[Illustration: CHARLES SUMNER]
Statesman Edition VOL. I
Charles Sumner
HIS COMPLETE WORKS
With Introduction
BY
HON. GEORGE FRISBIE HOAR
[Illustration]
BOSTON
LEE AND SHEPARD
MCM
COPYRIGHT, 1899,
BY
LEE AND SHEPARD.
Statesman Edition.
LIMITED TO ONE THOUSAND COPIES.
OF WHICH THIS IS
No. 565
Norwood Press:
NORWOOD, MASS., U.S.A.
Believe me still, as I have ever been,
The steadfast lover of my fellow-men;
My weakness, love of holy liberty;
My crime, the wish that all mankind were free:
Free, not by blood; redeemed, but not by crime;
Each fetter broken, but in God's good time.
WHITTIER.
NOTE.
In this collection the arrangement is strictly chronological. Every
article will be found according to its date, without reference to the
subject or occasion, thus showing the succession of efforts as they
occurred.
CONTENTS OF VOLUME 1.
PAGE
INTRODUCTION. BY HON. GEORGE FRISBIE HOAR vii
THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. An Oration before the
Authorities of the City of Boston, July 4, 1845
TRIBUTE OF FRIENDSHIP: THE LATE JOSEPH STORY. Article from the
Boston Daily Advertiser, September 16, 1845 133
THE WRONG OF SLAVERY. Speech at a Public Meeting in Faneuil
Hall, Boston, against the Admission of Texas as a Slave State,
November 4, 1845 149
EQUAL RIGHTS IN THE LECTURE-ROOM. Letter to the Committee of
the New Bedford Lyceum, November 29, 1845 160
PRISONS AND PRISON DISCIPLINE. Article from the Christian
Examiner, January, 1846 163
THE EMPLOYMENT OF TIME. Lecture before the Boston Lyceum,
delivered in the Federal Street Theatre, February 18, 1846 184
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE LATE JOHN PICKERING. Article in the
Law Reporter of June, 1846 214
THE SCHOLAR, THE JURIST, THE ARTIST, THE PHILANTHROPIST. An
Oration before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard University,
at their Anniversary, August 27, 1846 241
ANTISLAVERY DUTIES OF THE WHIG PARTY. Speech at the Whig State
Convention of Massachusetts, in Faneuil Hall, Boston, September
23, 1846 303
WRONGFUL DECLARATION OF WAR AGAINST MEXICO. Letter to Hon.
Robert C. Winthrop, Representative in Congress from Boston,
October 25, 1846 317
REFUSAL TO BE A CANDIDATE FOR CONGRESS. Notice in the Boston
Papers, October 31, 1846 330
SLAVERY AND THE MEXICAN WAR. Speech at a Public Meeting in the
Tremont Temple, Boston, November 5, 1846 333
INVALIDITY OF ENLISTMENTS IN THE MASSACHUSETTS REGIMENT OF
VOLUNTEERS FOR THE MEXICAN WAR. Argument before the Supreme
Court of Massachusetts, January, 1847 352
WITHDRAWAL OF AMERICAN TROOPS FROM MEXICO. Speech at a Public
Meeting in Faneuil Hall, Boston, February 4, 1847 374
[Illustration: GEORGE F. HOAR]
INTRODUCTION.
BY HON. GEORGE FRISBIE HOAR, LL.D.
The speeches of Charles Sumner have many titles to endure in the memory
of mankind. They contain the reasons on which the American people
acted in taking the successive steps in the revolution which overthrew
slavery, and made of a race of slaves, freemen, citizens, voters. They
have a high place in literature. They are not only full of historical
learning, set forth in an attractive way, but each of the more
important of them was itself an historical event. They afford a picture
of a noble public character. They are an example of the application of
the loftiest morality to the conduct of the State. They are an arsenal
of weapons ready for the friends of Freedom in all the great battles
when she may be in peril hereafter. They will not be forgotten unless
the world shall attain to such height of virtue that no stimulant
to virtue shall be needed, or to a depth of baseness from which no
stimulant can arouse it.
Mr. Sumner held the office of Justice of the Peace, and that of
Commissioner of the Circuit Court, to which he was appointed by his
friend and teacher, Judge Story. He was a member of the convention
held in 1853 to revise the Constitution of the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts. With these exceptions, his only official service was as
Senator in Congress from Massachusetts, from the 4th of March, 1851,
when he was just past forty years of age, until his death, March 9,
1874.
If his career could have been predicted in his earliest childhood, he
could have had no better training for his great duties than that he
in fact received. He was one of the best scholars in the public Latin
School in Boston. He received the Franklin medal from the hands of
Daniel Webster, who told him that "the state had a pledge of him."
His school life was followed by four years in Harvard College, and a
course at the Harvard Law School, where he was the favorite pupil of
Judge Story. He was an eager student of the Greek and Roman classics.
But his special delight was in history and international law. After his
admission to the bar he was reporter of the decisions of his beloved
master, and edited twenty volumes of the equity reports of Vesey, Jr.,
which he enriched with copious and learned notes. A little later, when
he was twenty-six years old, he spent a month in Washington, tarrying
a short time in New York on his way. In that brief period he made
life-long friendships with some famous men, including Chancellor Kent,
Judge Marshall, and Francis Lieber. He had a rare gift for making
friendships with men, especially with great men, and with women. With
him in those days an acquaintance with any person worth knowing soon
ripened into an indissoluble friendship.
