SPEECH BEFORE THE YOUNG MEN’S REPUBLICAN UNION OF NEW YORK, AT COOPER
INSTITUTE, JULY 11, 1860.
This early speech in the Presidential campaign which ended in
the election of Abraham Lincoln was made by Mr. Sumner while on
his way home from Washington. It was reported and noticed by
the New York press. A journal having little sympathy with it
describes the magnificence and enthusiasm of the auditory, and
thus abridges the speech in flaming capitals: “The Presidential
Contest; Great Convulsion in the Republican Camp; Charles
Sumner on the Stump; A Strong Plea for Old Abe; Another Attack
upon Slaveholders; The Fivefold Wrong of Human Slavery.”
The meeting is mentioned in all the journals as one of the
largest ever assembled within the walls of Cooper Institute,
and also remarkable for respectability of appearance. One of
them says it seemed more like an audience of some great concert
or festival than a political meeting. As soon as the doors were
opened every available position was occupied, and in half an
hour afterwards it was impossible to find accommodation. More
than one third of the vast hall had been reserved for ladies,
and it was completely filled. The windows of the upper floor
opening upon the basement were crammed with people. On the
stage were many distinguished persons, judges and ex-judges.
The welcome of the speaker is thus noticed by another:--
“Mr. Sumner appeared on the rostrum precisely at eight
o’clock, and was received with an outburst of excited
enthusiasm which defies all description. The applause was
unanimous and intense. Cheer after cheer arose, loud and
vociferous; men stood up and waved their handkerchiefs and
their hats till scarcely anything else could be seen.”
The scene at this time was chronicled by the _Independent_.
“The orator’s return to the people, after his long and
enforced retirement from the platform, was celebrated at
Cooper Institute with such a welcome as we have rarely seen
given to any man. On coming forward, he was greeted with
cheer after cheer, the audience rising and prolonging their
salutations through many minutes, with continuous shouting
and waving of handkerchiefs.”
Mr. Rogers, the President of the Young Men’s Republican Union,
nominated for chairman of the meeting Hon. Abijah Mann, Jr.,
which nomination was unanimously accepted. Mr. Mann, on taking
the chair, said that they had now to listen to the voice of
one who had stood up manfully for freedom of speech, not only
against open foes, but even against the opposition of some of
his colleagues. [_Applause._] He was here to-night to maintain
this same right to free speech, and to express his views of the
political condition of the country. It gave him pleasure to
introduce to the audience Hon. Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts.
Mr. Sumner, on taking the stand, was again greeted with loud
and prolonged cheers. After tendering acknowledgments for the
generous and cordial reception, and regretting his inability to
express all he felt, he proceeded with his speech, which was
thus described by the _Evening Post_:--
“Mr. Sumner was as happy in the manner as he was forcible
in the matter of his speech. His commanding person, his
distinct utterance, and his graceful elocution combined
with the eloquence of his words in keeping the immense
auditory to their seats for two hours, without a movement,
and almost without a breath, save when the applause broke
forth. It is the first time that Mr. Sumner has spoken in
public since he was laid low in the Senate House, and New
York, by this grand demonstration, has shown its eagerness
to welcome him to the field of so many former triumphs.”
In this speech Mr. Sumner sought to popularize his argument in
the Senate on the Barbarism of Slavery, with an application to
the Presidential election, and at the same time to reassert
the positions he had there taken. Its influence was increased
by the circulation it enjoyed. Besides the _Tribune_, _Times_,
_Herald_, and _World_, which printed it in full, there was a
pamphlet edition of more than fifty thousand copies circulated
by the Young Men’s Republican Union. The Secretary of the
Republican Central Committee of California wrote, that this
Committee, after publishing a large edition of the “Barbarism
of Slavery,” published ten thousand copies of the New York
speech, which was “read with that attention which the subject
elucidated by you readily commands.” Among letters with regard
to it, two are preserved as friendly voices.