LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 000050251^3 'dmp.&z^ej THE SUMNER OUTRAGE. FULL REPORT OP THH SPEECHES AT IHI MEETING OF CITIZENS IN CAMBRIDGE, JUNE 2, 185 6, IK BIFIRENCE TO THE ASSAULT ON SENATOR SUMNER, In the Senate Chamber at Washington. OAMBBIDOi: JOHN IOBD, PRINTIB. 1856. *>>•▼»-** % > ,2 .C/7 The following pages contain a full report of the speeches at the great meeting in Old Cambridge, on Monday evening, June 2, — one of the most important meetings yet held in re- ference to the outrage upon our distinguished Senator. The call, designating Lyceum Hall as the place of meeting, was signed by Prof. Joel Parker, Prof. Theophilus Parsons, Hon. Jared Sparks, Prof. C. C. Felton, Henry W. Longfellow, Esq., Rev. John A. Albro, Rev. "William Newell, Rev. John Pryor, Rev. Nicholas Hoppin, Hon. James D. Green, Samuel Batch- elder, Esq., Hon. Willard Phillips, and R. H. Dana, Jr., Esq. Finding Lyceum Hall wholly insufficient to accommodate the crowd of people, the meeting adjourned to Rev. Dr. Al- bro's church, which in a few moments was completely filled with an assemblage of the highest respectability. The gallery was crowded with ladies, and many also were scattered through the body of the house. Hon. James D. Green was called to the chair, and prayer was offered by Rev. Dr. Albro. On motion of Dr. Estes Howe, a committee of five was nominated by the chair to retire and report a list of officers for the permanent organization of the meeting. This committee was composed of Estes Howe, Seth Ames, F. L. Chapman, Wm. A. Saunders, and A. S. Waite. On motion of 11. H. Dana, Jr., a committee of five was appointed by the chair to retire and report resolutions for the acceptance of the meeting. This committee consisted of R. H. Dana, Jr., Rev. Dr. New- ell, Rev. Dr. Francis, Chauncey Smith, and Charles H. Saun- ders, who retired to the vestry. Mr. Green then addressed the meeting. SPEECH OF HON. J. D. GREEN. Occupying this position, as I do, gentlemen, by your favor, I trust I may be allowed to avail myself of the interval occasioned by the retirement of the Committee, to say a word or two in re- gard to the object for which this meeting has been convened. It is, as expressed in the call, to take into consideration the outrage on Mr. Sumner. The outrage on Mr. Sumner: — how profound is the feeling which these few words excite ! How intense and wide-spread, and all but universal is the sensation produced among us, — as witnessed by this vast assembly, — produced throughout this whole community, — throughout the entire North, for, — however it may have been heretofore, there are pretty de- cided indications that there is now a North (cheers), — how all but universal is the sensation, — would that I could say, not only throughout the North, but the entire Union, — produced by this outrage, which, to be properly characterized, must be pronounced, as it was by our other senator, brutal, murderous and cowardly (cheers) ; words which he who uttered them, believing them to bo the truth, in the true spirit of a man declines, upon reconsidera- tion, to retract or qualify. The assault was all that these words express when considered as committed on a peaceful and defenceless man, seated at his desk, unconscious of approaching danger, confined by his position so as to be unable to protect himself, stricken down by blows up- on his head, repeated again and again till he falls senseless and covered with blood upon the floor. The assault was all this, so far as Mr. Sumner was individually concerned. But considered as an assault on a Senator of the United States, in the Senate Chamber, with personal privileges and immunities guarantied to him by the Constitution, and committed for words spoken in de- bate, it assumes a far graver significance, and deserves to be met by a voice of rebuke, — rebuke, do I say, — it is too mild a term, — it should be met by a cry of reprobation and execration from one end of the Union to the other. It is a blow at the Constitution, — it is a blow at the Union, — it is a blow at the liberties of each one of us. * But as an indignity offered to Massachusetts, a sovereign state, in the person of her Senator, it demands from us an expression of sentiment, which, while it shall be well considered, shall be strong, explicit, decided, and so significant as to prove effective. It must go forth not from any political party, but from the mass- es of the people, assembled, as we are here to-night, without re- ference to political distinctions. It is unnecessary for me to say to those who know me, that I have never been connected with the political organization to which Mr. Sumner belonged. But I have always had regard for him as a man of high character, great abilities, an accomplished scholar, an eloquent and earnest advocate of the convictions he sincerely held, and not least have I regarded him as a gentleman. I have carefully read his speech. It is an eloquent and powerful production; and though there are some expressions applied to the Senator from South Carolina (cheers) which gave me pain, it contains nothing to approach the language which has been repeatedly used, and without rebuke, in the Senate of the United States. It was a rule laid down, if my recollection is not at fault, by the favorite and distinguished son of South Carolina, John C. Calhoun, when, as Vice President, he occupied the chair of the Senate, that it was not his duty to call senators to order, he not being a member of the body, but only, ex-officio, its pre- siding officer. This was a duty belonging to senators themselves. Under this ruling a great degree of license has been habitually tolerated there, and in no respect was it exceeded or even equalled by the words which fell from Mr, Sumner, under what degree of provocation we do not know. I have no sympathy with those who indulge themselves in the use of harsh and reproachful epithets, — offensive and irritating personalities, — calculated only to exasperate, and to cause aliena- tion among those who should feel bound together by the strong- est tics of fraternal regard. Sectional animosities and sectional parties I have regarded as our greatest danger. The Union and the Constitution I cherish as of value inappreciable, and their overthrow I believe would bring calamities upon us, the magni- tude and extent of which no one can foresee. But "there is a Divinity which shapes our ends." Events un. der the providence of God, — events beyond our control, — are bearing us on, we know not whither. There is no question that the present is a time of exceeding peril to the peace of the coun- try. The momentous issue seems to be forcing itself upon us, — it is being precipitated by events daily transpiring in Washington and in Kansas, — whether freedom or slavery shall prevail. May God grant wisdom to those to whose hands are entrusted the destinies of the Republic, and may this great issue be peacefully decided. It is in the power of the House of Representatives at Washington to atone, in no small degree, for the outrage commit- ted, by expelling the obnoxious member, (cheers), and it is in the power of the Executive, if he will but speak, the word, to heal the wounds and restore peace to bleeding and suffering Kansas. But if it shall be ordered otherwise, — if this great issue is to be decided only by an appeal to arms, the tremendous responsi- bility must be upon those who cause it. Our consciences shall not reproach