barbary states of Africa are changed to abolitionists.
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Speaker 1: From the untutored ruler of Morocco comes the declaration of
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Speaker 1: his stamped in the formal terms of a treaty, that
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Speaker 1: the very name of slavery may perish from the minds
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Speaker 1: of men, And only recently from the Bay of Tunis
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Speaker 1: has proceeded that noble act by which, for the glory
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Speaker 1: of God and to distinguish man from the brute creation.
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Speaker 1: I quote his own words, he decreed its total abolition
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Speaker 1: throughout his dominions. Let Christian America be taught by these
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Speaker 1: despise Mahometans. God forbid that our republic, heir of all
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Speaker 1: the ages and the foremost files of time, should adopt
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Speaker 1: anew the barbarism and cruelty they have renounced or condemned.
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Speaker 1: But coming directly to the point of the debate, nothing
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Speaker 1: could exceed the fearlessness of his tone on the present occasion,
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Speaker 1: he said, we can only declare our course, but this
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Speaker 1: should be in language sternly expressive of our determination. It
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Speaker 1: would not be enough merely to put forth opinions in
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Speaker 1: well couched phrase and add yet other resolutions to the
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Speaker 1: hollow words which have passed into the limbo of things
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Speaker 1: lost on earth. We must give to our opinions that
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Speaker 1: edge and force which they can have only from the
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Speaker 1: declared determination to abide by them at all times. We
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Speaker 1: must carry them to the ballot box and bring our
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Speaker 1: candidates to their standard. The recent constitution of Louisiana to
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Speaker 1: discourage dueling, disqualifies all engaged in a duel from holding
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Speaker 1: any civil office. The Whigs of Massachusetts, so far as
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Speaker 1: in them lies, must pronounce a similar sentence of disqualification
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Speaker 1: upon all not known to be against the extension of slavery.
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Speaker 1: I urge this course at the present moment from deep
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Speaker 1: conviction of its importance, and be assured, Sir, whatever the
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Speaker 1: final determination of this convention, there are many here today
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Speaker 1: will never yield support to any candidate for president or
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Speaker 1: vice presidency who is not known to be against the
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Speaker 1: extension of slavery, even though he have freshly received the
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Speaker 1: sacramental function of a regular nomination. We cannot say with
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Speaker 1: the testable morality our party right or wrong. The time
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Speaker 1: is gone by when gentlemen can expect to introduce among
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Speaker 1: us the discipline of the camp. Loyalty to principle is
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Speaker 1: higher than loyalty to party. Far above any flickering light
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Speaker 1: or battle lantern of party is the everlasting son of truth,
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Speaker 1: in whose beings are the duties of men. The Amendment
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Speaker 1: was defeated. The cotton wing of the convention triumphed in
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Speaker 1: a show of hands altogether too strong for the Whig
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Speaker 1: Bottles proved the anti slavery wine. Sumner's early hoped that
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Speaker 1: his party would become the Party of freedom and humanity
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Speaker 1: was now wholly quenched. After this, he entered no more
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Speaker 1: a Whig state convention, for he saw clearly enough then
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Speaker 1: that the Whigs were joined to their two masters, webster
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Speaker 1: and slavery. The cotton wing of the party in Massachusetts
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Speaker 1: was devoted to the former, and he in turn was
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Speaker 1: given up body and soul to the service of self
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Speaker 1: and the dear Union. From neither was humanity able thenceforth
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Speaker 1: to extract a single generous word or act. Sumner had
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Speaker 1: now approached a crisis in his life. He was about
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Speaker 1: to break away from a party which comprised the culture
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Speaker 1: and wealth of the city and state to which he belonged.
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Speaker 1: But the commanding ability of the young orator and leader
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Speaker 1: had been so signally displayed during the two previous years
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Speaker 1: in those notable orations the true Grandeur of nations and
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Speaker 1: the scholar, the jurist, the artist, the philanthropist, as well
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Speaker 1: as in other capital performances, political, academic, and popular, that
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Speaker 1: even this powerful party, with Webster at its head, could
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Speaker 1: not now sneer or frown him down. Sumner was already
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Speaker 1: famous and the center of a fast widening influence in Massachusetts.
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Speaker 1: Such a man as he must have seemed an utter
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Speaker 1: enigma to one like Webster. The moral passion and exaltation
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Speaker 1: which distinguished the younger leader the elder, had long extinguished
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Speaker 1: in him. But the celestial fires which ambition had smothered
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Speaker 1: in the breast of Webster, someoner was fanning to a
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Speaker 1: fierce heat on his own heart's altered what the former
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Speaker 1: refused to undertake. Destiny called the latter to accomplish. Sumner's
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Speaker 1: public and formal renunciation of his relations with the Whig
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Speaker 1: Party was made in the latter part of June eighteen
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Speaker 1: forty eight, following the action of the National Convention of
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Speaker 1: that party in Philadelphia during the first of the month
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Speaker 1: in nominating a Southern slave holder for the presidency. Both
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Speaker 1: of the old parties, through their national conventions this year,
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Speaker 1: demonstrated their utter worthlessness as anti slavery instruments. Nothing in
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Speaker 1: that regard could be expected from the Democratic Organization, since
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Speaker 1: indifference to the South had placed in nomination for the
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Speaker 1: presidency a northern man who had recounted his Free State
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Speaker 1: opinions on the Wilmot proviso. Lewis cass and not exactly
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Speaker 1: a northern man with Southern principles, was at least a
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Speaker 1: Northern n under Southern influences, and therefore, according to Sumner's
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Speaker 1: well known political test, was not fit to represent the
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Speaker 1: Free States in the national government, much less to be
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Speaker 1: chosen by their votes as the head of that government.
