“One blow was enough; but it did not satiate the wrath of
that spirit which had pursued him through two days. Again and
again, quicker and faster, fell the leaden blows, until he was
torn away from his victim, when the Senator from Massachusetts
fell in the arms of his friends, and his blood ran down on
the Senate floor. Sir, the act was brief, and my comments
on it shall be brief also. I denounce it in the name of the
Constitution it violated. I denounce it in the name of the
sovereignty of Massachusetts, which was stricken down by the
blow. I denounce it in the name of civilization, which it
outraged. I denounce it in the name of humanity. I denounce it
in the name of that fair play which bullies and prize-fighters
respect. What! strike a man when he is pinioned,--when he
cannot respond to a blow? Call you that chivalry? In what code
of honor did you get your authority for that? I do not believe
that member has a friend so dear who must not, in his heart of
hearts, condemn the act. Even the member himself, if he has
left a spark of that chivalry and gallantry attributed to him,
must loathe and scorn the act. God knows, I do not wish to
speak unkindly or in a spirit of revenge; but I owe it to my
manhood, and the noble State I in part represent, to express my
deep abhorrence of the act.
“But, much as I reprobate the act, much more do I reprobate the
conduct of those who were by and saw the outrage perpetrated.
Sir, especially do I notice the conduct of that Senator,
recently from the free platform of Massachusetts, with the odor
of her hospitality on him, who stood there, not only silent and
quiet, while it was going on, but, when it was over, approved
the act. And worse,--when he had time to cool, when he had
slept on it, he went into the Senate Chamber of the United
States, and shocked the sensibilities of the world by approving
it. Another Senator did not take part because he feared his
motives might be questioned, exhibiting as extraordinary a
delicacy as that individual who refused to rescue a drowning
mortal because he had not been introduced to him. [_Laughter._]
Another was not on good terms; and yet, if rumor be true, that
Senator has declared that himself and family are more indebted
to Mr. Sumner than to any other man; yet, when he saw him
borne bleeding by, he turned and went on the other side. O
magnanimous Slidell! O prudent Douglas! O audacious Toombs!”
This speech drew from Mr. Brooks a challenge, which was promptly
accepted by Mr. Burlingame, who insisted upon these terms: “Weapons,
rifles; distance, twenty paces; place, District of Columbia; time of
meeting, the next morning.” Hon. L. D. Campbell, who acted as Mr.
Burlingame’s friend, substituted the Clifton House, Canada, for the
District of Columbia. The friends of Mr. Brooks, assuming that the
excitement growing out of the assault made it dangerous for him to
traverse the country, prevented the meeting from taking place.
* * * * *
The following resolves were adopted by the Legislature of
Massachusetts, and duly presented to both Houses of Congress.
“_Resolves concerning the recent Assault upon the Honorable
Charles Sumner at Washington._
“_Resolved_, By the Senate and House of Representatives of the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, that we have received with deep
concern information of the recent violent assault committed
in the Senate Chamber at Washington upon the person of the
Honorable Charles Sumner, one of our Senators in Congress, by
Preston S. Brooks, a member of the House of Representatives
from South Carolina,--an assault which no provocation could
justify, brutal and cowardly in itself, a gross breach of
parliamentary privilege, a ruthless attack upon the liberty of
speech, an outrage of the decencies of civilized life, and an
indignity to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
“_Resolved_, That the Legislature of Massachusetts, in the
name of her free and enlightened people, demands for her
representatives in the National Legislature entire _Freedom of
Speech_, and will uphold them in the proper exercise of that
essential right of American citizens.
“_Resolved_, That we approve of Mr. Sumner’s manliness and
courage in his earnest and fearless declaration of free
principles and his defence of human rights and free territory.
“_Resolved_, That the Legislature of Massachusetts is
imperatively called upon by the plainest dictates of duty,
from a decent regard to the rights of her citizens, and
respect for her character as a sovereign State, to demand, and
the Legislature of Massachusetts hereby does demand, of the
National Congress, a prompt and strict investigation into the
recent assault upon Senator Sumner, and the expulsion by the
House of Representatives of Mr. Brooks of South Carolina, and
any other member concerned with him in said assault.
“_Resolved_, That his Excellency the Governor be requested to
transmit a copy of the foregoing resolves to the President
of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives,
and to each of the Senators and Members of the House of
Representatives from this Commonwealth, in the Congress of the
United States.”
The Governor of New York addressed Mr. Sumner directly by letter as
follows.
“STATE OF NEW YORK, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT.