us with the guilt of blood. We will not be the ag- gressors, but we will maintain our rights ; and, come what may, we will be firm and united in the resolve that the encroachments of slavery shall be stayed, and that Kansas shall be free. (Pro- longed cheers.) The committee on the choice of officers for a permanent or- ganization, entered and reported the following list : For President — Hon. Joel Parker. For Vice Presidents — Hon. Theophilus Parsons, Prof. C. C- Felton, Hon. Jared Sparks, Prof. Henry W. Longfellow, Dr. Chas. Beck, Dr. Morrill Wyman, Dr. Joseph E. Worcester, Hon. Wil- lard Phillips, Hon. J. T. Buckingham, C. C. Little, S. Batchcl- der, J. Coolidge, A. Edwards, Rev. A. M. Averill, A. Willard, G. Meacham, S. T. Farwell, D. S. Buck, J. B. Dana, H. Potter, and W. L. Whitney, Esqrs. Secretaries— F. L. Batchelder, F. H. Underwood, J. Bartlett) and F. W. Palfrey, Esqrs. Dr. Howe and Mr. Dana were appointed to conduct the Presi- dent to the chair, which was done amid acclamations from all parts of the house. Judge Parker, on taking the chair, was received with great applause. When it had subsided, he addressed the meeting as follows : SPEECH OF PROF. PARKER. Fellow Citizens : I consented to the use of my name in con- nection with the call for this meeting upon some deliberation, after having been requested so to do. A note from a friend this morning informed me that there was a desire that I should preside, and I am here, on your election, to perform, aa well as I may, the duty which you have assigned to me. 8 I make this statement, not by way of apology for my appear- ance here ; but that you may be aware that I am not acting from any mere personal impulse, however strong my feelings may be upon the present occasion ; and that whatever I may 6ay should be regarded as the expression of a well-consider- ed opinion. I have no doubt myself that I ought to be here. It has been my duty, as a professor in the Law School, to support and maintain, — not the justice nor the expediency, — but the con- stitutionality of the so called Fugitive Slave Law, because I believed it to be a constitutional enactment ; and in the Con- stitutional Convention in 1853, upon a debate respecting the judiciary, I expressed a hope that Massachusetts would not come in conflict with the authorities of the Union upon that question. One who has to the best of his ability maintained that opinion is at least no fanatic, and need not be suspected of any immoderate desire for agitation. We are called together at this time by an act of personal violence. A cowardly and infamous assault has been made upon a citizen of Massachusetts in the capitol of the United States. A most grievous wrong has been done to him person- ally, endangering his life, and involving the possibility of the crime of wilful murder. If this were all, however much we might condemn the conduct of the assailant, and however much we might sympathize with the victim, we might well leave to the violated laws of the District of Columbia, the task of asserting their majesty, and of punishing the aggressor, without any public expression of our opinion ; — that is suppos- ing that there is any vitality in the law relating to the personal safety of a citizen within the precincts of the capitol ; of which, however, it would seem there may be a reasonable doubt. This dastardly outrage was committed upon the person of a Senator of this Commonwealth, and within the walls of the Senate Chamber, and was thus an indignity to the State itself; and this might well justify the Commonwealth in asserting her rights and demanding the punishment of the poltroon who had assailed her in the person of her defenceless represent- ative. If there were no more than this, the matter might well be left in the hands of the constituted authorities, who well know what is due to the dignity of the Commonwealth, and will not be slow to vindicate her honor upon all fitting oc. c as ions. But this is not all. The felon blow which struck down the citizen and the Senator, prostrated at the same time the privi- leges of the Senate and the freedom of debate guarantied by the Constitution of the United States. It was vengeance for the free expression of unpalatable opinions, and designed to deter others from the exercise of their constitutional rights ; and it is but the last of a series of outrages similar in char- acter, though not in degree, which have made the city of Wash- ington a bear garden, and the capitol little better than a den of wild beasts. It is this blow to freedom of speech and constitutional privi- leges which gives this act a painful significance, above that of any mere private assault upon a citizen, or even upon one of those appointed to represent the interests of a sovereign state in the Congress of the United States. It is this prostration of constitutional liberty which has called us here at this time, and it is this which demands of us, and of all others who re- spect the law.and possess a love of liberty, a careful, deliberate, unimpassioned consideration of the consequences to which such occurrences will lead if their repetition is permitted. The matter attains a still more lamentable eminence from something like an appearance of support and justification given to it by others, and elsewhere. There have been some indi- cations of confederacy and maintenance from other members of Congress, who seem to think that they were sent to Wash- ington for purposes of violence, and not for legislation. There have been exciting paragraphs of approval in some newspa- pers, which appear to have forgotten that the better part of valor is discretion. There has been, it is said, a presentation of a pitcher and a cane from the constituents of the principal offender. The articles which compose this testimonial to the valor of the recipient, and which may be exhibited in the triumphal ovation, which, perhaps, awaits his return to his admiring friends, seem to be fitting accompaniments to each other in his hands, the use of the one being expected to nerve his courage up to the sticking point for the use of the other. But notwithstanding all such demonstrations of approbation, it is not to be assumed that this atrocious deed will be charac- terized as chivalrous, and its miserable perpetrator be hailed as a gallant son of the South, by any beyond the halls of Con- gress, except a few choice spirits who should rank below the 10 bully and the blackguard. It is by no means to be concluded, as yet, that it will be sustained by high-minded men of hon- orable standing in the Southern States. And until that is made apparent it is not to be treated as the act of the South. I observe that some of the Boston papers have noticed this as an " indignation meeting." I am unwilling to accept that designation. No doubt it is all that, but I trust that this, and all meetings of a like character will be much more than that. The inquiry has been made, "What is to be done ? — what can be done ?" The answer is — attempt to obtain redress for the past,— demand security for the future. The Commonwealth has acted as became her, in her requisition for the expulsion of the aggressor, and she should not rest satisfied unless that pun- ishment is inflicted. The Legislature of Connecticut has acted as became the representatives of a free and a sovereign state. Others will doubtless adopt similar measures. Meetings of citizens should be holden not only in every town Avithin this