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Speaker 1: But the Whigs in their selection of General Taylor showed
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Speaker 1: an even more shameless subserviency to Southern influences. This action
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Speaker 1: advertised the Friends of Freedom that thenceforth they need expect
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Speaker 1: no anti slavery performance from that party, which was the
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Speaker 1: signal for secession of the more determined of its anti
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Speaker 1: slavery membership in the starting of a new movement devoted
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Speaker 1: to uncompromising opposition to the farther spread of slavery in
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Speaker 1: the Union. Two Massachusetts delegates to the National Convention raised
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Speaker 1: boldly in that body the standard of revolt. Charles Allen
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Speaker 1: and Henry Wilson, upon the nomination of General Taylor, declared
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Speaker 1: their refusal to support him as a candidate for the presidency,
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Speaker 1: and so the great Whig bolt of forty four years
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Speaker 1: ago was inaugurated before the adjournment of the Convention. The
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Speaker 1: reception of the news of the nomination in Massachusetts verified
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Speaker 1: the threatening prediction of Sumner made the previous autumn to
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Speaker 1: the Whig State Convention, that there are many here today
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Speaker 1: who will never yield support to any candidate for presidency
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Speaker 1: or vice presidency who is not known to be against
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Speaker 1: the extension of slavery. Even though he hath freshly received
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Speaker 1: the sacramental unction of a regular nomination. Nothing was now
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Speaker 1: left to such people, Sumner among them, who desire to
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Speaker 1: operate politically against the national evil, but to proceed to
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Speaker 1: the organization of a new party to that end. The
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Speaker 1: state of the northumb the slavery question indicated plainly enough
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Speaker 1: that the time was ripe for organized resistance to the
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Speaker 1: extension and to the increasing pretensions of the peculiar institution
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Speaker 1: of the South. This was particularly true of Massachusetts, where
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Speaker 1: after the Whig fiasco, a call was promptly issued for
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Speaker 1: a convention to found a new Party of Freedom. The
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Speaker 1: convention met in Worcester June twenty eighth, eighteen forty eight.
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Speaker 1: There was no hall in the city large enough to
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Speaker 1: accommodate the excited and enthusiastic multitude who had, in response
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Speaker 1: to the call, assembled from all parts of the state,
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Speaker 1: to the number of about five thousand souls on fire
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Speaker 1: with hatred of slavery. It was only common in the
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Speaker 1: open air that the founding of the Free Soil Party
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Speaker 1: in Massachusetts proceeded that memorable June day. The speeches of
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Speaker 1: Samuel Hoore, who was made President of the Permanent Organization
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Speaker 1: of the mass Convention, of Henry Wilson, Charles Allen, Joshua Levitt,
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Speaker 1: Joshua R. Giddings, J. C. Lovejoy, Charles Francis Adams of Sumner,
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Speaker 1: and others, rose in the determined manhood of them to
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Speaker 1: the level of the emergency Old Party. Ties were then
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Speaker 1: and there renounced by each of the speakers about none
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Speaker 1: more distinctly and forcibly than by Charles Sumner, who, beyond
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Speaker 1: all the others, embodied him and himself the stern spirit
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Speaker 1: and purpose of the anti slavery revolution spreading through the
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Speaker 1: Free States and manifesting itself in independent political action. A
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Speaker 1: party which renounces its sentiments, he said, firmly, must expect
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Speaker 1: to be renounced in the coming contest. I wish it
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Speaker 1: understood that I belong to the Party of Freedom, to
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Speaker 1: that party which plants itself on the Declaration of Independence
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Speaker 1: and the Constitution of the United States. He was one
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Speaker 1: of the first to perceive the necessity of freedom power
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Speaker 1: to match and master the slave power. The lovers of freedom,
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Speaker 1: said he at this time, from both parties and irrespective
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Speaker 1: of all party associations, must unite and by new combination,
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Speaker 1: continual to the Constitution, oppose both candidates. This will be
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Speaker 1: the freedom power, whose single object would be to resist
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Speaker 1: the slave power. We will put them face to face
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Speaker 1: and let them grapple. Who can doubt the result. He
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Speaker 1: refused to choose bew Queen, two evils. He had no
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Speaker 1: choice when such were presented to him. He must needs
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Speaker 1: reject both. Both Casts and Tailor were evils, and as
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Speaker 1: such he rejected them. He admitted, however, that there are
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Speaker 1: occasions of political difference when it may become expedient to
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Speaker 1: vote for a candidate who does not completely represent our sentiments.
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Speaker 1: There are matters legitimately within the range of expediency and compromise.
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Speaker 1: The tariff and the currency are of this character. If
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Speaker 1: a candidate differs from me on these more or less,
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Speaker 1: I may yet vote for him. But the question before
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Speaker 1: the country is of another character. This will not admit
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Speaker 1: of compromise. It is not within the domain of expediency.
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Speaker 1: To be wrong on this is to be wholly wrong.
