“I know Mr. Sumner well. In former times I had a long, an
intimate, and an affectionate acquaintance with him; and
I feel bound to say that he is a scholar of rich and rare
acquirements, a gentleman of noble qualities and generous
aims, distinguished for the amenities of social life, and a
companion most welcome in the society of the most generous, the
most refined, the most exalted. Sir, I had nothing to do with
sending Mr. Sumner to the Senate of the United States; I had no
vote to cast on that occasion; and if I had had, it would not,
on public grounds, have been cast for him. I shall have none to
cast, when the time for another election comes; but if I had
five hundred votes, every one should be given to send him back
again. [_Great applause._]
“Such is the man for whom ruffians lay in wait, whom they
assaulted, when unarmed and defenceless, in the Senate House.”
Richard H. Dana, Jr., Esq., made an elaborate speech, of which the
following is only an extract.
“But I cannot, if I would, altogether withdraw my thoughts from
this personal outrage upon Mr. Sumner. Charles Sumner!
‘He is my friend,--faithful and just to me.’
I cannot allow myself to call up that scene in the Senate
House, lest I should feel more than I shall be able to express
or be willing to betray. Boston, his native town, has spoken.
Next to Boston, there is no place so dear to him as Cambridge.
He is a true son of Harvard. The best years of his early life,
from fifteen to twenty-three, he spent here: the four years
of college,--a fifth year which he wisely, though unusually,
added to his course, for the perfecting of his classical and
general studies,--and the three years of his studies in the
Law School. At the Law School his attainments were not only
great, but wonderful; and for purity of character, kindness,
and frankness, he was respected and beloved by all. He was the
friend, young as he was, the beloved friend, the frequent and
honored guest of Story, of Channing, and of Allston. He was the
companion of your Longfellow and your Felton. No young man was
more honored by Mr. Webster--in I had almost said his better
days. He was the friend of every man and of every cause that
deserved to have a friend. At the bar he distinguished himself,
especially in juridical literature. He was the reporter of
Judge Story’s decisions, and editor of the _Jurist_, where the
young student will find the copious results of his enthusiastic
labors in his then beloved profession. When he went abroad,
he took nothing in his hand that his own merits had not given
him. He had not one claim that did not rest on character,
learning, and talents. Still under the age of thirty, he became
in Europe the honored friend of men whose names have honored
the world. Turning his back upon the attractions of dissipation
and fashion, he devoted himself to the society of the learned,
the wise, the philanthropic, and to all great and good objects.
Thomas Carlyle, in a letter to America, says, “We have had
_popular Sumner_ here,”--so universally was he liked. In Paris,
while the Northeastern Boundary question was agitating England
and America, and attracting much of the attention of Europe,
Sumner shut himself into the libraries and public archives, and
produced a treatise upon the subject, thought then to be almost
exhausted, which, published in the great journals of Europe,
and brought before Parliaments and Councils, changed the
aspect of the question in Europe, and redounded to his great
honor at home.
“After his return, under the influence of Dr. Channing, and
in sympathy with Dr. Howe and others, he devoted much of his
time to the great philanthropic and social problems of the
day,--Slavery, Pauperism, Crime, and Prison Discipline,--and
gradually the overshadowing social, political, and national
importance of the Slave question drew him first before the
people and into public life. When his sentiments on the Slave
question were to be sustained at the risk of his ease, his
interests, his friendships, and his popularity, he put them all
to the hazard. When proposed as candidate for the Senate, the
highest office Massachusetts can give, while his election hung
trembling in the balance week after week, when one or two votes
would secure it, and this or that thing said or done it was
thought would gain them, nothing would induce Charles Sumner
to take one step from his regular course from his house to his
office to speak to any man; he would not make one bow the more,
nor put his hand to a line, however simple or unobjectionable,
to secure the result. I know--I have right to say this--I know
that in this course he resisted temptations and advice and
persuasions which few men would not have yielded to. He was
elected. It was a tribute to character and talent.