Commonwealth, but, without regard to sec- tional lines and sectional prejudices, there should be meetings in all places where there is a love of law and liberty, and a hatred of violence and oppression ; and a stern rebuke should be given to this and to all other attempts to stifle freedom of opinion and freedom of speech. These meetings should attack nobody, and menace nobody, and denounce nobody, except the perpetrators and abettors of this unmanly outrage. There should be a union of all men, and all parties, for the assertion of constitutional freedom through the ballot-box, and by all other constitutional methods. And if all these measures fail ? — God in his infinite mercy avert such a catastrophe. But, if a wise Providence, for rea- sons known only to Omniscience, should permit the madness and violence of a few to tear away from the Constitution the safe-guards of freedom upheld by law, leaving only the forms of a Iree government in the place of the substance which we have fondly hoped was obtained, it is not for us now and here to say what shall then be done. The exigencies of that time must needs bring with them its measures. In the meantime, however, with nothing of threat, and nothing of offence, let it be made to appear in all constitutional modes, that these assemblages of the people are not matter of form ; that they are not formal protests ; that they are not 11 mere expressions of indignation, however deep ; but that they are to be taken as the exponents of an unalterable and un- conquerable determination to assert and maintain the suprem- acy of the law ; free thought and free speech ; freedom of de- bate and immunity therefor ; at whatever cost and at all haz- ards. Let it be understood that the government of the United States must protect the delegates who assemble in her halls of legislation, and not suffer them to be struck down on the very spot where they are entitled to privilege, and immunity, and absolute safety. Let it be assured that no representative of Massachusetts, — that no representative of any State in the Union, — is to be deterred by violence " from espousing what- ever opinions he may choose to espouse, from debating when- ever he may see fit to debate, or from speaking whatever he may see fit to say on the floor of the Senate." Let it be re- membered that there are other forms of oppression more odious than a colonial government and a Boston Port Bill, bad as they were. The stamp act and the tea tax convulsed the civilized world. But taxation, even without representa- tion, is but as the small dust of the balance, when compared with the constitutional right of freedom of debate, within the limits of parliamentary law, in the halls of legislation. For myself, personally, I am perhaps, known to most of you as a peaceable citizen, reasonably conservative, devotedly at- tached to the Constitution, and mu«h too far advanced in life for gasconade ; but, under present circumstances, I may be pardoned for saying that some of my father's blood was shed on Bunker Hill, at the commencement of one revolution, and that there is a little more of the same sort left, if it shall prove that need be, for the beginning of another. R. H. Dana, Esq., Chairman of the Committee, then re- ported the following BESOLXJTION. In the late outrage upon Mr. Sumner, we see an act in itself brutal, murderous and cowardly ; and we desire to do all that we can that a deed so unspeakably base, may be rendered in- delibly disgraceful. Committed upon a man dignified by every liberal sentiment, and every liberal accomplishment, an ornament to the Senate and the country, the deed is conspicuous in its atrocity. 12 Committed deliberately in the Senate House, by a member of Congress, for words 6poken in debate, it concerns every citizen of the United States to insist upon its being punished by all the political power of Congress, and by all the criminal power of the District of Columbia, the common national do- main. Committed upon a Senator from Massachusetts, in the sanc- tuary of his office, for words spoken in discharge of his duty to us, it behooves every citizen of Massachusetts to insist upon redress for the past, and to provide security for the fu- ture. Defended and adopted by the slave-holding power, by their representatives and their press, and seen in connexion with the whole course of things relating to Kansas, and with other acts and series of acts elsewhere and heretofore, we recognise in it not an isolated act of one man, but a part of a system, not the accident of passiojl, but the effect of causes permanent in their nature, and increasing in their power. "NVe see in it a part of a system which aims at the subjugation of free speech and free action in the free states, and in their representatives. We 6ee in it the latest and most extreme of the encroachments of that fearful oligarchy of slave power, which has usurped political domination and now threatens to spread a moral servitude over the land. Therefore i^ it, that from all political connexions, from all religious denominations, from all professions and avocations in life, we have assembled here to declare our sentiments and de- terminations. We declare our abhorrence of the act. We tender our sympathy to our Senator in his personal sufferings. We declare our solemn conviction that the time has come when the people of the free states must unite in one earnest effort to recover their personal liberties and political equality, and to retrieve the honor of the country. The Constitution puts in our hands, by legal and peaceable means, the power to do all this. Let it be done ! Before the acceptance of the resolutions was moved, Mr. Dana proposed to make some remarks, but wished first to hear others, especially the clergy, and Dr. Pryor was called for who briefly adopted the resolution, and the speech of Judge Parker, as expressing his sentiments, with the exception of the Fugitive Slave Law. SPEECH OF PROF. PARSONS. Mr. Parsons rose amid enthusiastic cheers, and said — il/r. President : — I had hoped never again to hear my own voice at any public meeting. The few who know anything of mc, know that I am of no party, and have not, for many years, taken any active interest in politics. Neither do any personal considerations bring me hero. I endeavor, for this evening at 13 least, to forget the man who struck and the man who fell. A sense of peril impending over the best interests of humanity, brings me here, to say to you a few words, which, however feeble, shall at least be well and carefully considered. I speak only for myself; what others think, how others feel, I know not. But I will try to tell you, very briefly, what seems to me the les- son and the warning of that sad occurrence at Washington, which we have met to consider. That I may be understood, you must permit me to remind you of some things which no American can know too well or remember too often. Let me refer to our own early history, and to that earlier history of the old world, which formed a fitting preface to our own. I say, then, that through all the countless generations of the past, in every corner of that old world, from the farthest East, from the distant shores of that Dead Sea of Chinese civiliza- tion, through the mountains and plains, the jungles and. deserts of Asia, through all the gehennas of desolate Africa, and in every spot in Europe, man, from the beginning of recorded his- tory, has been governed by force, or, what