ALBANY, MAY 28, 1856.
“HONORABLE CHARLES SUMNER:--
“MY DEAR SIR,--From the moment the lightning flashed the
intelligence of the barbarous and brutal assault made upon you
by the sneaking, slave-driving scoundrel Brooks, the blood
has tingled in my veins, and I have desired to express to
you, not my abhorrence of the villain, for I could not find
words adequate, but my personal sympathy for you, and, in
their behalf, that of the people of this State (except a few
‘doughfaces,‘--we have still a very few, the breed is not yet
quite extinct here),--assuring you that the hearts of our
people are warmly and strongly with you, and that your noble
and eloquent speech has already been very generally read by
our citizens,--that it is not only entirely approved, but
highly applauded,--and that its doctrines, sentiments, and
expressions, and its author, will be _sustained_ and DEFENDED
by the people of this State.
“Ardently hoping for your recovery and speedy restoration to
health, I have the honor to remain, with the highest regard,
“Your friend and servant,
“MYRON H. CLARK.”
Of the resolutions at public meetings a few only are presented.
The following, from the pen of William Lloyd Garrison, were adopted by
the New England Antislavery Society.
“1. _Resolved_, That this Convention fully participates in
the general feeling of indignation and horror which is felt
in view of the recent dastardly and murderous assault made
in the Senate Chamber at Washington upon the person of the
distinguished Senator from Massachusetts, Hon. Charles Sumner,
by a fitting Representative of and from the lawless State of
South Carolina; that, whether regard be had to the place or to
the manner in which it was committed, or to the position and
character of the victim, an assault characterized by greater
cowardice and ruffianism, or more daring in its contempt
for all that is sacred in constitutional liberty, or more
comprehensively malignant against the cause of human freedom,
cannot be found on the page of history; that it indicates a
conspiracy, on the part of the Slave Oligarchy, to ‘crush out’
freedom of speech on the floor of Congress as effectually as
it is done on the slave plantation, by putting in peril the
life of every Northern Senator or Representative who shall
dare to lift up a manly voice against Executive usurpation and
border-ruffianism; and, therefore, that whoever shall attempt
to find any justification, or to frame any apology for it, will
reveal himself to be on a level with the base assailant of as
pure and generous and noble a man as ever yet occupied a seat
in our national legislature.
“2. _Resolved_, That the speech made by Mr. Sumner, which
has subjected him to this most brutal treatment, is a speech
at any time worth dying for,--perfect in its conception,
arrangement, and execution, conclusive in its argument and
evidence, masterly in its exposure of Executive usurpation,
sublime in its moral heroism, invincible in its truthfulness,
just in its personal impeachment, unsurpassed in its eloquence,
and glorious in its object; that, sealed with his blood, it
shall quicken the pulses of millions now living to engage in a
death-grapple with the Slave Power, and go down to posterity as
a rich legacy to the cause of Universal Liberty.”
The following resolution was passed unanimously, at the meeting of
Ministers in Boston, immediately after the news of the assault.
“_Resolved_, That the murderous assault upon our honored
Senator, Charles Sumner, is not only a dastardly assault upon
his person, and, through him, upon the right of free speech,
but also a wound which we individually feel, and by which
our very hearts bleed; and whether he shall recover, or sink
into a martyr’s grave,--which may God avert!--we will address
ourselves unto prayer and effort that this sorrowful event may
become the glorious resurrection of national virtue, and the
triumph of Freedom.”
At the Political Radical Abolition Convention, held at Syracuse, N. Y.,
May 28th and 29th, 1856, on motion of Lewis Tappan, the following was
unanimously adopted.
“_Resolved_, That we hold in grateful admiration the character
of the Hon. Charles Sumner; that we honor the splendid services
he has rendered to the cause of Liberty; that we deeply
sympathize with him in his present sufferings in consequence
of the cowardly and brutal attack of the villain who dared to
assault the intrepid advocate of the Slave in the American
Senate Chamber; and that we hope and pray that Mr. Sumner’s
valuable life will be spared until he shall witness the
complete overthrow of the execrable system that now brutalizes
our brethren in bondage, and brutalizes their oppressors, and
disgraces our country.”
At New York there was a meeting immense in numbers and unprecedented in
character, of which George Griswold was Chairman. Among the speakers
were William C. Bryant, Daniel Lord, the eminent lawyer, Samuel
B. Ruggles, Charles King, President of Columbia College, Edwin B.
Morgan, John A. Stevens, Joseph Hoxie, and Henry Ward Beecher. The
following resolutions were moved by Hon. William M. Evarts, afterwards
Attorney-General.