A few years later he spent a little more than two years in Europe,
coming home when he was just past twenty-nine years old. That time
was spent in attending courts, lectures of eminent professors, and
in society. No house which he desired to enter seems to have been
closed to him. Statesmen, judges, scholars, beautiful women, leaders
of fashionable society, welcomed to the closest intimacy this young
American of humble birth, with no passport other than his own
character and attainment. It is hardly too much to say that the youth
of twenty-nine had a larger and more brilliant circle of friendship
than any other man on either continent. The list of his friends and
correspondents would fill many pages. He says in a letter to Judge
Story, what would seem like boasting in other men, but with him was
modest and far within the truth:--
"I have a thousand things to say to you about the law, circuit life,
and the English judges. I have seen more of all than probably ever fell
to the lot of a foreigner. I have had the friendship and confidence
of judges, and of the leaders of the bar. Not a day passes without
my being five or six hours in company with men of this stamp. My
tour is no vulgar holiday affair, merely to spend money and to get
the fashions. It is to see men, institutions, and laws; and, if it
would not seem vain in me, I would venture to say that I have not
discredited my country. I have called the attention of the judges and
the profession to the state of the law in our country, and have shown
them, by my conversation (I will say this), that I understand their
jurisprudence."
He returned from Europe bringing his sheaves with him. He resolved to
devote himself to the study and practice of jurisprudence, to avoid
political strife and political office, hoping that he might, perhaps,
at some future time, succeed to the chair of Judge Story at Harvard.
He kept up his habit of incessant labor. He contributed to the reviews
and newspapers a few essays on literature and jurisprudence, and some
obituary notices of deceased friends. He became interested in prison
discipline and in the cause of peace. In January, 1846, he engaged in
an earnest debate in the Prison Discipline Society, in which he favored
the system of separate imprisonment for criminals, and maintained
his side with great power. July 4, 1845, he delivered in Boston the
oration printed in these volumes entitled, "The True Grandeur of
Nations," which was declared by Richard Cobden to be the most powerful
contribution to the cause of peace made by any modern writer. August
27, 1846, he delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society, at Harvard,
his oration entitled, "The Scholar, The Jurist, The Artist, The
Philanthropist," in which, in the form of eulogies of his four friends,
Pickering, Story, Allston, and Channing, he set forth with masterly
eloquence the beauties of the virtues of which they were shining
examples.
But he could not remain an indifferent spectator of the great contest
then going on between freedom and slavery for the possession of the
vast territory between the Mississippi and the Pacific. His first
public speech against slavery, printed in these volumes, was delivered
November 4, 1845. June 28, 1848, he was present at the meeting in
Worcester, where the Free Soil party, afterward the Republican party,
was founded, and from that time was recognized in Massachusetts, and
very largely throughout the country, as the most eloquent leader and
champion of the political movement against slavery. He was elected to
the seat of Daniel Webster, in the Senate of the United States, April
24, 1851, and took the oath of office December 1, 1851. The history of
his career from that time to his death, the history of the great party
he helped to found, the history of liberty in the United States, are
almost identical.
"The record of the cause he loved
Is the best record of its friend."
It was impossible for Charles Sumner to keep aloof from the great
contest for which he was the best equipped champion alive, or to
decline to obey the voice of the beloved commonwealth commanding him
to take his place in the front and heat of the battle. He had every
quality of soul and intellect, every accomplishment, every equipment,
needed to fit him for that lofty leadership. Emerson said of him that
he had the whitest soul he ever knew. In such warfare no armor of proof
is like the defence of absolute integrity, no temper of the sword is
like that of perfect purity.
"My good sword cleaves the casques of men,
My tough lance thrusteth sure,
My strength is as the strength of ten,
Because my heart is pure."
He was a man of absolute singleness of purpose and directness of aim. He
went straight to his mark. His public life was devoted to one object,
which absorbed his whole soul; that was to make righteousness and
freedom controlling forces in the government of the country. He had no
other ambition. He desired public office only as he could make it an
instrument to that end. He cared for history only as its lessons were
lessons of justice and freedom. He cared for literature only as he
could draw from it persuasion, argument, or illustration which would
advance that lofty purpose. He cared for art only when it taught a
moral lesson.
He had a marvellous capacity for work. From the beginning to the end,
his life was a life of incessant labor. He had no idle moments. Even
conversation, in which he delighted, was an intellectual exercise. In
college, the lonely light shone out from his study window, where he
"outwatched the Bear"
long after the gayest of youthful revellers had gone to bed. Even in
the heat of summer, in Washington, his life was crowded with hard
work. I have known him more than once to fix the hour of midnight for
a meeting with delegations with whom he could find no time in the busy
day.
The results of this incessant toil were retained in a memory from which
nothing seemed to escape. As it was impossible for him to be idle, so
it seemed impossible for him to forget. His mind was an encyclopædia
of the literature and history of constitutional liberty.
He had an indomitable courage. He never flinched or hesitated. He was
never troubled with doubts. He saw everything clearly, and could never
understand the state of mind of a man who could not see things as he
did.
His was the most hopeful nature it was ever my fortune to know. The
great virtue of hope, the central figure in the mighty group which
the apostle tells us are forever to abide, possessed the very depths
of his soul. He came into public life when slavery controlled every
department of the government; legislated through Congress; administered
the law through the Executive; sat on the bench of the Supreme Court.
The first years of his public service were years of signal victories of
the slaveholding power. To common men the day seemed constantly growing
darker and darker, and the cause of freedom more and more hopeless.
Sumner never abated one jot or tittle of his sublime confidence. The
close of some of his speeches in those days is a trumpet note of
triumph.