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Speaker 1: Replying to the taunt that to vote for a third
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Speaker 1: party candidate was to throw away votes into fail, he exclaimed,
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Speaker 1: in words which must long have burned in the hearts
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Speaker 1: of his hearers, fails, sir. No honest, earnest effort in
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Speaker 1: a good cause can fail. It may not be crowned
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Speaker 1: with the applause of man. It may not seem to
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Speaker 1: touch the goal of immediate worldly success, which is the
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Speaker 1: end and aim of so much of life. But it
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Speaker 1: is not lost. It helps to strengthen the week with
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Speaker 1: new virtue, to arm the irresolute with proper energy, to
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Speaker 1: animate all with devotion to duty, which in the end
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Speaker 1: conquers all fail. Did the martyrs fail when with precious
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Speaker 1: blood day so to see of the church. Did the
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Speaker 1: discomfited champions of freedom fail, who have left those names
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Speaker 1: in history that can never die? Did the three hundred
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Speaker 1: Spartan fail, when in the narrow past they did not
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Speaker 1: fear to brave the innumerable Persian hosts, whose very arrows
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Speaker 1: darkened the sun, overborne by numbers crushed to earth. They
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Speaker 1: left an example greater far than any victory. And this
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Speaker 1: is the least we can do. Our example would be
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Speaker 1: the main spring of triumph hereafter. It will not be
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Speaker 1: the first time in history that the hosts of slavery
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Speaker 1: have outnumbered the champions of freedom. But where is it
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Speaker 1: written does slavery finally prevailed? At the close of the
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Speaker 1: mass convention at Worcester? The new political movement may be
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Speaker 1: said to have been fully launched upon the tide of
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Speaker 1: public opinion in Massachusetts that it had come to stay.
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Speaker 1: All the auguries of the times were loudly prophesying and
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Speaker 1: proclaiming that it would finally prevail. Seemed to a soul
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Speaker 1: like Sumner a foregone conclusion. His confidence on that day
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Speaker 1: in regard to the immediate results it was destined to
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Speaker 1: produce subsequent events amply justified. It will sweep the heart
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Speaker 1: strings of the people, he declared. It will smite all
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Speaker 1: the cords with a might to draw forth emotions such
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Speaker 1: as no political struggle ever awakened before. On the ninth
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Speaker 1: of August, following the Great anti slavery Demonstration of Worcester,
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Speaker 1: a Convention of the Free States held did Buffalo nominated
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Speaker 1: for the presidency and the vice presidency, respectively, on a
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Speaker 1: free soil platform, Martin Van Buren of New York and
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Speaker 1: Charles Francis Adams of Massachusetts. We inscribe on our banners,
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Speaker 1: so ran a resolve of the Buffalo Convention, free soil,
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Speaker 1: free speech, free labor, and free men and under. It
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Speaker 1: will fight on and fight ever until the triumphant victory
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Speaker 1: shall reward our exertions. Those words struck all the cords
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Speaker 1: in the breasts of thousands at the north, became the
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Speaker 1: watchword of the stirring campaign inaugurated by the new Party
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Speaker 1: of Freedom. Upon the adjournment of the convention, the political
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Speaker 1: antecedents of the Buffalo nominees betokened, as nothing else could
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Speaker 1: the wide trend which the new movement was taking. Then,
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Speaker 1: Buren had been the foremost and most powerful of the
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Speaker 1: veteran chieftains of the Democratic Party, and Adams was one
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Speaker 1: of the most influential and able of the younger leaders
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Speaker 1: of the Massachusetts Whigs. Is well known that Webster himself
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Speaker 1: hesitated for a while with divided mind between the new
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Speaker 1: Party of Freedom and the old Whig organization, with Zachary
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Speaker 1: Taylor at its head. Like ben Buren in respect of
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Speaker 1: the Democratic nomination, he had set his soul on the
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Speaker 1: Whig nomination. They were both in the obedience to the
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Speaker 1: southern wings of their respective parties, pushed from their stools,
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Speaker 1: and others more satisfactory to the slave power seated in
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Speaker 1: their places. Disappointed, ambition enough thirst for revenge hurried Van
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Speaker 1: Buren into actual revote and drove Webster nearly to the
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Speaker 1: same length in opposition to the candidacy of General Taylor.
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Speaker 1: The supreme and calculating selfishness of the latter, however, conquered
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Speaker 1: finally the fierce passion for revenge and saved him for
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Speaker 1: four sorry years to the service of the Whigs and
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Speaker 1: their imperious master of the slave despotism of the nation.
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Speaker 1: If Webster mutinists because of his personal defeat stood irresolute
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Speaker 1: during a few Southern weeks between the camp of the
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Speaker 1: New Movement and that of the Weeks, there were thousands
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Speaker 1: of his old friends and followers, mutinous because of the
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Speaker 1: defeat of liberty, who betrayed no irresolution, but arranged themselves
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Speaker 1: promptly under the banner flung to the breeze by the
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Speaker 1: Free Soil Party. As the great meeting in thunder Yoe
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Speaker 1: Hall on August twenty two, called to ratify the nominations
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Speaker 1: of the Buffalo Convention grandly attested. Over this meeting, Charles
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Speaker 1: Sumner was fiddly chosen to preside to him. Webster feeling
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Speaker 1: them the hopes of anti slavery Massachusetts turned for leadership
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Speaker 1: as to no other man in the mighty political struggle.
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Speaker 1: With the slave power then impending against the combination resolute
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Speaker 1: and uncompromising, the moral instincts of Massachusetts were reaching out
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Speaker 1: toward a champion not less determined and unyielding. Sumner's opening
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Speaker 1: speech at the ratification meeting furnished additional proof, if indeed
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Speaker 1: such were needed, that if the hour of the irrepressible
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Speaker 1: conflict in the Bay State had struck, God had provided
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Speaker 1: the man for the crisis. There was a moral force
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Speaker 1: and momentum of purpose of the right about him, which
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Speaker 1: rendered him singular, pre eminent and among the political opponents
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Speaker 1: of slavery, not alone in Massachusetts, but throughout the Free States.