“_Whereas_ it has become certainly known to the citizens of New
York, upon a formal investigation by a Committee of the Senate
of the United States, and otherwise, that on the 22d day of
May, instant, the Honorable Charles Sumner [_long, loud, and
enthusiastic cheers_], Senator from Massachusetts, while in
his seat in the Senate Chamber, was violently assaulted with a
weapon of attack by Preston S. Brooks [_loud hisses and groans
for Brooks_], a member of the House of Representatives from
South Carolina, and beaten to insensibility upon the floor
of the Senate, which was stained with his blood; that the
assailant sought the Senate Chamber to perpetrate this outrage,
provided with his weapon and attended by a follower in its aid,
and, taking his unarmed victim unawares and in a posture which
renders defence impossible, by a heavy blow utterly disabled
him, and with cruel repetition inflicted frequent and bloody
wounds upon his prostrate, helpless form, with which wounds
Senator Sumner now languishes in peril of his life; that the
sole reason alleged for this violent outrage was a speech made
by Senator Sumner in debate upon a public question then pending
in the Senate, no word of which was, during its delivery, made
the subject of objection by the President of the Senate or
any Senator, and which was concluded on the 20th day of May,
instant: Now, at a public meeting of citizens of New York,
convened without distinction of party [_applause_], and solely
in reference to the public event above recited, it is
“_Resolved_, That we sincerely and respectfully tender our
sympathy to Senator Sumner in the personal outrage inflicted
upon him, and the anguish and peril which he has suffered and
still suffers from that outrage, and that we feel and proclaim
that his grievance and his wounds are not of private concern
[_cheers_], but were received in the public service, and every
blow which fell upon his head we recognize and resent as an
insult and injury to our honor and dignity as a people, and a
vital attack upon the Constitution of the Union. [_Loud cheers
and applause._]
“_Resolved_, That we discover no trace or trait, either in
the meditation, the preparation, or the execution of this
outrage by Preston S. Brooks [_loud hisses and groans for
Brooks_], which should qualify the condemnation with which
we now pronounce it _brutal, murderous, and cowardly_.
[_Continued cheers, and cries of ‘Read it again!’ Mr. Evarts
repeated the last clause. Voices,--‘Yes, cowardly! that’s the
word!--cowardly!’ Another voice,--‘Now let him send another
challenge!’_]
…
“_Resolved_, That we have witnessed with unmixed astonishment
and the deepest regret the clear, bold, exulting espousal of
the outrage, and justification and honor of its perpetrator,
exhibited by Senators and Representatives of the Slave States,
without distinction of party, in their public places, and by
the public press, without distinction of party, in the same
portion of our country, and that, _upon the present state
of the evidence_, we are forced most unwillingly to the sad
conclusion that the general community of the Slave States is
in complicity in feeling and principle with the system of
intimidation and violence, for the suppression of freedom
of speech and of the press, of which the assault on Senator
Sumner is the most signal, but not the singular instance.
[_Applause._] That we sincerely hope, that, on fuller and
calmer consideration, the public men and public press and the
general community of the Slave States will give us a distinct
manifestation of their sentiments which will enable us, too, to
reconsider our present judgment. [_Applause._]”
At this meeting the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher spoke as follows.
“Had Mr. Sumner been a man of war, or a man of brawling words,
had he been any other than what he was, the case could not
have been so strong. I know not that there would have been
found throughout all the land one man so fit to be offered up
as a sacrifice for Liberty, a man so worthy to be offered up
on the great altar of our country. [_Applause._] No aspiring
politician has he been. His past career has not been marked by
ambitious clutchings. A lawyer by profession, but a scholar by
instinct,--a man of refined ideas, of social taste,--he was
seized by one of those sudden gusts of popular feeling which
break out occasionally in all our Free States, and elected to
the Senate of the United States. While his election was yet
pending, I had the pleasure of conversation with him in his
office, I being a clergyman, and confessor on that occasion
[_laughter_], and he told me the secrets of his heart. I am
sure, that, although not without honorable and manly ambition,
this man had no desire for that position. Since he has been
in Washington, his course has been that which became a man,
a Christian, a gentleman, a statesman, and a scholar. He has
everywhere not merely observed the rules of decorum, but, with
true chivalry, with the lowliest gentleness, he has maintained
himself void of offence, so that the only complaint which I
have ever heard of Senator Sumner has been this, that he, by
his shrinking and sensitive nature, was not fit for the ‘rough
and tumble’ of politics in our day.…
“Mr. Sumner had no other weapon in his hand than his pen. Ah,
Gentlemen, here we have it! The symbol of the North is the pen;
the symbol of the South is the bludgeon.”
