Under this head must be put the speech of Hon. Anson Burlingame,
afterwards so justly distinguished as the Minister of China, made in
the House of Representatives, June 21, 1856. Here is an extract.
“But, Mr. Chairman, all these assaults upon the State of
Massachusetts sink into insignificance, compared with the one I
am about to mention. On the 19th of May it was announced that
Mr. Sumner would address the Senate upon the Kansas question.
The floor of the Senate, the galleries, and avenues leading
thereto were thronged with an expectant audience; and many of
us left our places in this House to hear the Massachusetts
orator. To say that we were delighted with the speech we heard
would but faintly express the deep emotions of our hearts
awakened by it. I need not speak of the classic purity of its
language, nor of the nobility of its sentiments. It was heard
by many; it has been read by millions. There has been no such
speech made in the Senate since the days when those Titans of
American eloquence, the Websters and the Haynes, contended with
each other for mastery.
“It was severe, because it was launched against tyranny. It
was severe as Chatham was severe, when he defended the feeble
colonies against the giant oppression of the mother country.
It was made in the face of a hostile Senate. It continued
through the greater portion of two days; and yet, during that
time, the speaker was not once called to order. This fact is
conclusive as to the personal and parliamentary decorum of the
speech. He had provocation enough. His State had been called
‘hypocritical.’ He himself had been called ‘a puppy,’ ‘a fool,’
‘a fanatic,’ and ‘a dishonest man.’ Yet he was parliamentary
from the beginning to the end of his speech. No man knew better
than he did the proprieties of the place, for he had always
observed them. No man knew better than he did parliamentary
law, because he had made it the study of his life. No man saw
more clearly than he did the flaming sword of the Constitution
turning every way, guarding all the avenues of the Senate. But
he was not thinking of these things; he was not thinking then
of the privileges of the Senate, nor of the guaranties of the
Constitution. He was there to denounce tyranny and crime; and
he did it. He was there to speak for the rights of an empire;
and he did it bravely and grandly.
“So much for the occasion of the speech. A word, and I shall be
pardoned, about the speaker himself. He is my friend; for many
and many a year I have looked to him for guidance and light,
and I never looked in vain. He never had a personal enemy in
his life; his character is as pure as the snow that falls on
his native hills; his heart overflows with kindness for every
being having the upright form of man; he is a ripe scholar, a
chivalric gentleman, and a warm-hearted, true friend. He sat at
the feet of Channing, and drank in the sentiments of that noble
soul. He bathed in the learning and undying love of the great
jurist, Story; and the hand of Jackson, with its honors and its
offices, sought him early in life, but he shrank from them with
instinctive modesty. Sir, he is the pride of Massachusetts.
His mother Commonwealth found him adorning the highest
walks of literature and law, and she bade him go and grace
somewhat the rough character of political life. The people of
Massachusetts--the old, and the young, and the middle-aged--now
pay their full homage to the beauty of his public and private
character. Such is Charles Sumner.
“On the 22d day of May, when the Senate and the House had
clothed themselves in mourning for a brother fallen in the
battle of life in the distant State of Missouri, the Senator
from Massachusetts sat in the silence of the Senate Chamber,
engaged in the employments appertaining to his office, when
a member from this House, who had taken an oath to sustain
the Constitution, stole into the Senate, that place which had
hitherto been held sacred against violence, and smote him as
Cain smote his brother.
[MR. KEITT (in his seat). That is false.
MR. BURLINGAME. I will not bandy epithets with the
gentleman. I am responsible for my own language. Doubtless
he is responsible for his.
MR. KEITT. I am.