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Speaker 1: Whatever he did, wherever he appeared, whenever he spoke, whether
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Speaker 1: directly on the subject of slavery or on some other topic,
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Speaker 1: he gave more and more now an impression of a
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Speaker 1: man possessed, burning up with the fiwers of one supreme idea.
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Speaker 1: There now began run through all his political utterances, a
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Speaker 1: sameness of thought, a repetition of argument and historical reference
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Speaker 1: and illustration, an impressive and almost imposing uniformity of passion
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Speaker 1: and power. All his knowledge of universal history, all his
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Speaker 1: vast readings in the world of letters, all his immense
20:30
Speaker 1: acquisitions as a jurist, seem now but so many splendid
20:33
Speaker 1: tributaries to feed and serve this one idea, to raise
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Speaker 1: the strong current of his love and devotion to the
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Speaker 1: level of its utmost demands. By the side of this
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Speaker 1: one idea, all other questions sank from his view. He
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Speaker 1: recognized but one question before the country calling for settlement,
20:51
Speaker 1: and that was his cause. The cause of humanity no longer,
20:55
Speaker 1: said he, with characteristic phraseology and confidence, will banks and
20:59
Speaker 1: tariffs occupy the foremost place, and sounding always with the
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Speaker 1: jink of dollars and cents, give their tone to the
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Speaker 1: policy of the country. Henceforward protection to man will be
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Speaker 1: the true American system. It is his glory that, more
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Speaker 1: than any other political leader of the times, he endeavored
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Speaker 1: to make this noble prophecy reality in the life of
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Speaker 1: the North. And though the actual results fell short, wretchedly
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Speaker 1: short of the splendid expectation, yet it cannot be doubted
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Speaker 1: that there did pass a novel virtue, a moral force
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Speaker 1: into the politics of the Free States, which wrought mightily
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Speaker 1: ever afterward for the protection of man in America. In
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Speaker 1: the campaign which the new Yahall Ratification Meeting inaugurated in Massachusetts,
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Speaker 1: some not rendered signal service to the new Party on
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Speaker 1: the stump, addressing large audiences all over the state, from
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Speaker 1: the sea to the hills. But this was not the
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Speaker 1: sum of his contributions to the Free Soil movement. During
21:56
Speaker 1: this first year of its appearance as a national organization.
22:00
Speaker 1: His men was as busy as was his tongue. In
22:02
Speaker 1: his behalf, he accepted besides the Free Soil nomination for
22:07
Speaker 1: Congress from the Boston District. The men who nominated knew,
22:11
Speaker 1: and he knew, that he would not be elected. But
22:13
Speaker 1: the time had come when it was the duty of
22:15
Speaker 1: the friends of freedom to stand together at the ballot
22:18
Speaker 1: box and to make a show of hands for the
22:20
Speaker 1: sake of their principles. Union now was the watchword and
22:23
Speaker 1: self sacrifice in labor. It was peculiarly Sumner's, and hens
22:28
Speaker 1: he cheerfully took the post as signed him in the contest,
22:31
Speaker 1: notwithstanding his early and strong disinclination to enter upon a
22:34
Speaker 1: political career. It has been my desire and determination, he
22:40
Speaker 1: wrote the committee which informed him of his nomination, to
22:43
Speaker 1: labor in such fields of usefulness as are open to
22:46
Speaker 1: every private citizen, without the honor, emolument, or constraint of office.
22:51
Speaker 1: I would show by example. Might I so aspire that
22:54
Speaker 1: something may be done for the welfare of our race
22:57
Speaker 1: without the support of public station or the acts of
23:00
Speaker 1: popular favor. In this course I hope to persevere happily
23:04
Speaker 1: for mankind. This lofty aspiration of the young scholar was
23:07
Speaker 1: not down in the book of Destiny. For him, the
23:10
Speaker 1: fates that quite other plans, with the execution of which
23:13
Speaker 1: all unconscious to himself, they were at the moment busily engaged.
23:19
Speaker 1: The estimation in which Sumner was held at this time
23:21
Speaker 1: in Massachusetts may be gathered from words of a man
23:24
Speaker 1: of so much mental Saint Foix, as was Charles Francis
23:28
Speaker 1: Adams uttered by him on the occasion of the last
23:31
Speaker 1: rally for Freedom infinu Ya Hall on the night of
23:34
Speaker 1: November ninth, and in mister Sumner's absence from the meeting,
23:38
Speaker 1: said mister Adams, Charles Sumner is a man of large heart,
23:41
Speaker 1: not of that class of politicians who calculate availability and
23:45
Speaker 1: the numbers of the opposition, but a man who takes
23:48
Speaker 1: an enlarge view of a noble system of action and
23:51
Speaker 1: places his shoulder to the wheel to move it forward.
23:54
Speaker 1: He is now doing more to impress on the country
23:57
Speaker 1: a new and powerful moral sentiment in connection with the
24:00
Speaker 1: movement than any man or any other ten men in
24:03
Speaker 1: the country. That certainly sounds like enthusiastic praise, and it
24:07
Speaker 1: may be extravagant praise, but this much, it is safe
24:10
Speaker 1: to assert that the reform in Massachusetts had found in
24:14
Speaker 1: a young jurist of thirty seven, it's pre eminent representative.
24:19
Speaker 1: Subsequent events proved that there were others in the country
24:22
Speaker 1: who equaled him in intellectual force, and in some particular
24:25
Speaker 1: lines of political leadership excelled him, as did S. P.