When he was stricken down in the Senate-chamber by the bludgeon of an
assassin, his first conscious utterance as he recovered from the stupor
caused by the terrible blows upon his head was that he would renew the
conflict with slavery in the Senate as soon as he could return there.
In his first public speech, a few weeks afterward, he said: "You have
already made allusion to the suffering which I have undergone. This is
not small, but it has been incurred in the performance of duty; and
how small is it compared with that tale of woe which is perpetually
coming to us from the house of bondage! With you I hail the omens of
final triumph. I ask no prophet to confirm this assurance. The future
is not less secure than the past."
He prefixed to his own edition of his works the motto from Leibnitz:--
"Veniet fortasse aliud tempus, dignius nostro,
Quo, debellatis odiis, veritas triumphabit."
But there was no "fortasse" about it, to his confident and triumphant
faith.
He had a gentle, affectionate, and magnanimous nature, incapable of
hatred or revenge. In spite of his severity of speech, his differences
with men were differences of principle, never personal. There is no
nobler sentence in political history than that with which he begins his
first speech after his injury, when he got back from Europe and took
his place again in the Senate:--
"Mr. President: Undertaking now, after a silence of more than
four years, to address the Senate on this important subject, I
should suppress the emotions natural to such an occasion, if I did
not declare on the threshold my gratitude to that Supreme Being
through whose benign care I am enabled, after much suffering and
many changes, once again to resume my duties here, and to speak
for the cause so near my heart. To the honored commonwealth whose
representative I am, and also to my immediate associates in this
body, with whom I enjoy the fellowship which is found _in thinking
alike concerning the Republic_, I owe thanks, which I seize the
moment to express, for indulgence extended to me throughout the
protracted seclusion enjoined on me by medical skill; and I trust
it will not be thought unbecoming in me to put on record here, as
an apology for leaving my seat so long vacant, without making way,
by resignation, for a successor, that I acted under the illusion of
an invalid, whose hopes for restoration to natural health continued
against oft recurring disappointment.
"When last I entered into this debate, it became my duty to
expose the crime against Kansas, and to insist upon the immediate
admission of that territory as a state of this Union, with a
constitution forbidding slavery. Time has passed, but the question
remains. Resuming the discussion precisely where I left it, I
am happy to avow that rule of moderation which, it is said, may
venture to fix the boundaries of wisdom itself. I have no personal
griefs to utter; only a vulgar egotism could intrude such into this
chamber. I have no personal wrongs to avenge; only a brutish nature
could attempt to wield that vengeance which belongs to the Lord.
The years that have intervened and the tombs that have opened since
I spoke[1] have their voices, too, which I cannot fail to hear.
Besides, what am I, what is any man among the living or among the
dead, compared with the question before us? It is this alone which
I shall discuss, and I begin the argument with that easy victory
which is found in charity."
[1] Preston S. Brooks and Senator Butler had both died in the
interval.
He was proud that he was an American, proud of his State, proud of his
birthplace, proud of his office. To his mind the most exalted position
on earth was the position of a Senator of the United States. And if he
thought that to be a Massachusetts Senator was a prouder title still,
who shall blame him? From the beginning he had Massachusetts behind
him; when he spoke from his seat, it was the voice, not of a man, but
of a commonwealth.
It seemed sometimes as if he thought everything that had been
accomplished for freedom was accomplished in the Senate; that even the
war was but a tumult which had disturbed the debates, somewhat. He kept
his senatorial robe unstained. He seemed never to lay it aside. There
was no place in his life for jesting or trifling. He had no sense of
humor. The pledge which he took upon his lips when he entered upon his
great office he kept religiously to the end. "To vindicate freedom
and oppose slavery is the object near my heart. Others may become
indifferent to these principles, bartering them for political success,
vain and short-lived, or forgetting the visions of youth in the dreams
of age. Whenever I forget them, whenever I become indifferent to them,
whenever I cease to be constant in maintaining them through good report
and evil report, then may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, may
my right hand forget its cunning."
His political creed, his political Bible, his Ten Commandments, his
Golden Rule, were the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution
of the United States penetrated, illuminated, interpreted by the
Declaration of Independence. There was not a syllable in that august
document to be omitted or qualified. It was to him a permanent,
perfect, universal law of national life.
On many of the great questions with which the American people had to
deal for the last thirty years of his life,--from 1844 to 1874--he
was the leader and guide. His speeches on these subjects, contained
in these volumes, were the speeches which attracted widest public
attention at the time. They contained the arguments which convinced the
public mind. They are probably, in most cases, the only ones remembered
now. Toward the close of his life he gave much study to the questions
of finance and currency. If his life had been spared he doubtless would
have been foremost in conducting the country in the path of financial
safety and integrity. The titles of the following speeches, to which
many others might be added, suggest the principal subjects with which
he dealt.
VOL. I.
The True Grandeur of Nations. July 4, 1845.
The Wrong of Slavery. Nov. 4, 1845.
Equal Rights in the Lecture Room. (Letter.) Nov. 29, 1845.
Prison Discipline. (Separate System.) January, 1846.
Scholar, Jurist, etc. Ph. B.R. Aug. 27, 1846.
Antislavery Duties of the Whig Party. Sept. 23, 1846.
Withdrawal of Troops from Mexico. Feb. 4, 1847.
VOL. II.
White Slavery in the Barbary States. Feb. 17, 1847.
Fame and Glory. Aug. 11, 1847.
Sundry Speeches in behalf of New Party to oppose Slavery.