“When he went to Washington, to fight almost alone, with only
two or three allies, discountenanced by colleagues and cried
down by the great majority, to fight the fight for Freedom, he
determined not to speak on the subject of Slavery until he had
done all in his power to secure the confidence and good-will
of his opponents. So far did he carry this, that his friends
here feared that he was bending before the idol, as others had
bent. He secured his footing as well as it could be secured.
All but fanatics for Slavery admitted his claims to personal
affection and public respect. On this basis he took his stand
for Freedom. You have seen the result. Few men in America have
ever had, perhaps no one man now has, so many readers as he.
His opponents say that he burns the midnight lamp. He does. And
‘How far that little candle throws his beams!’
His opponents, too, burn the midnight lamp; but, as you
remember, Sir, the great Athenian said, there is a difference
between the objects on which their lamp throws its glare and
his.”
Among the meetings, that of Concord deserves mention. The resolutions,
introduced by Hon. E. Rockwood Hoar, were as follows.
“_Resolved_, That we have heard with feelings of the deepest
indignation of the cowardly and brutal assault upon a Senator
of Massachusetts, in the Senate Chamber of the United States,
for words spoken in debate, in his place, upon the floor of the
Senate.
“_Resolved_, That this dastardly outrage has in itself
dishonored no one but the ruffian who committed it,--but
that the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States will make themselves accomplices of the criminal, and
deliberate partakers of the guilt and infamy of the crime, if
they shall fail to visit upon him speedy and condign punishment.
“_Resolved_, That, if there are those who imagine that the
voice of a Senator of Massachusetts can be silenced, or the
expression of the deliberate opinions of her people upon public
measures and public men can be stifled and suppressed, _by the
terrors of assassination_, we _know_ that in CHARLES SUMNER
they have mistaken _the man_, and we will endeavor to show that
they have mistaken the Commonwealth.
“_Resolved_, That, in this assault upon our distinguished
Senator, the right of free debate in Congress, guarantied by
the Constitution of the United States, has been dangerously
assailed; and all men who are not willing to see it wholly
destroyed are called upon, personally, to rebuke the outrage,
and all its abettors, defenders, and apologists.
“_Resolved_, That we thank Mr. Sumner with our whole hearts
for his heroic defence of the Kansas settlers, and his solemn
arraignment before the country of the perpetrators of the great
_Crime_ against that unhappy and conquered province.
“_Resolved_, That we have a right to look to the House of
Representatives to vindicate the honor of the country in the
eyes of the civilized world, by expelling from their body a
member with whom none but bullies and savages can hereafter
fitly associate.”
These were followed by a speech from Ralph Waldo Emerson, of which this
is an extract.
“The outrage is the more shocking from the singularly pure
character of its victim. Mr. Sumner’s position is exceptional
in its honor. He had not taken his degrees in the caucus and
in hack politics. It is notorious, that, in the long time when
his election was pending, he refused to take a single step to
secure it. He would not so much as go up to the State House
to shake hands with this or that person whose good-will was
reckoned important by his friends. He was elected. It was a
homage to character and talent. In Congress he did not rush
into a party position. He sat long silent and studious. His
friends, I remember, were told that they would find Sumner a
man of the world, like the rest: ‘’Tis quite impossible to
be at Washington and not bend; he will bend, as the rest have
done.’ Well, he did not bend. He took his position, and kept
it. He meekly bore the cold shoulder from some of his New
England colleagues, the hatred of his enemies, the pity of the
indifferent, cheered by the love and respect of good men with
whom he acted, and has stood for the North, a little in advance
of all the North, and therefore without adequate support. He
has never faltered in his maintenance of justice and freedom.
He has gone beyond the large expectation of his friends in his
increasing ability and his manlier tone.