is the same thing, by law over him and against him. The few nominal republics which have existed, were small, imperfect, and little else than aristocracies in disguise. And this continued until all the | os- sibilities and forms of this kind of government were exhaust- ed; and then, and not until then, Providence unveiled anew world, for a new experiment. He bade the stormy Atlantic, which had been the barrier of nations, become their highway. Across it He brought hither, our fathers, who, whatever else may be said of them, certainly brought with them the ripest fruits of the best civilization of Europe. For here was to be a new thing. Here was to be tried, on the largest scale, the self-government of a great nation. Here it was to be determined, whether hu- man self government was possible ; whether it was possible for men to live together under self-government. And it was to be determined for all time, for if the experiment fail now, and here, it can never be repeated under more auspicious circumstances. Sir, I believe, firmly and undoubtingly, in a Divine Provi- dence. But I believe in one that leads men and does not force them. One that gives to them all the good they can be made willing to accept, and no more ; for more would not be good. Hence, through the long cycles of the past, Providence has waited for the time when, surrounding the gift of freedom with every accessory and aid and support which the sovereignty of 14 the universe could gather around it, He could place this gift of freedom in the hands of this nation. And not for ourselves alone has. He given it to us. One of two things we must tell to the whole world, to the whole future. We must tell to the eager hope and earnest desire of that old world, the whole of which that Christianity has touched is now heaving and throbbing with the passionate longing to become what they suppose we are, we must tell them, hope on, strive on, for human freedom is possible, and it is the best of all things and the foundation of all good, — or we must tell them, hope no more ! Look on us, and learn to despair; look on us, and learn that man cannot govern himself; look on us and learn too, that the same mercy which would have given to man freedom, if he would accept and preserve it, leads him even to despotism, to save him from the deeper ruin of anarchy. For myself, sir, I have hope, a strong enduring hope ; al- though I see as plainly as I ever saw a storm grow in the 6ky and darken the earth, I see that great dangers are near us. I am as sure as I can be of anything.that the destiny of this coun- try, and of the -world, so far as that is bound up in this, is all compressed and locked up in the question, can the people of this country, will the people of this country, acknowledge, and respect, and preserve, and insist upon the preservation of the Constitution and the Law, as their own -work, and as the best expression of truth and justice which they can make. For if men do not respect the law and acknowledge its author- ity, what else is there in a republic but passion and impulse and the will of the individual, however foolish, however sel- fish. One man, or a hundred, or a thousand, may say, not, we object to the Constitution and the law, and will do our utmost to make it better, but, we will disregard the Constitution and the law, for we are wiser and better than they. But it is plain that if one man, or any man, have the right to say and do this, every man has, and therefore no man has. It is certain there- fore—certain and obvious as the sun in heaven, which only the blind do not see or they who turn their eyes away, it is certain that will, mere will, mere force, becomes our sovereign the mo- ment that law is dethroned. For if the will of the community, deliberately expressed as law by the means and in the manner distinctly determined on by the whole, containing, however imperfect or faulty it may be, whatever of wisdom or of good- ness the community can bring to the mode of making its law, 15 if this is to be superseded by tbe judgment or the pleasure or the will ol each roan, is it not plain that we give ourselves up to the reign of the strongest. Who the strongest is, conflict must determine ; and thus through the well-worn path of an- archy — a path of mire, mingled with blood, we shall grope our way to the refuge of a master. So has it ever been ; so will it be again, if we do not prove ourselves worthy of our possible destiny. If we do not bring to the working of this new experiment which God puts into our hands, this new principle of loyalty to the Constitution and the law. But let that principle pervade this whole community like its life blood, and three things will follow. One, the com- munity will accept intelligently and in good faith its respon- sibility, and put forth its best, most earnest and most con- tinued efforts to make its law what it should be — only truth and justice in action. Another consequence would be that an usurpation of the powers of law in a manner and for a pur- pose that are certainly and >bviously devoid of legal right, like that which is now kindling the fires of civil war in Kanzas, would be impossible. And a third would be, that if an occur- rence like that we have met to consider did not become im- possible, it would be met by a storm of universal reprobation, which would, at all events, render it harmless as an example. And now, sir, you will see why I regard this occurrence as most significant, as most alarming ; why it seems to me to utter a warning which we can disregard only at our own pro- foundest peril. Let Mr. Brooks have all the excuse he can derive from the fact that he has always lived where principles and habits have prevailed that are very different from those prevailing here. Still, I suppose the habit of attacking an un- armed and unprepared man cannot be common there or any- where in the civilized world. Let him have all the excuse he can derive from the provocation. I take that to amount to 60 much as this and no more. The Senate has no rule, and un- fortunately no usage, to prevent personalities in debate. No one charges Mr. Sumner with beginning this. He was attacked and he retorted. Both sides did their best, or rather their worst. And Mr. Sumner poured forth burning and stinging reproaches and sarcasms, of which the fire and the sting have not been surpassed since the Senate Chamber of the United States became a seething caldron of vituperation. Admit all 16 this, and as much, more as his worst enemy has ever charged or imagined, and then the question is, to my mind.wholly un- affected. For this question is, will this country approve and sanction as a precedent, the answering of words spoken in de- bate, by a most violent breach of the law, such and so com- mitted, that it involved and implied the most contemptuous defiance of the law. Sir, if this assault were an isolated fact, however I might re- gret it for the sake of the parties, — I speak of both, for Mr. Sumner's wounds are, we are glad to know, healing, while those his assailant inflicted on himself will fester worse and worse to the last day of his life, and leave a plague-spot on his memory, — however I might lament it as a discredit and a misfortune, it would not benr for me the dread significance which now it bears. For it 6eems to me, and I say it with profound regret, that this assailant, who struck down, not our Senator alone, but the sanctity of the law, — he seems to me