(1847-1851.)
War System of Nations. May 28, 1849.
VOL. III.
Equality before the Law. Dec. 4, 1849.
Welcome to Kossuth. Dec. 10, 1851.
Justice to the Land States. Jan. 27, Feb. 17, March 16, 1852.
Cheap Ocean Postage. March 8, 1852.
Pardoning Power of the President. May 14, 1852.
Freedom National, Slavery Sectional. Aug. 26, 1852.
VOL. IV.
The Basis of the Representative System. July 7, 1853.
Bills of Rights. July 25, 1853.
Repeal of the Missouri Compromise. Feb. 21, 1854.
Final Protest against Slavery in Nebraska and Kansas. May 25, 1854.
Union of all Parties against the Slave Power. May 29, 1854.
VOL. V.
Origin of Appropriation Bills. Feb. 7, 1856.
Abrogation of Treaties. May 8, 1856.
The Crime against Kansas. May 19, 20, 1856.
VOL. VI.
The Electric Telegraph. Aug. 17, 1858.
The Barbarism of Slavery. June 4, 1860.
VOL. VII.
Lafayette. Nov. 30, 1860.
No Surrender of the Northern Forts, against the Crittenden
Compromise. Feb. 15, 1861.
Object of the War. July 24, 1861.
Sympathies of the Civilized World not to be repelled. Speech
against Increase of 10 per cent on all Duties. July 29, 1861.
Emancipation our Best Weapon. Oct. 1, 1861.
Slavery the Origin and Mainspring of the Rebellion. Nov. 27, 1861.
VOL. VIII.
Revision and Consolidation of the National Statutes. Dec. 12, 1861.
Trent Case and Maritime Rights. Jan. 9, 1862.
Treasury Notes a Legal Tender. Feb. 13, 1862.
Help for Mexico against Foreign Intervention. Feb. 19, 1862.
State Suicide and Emancipation. March 6, 1862.
Final Independence of Haiti and Liberia. April 23, 1862.
Final Suppression of the Slave Trade. April 24, 1862.
Emancipation in the District. April 28, 1862.
No Names of Victories over Fellow-citizens on Regimental Colors.
May 8, 1862.
Testimony of Colored Persons. May 12, 1862.
VOL. IX.
Rights of Sovereignty and Rights of War. May 19, 1862.
Help from Slaves. May 26, 1862.
Tax on Cotton. May 27, 1862.
War Powers of Congress. June 27, 1862.
The Proclamation of Emancipation. Oct. 6, 1862.
Emancipation Proclamation our Corner-stone. Oct. 10, 1862.
Prudence in our Foreign Relations. Feb. 3, 1863.
Employment of Colored Troops. Feb. 9, 1863.
Pacific Railroad. May 23, 1863.
VOL. X.
Our Foreign Relations. Sept. 10, 1863.
Power of Congress over the Rebel States. Atlantic Monthly. October,
1863.
Equal Pay of Colored Soldiers. Feb. 10, 1864.
VOL. XI.
French Spoliation Claims reported. April 4, 1864.
National Banks and the Currency. April 27, 1864.
Reform in the Civil Service. April 30, 1864.
Slavery and the Rebellion One and Inseparable. Nov. 5, 1864.
VOL. XII.
Motion to admit a Colored Lawyer to the Bar of the Supreme Court of
the United States. Feb. 1, 1865.
Participation of Rebel States not necessary in Ratification of
Constitutional Amendments. Feb. 4, 1865.
Opinion on the Case of the Smith Brothers. March 17, 1865.
Guaranties for the National Freedmen and the National Creditor.
Sept. 14, 1865.
VOL. XIII.
Republican Form of Government the Essential Condition of Peace.
Dec. 4, 1865.
Equal Rights of Colored Persons to be protected in the National
Courts. Dec. 4, 1865.
Whitewashing by the President. Dec. 19, 1865.
Protection of the National Debt. Jan. 5, 1866.
Protection of Civil Rights. Feb. 9, 1866.
VOL. XIV.
Ship Canal through the Isthmus of Darien. July 25, 1866.
Metric System. July 27, 1866.
The One Man Power _versus_ Congress. Oct. 2, 1866.
Cheap Books and Public Libraries. Jan. 24, 1867.
VOL. XV.
Cession of Russian America to the United States. April 9, 1867.
VOL. XVI.
Are We a Nation? Nov. 19, 1867.
Expulsion of the President. Impeachment of Andrew Johnson. May 26,
1868.
Specie Payments. July 11, 1868.
VOL. XVII.
Powers of Congress to prohibit Inequality, Caste, etc. Feb. 5, 1869.
Claims on England. April 13; Sept. 22, 1869.
Return to Specie Payments. Dec. 7, 1869.
Cuban Belligerency. Dec. 15, 1869.
Specie Payments. Jan. 12, 26; Feb. 1; March 2, 10, 11, 1870.
VOL. XVIII.
One Cent Postage with Abolition of Franking. June 10, 1870.
Duel between France and Germany. Oct. 26, 1870.
Naboth's Vineyard Speech on Proposed Annexation of San Domingo.
Dec. 21, 1870.
Italian Unity. Jan. 10, 1871.
VOL. XIX.
Violations of International Law and Usurpations of War Powers.
March 27, 1871.
One Term for President. Dec. 21, 1871.
VOL. XX.
Arbitration a Substitute for War. May 31, 1872.
Republicanism _versus_ Grantism. May 31, 1872.
No Names of Battles with Fellow-citizens on the Regimental Colors
of the United States. Dec. 2, 1872.