24:29
Speaker 1: Chase in practical statesmanship, and W. H. Seward and Henry
24:32
Speaker 1: Wilson in party management. But in moral oneness of purpose
24:36
Speaker 1: and momentum of character he was unrivaled, And at this
24:41
Speaker 1: juncture of the conflict between freedom and slavery in the Republic,
24:45
Speaker 1: those were the qualities above all others which freedom required
24:48
Speaker 1: her champions to possess. In sheer weight of intellect, Webster
24:52
Speaker 1: had no peer in the public life of the land, But,
24:54
Speaker 1: lacking the moral qualities which distinguished Sumner, the god like Daniel,
24:58
Speaker 1: was thrust from his own that another might mount it.
25:02
Speaker 1: Sumner's feet, without his knowing it, were already upon the
25:05
Speaker 1: steps of Webster's throne in Massachusetts. Another capital qualification of
25:10
Speaker 1: Sumner for leadership of this crisis was the clearness with
25:13
Speaker 1: which he apprehended the difference between political opposition to slavery
25:18
Speaker 1: and the moral agitation against it, which looked to general
25:21
Speaker 1: and immediate emancipation as a direct end he well knew
25:26
Speaker 1: that a political party in America could not address itself
25:30
Speaker 1: successfully to such an end. For the political power of
25:33
Speaker 1: the Union could not reach slavery within the states. Party
25:36
Speaker 1: action had necessarily to proceed along constitutional lines in order
25:41
Speaker 1: to acquire and retain the confidence and support of the people.
25:44
Speaker 1: Slavery was local and drew its life from municipal institutions.
25:48
Speaker 1: In the absence of positive law creating the evil, it
25:52
Speaker 1: had no standing in the national forum. To his scholar's ear,
25:57
Speaker 1: the history of the country sounded but one note, the
25:59
Speaker 1: note of freedom. To his juriside, the Constitution, on no
26:03
Speaker 1: page and in no line, sanctioned the holding of property
26:06
Speaker 1: in men. Freedom was national, slavery was sectional. He opposed
26:11
Speaker 1: slavery therefore wherever the nation was responsible for it, whether
26:15
Speaker 1: in the district of Columbia, or in the national territories,
26:18
Speaker 1: or on the high seas under the national colors. Here
26:21
Speaker 1: he stopped wisely circumscribing his political aims and duties by
26:24
Speaker 1: his political responsibilities. His aim as a political reformer was
26:29
Speaker 1: in fine, to place the national government openly, actively and
26:33
Speaker 1: perpetually on the side of freedom. The months from the
26:36
Speaker 1: formation of the Free Soil party to the meeting of
26:39
Speaker 1: Congress in December eighteen forty nine. Were months of steadily
26:42
Speaker 1: increasing excitement on the subject of slavery. The slave power,
26:46
Speaker 1: repeatedly attempting, had repeatedly failed to open the national territories
26:50
Speaker 1: to slave immigration. Over Oregon in eighteen forty eight, there
26:54
Speaker 1: had occurred in Congress's fierce preliminary trial of strength between
26:57
Speaker 1: the sections. The South was known in the struggle, and
27:01
Speaker 1: the anti slavery principles of the Ordinance of seventeen eighty
27:04
Speaker 1: seven were applied to the territory defeated. At this point,
27:08
Speaker 1: the slave states through themselves with determined purpose, upon California
27:12
Speaker 1: and New Mexico, in order to effect an opening into
27:15
Speaker 1: them for the peculiar institution, and thereby to preserve the
27:19
Speaker 1: political balance of the federal system in its favor. But
27:22
Speaker 1: to every such attempt, the North opposed a resolute front
27:25
Speaker 1: and wall of resistance to the farther extension of slavery
27:28
Speaker 1: under the Constitution. Nevertheless, Calhoun and the South clung to
27:32
Speaker 1: the pretension of the self extension of the evil under
27:36
Speaker 1: that instrument. Baffled in at Bay, they directly set up
27:40
Speaker 1: the cry that the stronger section was oppressing the weaker, unjustly,
27:44
Speaker 1: depriving it of its constitutional rights and equality in the Union.
27:48
Speaker 1: Disunion sentiments were flagrantly professed and passionately preached from this time.
27:53
Speaker 1: At the South, the controversy invaded religious bodies and churches,
27:57
Speaker 1: resounded with the clash and clangor of conflicting moral and
28:00
Speaker 1: social ideas and interests, and began to part asunder along
28:03
Speaker 1: sectional lines. The application of California for admission into the
28:08
Speaker 1: Union as a free state unloosed the winds and gave
28:11
Speaker 1: to the rising tempest its tongue of thunder. In the
28:14
Speaker 1: lurid glare of the crisis, it was presently discovered that Calhoun,
28:18
Speaker 1: about to die, had paused, with the South at his
28:20
Speaker 1: back on the brink of disunion. Then, terror stricken for
28:24
Speaker 1: the fate of their dear Union, Northern Whigs and Northern
28:27
Speaker 1: Democrats lifted again on deck the old pilot of compromise. Webster,
28:31
Speaker 1: with one eye on the Union and the other on
28:33
Speaker 1: the Presidency, drew down the proud colors of liberty from
28:36
Speaker 1: his dishounted old iron size and drifted away in the
28:40
Speaker 1: wake of the slave power. On March seven, eighteen fifty,
28:44
Speaker 1: the great New Englander and eulogist of the Pilgrim Fathers,
28:47
Speaker 1: flung the whole weight of his powerful voice and influence
28:50
Speaker 1: in the scales against the slave. California was admitted as
28:53
Speaker 1: a free state, but the Fugitive Slave Bill was enacted
28:56
Speaker 1: into law, and again was Webster's glorious union saved at
29:00
Speaker 1: heavy costs to humanity. From the passage of that wicked law.