only to have reached the goal towards which the whole country, for many years, has been drifting. In the excite- ment and disturbance of mind and uprooting of the land marks of principle which have grown out of the conflict now going on, — in this direction have we been going. This last act is a result, a consummation, towards which, North and South, East and West have all, though in different ways, contributed ; for every instance, every where, which has in any way manifested a wilful disregard of the Constitution ; every act and every word of this kind, has contributed to this consummation. And this consummation is the reign, not of law, but of will and mere force. Let no one tell me, sir, as has been too often said, there is another alternative. The law may be cast down, and con- science or reason, or religion, or some other good thing, be throned in its 6tead. That cannot be. We make our Consti- tution and our law. We put into it, the community put into it, whatever of reason, of conscience, of religion, it has and can put there. For it is intended to be precisely the instrument expo- nent of all these, and nothing else. Improve these — in God's name improve these, — work on them, work with them — with all your hearts and souls if you will, to improve the Constitu- tion and the law, — but do not forget that there is no other thing than that Constitution and the law which it protects, that can stand between us and mischief, disaster, degradation, and ruin. 17 Therefore, while I hope, fear mingles with my hope. There- fore would I have this meeting, and this State, lift up its voice, if it were possible, in words of reprobation of this violence, which should be heard wherever man, suffering and striving man, is listening to us for leave to hope, — words which should echo along the ages, as thunder echoes along the mountains. Therefore would I have this State, which began the long war- fare that liberated us from a personal king, begin now the battle which shall restore and confirm the sovereignty of the Constitution and the law. If in times past we have taken steps in a wrong direction, let us retrace them. Let us be calm, deliberate, and just. Passion is fever ; and its apparent strength is but debilitating violence. Truth is health, and its vigor grows by exercise. Then let Massachusetts say to her sister states, and to that great audience which far beyond our own borders will hear her utterance at this crisis, let her say, for us and for our children, we will do what in us lies to make our law and the law of our whole country, wise, benefi- cent and just ; but we will not have the reign of terror, and, therefore, we will submit ourselves, to the Constitution and the law. For the liberty which God gave to our fathers, and they transmitted unimpaired to us and we owe to our children, shall not, by insidious and slow corruption, nor by fierce out- break and defiant violence, degenerate into licentiousness, and through licentiousness, pass into anarchy, and so perish. Mr. Parsons concluded amid hearty cheers, and Prof. Felton was loudly called for, and received with strong demonstrations of joy. SPEECH OF PROF. C. C. FELTON. If this were a political meeting, said the Professor, it would not be held in these sacred walls, nor should I, who am no poli- tician, be present sharing in its proceedings. If it were any or- dinary meeting, or a sudden assemblage under the 6pur of an outbreak of passion, it would not have been opened by a fervent appeal to the Most High. An event has occurred wholly without example in the history of civilized nations. Party watch-words are heard no more, and party cries have ceased, and we meet as by a common impulse on this great and solemn occasion. The telegraphic nerves are trembling all over the country every moment with the burden ot the expression of public opinion on this great outrage. I lent 2* 18 my name to the call for this meeting, but that was all I expected to do. I did not expect to speak, for, until a late hour, I sup- posed I should be performing my ordinary duties elsewhere. I cannot, however, refuse to respond to the call of my friends, fellow citizens and fellow students yonder. I am glad this meet- ing was not assembled in the first flush of indignation, and that time was given for sober second-thought ; I am glad that the priests of the law and the priests of God, to whom we look for light and guidance, have had time to consider this matter deliberately. This deed has been called a murderous and cowardly act, and though it may seem needless to repeat them, yet these are the only fitting epithets to apply to it ; the only epithets a man, with a heart in his bosom, can affix to it. It is an act without a par- allel in the civilized world, — nay, almost without example in savage life. It can only be compared to that of the tiger, stealing without warning, coward that he is, to pounce on his defenceless prey. It was not an act committed in passion, which might have palliated its enormity. It was done i n the execution of a plan, formed deliberately, and communicated to a conclave of congenial spirits. Neither the chieftain in the conspiracy, nor any one of his abettors, had the manliness to give their intended victim a word or whisper of warning. Carefully concealing their purpose from the unconscious object of their plot, stealing into the Senate Chamber, when most of the senators had retired, watching the departure of his colleague, known to be armed, waiting till he was writing at his desk and resistance was im- possible, thinking as he was a man of peace, perhaps he would not resist, yet choosing to make sure that he could not, (for let me tell you that Sumner is a man of no little physical power, and once rouse in him that lurking devil that lies in the heart of every man, whether member of the Peace Society or not, and I would not answer for the safety of " the gallant relative " and his associates, brave as their deeds proved them to be,) slinking into vacant seats they had no right to fill, this man Brooks, who claims to be a gentleman, approached an unarmed, unconscious, pre-occupied Senator, clothed in the sanctity of his office, surrounded by the emblems of the re- public, bearing in his person the inviolable majesty of the Sovereign State which he represented, — stunned him with sudden blows upon the unprotected head, felled him to the floor, and left him welterinjr in his blood. 19 I have not heretofore found much that I approved in the po- litical course of Senator Wilson, but I have read his correspond- ence on this subject, and I applaud every word and syllable of it. I am glad he refused the challenge so feebly offered to meet him on the so called field of honor; and my opinion is that Brooks knew beforehand what the answer would be. 1 am glad he put his refusal on the ground that it was a relic of barbarism ; for, though the practice still lingers among the most civilized nations of the world, I regard it as essentially barbarous. I know that here I differ from some men, whose opinion on most subjects I willingly place above my own. I heartily thank that senator also for declining the challenge, because the laws of the country have fixed upon duelling the stigma of crime ; for obedience to the law is an example greatly needed— never more needed— in high places. I thank him for placing his refusal on such grounds, and for the manly manner in which it was done. — I com mend him for it. But my chief gratitude is due to him for refusing by any co-operation on his part to raise that felon from the infamy of the assassin to the respectability of the duel- list. (Great applause.) To those who know me and my relations with the distinguish- ed Senator, Mr. Sumner, it is well known that I have not sym- pathized with all parts of his course. But " In such a time as this it is not meet That every nice offence should bear its comment.'" 