“I have heard that some of his political friends tax him with
indolence or negligence in refusing to make electioneering
speeches, or otherwise to bear his part in the labor which
party organization requires. I say it to his honor. But more to
his honor are the faults which his enemies lay to his charge. I
think, Sir, if Mr. Sumner had any vices, we should be likely to
hear of them. They have fastened their eyes like microscopes,
now for five years, on every act, word, manner, and movement,
to find a flaw,--and with what result? His opponents accuse
him neither of drunkenness, nor debauchery, nor job, nor
peculation, nor rapacity, nor personal aims of any kind. No:
but with what? Why, beyond this charge, which it is impossible
was ever sincerely made, that he broke over the proprieties of
debate, I find him accused of publishing his opinion of the
Nebraska conspiracy in a letter to the People of the United
States, with discourtesy. Then, that he is an Abolitionist:
as if every sane human being were not an Abolitionist, or a
believer that all men should be free. And the third crime he
stands charged with is, that his speeches were written before
they were spoken: which of course must be true in Sumner’s
case,--as it was true of Webster, of Adams, of Calhoun, of
Burke, of Chatham, of Demosthenes, of every first-rate speaker
that ever lived. It is the high compliment he pays to the
intelligence of the Senate and of the country. When the same
reproach was cast upon the first orator of ancient times by
some caviller of his day, he said, ‘I should be ashamed to come
with one unconsidered word before such an assembly.’
“Mr. Chairman, when I think of these most small faults as the
worst which party hatred could allege, I think I may borrow the
language which Bishop Burnet applied to Sir Isaac Newton, and
say, that Charles Sumner ‘has the whitest soul I ever knew.’
“Well, Sir, this noble head, so comely and so wise, must be the
target for a pair of bullies to beat with clubs! The murderer’s
brand shall stamp their foreheads, wherever they may wander
in the earth. But I wish, Sir, that the high respects of this
meeting shall be expressed to Mr. Sumner, that a copy of the
resolutions that have been read may be forwarded to him. I
wish that he may know the shudder of terror that ran through
all this community on the first tidings of this brutal attack.
Let him hear that every man of worth in New England loves his
virtues,--that every mother thinks of him as the protector of
families,--that every friend of Freedom thinks him the friend
of Freedom. And if our arms at this distance cannot defend him
from assassins, we confide the defence of a life so precious to
all honorable men and true patriots, and to the Almighty Maker
of men.”
At a meeting in Worcester, Hon. Charles Allen, the eminent Judge, and
formerly a Representative in Congress, said:--
“Now, Sir, we have met to express our warm feelings of
indignation--at what? That Charles Sumner has been stricken
down by the hand of a brutal ruffian? No, Sir: that is but
a small portion of the question which is presented for our
consideration at this time. Not by the hand of Brooks of
South Carolina, alone, did he fall; but it was through a
_concerted effort_, which has not been denied in the House
of Representatives, although the question was evaded by Mr.
Brooks, declaring that he had informed no one of the _time_
when it should take place; but he did not deny--and it is well
known in Washington, and will be throughout the country, that
this attack upon Mr. Sumner--that this slaughter of Mr. Sumner,
for such was the purpose--was concerted among Southern men, and
that Brooks was but the base instrument by which the purpose
was to be carried into effect. Sir, we must hold, not Mr.
Brooks responsible alone, but all those who combined with him
to do this foul deed,--all those--and you will find there will
be hosts in another section of the country--who will applaud
the act, and profess to honor the man who was put forward to
perpetrate this deed. And, Sir, if we consider it merely as a
combination of slaveholders against our Senator, and nothing
more, we shall not reach the magnitude of the question open
for our consideration. That blow was not meant for Mr. Sumner
alone. It was meant for the _State_ which he represented. It
was the State of Massachusetts whose honor was outraged by
that act. It was her majesty which was stricken down in the
person of her Senator. It is her body that lies bleeding,
and demands retribution at the hands of her children. Shall
retribution not come? Shall there not be a voice from one end
of Massachusetts to the other, calling aloud for retribution
upon the perpetrator, and the aiders and abettors of that foul
act? [_Loud cries of ‘Yes,’ and applause._]”
The voice of the Young Men of Boston found utterance at a large and
enthusiastic meeting of the Mercantile Library Association, held at
their rooms, June 6, 1856, when the following preamble and resolutions
were unanimously adopted.