International Arbitration. July 10, 1873.
Civil Rights Bill. Jan. 27, 1874.
If any one doubt the practical sagacity and consummate statesmanship
of Charles Sumner let him read the speech in the Trent case. He had a
most difficult task. He had to reconcile a people smarting under the
sting of English disdain and dislike to meet an insolent demand to
give up men we had taken from an English ship, when every man in the
United States believed England would have taken them from us in a like
case; and to do this not only without dishonor, but so as to turn an
apparent defeat into victory. The English cabinet, as is often the case
with men who act arrogantly, acted hastily. They put their demand and
their menace of war on grounds which justified us and put them in the
wrong on the great contention which had existed from the beginning of
our government. The United States had been, till the outbreak of the
civil war, and hoped to be forever after that war was over, a great
neutral power. She was concerned to establish the immunity of the decks
of her ships. Sumner saw and seized our opportunity. Great as was
the influence of President Lincoln, it seems unlikely that even his
authority would have reconciled the American people to the surrender
of Mason and Slidell without the support of Sumner. It would certainly
have been a terrible strain upon his administration.
None of these speeches bears the marks of haste. In general no
important consideration is overlooked and no important authority fails
to be cited. Several of them were addressed to the Senate at a time
when in the beginning he was able to convince scarcely anybody but
himself. But in the end Senate and people came to his opinion.
Let me repeat what I said in reviewing Mr. Pierce's admirable
biography:--
"Let us hope that these volumes will always be a text-book for
Americans. Let successive generations be brought up on the story of
the noble life of Charles Sumner. Let the American youth think of
these things. They are things true, honest, just, lovely, and of
good report. There is virtue in them and praise, if there be any
virtue, and if there be any praise. They do not belong to fiction,
but to history. It is no Grecian, or Roman, or English heroism
that the youth is invited to study. Charles Sumner belongs to us.
His youth was spent under a humble American roof. His training
was in an American school and college. He sleeps in American
soil. He is ours, wholly and altogether. His figure will abide in
history like that of St. Michael in art, an emblem of celestial
purity, of celestial zeal, of celestial courage. It will go down
to immortality with its foot upon the dragon of slavery, and with
the sword of the spirit in its hand, but with a tender light in its
eye, and a human love in its smile. Guido and Raphael conceived
their 'inviolable saint,'
"'Invulnerable, impenetrably armed;
Such high advantages his innocence
Gave him above his foe; not to have sinned,
Not to have disobeyed; in fight he stood
Unwearied, unobnoxious, to be pained
By wounds.'
The Michael of the painters, as a critic of genius akin to
their own has pointed out, rests upon his prostrate foe light
as a morning cloud, no muscle strained, with unhacked sword and
unruffled wings, his bright tunic and shining armor without a
rent or stain. Not so with our human champion. He had to bear the
bitterness and agony of a long and doubtful struggle, with common
weapons and against terrible odds. He came out of it with soiled
garments, and with a mortal wound, but without a regret and without
a memory of hate."
Charles Sumner will always be a foremost figure in our history. His
name will be a name to conjure with. Whenever freedom is in peril;
whenever justice is menaced, whenever the race, whose right he
vindicated, shall be trodden under foot, those lips of stone, from
the stately antechamber of the Senate, will again utter their high
commands. The noble form of Charles Sumner, to the vision of the lovers
of liberty, will seem to take its place again in the front of the
battle.
"Pass thou first, thou dauntless heart,
As thou wert wont of yore."
WORCESTER,
December, 1899.
THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS.
AN ORATION BEFORE THE AUTHORITIES OF THE CITY OF BOSTON, JULY 4, 1845.
O, yet a nobler task awaits thy hand,
(For what can war but endless war still breed?)
Till truth and right from violence be freed.
MILTON, _Sonnet to Fairfax_.
Pax optima rerum
Quas homini novisse datum est; pax una triumphis
Innumeris potior; pax custodire salutem
Et cives æquare potens.
SILIUS ITALICUS, _Punica_, Lib. XI. vv. 592-595.
* * * * *
Sed majoris est gloriæ _ipsa bella verbo occidere_ quam homines
ferro, et acquirere vel obtinere pacem pace, non bello.--AUGUSTINI
_Epistola_ CCLXII., _ad Darium Comitem_.
* * * * *
Certainly, if all who look upon themselves as men, not so much from
the shape of their bodies as because they are endowed with reason,
would listen awhile unto Christ's wholesome and peaceable decrees,
and not, puffed up with arrogance and conceit, rather believe
their own opinions than his admonitions, the whole world long ago
(turning the use of iron into milder works) should have lived
in most quiet tranquillity, and have met together in a firm and
indissoluble league of most safe concord.--ARNOBIUS AFER, _Adversus
Gentes_, Lib. I. c. 6.
* * * * *
And so for the first time [three hundred years after the Christian
era] the meek and peaceful Jesus became a God of Battle, and
the cross, the holy sign of Christian redemption, a banner of
bloody strife. This irreconcilable incongruity between the symbol
of universal peace and the horrors of war, in my judgment, is
conclusive against the miraculous or supernatural character of the
transaction [the vision of Constantine].--I was agreeably surprised
to find that Mosheim concurred in these sentiments, for which I
will readily encounter the charge of Quakerism.--MILMAN, _History
of Christianity_, Book III. chap. 1.