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 acquire- ments ; a gentleman of noble qualities and generous aims ; dis- tinguished for the amenities of social life, and a companion most welcome in the soc iety of the most generous, the most refined, the most exalted. Sir, I had nothing to do with send- ing Mr. Sumner to the Senate of the United States ; I had no Yote 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. I could have wished that the Senator of Massachusetts had passed over the personalities of which he has so long been the ob- 20 ject, in the silence of a lofty disdain. I am sorry he did not ad- dress himself at once and solely to his great argument, forging an adamantine chain of fact and logic, without a rhetorical ornament or a word of sarcasm upon individuals or States. But it should be remembered that Mr. Sumner was retorting for bitter speech and grievous public wrongs. What a monstrous violation of law — what a trampling under loot of all the usages of civilized society, to deal out deadly blows upon the head, as an answer to words, however severe, spoken in debate, and not checked by the presiding officer, nor by any member of the Senate, when they were delivered. Let them answer taunt with taunt — they can do it ; invective with invective — they can do that. Let them refute fact by fact — if they can do it ; and put down argu- ment by argument — if they can do that. Not only a crime has been committed, but what some politicians consider worse, a blunder. The perpetrator of this outrage has brought deep and damning dishonor not upon Mr. Sumner, but upon himself, and upon his country; — and the man who would do a deed to dishonor his country, would not be ashamed to fix a stigma on the namo of his mother. Do you think, sir, that this barbarous history will escape unnoticed by the great judgment of the nations ? Oh, no ! There is not a tyrant sitting on a throne in Europe who will not exult as he listens to the tale of republican out- rage ; there is not a true friend of the rights of man in the old world, who will not see in sorrow the prospects of the future dark- ened by this atrocious assault upon freedom in her very citadel ; there is not a victim of despotism now groaning in the dungeons of Austria, Rome, or Naples, who will not feel his fetters more strongly riveted, by this treason to liberty and to the honor of the American Republic. But he has, with most unfilial spirit, brought especial shame upon his native State. South Carolina has had her whims, her nul- lification, which was put down by another Massachusetts Sena- tor, her fanaticism, extraordinary, wonderful, like a demoniac possession, in favor of slavery. But she is one of the Old Thir- teen who stood side by side in the Revolution. There arc no higher minded gentlemen on God's earth than hers. Some of us arc hound to her by the ties of hospitality— and hers is a generous hospitality — others by the ties of friendship and kin- dred, and all by the ties of a common country. The Huguenot blood, the bost blood of Trance and of liberty, and still throb- bing with all high feeling, flows in the veins of her offspring. 21 In looking over the College Catalogue, (I am a college man, and nothing more,) I see that many of the brightest names are those from South Carolina, and a fair portion of college honors has been won and worn by her generous sons. If we look back to the past, her history is emblazoned with the fame of those who were brave in the field and wise in coun- cil — none wiser, none braver. And in the period between the days of the revolution and our own I might mention a long list of names, eminent for their genius, their character, and their public services ; scholars, statesmen, orators, of whom any state might be proud. I could speak of the logic of Calhoun, of the eloquence of Preston, of the affluent and varied scholar- ship of Legare, who dying among us, was honored by the warm eulogies of Story. But I can pause only upon one name, which must always be heard with admiration and affection in this place, — Washington Allston. Even as I speak the name, his form rises before me, and I seem to see him shake his venerable locks in unwonted indignation at the degeneracy of this son of his native state. I seem to hear again the music of that gentle voice which often held me entranced long after the midnight hour. Eminent as a poet, critic, novelist and artist, the light of his genius is an ever brightening glory to the land that gave him birth. If something has been found in American poetry worthy the admiration of the lettered men of the world, it is due in no small measure to the beautiful genius of a son of South Carolina. If American fictitious literature has attracted the regards and won the approval of the literary republic, it is due in no small measure to the delightful genius of a son of South Carolina. If American life has been found susceptible of the charm of art, it is due in no small measure to the works of im- perishable beauty created by the pure and lofty genius of a son of South Carolina, and clothed in immortal colors by his magic pencil. If yonder churchyard is visited, like a pilgrim's shrine, by the lovers of the beautiful, the pure and the true, from every country in the world, it is because a son of South Carolina, — born under the genial skies of that fair state, and educated here, — having connected his name by the dearest and tenderest ties with the distinguished names of Dana and Channing, — now sleeps the sleep of death in that consecrated spot. Such is the state which this man, in the audacity of his vulgar nature, has presumed to represent in the courts of Honor. Sir, it is her duty, by all the great names that adorn her history, to 22 cast him off for the act by which he has brought foul scorn upon her escutcheon. There may be men there who will appear to approve this deed. We are told of costly testimonials now preparing, which arc to record on votive silver and by the grav- er's art. the high sense some of his constituents entertain of the gallantry of his conduct. We are told that some of the negro slaves have passed resolutions applauding him for striking down the defender of their race — fit work for slaves, white or black. But I find none of the old Carolina names — the Middletons, the Hamiltons, the Hugers, the Rutledges — connected with these disreputable movements. No ! Carolina must and will disown a crime already stamped by the dread verdict of public opinion, with the ineffaceable stigma of cowardice and brutality. If in a moment of frenzy she should refuse to purify herself from this great reproach — then is the age of chivalry gone indeed. To the question what is to be done, I have but little to add to what has already been laid down with so much precision. This at all events should be done. It is the solemn duty of every man, North and South, to unite in lending such force to public opinion, that such a deed shall be impossible for the future. SPEECH OF rilOF. F. D. HUNTINGTON. I am almost forbidden by a cold to respond to your call; but I must be much hoarser than I am to-night not to be able to say which side I am on, in times like these. Indeed, sir. that is be- coming a much easier matter than it was once. Events have simplified it. It has begun to be found out that there are only two sides ; and I hope we who are here are satisfied there is only one. Greatly as I admire the magnanimity of the speakers who have gone before me, — and I do most sincerely admire it, — I am not in a position to share in it. For I never voted against Mr. Sumner in my life; I am under no oath nor attachment to the Fugitive Slave Law ; and on the other hand, I do not profess to be free from all personal feeling for these injuries. Yet there is a common ground of protest quite broad enough to hold us all together. These are times, sir, of rapid thinking and strong feeling. And when we are borne on by powerful emotions, it is a capital thing for us that we have a good, broad, long, strong platform laid down for us by a couple of excellent lawyers. 