“_Whereas_ the Hon. Charles Sumner, Senator in Congress from
this Commonwealth, and an honorary member of this Association,
has been most brutally assaulted in his seat in Congress for
words uttered in debate: Therefore
“_Resolved_, That it is with feelings of profound sorrow and
shame that we are obliged to recognize in this act a _cowardly_
and _base_ assault upon the rights of free speech, and to
regard this indignity, perpetrated upon the person of our
honored and beloved Senator, as an insult to the city of Boston
and its institutions, the State of Massachusetts, and our
common country.
“_Resolved_, That the members of the Mercantile Library
Association of Boston, without distinction of party, most
respectfully tender to the Hon. Charles Sumner their kindest
feelings of sympathy and esteem, and earnestly hope, that, by
the blessing of Divine Providence, he may resume his seat in
Congress, and reiterate those principles of humanity which
every institution, whether political or literary, should most
earnestly espouse.
“_Resolved_, That the Corresponding Secretary of this
Association is hereby requested to furnish the Hon. Charles
Sumner with an appropriate copy of these resolves.”
The sentiments of the medical profession appear in a speech and toast
by Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, at the dinner of the Massachusetts
Medical Society, at the Revere House, Boston.
“Look into the chamber where our own fellow-citizen, struck
down without warning by the hand of brutal violence, lies
prostrate, and think what fearful issues hang on the skill or
incompetence of those who have his precious life in charge. One
little error, and the _ignis sacer_, the fiery plague of the
wounded, spreads his angry blush over the surface, and fever
and delirium are but the preludes of deadlier symptoms. One
slight neglect, and the brain, oppressed with the products of
disease, grows dreamy, and then drowsy, its fine energies are
palsied, and too soon the heart that filled it with generous
blood is still forever. It took but a little scratch from a
glass, broken at his daughter’s wedding, to snatch from life
the great anatomist and surgeon, Spigelius, almost at the very
age of him for whose recovery we look, not without anxious
solicitude.
“At such a moment as this, more than at any other, we feel
the dignity, the awful responsibility, of the healing art.
Let but that life be sacrificed, and left unavenged, and the
wounds of that defenceless head, like the foul witch’s blow
on her enchanted image, are repeated on the radiant forehead
of Liberty herself, and flaw the golden circlet we had vainly
written with the sacred name of Union!
“‘Dî, prohibete minas! Dî, talem avertite casum!’
“I give you, Mr. President,--
“_The Surgeons of the City of Washington._--God grant them
wisdom! for they are dressing the wounds of a mighty empire,
and of uncounted generations.”
Hon. Josiah Quincy, in the eighty-fifth year of his age, addressed a
letter to the Unitarian Festival, in which he said:--
“The hostile irruption of two members of Congress into the
Senate Chamber of the United States, openly armed with deadly
bludgeons, and probably secretly, according to the habits
of their breed, with bowie-knives and revolvers, and there
prostrating on the floor with their bludgeons a Senator of the
United States, sitting peaceably in his seat, unconscious of
danger, and from his position incapable of defence, inflicting
upon him blows, until he sunk senseless under them, and which,
if they do not prove mortal, it was not for want of malignant
intent in the cowardly assassins,--and all this for words
publicly spoken in the Senate, in the course of debate, allowed
by its presiding officer to be spoken, _and exceeding not one
hair’s breadth any line of truth or duty_: this is the fifth,
and the climax, of this series of outrages, unparalleled,
nefarious, and brutal.”
At an indignation meeting in the town of Quincy, this venerable citizen
spoke as follows.
“The blow struck upon the head of Charles Sumner did not fall
upon him alone. It was a blow purposely aimed at the North. It
was a blow struck at the very Tree of Liberty. It speaks to
us in words not to be mistaken. It says to us that Northern
men shall not be heard in the halls of Congress, except at the
peril of the bowie-knife, the bludgeon, and revolver. Nor is
this any new thing.
“The bludgeon, heretofore only brandished, has at last been
brought down; and now is the time for the North to fight.