* * * * *
When you see fighting, be peaceable; for a peaceable disposition
shuts the door of contention. Oppose kindness to perverseness;
the sharp sword will not cut soft silk. By using sweet words and
gentleness you may lead an elephant with a hair.--SAADI, _The
Gulistan_, translated by Francis Gladwin, Chap. III. Tale 28.
* * * * *
Si l'on vous disait que tous les chats d'un grand pays se sont
assemblés par milliers dans une plaine, et qu'après avoir miaulé
tout leur saoul, ils se sont jetés avec fureur les uns sur les
autres, et ont joué ensemble de la dent et de la griffe, que de
cette mêlée il est demeuré de part et d'autre neuf à dix mille
chats sur la place, qui ont infecté l'air à dix lieues de là par
leur puanteur, ne diriez-vous pas, "Voilà le plus abominable sabbat
dont on ait jamais oui parler"? Et si les loups en faisaient de
même, quels hurlements! quelle boucherie! Et si les uns ou les
autres vous disaient _qu'ils aiment la gloire_, ... ne ririez-vous
pas de tout votre coeur de l'ingénuité de ces pauvres bêtes?--LA
BRUYÈRE, _Les Caractères: Des Jugements_.
He was disposed to dissent from the maxim, which had of late years
received very general assent, that the best security for the
continuance of peace was to be prepared for war. That was a maxim
which might have been applied to the nations of antiquity, and to
society in a comparatively barbarous and uncivilized state.... Men,
when they adopted such a maxim, and made large preparations in
time of peace that would be sufficient in time of war, were apt to
be influenced by the desire to put their efficiency to the test,
that all their great preparations and the result of their toil and
expense might not be thrown away.--EARL OF ABERDEEN, _Hansard's
Parliamentary Debates_, July 20, 1849.
* * * * *
_Bellum para, si pacem velis_, was a maxim regarded by many as
containing an incontestable truth. It was one, in his opinion,
to be received with great caution, and admitting of much
qualification.... We should best consult the true interests of
the country by husbanding our resources in a time of peace, and,
instead of a lavish expenditure on all the means of defence, by
placing some trust in the latent and dormant energies of the
nation.--SIR ROBERT PEEL, _Hansard's Parliamentary Debates_, March
12, 1850.
* * * * *
Let us terminate this disastrous system of rival expenditure,
and mutually agree, with no hypocrisy, but in a manner and under
circumstances which can admit of no doubt,--by a reduction of
armaments,--that peace is really our policy.--MR. D'ISRAELI,
_Hansard's Parliamentary Debates_, July 21, 1859.
* * * * *
All high titles of honor come hitherto from fighting. Your _Herzog_
(Duke, _Dux_) is Leader of Armies; your Earl (_Jarl_) is Strong
Man; your Marshal, Cavalry Horseshoer. A Millennium, or Reign of
Peace and Wisdom, having from of old been prophesied, and becoming
now daily more and more indubitable, may it not be apprehended that
such fighting titles will cease to be palatable, and new and higher
need to be devised?--CARLYLE, _Sartor Resartus_, Book III. chap. 7.
* * * * *
After the memorable conflict of June, 1848, in which, as _Chef
de Bataillon_, he [Ary Scheffer] had shown a capacity for
military conduct not less remarked than his cool courage, General
Changarnier, then commanding the National Guard of Paris, tendered
to Scheffer's acceptance the cross of _Commandeur_. He replied,
"Had this honorable distinction been offered to me in my quality
of Artist, and as a recognition of the merit of my works, I should
receive it with deference and satisfaction. But to carry about
me a decoration reminding me only of the horrors of civil war is
what I cannot consent to do."--ARY SCHEFFER, _Life by Mrs. Grote_,
Appendix.
Additional examples and illustrations have been introduced into
this Oration since its publication, but the argument and substance
remain the same. It was at the time the occasion of considerable
controversy, and many were disturbed by what Mr. Sumner called his
_Declaration of War against War_. This showed itself at the dinner
in Faneuil Hall immediately after the delivery. There was friendly
dissent also, as appears from the letters of Judge Story and Mr.
Prescott, which will be found in the biographies of those eminent
persons. A letter from John A. Andrew, afterwards the distinguished
Governor of Massachusetts, shows the completeness of his sympathy.
"You will allow me to say, I hope," he writes, "that I have read
the Oration with a satisfaction only equalled by that with which I
heard you on the 4th July. And while I thank you a thousand times
for the choice you made of a topic, as well as for the fidelity
and brilliant ability which you brought to its illustration,
(both, to my mind, defying the most carping criticism,) I cannot
help expressing also my gratitude to Providence, that here, in our
city of Boston, one has at last stepped forward to consecrate to
celestial hopes the day--the great day--which Americans have at
best heretofore held sacred only to memory."
The Oration was noticed extensively at home and abroad. Two
or more editions were printed by the City Government, one by
the booksellers, Messrs. W.D. Ticknor & Co., and several by the
American Peace Society, which has recently issued another, making
a small volume. Another edition appeared in London. Portions have
been printed and circulated as tracts. There was also an abridgment
in Philadelphia, edited by Professor Charles D. Cleveland, and
another in Liverpool, by Mr. Richard Rathbone.
ORATION.
In accordance with uninterrupted usage, on this Sabbath of the Nation,
we have put aside our daily cares, and seized a respite from the
never-ending toils of life, to meet in gladness and congratulation,
mindful of the blessings transmitted from the Past, mindful also, I
trust, of our duties to the Present and the Future.
* * * * *
All hearts turn first to the Fathers of the Republic. Their venerable
forms rise before us, in the procession of successive generations.