23 The question of provocation has been settled. Both the Con- stitution itself and the very first amendment to it have decided that. " No member of Congress shall be held accountable for what is said in debate. Congress shall have no power to limit the freedom of speech or of the press." Some forty or more vigilant and suspecting senators heard Mr. Sumner through, and were not able, to call him to order. Sir, we have the law on our side in more ways than one. I submit to your own legal judgment, whether, in the account that has been running up between Massachusetts and South Carolina, a new item must not be added. These are not days when any state can afford to be unrepresented in the National Congress. Our senator there during all these weeks, is detained by violence from his post. In the high court of public equity there must be a reckoning for that robbery. The act that has been committed, the causes leading to it, are wrong through and through, base from top to bottom, evil in all their ramifications. I am thankful that this old University is peimitted to appear and speak along with civilians and citizens. Surely learning should have a voice with the rest in the land. Of what use to crowd the brain with knowledge if the whole body may be struck down by the hand of violence ? Of what use to form the tongue to eloquence if it may any time be smitten still by the coward's stick? Why bestow culture and art on our youth if some day one of the most polished and stately shafts in the temple of learning may be prostrated by some deadly blow ? In this foul affront to scholarship every scholar is humiliated. All Christen- dom rises to condemn this crime. Statesmen, jurists, lawyers spring forward to utter their rebuke for the insult to one of the worthiest members in their fellowship. Commerce turns from its ledger and its far glance over the seas to stigmatise the infa- my. Agriculture, mechanics, all classes join in the indignant cry. Even pugilism and bullyism protest. Brooks has been called the Bill Poole of Congress ; but the friends of that " re- spectable" prize-fighter resent the comparison. " Mr. William Poole," writes one of them, "always held to two rules of honor, violated by Mr. Brooks. He never struck his antagonist without notice; and he never struck him after he was down." Considering how the act came to be done, and what preceded it, we can see from what sprung the animus which bore its malig- nity into that act. It was the legitimate working of the temper of oppression. Christianity holds the life of the meanest slave 24 as dear to God as the life of the senator in his seat. It holds the hlows inflicted on the hack of the poor hlack woman as worthy of execration as those on the fertile hrain of the honored and honorable man, and as deep an injury is inflicted upon humanity by the hand of cruelty in the remote plantation, as by violence in the chamber of the Senate. When outrage is heaped on some dark, misshapen creature under the overseer's lash, the God of justice and love is as truly offended as when the erect and manly form of our friend was prostrated by the cudgel. He who is reared to look indifferently and contemptuously on this aspect of Christian truth, is no fit companion for legislators and gentlemen. Let us, at least, see where we stand. If it has come to this, that the more ample the manhood of the representative we send to Washington, the more inevitable mark we present to the thrusts and shots of brutal villainy : if the more unanswerable the argument, the more certain is it to be met by a bludgeon ; if, besides the old difficulties in finding fit men to make our laws, we have got to put the candidates through a course of practice in the boxing-ring ; then, it seems to me, we have come to what the politicians call a new issue. We must have new statute- books, new courthouses, and, judging by what we have heard to-night, new law-professors as well. Sir, men doubt whether this is a political meeting. I think it is political, if politics have any value. Very poor politics those must be, and a very poor religion that must be, which will not be concerned in the pro- found question the country is now forced to consider. The tariff can afford to wait. There are other duties besides those on iron and wool. Internal improvements can wait : for we need improvements more internal yet, — inside the breists of men. What matter is it whether a man be naturalized to-day or to- morrow, if we have a most unnatural brutality born and bred, nursed, and suckled, and pushed into Congress before our eyes ? Let the " currency" stand in abeyance, so long as we have reason to fear that nothing is to bo current but the praises of slavery, and the unprincipled chicanery of despotism ; so long as we see the bodies of freemen gashed, and mutilated, and knocked about the national capitol, like bales of refuse merchandise. Mr. Chairman, I mean to vote for this excellent Resolution. I came here to-night for that very purpose, against strong at- tractions drawing me in another direction. But then, if I thought the Itesolu tion was to exhaust our interest, send us away satis- 25 fied, and let us rest, it should have no vote of mine. It has often been said that we are a talking and a resolving people. I hope I do not undervalue noble speech. It is one of the divine forces God has put into the world for carrying forward his sublime plans. When I hear it, — as we all hear it now, — flowing forth from sincere hearts to eloquent tongues, and resounding through the land in behalf of righteousness, I am sure it is no vain thing. Nay, sir, 1 remember, too, it was burning and convincing speech that brought down the murderous blows on that strong and ac- complished head. But it is no true speech that does not termin- ate in action. We must do something about it. Our feeling must run out to our fingers' ends. When emotion is kindled as it is kindled here, I always want to have some task set me. I liked the wit of a public meeting like this held up-country, where I was last week, at which they voted to give a copy of Sumner's speech to every family in town. As to Resolves, — why, there have been anti-slavery resolves enough passed by re- spectable and responsible bodies at the North, within the last ten years, to make up a plump anti-slavery Bible. But this would not be our Christian Bible. That Bible is written in deeds more than