FROM NOTES OF UNDELIVERED SPEECH ON THE VARIOUS PROPOSITIONS OF
COMPROMISE, FEBRUARY, 1861.
Mr. Sumner contemplated a speech reviewing the various
propositions of Compromise, but he never made it. The following
passages are given, as proposed at the time.
…
I would not say a word except of kindness and respect for the Senator
of Kentucky [Mr. CRITTENDEN]. But that Senator must pardon me, if I
insist that he is entirely unreasonable in pressing his impracticable
and unconstitutional propositions so persistently in the way of most
important public business. Yesterday it hindered a great measure of
Internal Improvement. To-day it blocks the admission of a State into
this Union, being none other than Kansas, which has earned a better
hospitality.
The Senator makes his appeal in the name of the Union. But I must
remind him that he takes a poor way of showing that attachment to the
Union which he avers. He turns round and lectures us who are devoted to
the Union, when his lecture should be addressed to the avowed and open
Disunionists in this Chamber. Nay, more, he actually sides with the
Disunionists in their claims. Imagine Washington, Franklin, Jefferson,
John Jay, Andrew Jackson, or Henry Clay, in the place of the venerable
Senator. They would not wheel towards the known friends of the Union,
and ask an impossible surrender of sacred principles, but rather face
to face address the Disunionists frankly, plainly, austerely, calling
upon them to renounce their evil schemes; to acknowledge the National
Constitution, and especially in this age of light to make no new
demands for Slavery.
In reply to the Senator, who so constantly lectures us, I say, look
to the good examples of our history; take counsel of the Spirit of
Nationalism, rather than Sectionalism, and be willing to defend the
Constitution _as it is_, rather than _patch it over_ with propositions
which our fathers would have disowned.
…
Putting aside all question of concession or compromise, the single
question remains, _How shall we treat the seceding States?_ And this
is the question which the new Administration will be called to meet.
I see well that it will naturally bear much and forbear long,--that
it will be moved by principle, and not by passion,--and that it will
adopt the harsh instrumentalities of power only when all other things
have failed. And I see well the powerful allies which will be enlisted
on its side. There will be the civilization of the Christian world,
speaking with the innumerable voices of the press, and constituting
a Public Opinion of irresistible energy. There will be the great
contemporary example of Italy, after a slumber of centuries aroused
to assertion of her rights,--and of Russia also, now completing that
memorable act of Emancipation by which Freedom is assured to twenty
millions of serfs. There will be also the concurring action of
European powers, which, turning with disgust from a new confederacy
founded on Human Slavery, will refuse to recognize it in the Family
of Nations. There will be also the essential weakness of Slavery with
the perils of servile insurrection, which, under the influence of
this discussion, must become more and more manifest in every respect.
There will be also the essential strength of Freedom, as a principle,
carrying victory in its right hand. And there will be Time, which is at
once Reformer and Pacificator. Such are some of the allies sure to be
on the side of the Administration.