They come from the frozen rock of Plymouth, from the wasted bands of
Raleigh, from the heavenly companionship of Penn, from the anxious
councils of the Revolution,--from all those fields of sacrifice, where,
in obedience to the spirit of their age, they sealed their devotion
to duty with their blood. They say to us, their children, "Cease to
vaunt what you do, and what has been done for you. Learn to walk meekly
and to think humbly. Cultivate habits of self-sacrifice. Never aim at
what is not RIGHT, persuaded that without this every possession and
all knowledge will become an evil and a shame. And may these words of
ours be ever in your minds! Strive to increase the inheritance we have
bequeathed to you,--bearing in mind always, that, if we excel you in
virtue, such a victory will be to us a mortification, while defeat
will bring happiness. In this way you may conquer us. Nothing is more
shameful for a man than a claim to esteem, not on his own merits, but
on the fame of his ancestors. The glory of the fathers is doubtless
to their children a most precious treasure; but to enjoy it without
transmission to the next generation, and without addition, is the
extreme of ignominy. Following these counsels, when your days on earth
are finished, you will come to join us, and we shall receive you as
friend receives friend; but if you neglect our words, expect no happy
greeting from us."[2]
[2] This is borrowed almost literally from the words attributed by
Plato to the Fathers of Athens, in the beautiful funeral discourse of
the Menexenus.
Honor to the memory of our fathers! May the turf lie lightly on their
sacred graves! Not in words only, but in deeds also, let us testify
our reverence for their name, imitating what in them was lofty, pure,
and good, learning from them to bear hardship and privation. May we,
who now reap in strength what they sowed in weakness, augment the
inheritance we have received! To this end, we must not fold our hands
in slumber, nor abide content with the past. To each generation is
appointed its peculiar task; nor does the heart which responds to the
call of duty find rest except in the grave.
Be ours the task now in the order of Providence cast upon us. And
what is this duty? What can we do to make our coming welcome to our
fathers in the skies, and draw to our memory hereafter the homage of
a grateful posterity? How add to the inheritance received? The answer
must interest all, particularly on this festival, when we celebrate
the Nativity of the Republic. It well becomes the patriot citizen, on
this anniversary, to consider the national character, and how it may be
advanced,--as the good man dedicates his birthday to meditation on his
life, and to resolutions of improvement. Avoiding, then, all exultation
in the abounding prosperity of the land, and in that freedom whose
influence is widening to the uttermost circles of the earth, I would
turn attention to the character of our country, and humbly endeavor to
learn what must be done that the Republic may best secure the welfare
of the people committed to its care,--that it may perform its part in
the world's history,--that it may fulfil the aspirations of generous
hearts,--and, practising that righteousness which exalteth a nation,
attain to the elevation of True Grandeur.
* * * * *
With this aim, and believing that I can in no other way so fitly fulfil
the trust reposed in me to-day, I purpose to consider _what, in our
age, are the true objects of national ambition,--what is truly National
Honor, National Glory_,--WHAT IS THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. I would
not depart from the modesty that becomes me, yet I am not without hope
that I may do something to rescue these terms, now so powerful over the
minds of men, from mistaken objects, especially from deeds of war, and
the extension of empire, that they may be applied to works of justice
and beneficence, which are better than war or empire.
The subject may be novel, on an occasion like the present; but it is
comprehensive, and of transcendent importance. It raises us to the
contemplation of things not temporary or local, but belonging to all
ages and countries,--things lofty as Truth, universal as Humanity.
Nay, more; it practically concerns the general welfare, not only of
our own cherished Republic, but of the whole Federation of Nations. It
has an urgent interest from transactions in which we are now unhappily
involved. By an act of unjust legislation, extending our power over
Texas, peace with Mexico is endangered,--while, by petulant assertion
of a disputed claim to a remote territory beyond the Rocky Mountains,
ancient fires of hostile strife are kindled anew on the hearth of
our mother country. Mexico and England both avow the determination
to vindicate what is called the _National Honor_; and our Government
calmly contemplates the dread Arbitrament of War, provided it cannot
obtain what is called an honorable peace.
Far from our nation and our age be the sin and shame of contests
hateful in the sight of God and all good men, having their origin in no
righteous sentiment, no true love of country, no generous thirst for
fame, "that last infirmity of noble mind," but springing manifestly
from an ignorant and ignoble passion for new territory, strengthened,
in our case, in a republic whose star is Liberty, by unnatural desire
to add new links in chains destined yet to fall from the limbs of the
unhappy slave! In such contests God has no attribute which can join
with us. Who believes that the national honor would be promoted by a
war with Mexico or a war with England? What just man would sacrifice
a single human life to bring under our rule both Texas and Oregon?
An ancient Roman, ignorant of Christian truth, touched only by the
relation of fellow-countryman, and not of fellow-man, said, as he
turned aside from a career of Asiatic conquest, that he would rather
save the life of a single citizen than win to his power all the
dominions of Mithridates.[3]
[3] Plutarch, _Lucullus_, Cap. VIII.
A war with Mexico would be mean and cowardly; with England it would be
bold at least, though parricidal. The heart sickens at the murderous
attack upon an enemy distracted by civil feud, weak at home, impotent
abroad; but it recoils in horror from the deadly shock between children
of a common ancestry, speaking the same language, soothed in infancy
by the same words of love and tenderness, and hardened into vigorous
manhood under the bracing influence of institutions instinct with the
same vital breath of freedom. The Roman historian has aptly pictured
this unnatural combat. Rarely do words of the past so justly describe
the present. _Curam acuebat, quod adversus Latinos bellandum erat,
lingua, moribus, armorum genere, institutis ante omnia militaribus
congruentes: milites militibus, centurionibus centuriones, tribuni
tribunis compares collegæque, iisdem præsidiis, sæpe iisdem manipulis
permixti fuerant._[4]
[4] Livy, Hist., Lib. VIII. c. 6.