29:04
Speaker 1: The anti slavery tide in Massachusetts rose rapidly to its flood.
29:09
Speaker 1: The overthrow of Webster, Winthrop and the Whigs followed swiftly
29:12
Speaker 1: in its course. After Sumner, although a United States Commissioner,
29:16
Speaker 1: denounced the infamous act from the platform of Undergo Hall
29:19
Speaker 1: in a speech of extraordinary boldness and energy, announcing his
29:22
Speaker 1: resolute purpose to refuse his official aid to execution in
29:26
Speaker 1: the memorable sentence, I cannot forget that I am a man,
29:29
Speaker 1: although I am a commissioner. Massachusetts was not long in
29:33
Speaker 1: seeing that she had found Webster's successor. Webster's political crown
29:37
Speaker 1: and leadership were in truth then and there transferred to
29:40
Speaker 1: the brow of Sumner. The reader must have a passage
29:44
Speaker 1: or two from this speech, which was said to have
29:46
Speaker 1: made mister Sumner, Senator, the soul sickens. He is denouncing
29:51
Speaker 1: the fugitive slave law. In the contemplation of this legalized outrage.
29:56
Speaker 1: In the dreary annals of the past, there are many
29:59
Speaker 1: acts of shame. There are ordinances of monarchs and laws
30:02
Speaker 1: which have become a byword and a hissing to the nations.
30:06
Speaker 1: But when we consider the country and the age, I ask,
30:09
Speaker 1: fearlessly what act of shame, what ordinance of monarch, what
30:13
Speaker 1: law can compare in atrocity with this enactment of an
30:16
Speaker 1: American Congress. I do not forget happiest Claudius Tyrant dickham
30:20
Speaker 1: Weir of ancient Rome condemning Virginia as a slave, nor
30:24
Speaker 1: Louis the fourteenth of France letting slip the dogs of
30:27
Speaker 1: religious persecution by the revocation of the Edict of Nants,
30:31
Speaker 1: nor Charles the First of England arousing the patriot rage
30:34
Speaker 1: of Hampton by the extortion of ship money, nor the
30:37
Speaker 1: British Parliament provoking in our country spirits kindred to Hampton
30:41
Speaker 1: by the tyranny of the stamp act. In t tax,
30:45
Speaker 1: I would not exaggerate. I wish to keep within bounds,
30:48
Speaker 1: but I think there can be little doubt that the
30:50
Speaker 1: condemnation now fixed to all these transactions and to their authors,
30:54
Speaker 1: must be the lot hereafter of the Fugitive Slave Bill,
30:58
Speaker 1: and of everyone, according to the measure of his influence,
31:01
Speaker 1: who gave it his support, into the immortal catalog of
31:05
Speaker 1: national crimes. It has now passed, drawing by inexorable necessity
31:09
Speaker 1: its authors, also, and chiefly him who, as President of
31:12
Speaker 1: the United States, said his name to the bill, and
31:15
Speaker 1: breathed into it that final breath without which it would
31:18
Speaker 1: bear no life. Other presidents may be forgotten, but the
31:21
Speaker 1: name signed to the Fugitive Slave Bill can never be forgotten.
31:25
Speaker 1: There are depths of infamy, as there are heights of fame.
31:28
Speaker 1: I regret to say what I must, but truth compels
31:31
Speaker 1: me better for him, had he never been born, Better
31:33
Speaker 1: for his memory and for the good name of his children,
31:36
Speaker 1: had he never been president. So much for the Black
31:40
Speaker 1: Bill and its authors. Here is another passage, like unto it.
31:44
Speaker 1: Elsewhere he may pursue his human prey. The orcher is
31:47
Speaker 1: now folminating against the slave hunter, employ his continual bloodhounds,
31:51
Speaker 1: and exalt in his successful game. But into Massachusetts he
31:55
Speaker 1: must not come again. Let me be understood, I counsel
31:58
Speaker 1: no violence. I would not touch his person, not with
32:01
Speaker 1: whips and thongs, would escourge him from the land to contempt.
32:04
Speaker 1: The indignation of the abhorrence of the community shall be
32:08
Speaker 1: our weapons of offense. Wherever he moves, he shall find
32:12
Speaker 1: no house to receive him, no table spread to nourish him,
32:15
Speaker 1: nor welcome to cheer him. The dismal'st lot of the
32:18
Speaker 1: Roman exile shall be his. He shall be a wander
32:21
Speaker 1: without rude fire or water. Men shall appointed him in
32:24
Speaker 1: the streets and on the highways, villages, towns, and cities
32:27
Speaker 1: shall refuse to receive the monster. They shall vomit him forth,
32:30
Speaker 1: never again, to disturb the repose of our community. To
32:34
Speaker 1: the imbecile boast that the compromise measures of eighteen fifty
32:38
Speaker 1: had settled the slavery question, he replied, thus, yes, settled, settled,
32:42
Speaker 1: That is the word, nothing, sir, can be settled, which
32:45
Speaker 1: is not right. Warning the friends of freedom against lightly
32:49
Speaker 1: reposing confidence in weakened, irresolute men, he gave them as
32:53
Speaker 1: a guide to conduct his famous recipe, which runs as follows.
32:57
Speaker 1: Three things at least they must require. The first is backbone.
