“In the United States Senate, on Monday and Tuesday of last
week, Mr. Sumner made a speech which will occupy a very
conspicuous place in the history of the American Union,
not so much for its advocacy of any merely formal plan or
scheme of national legislation for Reconstruction as for
its closer relations to the great fundamental principles
which constitute the ideal of a truly republican government
It goes to the very foundation of things.”
In a leading article of more than two columns, the New York
_Herald_ said, in a different vein:--
“MR. SUMNER’S ORATION.--NEGRO SUFFRAGE THE WHOLE DUTY OF
THE NATION, AND THE ONLY ESCAPE FROM OUR DIFFICULTIES.--Mr.
Sumner, in his Senatorial pleading in the case of the
negro, has given to the country an elaborate evidence of
the utterly impracticable and visionary character of his
political views. His oration is admirable in all purely
literary respects, and indicates an abundant industry and
research; but its theories of society, its interpretations
of the Constitution, and its assumptions as to the history
of the country and of the war are inadmissible, excepting
only what is said of the Constitutional Amendment.…
“Those parts of the oration which claim suffrage for the
negro, as a necessary policy of the nation, will require
but little answer by argument; for the country and the
world--all men outside the Radical Republican party--will
completely deny the truth of the points from which they
start.…
“We quite agree with Mr. Sumner in the grand fact that
the Constitutional Amendment gives Congress full power to
settle the position of the negro in the Southern States,
and even to give him the suffrage. We are quite sure that
this oration has not shown the necessity, the justice,
or even the expediency of this gift. Still it may be
expedient, necessary, and just.”
The speech attracted attention in Europe. In the _Revue
des Deux Mondes_, of Paris, which is so comprehensive a
representative of the French mind, a leading article by M.
Forcade presents a parallel between Mr. Sumner’s speech and the
famous speech of the time in the French Assembly by M. Thiers,
where Liberty was the theme.
“The very day when M. Thiers delivered his speech we were
occupied in reading the remarkable speech which Mr. Sumner
has just pronounced in the Senate at Washington, and which
the last mail from America has brought us. The speech of
Mr. Sumner is the recent political event in the United
States.
“The illustrious American Senator, the chief of the radical
party in the Senate, proposed to himself to deduce from
the most careful examination of the Constitution of his
country those principles according to which should be
settled that difficult problem which the Americans call
Reconstruction,--that is to say, the return of the Rebel
States into the Union. We shall not undertake to judge
the practical bearing of the opinions of Mr. Sumner on
the great question which agitates the United States;
but it is impossible for us not to render homage to the
patriotic piety which breathes in his beautiful discourse.
As M. Thiers wished to derive the liberal destinies of
France from the great principles of the Revolution, so
Mr. Sumner applied himself to exhibit in the origin of
the Constitution of the United States the fundamental
principles of republican government of modern times.…
“Is it not a remarkable coincidence, that these voices of
two great patriots, who, almost at the same moment, without
any concert, obey instinctively the mysterious law which
moves the people destined to guide civilization, answer
to each other with so much splendor from opposite sides
of the Atlantic? All the news from the United States show
that the effect produced by the speech of Mr. Sumner has
been immense.… The habitual adversaries of Mr. Sumner,
the Democrats in Congress, covered themselves with honor
in uniting in the testimonials of respect which were so
universally rendered to the radical Senator. In the pride
inspired by this beautiful and good oratorical plea, the
Americans turn in a friendly spirit toward our Old World,
and do not dissemble the hope that this speech will do them
more honor in Europe than any public act in their country
since the decree of Emancipation. We are charmed, for our
part, to justify this hope.”[204]