Can there be in our age any peace that is not honorable, any war that
is not dishonorable? The true honor of a nation is conspicuous only
in deeds of justice and beneficence, securing and advancing human
happiness. In the clear eye of that Christian judgment which must yet
prevail, vain are the victories of War, infamous its spoils. He is the
benefactor, and worthy of honor, who carries comfort to wretchedness,
dries the tear of sorrow, relieves the unfortunate, feeds the hungry,
clothes the naked, does justice, enlightens the ignorant, unfastens
the fetters of the slave, and finally, by virtuous genius, in art,
literature, science, enlivens and exalts the hours of life, or,
by generous example, inspires a love for God and man. This is the
Christian hero; this is the man of honor in a Christian land. He is no
benefactor, nor worthy of honor, whatever his worldly renown, whose
life is absorbed in feats of brute force, who renounces the great law
of Christian brotherhood, whose vocation is blood. Well may the modern
poet exclaim, "The world knows nothing of its greatest men!"--for thus
far it has chiefly honored the violent brood of Battle, armed men
springing up from the dragon's teeth sown by Hate, and cared little
for the truly good men, children of Love, guiltless of their country's
blood, whose steps on earth are noiseless as an angel's wing.
It will not be disguised that this standard differs from that of the
world even in our day. The voice of man is yet given to martial praise,
and the honors of victory are chanted even by the lips of woman. The
mother, rocking the infant on her knee, stamps the images of War upon
his tender mind, at that age more impressible than wax; she nurses his
slumber with its music, pleases his waking hours with its stories, and
selects for his playthings the plume and the sword. From the child is
formed the man; and who can weigh the influence of a mother's spirit
on the opinions of his life? The mind which trains the child is like
a hand at the end of a long lever; a gentle effort suffices to heave
the enormous weight of succeeding years. As the boy advances to youth,
he is fed like Achilles, not on honey and milk only, but on bears'
marrow and lions' hearts. He draws the nutriment of his soul from a
literature whose beautiful fields are moistened by human blood. Fain
would I offer my tribute to the Father of Poetry, standing with harp
of immortal melody on the misty mountain-top of distant Antiquity,--to
those stories of courage and sacrifice which emblazon the annals of
Greece and Rome,--to the fulminations of Demosthenes and the splendors
of Tully,--to the sweet verse of Virgil and the poetic prose of Livy;
fain would I offer my tribute to the new literature, which shot up
in modern times as a vigorous forest from the burnt site of ancient
woods,--to the passionate song of the Troubadour in France and the
Minnesinger in Germany,--to the thrilling ballad of Spain and the
delicate music of the Italian lyre: but from all these has breathed
the breath of War, that has swept the heart-strings of men in all the
thronging generations.
And when the youth becomes a man, his country invites his service
in war, and holds before his bewildered imagination the prizes of
worldly honor. For him the pen of the historian and the verse of the
poet. His soul is taught to swell at the thought that he, too, is a
soldier,--that his name shall be entered on the list of those who have
borne arms for their country; and perhaps he dreams that he, too, may
sleep, like the Great Captain of Spain, with a hundred trophies over
his grave. The law of the land throws its sanction over this frenzy.
The contagion spreads beyond those subject to positive obligation.
Peaceful citizens volunteer to appear as soldiers, and affect, in
dress, arms, and deportment, what is called the "pride, pomp, and
circumstance of glorious war." The ear-piercing fife has to-day filled
our streets, and we have come to this church, on this National Sabbath,
by the thump of drum and with the parade of bristling bayonets.
It is not strange, then, that the Spirit of War still finds a home
among us, nor that its honors continue to be regarded. All this may
seem to illustrate the bitter philosophy of Hobbes, declaring that the
natural state of mankind is War, and to sustain the exulting language
of the soldier in our own day, when he wrote, "War is the condition of
this world. From man to the smallest insect, all are at strife; and
the glory of arms, which cannot be obtained without the exercise of
honor, fortitude, courage, obedience, modesty, and temperance, excites
the brave man's patriotism, and is a chastening corrective for the
rich man's pride."[5] This is broad and bold. In madder mood, another
British general is reported as saying, "Why, man, do you know that a
grenadier is the _greatest character_ in this world,"--and after a
moment's pause, with the added emphasis of an oath, "and, I believe,
in the next, too."[6] All these spoke in harmony. If one is true, all
are true. A French voice has struck another note, chanting nothing less
than the divinity of war, hailing it as "divine" in itself,--"divine"
in its consequences,--"divine" in mysterious glory and seductive
attraction,--"divine" in the manner of its declaration,--"divine" in
the results obtained,--"divine" in the undefinable force by which its
triumph is determined;[7] and the whole earth, continually imbibing
blood, is nothing but an immense altar, where life is immolated without
end, without measure, without respite. But this oracle is not saved
from rejection even by the magistral style in which it is delivered.
[5] Napier, Peninsular War, Book XXIV. ch. 6, Vol. VI. p. 688.
[6] Southey, Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society, Coll.
VIII., Vol. I. p. 211.
[7] Joseph de Maistre, Soirées de Saint-Pétersbourg, Tom. II. pp. 27,
32-35.