33:01
Speaker 1: The second is backbone, and the third is backbone. This
33:05
Speaker 1: speech was made November six, eighteen fifty, just before the
33:09
Speaker 1: annual elections of Massachusetts, which comprised that year's state officers,
33:13
Speaker 1: members of Congress, and members of both branches of the legislature.
33:16
Speaker 1: The multiplicity of political combinations which arose in the state
33:20
Speaker 1: at this time for the purpose of influencing the elections
33:23
Speaker 1: indicated a general breaking up of the old parties in
33:26
Speaker 1: Massachusetts and a general growth of the new organization. There
33:31
Speaker 1: were combinations in at least two of the congressional districts
33:34
Speaker 1: between Whigs and Free Soilers, while combinations prevailed generally in
33:38
Speaker 1: the senatorial districts between Democrats and Free Soilers. Indeed, there
33:42
Speaker 1: was a close alliance of these two parties during the campaign,
33:46
Speaker 1: the bargain being between the parties of the first and
33:49
Speaker 1: of the second parts of this coalition that the Democrats
33:52
Speaker 1: should have the state officers and the Free Soilers United
33:55
Speaker 1: States Senator for the long term to be chosen to
33:58
Speaker 1: the vacancy made by mister Webster's resignation of the office
34:01
Speaker 1: for the secretaryship of State in Millard Fillmore's cabinet, the
34:07
Speaker 1: Democratic and Free Coalition triumphed in the elections, and in
34:11
Speaker 1: due time it proceeded to the division of the various
34:14
Speaker 1: offices in accordance with the anti election understanding between the parties.
34:19
Speaker 1: Owing to the majority principle which was at that time
34:22
Speaker 1: incorporated in the constitution of the state, and the failure
34:25
Speaker 1: of some of the candidates for state officers to receive
34:28
Speaker 1: a majority of the votes, their election was thrown into
34:30
Speaker 1: the legislature, which was controlled by the Democrats and the
34:34
Speaker 1: Free Soilers. The former were awarded the governor, Lieutenant governor,
34:38
Speaker 1: five of the nine councilors, the Treasurer, and the Senator
34:41
Speaker 1: for the short term. The latter got the Senator for
34:44
Speaker 1: the long term. The choice of the Free Solders in
34:47
Speaker 1: the legislature and the state at large, and in fact
34:50
Speaker 1: throughout the North, fell with singular union empity upon some
34:54
Speaker 1: as an almost ideal representative of free principles to the
34:57
Speaker 1: Democrats and the legislature in the state at large. He
35:01
Speaker 1: was possibly the least objectionable candidate with Whig antecedents who
35:06
Speaker 1: could have been presented for their suffrages on the senatorship's subject.
35:11
Speaker 1: Sumner had never been a Whig partisan, had not identified
35:15
Speaker 1: himself actively with distinctively Whig principles and policies, such as
35:19
Speaker 1: were embraced in the Tariff and the Bank questions. The
35:22
Speaker 1: Democratic Legislator caucus accepted him as the candidate of that party,
35:26
Speaker 1: and thereupon he became the joint candidate for the United
35:29
Speaker 1: States senatorship of the Free Soil and the Democratic members
35:33
Speaker 1: of the Legislature in pursuance of the arrangement between the
35:37
Speaker 1: parties to the coalition, the Legislature elected George S. Botwell
35:41
Speaker 1: and Henry W. Cushman, Democrats, Governor and Lieutenant Governor, respectively,
35:45
Speaker 1: and subsequently Robert Rantoul Junior, another Democrat Senator, for the
35:50
Speaker 1: short term expiring March for eighteen fifty one. The balloting
35:54
Speaker 1: for Senator for the long term was protracted and exciting,
35:57
Speaker 1: lasting from January fourteenth to April twenty fourth, eighteen fifty one,
36:02
Speaker 1: when mister Sumner was chosen by a majority of one
36:04
Speaker 1: on the twenty sixth pallot in a total vote in
36:06
Speaker 1: the House of three hundred and eighty four, the Senate,
36:08
Speaker 1: on his part, having elected him three months before to
36:11
Speaker 1: the same office. Robert C. Winsterp was from beginning to
36:14
Speaker 1: end the candidate of the Whigs for Webster's seat, and
36:17
Speaker 1: was therefore, as far as numbers go, Sumner's principle upon
36:20
Speaker 1: it before the Legislature for the long senatorial term. Throughout
36:25
Speaker 1: the long contest and the legislature, Sumner observed strictly deviated
36:29
Speaker 1: not the breadth of a hair from the rule of
36:32
Speaker 1: non intervention, which he prescribed to himself touching his candidacy.
36:37
Speaker 1: No man ever accepted office, justly, remarked the Daily Commonwealth
36:41
Speaker 1: on the morning after his election, with cleaner hands than
36:43
Speaker 1: Charles Sumner. He consented to receive the nomination with extreme reluctance.
36:48
Speaker 1: After he was nominated and an onslaught unprecedented for ferocity
36:52
Speaker 1: and recklessness and political warfare had seemed to render his
36:55
Speaker 1: election impossible unless he would authorize some qualification of the
36:58
Speaker 1: allegend of lectures to doctance of his speeches, particularly of
37:02
Speaker 1: his last venue all speech. Mister Sumner refused to retract, qualify,
37:09
Speaker 1: or explain ten lines from Haspen. Lines that a politician
37:12
Speaker 1: might have written without even the appearance of a change
37:15
Speaker 1: of sentiment would have secured his election in January. No
37:18
Speaker 1: solicitation of friends or opponents could extort a line. A
37:21
Speaker 1: delegation of hunkers applied to him for a few words
37:24
Speaker 1: to cover their retreat. In reply, he stated that he
37:26
Speaker 1: had no pledge to give, no explanations to make. He
37:29
Speaker 1: referred them to his published speeches for his position, and
37:32
Speaker 1: added that he had not sought the office, but if
37:34
Speaker 1: it came to him, he must find him an independent
37:37
Speaker 1: man to another Democratic called on him on the same
37:40
Speaker 1: errand he said, if by walking across my office I
37:43
Speaker 1: could secure the senatorship, I would not take a step.