Charles Sumner needs not our sympathy: if he dies, his name
will be immortal,--his name will be enrolled with the names of
Warren, Sidney, and Russell; if he lives, he is destined to be
the light of the nation.”
Hon. Edward Everett, at Taunton, opened his “Address on the Character
of Washington” by allusion to the assault.
“With the satisfaction which I feel in addressing you at
the present time are mingled the profoundest anxiety and
grief. An irrepressible sadness takes possession of my heart
at the occurrences of the past week, and the most serious
apprehensions force themselves upon me that events are already
in train, with an impulse too mighty to be resisted, which will
cause our beloved country to weep tears of blood through all
her borders for generations to come. The civil war,--for such
it is,--with its horrid train of pillage, fire, and slaughter,
carried on, without the slightest provocation, against the
infant settlements of our brethren on the frontier of the
Union,--the worse than civil war which has for months raged
unrebuked at the capital of the Union, and has at length, by
an act of lawless violence, of which I know no parallel in the
history of Constitutional Government, stained the floor of the
Senate Chamber with the blood of an unarmed, defenceless man,
and he a Senator of Massachusetts,--ah, my friends, these are
events which, for the good name, the peace, the safety of the
country, for the cause of free institutions throughout the
world, it were worth all the gold of California to blot from
the record of the past week. They sicken the heart of the good
citizen, of the patriot, of the Christian; they awaken a gloomy
doubt whether the sacrifices and the sufferings endured by
our fathers, that they might found a purer, higher, and freer
civilization on this Western Continent than the world had yet
seen, have not been endured in vain.”
William H. Hurlbut, of New York, the eminent journalist, wrote thus,
under date of June 7, 1856.
“The newspapers, which have for so long kept the millions of
the North as watchers about your bed, now gladden all our
hearts with the news that you are soon to stand again upon
that floor which promises to become as sacred in the annals of
Freedom as is the arena of the Coliseum in the story of our
faith.…
“Nothing, I am sure, could so have touched and roused every
class of Northern society, nothing could so have put the
terrible realities of the issue we _must_ confront before the
most unwilling and the most indifferent minds, as the atrocious
deed which, imbecile as it was atrocious, makes the firmest
enemy of Slavery the perpetual representative alike of Northern
honor and of Northern manhood, and enlists around you, as the
perpetual Senator of Massachusetts, every instinct, passion,
and necessity of Northern civilization.
“It is your rare good fortune to be able to wear the martyr’s
crown into the battle of life, and I really do not see how any
true man can have any words for you but those of congratulation
and of stern exultation. The scoundrelly simpleton who struck
you fled from the recoil of his weapon; but there will be a
fiercer recoil from that blow, and a flowing of blood not so
easily to be stanched.
“I think, if you could have seen the meeting at the Tabernacle,
you would have marked the 22d of May with white in your
calendar: it is marked with _red_ in the calendar of our
country.
“I am going to England in a few weeks, but I hope, before I
go, to hear that you are quite reëstablished in health, and
once more face to face with the lions,--I beg the pardon of the
forest-king,--with the tigers of the Senate House.
“In this season of our national degradation, it will be
something, that, when Englishmen talk to me of their dead
Miltons and Marvells and Hampdens and Sidneys, I can answer
them with a living name, which, like these names, shall never
cease to live.”
Dr. John W. Francis, the eminent physician, of New York, wrote, under
date of October 9, 1856:--
“I now write a line or two for the purpose of renewing to you
the sentiments I cherish in your behalf, and my admiration of
your noble patriotism and commanding eloquence. I had read
carefully your classical speeches, and rejoiced that there
was at least one in the Senate who to rich culture added the
graces of finished oratory and the abiding principles of
constitutional freedom. Yes, my dear Sir, I have been for
several months, amidst many cares, absorbed on the consequences
which I inferred must follow the brutal assault which you
received. I almost at once exclaimed, That _blow_ will effect a
revolution in our political relationship; yet I pray God that
the Union may continue intact under its momentous influences.