At a public meeting in Canandaigua, of which Hon. Francis Granger,
Postmaster-General under President Harrison, was Chairman, the
following resolutions were adopted.
“1. _Resolved_, That in this premeditated and brutal attack
upon Senator Sumner, for words spoken by him in legislative
debate, and in the conscientious discharge of his public duty,
we behold not only a malignant outrage upon the person of a
distinguished public servant, but also a wanton violation of
the right of freedom of speech,--a right which is guarantied to
every Representative, and through him to his constituents, by
the express provisions of the Constitution,--a right without
which the office of the legislator would be powerless and the
liberties of the people would become extinct, and which is
therefore ‘inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.’
“2. _Resolved_, That, participating in the righteous
indignation which was recently expressed by thousands of
freemen assembled in the city of New York, ‘we discover no
trace or trait, either in the meditation, the preparation,
or the execution of this outrage, which should qualify the
condemnation with which we now pronounce it _brutal, murderous,
and cowardly_.’
…
“5. _Resolved_, That to the Hon. Charles Sumner, the man of
pure and generous qualities, the accomplished scholar, the
distinguished lawyer, and the able and eloquent Senator, we
respectfully and sincerely offer our sympathies in the pain and
peril which he has suffered and is still suffering from this
despicable assault; and we earnestly hope that his restoration
to health may be speedy and complete, and that he may long be
spared to vindicate the great popular rights at which the blows
inflicted upon him were aimed.”
At Providence, Rhode Island, there was a public meeting, in which the
most distinguished citizens took part. Among the able speakers was the
Rev. Dr. Hedge, who said, among other things:--
“I have heard of crimes which betoken greater pravity of heart,
but never have I heard or read of an act more flagitious in
its open defiance of sacred rights, in its ruthless disregard
of all humane sentiment and shameless violation of decency and
order. We shall form a more just conception of the outrage by
viewing it abstractedly from any interest we may feel in it as
fellow-citizens of the parties concerned. Suppose we had read,
among the items of recent transatlantic intelligence, that
Count Buol, at the Peace Congress in Paris, offended by some
expression of the Earl of Clarendon, had felled him to the
ground with murderous blows. Imagine what a thrill of horror
would have struck through the heart of Europe, and how the
wrath of the nations would have chased the perpetrator of such
an act from the face of the earth. Or suppose Mr. Hume, of the
British Commons, had entered the House of Lords, and beaten
Lord Brougham with a club until he was borne senseless from the
spot. “With what confidence should we look to be advised by
the next steamer that the culprit had been doomed to expiate
his crime by the direst penalty which the laws of England have
provided!--if, indeed, the English law has made any provision
for such a case, and not rather, as the law of the Roman
Commonwealth did the crime of parricide, left it unprovided
for, as an impossible, unsupposable enormity.
“One supposition more. Conceive the situation of the parties
in the case before us reversed. Suppose Senator Butler, who
has said severer things of Mr. Sumner than Mr. Sumner of him,
to have been the victim, and some member from Massachusetts,
perhaps a far-away cousin of Mr. Sumner, to have been the
aggressor. Does any one here present imagine that the ‘gallant
relative’ in that case would be going about unmolested on a
paltry bail of five hundred dollars? If the trusty bowie-knife
or omnipresent revolver of Southern chivalry did not otherwise
dispose of him, does any one doubt that the summary and prompt
vengeance of Congress and the law would have been demanded by
one side and conceded by the other?”
Here is a brief extract from the speech of Rev. Dr. Wayland.
“The question before us is simply, whether you, here and now,
consent to this change in our form of government, and accept
the position which it assigns to you,--and whether you agree
to transmit to your children this precious inheritance? For
myself, I must decline the arrangement. I was born free, and I
cannot be made a slave. I bow before the universal intelligence
and conscience of my country, and when I think this defective,
I claim the privilege of using my poor endeavors to enlighten
it. But to submit my reason to the bludgeon of a bully or the
pistol of an assassin I cannot; nor can I tamely behold a step
taken which leads inevitably to such a consummation.
“You see that I consider this as a case of unusual solemnity.
It becomes us to deliberate wisely, to resolve in view of the
future as well as the past, and prepare ourselves to carry our
resolutions out to all their legitimate conclusions, and, in
doing this, to pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes,
and our sacred honor.”