37:46
Speaker 1: In February he placed in the hands of General Wilson
37:49
Speaker 1: a letter authorizing that gentleman to withdraw his name whenever,
37:53
Speaker 1: in his judgment, the good of the cause should require it.
37:56
Speaker 1: In this matter, I pray you so Rand the letter
37:59
Speaker 1: to Henry Wilson I've referred to, do not think of me.
38:01
Speaker 1: I've no political prospects which I desire to nurse. There's
38:05
Speaker 1: nothing in the political field which I covered. Abandoned me then,
38:08
Speaker 1: whenever you think best, without notice or apology, the cause
38:11
Speaker 1: is everything. I'm nothing so straight morally. Did the Freesol
38:15
Speaker 1: candidates stand that he leaned backward? Surely he possessed to
38:19
Speaker 1: a singular degree the three requisites of a representative of
38:22
Speaker 1: freedom demanded by himself backbone backbone backbone. He was distinctly
38:28
Speaker 1: emphatically of the vertebrated breed of men, averse to doing
38:32
Speaker 1: anything well. The contest lasted to influence the vote of
38:35
Speaker 1: the Legislature in his favor. Sumoner, after it was decided,
38:38
Speaker 1: was not less averse to having any demonstration made in
38:41
Speaker 1: connection with his election, which might give it the air
38:43
Speaker 1: of a personal triumph. It was not his triumph, but
38:46
Speaker 1: the causes. The cause was to be magnified under the
38:50
Speaker 1: circumstance as not any man. The cause was everything, the
38:53
Speaker 1: individual nothing Hans he discountenanced. They projected public demonstration at
38:58
Speaker 1: his own house on the evening of his election. His
39:02
Speaker 1: heart said, he dictated silence and no wonder, For his
39:05
Speaker 1: election was an event of the first magnitude in the
39:07
Speaker 1: politics of the times. He put upon him responsibilities which
39:11
Speaker 1: Atlantean shoulders could alone bear up under. Therefore, that evening
39:15
Speaker 1: he absented himself from Boston, betaking himself to Cambridge and
39:18
Speaker 1: the home of his friend, Henry W. Longfellow, where he
39:21
Speaker 1: passed the night. There were joyful demonstrations of the friends
39:26
Speaker 1: of freedom in Boston that night. Notwithstanding the flight of
39:29
Speaker 1: the victor beyond earshot of the Peans, and the plaudits
39:31
Speaker 1: of his friends and followers, there was rejoicing of the
39:34
Speaker 1: friends of freedom throughout the North. Because of this far
39:37
Speaker 1: reaching achievement, which indeed cheered the hearts of good men,
39:40
Speaker 1: and drew across the Atlantic as well. Congratulations poured upon
39:44
Speaker 1: him from every quarter, thick and fast. S. P. Chase wrote,
39:48
Speaker 1: LEAs day, from the bottom of my heart, I congratulate you, know,
39:52
Speaker 1: not you, but all friends of freedom everywhere upon your
39:55
Speaker 1: election to the Senate. Joshua our Gettings rote from Ohio
39:58
Speaker 1: a most intense interest with in this whole region, and
40:01
Speaker 1: I have seen no event which has given greater joy
40:04
Speaker 1: to the population generally. Eli Hubert rode from England. My
40:09
Speaker 1: soul is laden to a great and exceeding joy at
40:11
Speaker 1: the news of your election to fill the place of
40:14
Speaker 1: Daniel Webster. He has been hailed by the friends of
40:16
Speaker 1: human freedom and progress in this country with excitation. There
40:21
Speaker 1: are more eyes and hearts fixed upon your course than
40:23
Speaker 1: upon that of any man in America. John G. Whittier wrote,
40:27
Speaker 1: I rejoiced that unpledged, free and without a single concession
40:30
Speaker 1: or compromise, Thou art enabled to take thy place in
40:33
Speaker 1: the Senate, and never knew such a general feeling of
40:36
Speaker 1: real heart, pleasure and satisfaction as is manifested by all
40:40
Speaker 1: except in better hunkers. In view of thy election. The
40:43
Speaker 1: whole country is electrified by it. Sick of bed, I
40:46
Speaker 1: heard the guns Quaker, as I am with real satisfaction.
40:51
Speaker 1: At the time of his election to the Senate, Charles
40:53
Speaker 1: Summer had just turned forty. He was in the meridian
40:56
Speaker 1: of the intellectual life, and in the fullness of manly
40:58
Speaker 1: vigor and beauty. Splendid position he had reached by sheer
41:02
Speaker 1: worth unrivaled services. Not before nor since he ventured to
41:06
Speaker 1: assert his public office been so utterly unsolicited. He turned
41:10
Speaker 1: not a finger, scorned to budge an inch, would not
41:13
Speaker 1: write a line to obtain the grand prize. He went
41:15
Speaker 1: to him by the laws of gravitation and character, to
41:18
Speaker 1: him the clean of hand and pure i soul. It
41:21
Speaker 1: was the hour finding the man end of Section eight