You have, by your parliamentary demonstrations, evinced the
heroism of the patriots of the earlier days of our Republic;
you have stamped your Senatorial career with the impress of
the loftiest intrepidity and moral courage. You are destined
to occupy an ample page in your country’s history. These
expressions, dear Sir, flow from a full heart and a deep
conviction.”
Governor Banks, in his annual message to the Legislature of
Massachusetts, January, 1858, associated the violence in Kansas with
that upon Mr. Sumner.
“Nothing but the direct intervention of Federal influence can
force through Congress the Lecompton Constitution; and if the
Government, with the sanction of the people, can force upon
Kansas a Constitution conceived in fraud and violence, it will
be the weightiest blow ever given against free governments.
“Violence and fraud, if successful in this instance, will be
repeated whenever occasion demands it. It will not be limited
to Territories or States. No shrine will be held sacred.
The Senate Chamber of the United States has been already
invaded, and this State was for a time bereft of a part of its
representative power by an act of fearful wrong, committed upon
the most cherished and brilliant of her sons, while in the
performance of constitutional duty.”
The following extract from a poem by Mrs. Julia Ward Howe appeared in
the _New York Tribune_ at the time.
“A WOMAN’S WORD FOR THE HOUR.
“While she yet spake, from the heaven God’s thunder had fallen,
And I heard: ‘The crime, not the paltry offender, so stirs us.’
Take heart, thou lone one! a champion leaps to defend thee,
Armed with the loftier issue, the art and the moral,--
Eloquent lips, and the integral heart of Conviction,
Powerful still when the arm of the spoiler has crumbled,--
Doctrine of Right, and the Old-World tradition of Freedom,--
Doctrine of Justice, thank God, no New-England invention,--
Known to the ancients, known to the gods and their poets,
Known to great Tully, whose pillars of perfect marble
Stand in the temple of Truth, his remembrance for ages.
There shall thy record be, Knight of the wronged and the helpless!
There shall thy weapon be kept, with the motto, ‘I hurled it.’
How hast thou hardened the living heart and quick feelings
To stand up and speak the great spirit-dividing sentence,--
To stand, a mark for the thief and assassin to aim at!
More than our envy, more than thy hope, was thy guerdon,
Setting the seal of thy blood to the word of thy courage!
If but the pure of heart in a pure cause should suffer,
SUMNER, the task thou hast chosen was thine for its fitness.
Never was paschal victim more stainlessly offered,--
Never on milder brow gleamed the crown of the martyr.
“Stand thence, a mark for the better and nobler ambition!
For they are holy, the wounds that the Southerner dealt thee:
Count them blessed, and blessed the mother that bore thee.
“Would that the thing I best love, ay, the son of my bosom,
Suffering beside thee, had shared the high deed and its glory!
Shall we bend over those wounds with our tears and our balsams,--
Tears warm with rapture, balsams of costliest clearness?
Take thy deserving, then; wear it for life on thy forehead!
Crowned with those scars, shalt thou enter the just man’s heaven,--
Crowned with those scars, shalt thou stand in the record of heroes!
“If earthly counsel were vain, should the heavens befriend thee!
Sinking Orion, flung far in the wrath of the tyrant,
Calls not in vain on the dumb heart of Nature to help him:
Lo! the deep comes to his aid, and its monsters upbear him;
Hesper stoops over the Ocean her long shining tresses,
Till he is drawn by them up to the zone of her beauty,
And, like fair sisters, the stars close around him forever!”
The wide-spread, spontaneous sentiment of the North found echo in
Europe, especially in England. Among various testimonies, the following
is selected from the _Morning Star_ of London, June 24, 1856.