At a public meeting in Chapman Hall, Boston, immediately after the
assault, Wendell Phillips said:--
“Nobody needs now to read this speech of Charles Sumner to know
whether it is good. We measure the amount of the charge by the
length of the rebound. [_Cheers._] When the spear, driven to
the quick, makes the Devil start up in his own likeness, we
may be sure it is the spear of Ithuriel. [_Great applause._]
That is my way of measuring the speech which has produced this
glorious result. Oh, yes, glorious! for the world will yet
cover every one of those scars with laurels. [_Enthusiastic
cheering._] Sir, he _must_ not die! We need him yet, as the
vanguard leader of the hosts of Liberty. No, he shall yet
come forth from that sick-chamber, and every gallant heart in
the Commonwealth be ready to kiss his very footsteps. [_Loud
cheers._]
…
“Perhaps, Mr. Chairman and fellow-citizens, I am wrong; but I
accept that speech of my loved and honored friend, and with an
unmixed approbation,--read it with envious admiration,--take
it all. [_Cheers._] Yes, what word is there in it that any one
of us would not have been proud to utter? Not one! [_Great
applause._] In utter scorn of the sickly taste, of the
effeminate scholarship, that starts back, in delicate horror,
at a bold illustration, I dare to say there is no animal God
has condescended to make that man may not venture to name.
[_Applause._] And if any ground of complaint is supposable in
regard to this comparison, which shocks the delicacy of some
men and some presses, it is the animal, not Mr. Douglas, that
has reason to complain. [_Thunders of applause, renewed again
and again._]
…
“Mr. Chairman, there are some characters whose worth is so
clear and self-evident, so tried and approved, so much without
flaw, that we lay them on the shelf,--and when we hear of
any act attributed to them, no matter in what doubtful terms
it be related, we judge the single act by the totality of
the character, by our knowledge of the whole man, letting
a lifetime of uprightness explain a doubtful hour. Now,
with regard to our honored Senator, we know that his taste,
intellect, and heart are all of this quality,--a total,
unflawed gem; and I know, when we get the full and complete
report of what he said, the _ipsissima verba_ in which it was
spoken, that the most fastidious taste of the most delicate
scholar will not be able to place finger on a word of Charles
Sumner which the truest gentleman would not gladly indorse.
[_Loud cheers._] I place the foot of my uttermost contempt on
those members of the press of Boston that have anything to say
in criticism of his language, while he lies thus prostrate and
speechless,--our champion beaten to the ground for the noblest
word Massachusetts ever spoke in the Senate. [_Prolonged
applause._]”
A great meeting in Faneuil Hall was remarkable for the speeches, of
which a few extracts are given.
His Excellency, Henry J. Gardner, at the time Governor of
Massachusetts, said:--
“Were this a party occasion, my feet would not be upon this
platform; were this to stir up sectional animosity or promote
local discord, my voice would never reverberate from these
arches above my head; but when the State of Massachusetts is
attacked in one of her dearest rights, one of her most glorious
privileges, I should be recreant to my duty, I should be false
to my trust, as every one who hears me would be, did I not
protest against this infraction of our common rights. I wish,
my friends, in order to give the greatest moral weight possible
to this meeting, to give its proceedings the most cogent force,
to assume in the outset that this case can in no wise, in no
way, and under no consideration, be considered anything but a
spontaneous expression of the sentiments of gentlemen of every
party in the State of Massachusetts upon this question. The
last time the eloquent and honorable Senator of Massachusetts
addressed his fellow-citizens of Boston, he stood where I now
stand, on the eve of the election in November last; and here,
he being a Senator of Massachusetts in the Congress of the
United States, and I being Governor of the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts, he indulged in what he honestly believed to be
facts and statements in regard to those of my friends who were
striving to place me again in the post I then occupied, using
no unfair, but only honest statements of the views he held;
and he being still a Senator from Massachusetts, and I again
her Governor, and this being the first time since then that
my voice has been heard in Faneuil Hall, while I lament most
deeply the circumstance which has called us together, I rejoice
that it gives me an opportunity to rise superior to party
feelings, to party bias, and to express my sentiments that we
must stand by him who is the representative of Massachusetts,
under all circumstances. [_Loud cheers._] And while he
represents the old Commonwealth in the United States Senate, in
the performance of his constitutional duties as he understands
them, I will, so help me Heaven, do all in my humble ability to
strengthen his arm and encourage his heart. [_Loud applause._]”