“The assault upon Mr. Sumner stands without parallel in the
annals of civilized communities. While sitting at his desk
in the Senate Chamber, quietly engaged in writing, a member
of the other legislative body, the House of Representatives,
deliberately walks up to him, and, taking advantage of his
utterly helpless position, where he could neither escape nor
defend himself, begins to beat him violently upon his bare head
with a heavy cane, until he falls down stunned and insensible,
covered with his own blood, the cowardly ruffian not desisting
even then, when the form of his antagonist lay prostrate and
senseless before him. While this is taking place, a number of
his brother Senators stand round and make no attempt to stay
the arm of the assailant; some of them, indeed, mounted guard
expressly to prevent interference. Such conduct is utterly
inexplicable to us in this country.
…
“If anything could aggravate the inherent brutality of
this act, it is the character of the man upon whom it was
committed. For Mr. Sumner is a gentleman in whom there meets a
combination of qualities adapted in a rare degree to inspire
the affectionate attachment of friends, and to command courtesy
and respect from all generous and honorable opponents: a man
of a chivalrous and heroic spirit, of a refined and sensitive
nature, of a powerful and cultivated intellect disciplined
by hard study and adorned with profound and various learning,
who has led a life of irreproachable purity and active
benevolence,--the favorite pupil of Story, the intimate friend
and disciple of Channing, the chosen associate of the finest
living minds of America, Quincy, Sparks, Longfellow, Goodrich,
Dana, Everett, Bryant, Emerson.
…
“And when the greatest of American orators and statesmen,
Daniel Webster, was stricken down by the hand of death, Mr.
Sumner was the man whom the State of Massachusetts chose from
among her sons, as most worthy to be his successor. And most
nobly has he vindicated the wisdom of their choice. Taking
small interest in the ordinary conflicts of parties, he has
stood forth, from the moment that he entered the Senate, as the
courageous and resolute champion of the slave. His speeches are
elaborate and masterly orations, with perhaps almost too much
of classical stateliness and refinement for the tribune. Over
the hard and dry abstraction of politics he throws the glancing
lights of his fertile and polished fancy, and relieves the
tedium of debate by the rich stores of an elegant and varied
erudition. The speech that brought upon him the recent attack
was perhaps the greatest of all his efforts. It is in every
respect a magnificent production. With a lofty and relentless
logic he tears away the covering veil of sophistry with which
the Southern members had sought to conceal the naked iniquity
of the transactions in Kansas. There are, no doubt, passages of
terrible severity, but not, we think, exceeding the license of
parliamentary debate among ourselves. And the most conclusive
testimony to the power of the orator is afforded by the
desperate extremities to which it reduced his discomfited foes.
“We have no words of commiseration to offer to Mr. Sumner.
God grant only that a life so valuable may be spared, and he
will occupy in the estimation of all men, at home and abroad,
whose judgment he would value, a prouder position than he ever
occupied before. He stood in the vanguard of Freedom, and the
marks of the ruffianly outrage inflicted upon him, which he
will probably bear to the grave, he will wear as more honorable
scars than ever warrior brought from a battle-field.”
This record of opinion at the North, echoed from Europe, may be closed
by words from an important journal at New York, _The Courier and
Enquirer_, in the summer of 1856.
“The fact is incontestable, that, when the Massachusetts
Senator again crosses the threshold of that Senate Chamber,
Slavery will have to confront the most formidable foe it
ever had to face before the public eye. He will come with
every muscle braced and every sinew strung by the sense of
measureless personal wrong; but infinitely more than that, he
will come armed with the indignation and shielded by the moral
support of the whole North. Hitherto he has figured but in one
character, the assailant of Slavery; henceforth he will be
also the accredited assertor and champion of the most sacred
right of freedom of speech, and as such will command tenfold
greater consideration. His antagonists have affected to despise
him before, and to treat him with scorn. The day for that has
passed. The public man, who has once been the occasion of
such an outburst of sympathy and good-will as has within the
last week sprung from the mouth of millions upon millions of
his countrymen, is no longer a man to be disdained. He has
henceforth position, power, and security, beyond any of his
adversaries. Let his sentiments be what they may, his free
utterance of them hereafter becomes an assured thing, insomuch
as that utterance will serve as the best of all possible tests
of that freedom of debate which has once been outraged in his
person, and which it is the present determination of the North
shall be maintained at all hazards.”