in words. Its very precepts are chronicled in palpable and substantial works. Its central meaning is symbol- ized in the solid cross. Even the bright bow of its promises is projected from a dark background of cloud whose exhalations arose from fields wet with tears and blood. It has been well said that the New Testament gives us, not the Resolves of the Apostles, but the Acts of the Apostles. Sir, we must hold fast these fine sentiments we utter so fluently till they take shape and consistency in action. The summer heat must not wilt them down; the summer pleasures must not emasculate them; the early and latter rain must not dilute them. The autumn frosts must not wither them. We must keep them till next November. Then we must take them between our fingers, and put them in- to those boxes where are the fate- books of Republics, — the treasury chests of every wise and upright Democracy. And if the. Missouri rioters or the renegade knighthood of the Carolinas shall come on to snatch the very ballot-boxes out of our hands, then, sir, we must put them into but, Mr. Chairman, I am a member of the Peace Society ! (Cheers and cries of go on.) No, it shall not come to that ! If we are faith- ful and true it shall not come to that. A great revolution is taking place, deep in the minds of men, «ne of those rerolutions which never, never go back. 3 26 SPEECH OF R. n. DANA, JR., ESQ. Richard H. Dana, Jr., followed, and was cordially received. Mr. President. — Fellow-citizens, as I am happy to say to- night, of my native town, I shall hardly attempt at this late hour (half past ten o'clock] to go over again the general topics that have been so ably presented by those who have spoken before me. Let us address ourselves to the question — What is to be done ? What 19 Massachusetts, what are we, going to do about it ? 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 my- self 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 Har- vard. 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 perfect- ing 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 fre. quent 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 al- most 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 en- thusiastic 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 rociety 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 27 and America, and attracting much of tho attention of Europe, Mr. Sumner shut himself into the libraries and public archives, and produced a treatise upon the subject, thought then to be al- most exhausted, which, published in the great journals of Eu- rope, 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 pub- lic 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 ; ho 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 de- termined 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 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 its b.-am ! " 28 His opponents, too, burn the midnight lamp, but as you remem- ber, sir, the great Athenian said, there is a difference between the objects on which their lamp throws its glare and his. He has been struck down in a manner which his colleague has forever branded, and so we declare it to-night, as " brutal, mur- derous, and cowardly." This is bad, but it is not that which stirs the people of the free States as one man. He was struck down for words spoken in debate, and in the sanctuary of his office. But this is not all. It was done by a member of Con- gress, and expressly for words spoken in debate. But this is not half. It will not be punished. The man who did the deed will not be expelled, nor will he be punished, adequately, if at all, by the laws of the District of Columbia, — a domain ceded to Congress for the very purpose of enabling it to secure free- dom of debate and action, by laws of its own. All this may 6eem bad, wrong, grievous, intolerable. But I have not begun to name the great evil yet. There are ninety representatives from the slave States. Every one present at the vote, voted against inquiry. There were several senators from the slave States present at the assault. Blow after blow fell on his de- fenceless head. No one knew that the next blow might not be the fatal blow ; yet not one interfered ; no word, no cry, no mo- tion! [Yes, Mr. Crittenden did] Perhaps he did at the close, a little, but for that little he was threatened with chastisement on the spot. Not one press south of the Potomac has condemned the act. Not one public man, or public body has condemned it. On the contrary, all have adopted and defended it. It is recog- nized as a policy — as a system, and commendation and honor are heaped upon the perpetrator, so that others may be stimulated to do the like. Already the leading Southern journals are pointing out the next victim. A kind of Lynch law is to be instituted wherever the subject of slavery is involved. Now, fellow-citizens, I beg of you to ask yourselves what all this indicates. Let us not be children, gazing at the painted scene ! let us lift the curtain, and look at the movers and actors behind. Freedom of speech is at stake in Congress. Freedom in the choice of institutions is at stake in Kansas. Seven in every eight of the inhabitants of Kansas desire free institutions ; yet slavery is forced upon them. The people cannot select their in- stitutions, nor can Congress prescribe them. Force governs — irregular, unlawful, brute force governs ; and governs by aid and countenance of the national authorities ! 29 Mr. President, the last census has demonstrated what many have declared, but few have believed, that under the form of a republic, this country is now, and has long been, governed by an oligarchy. In the free States, there are now about seventeen millions of free inhabitants, and no slaves. In the slave States, there are four millions of slaves, owned by three hundred and fifty thousand owners. These 350,000 owners of slaves own the valuable land and the laborers, and monopolize the government of the slave States. The non-slaveholding free population is of little account. This forms the privileged class, the oligarchy. It is not for the purpose of making them odious that I use this name. It is the only proper designation. Including the fam- ilies of the owners, there may be two millions of persons in the dominant class or order. This oligarchy has governed the whole country, and governs it now, with a sway of increasing demands and exactions. Of seventeen Presidential elections, natives of the slave States have carried thirteen, and natives of the free States four. Of the life of our government, forty-nine years have been passed under slaveholding chief magistrates, and eighteen under non- slave- holders. They have always had a majority of the judges of the Supreme Court of the United States. The population, the arts, the sciences, commerce, inventions, copy-rights, manufactures, all are with the free States. Yet the slave States hold and have always held the judiciary. They almost monopolized the army and navy, when appointments were open. At this moment, al- though there are sixteen free States and fifteen slave States, a majority, of the Senate are slaveholders. To make a long story short, there has never been a question between the slave power and the free power, on the floor of Congress, in which the slave power has not triumphed. Originally, the rule was, that all new states and territories should be free. No new slave States, was the maxim on which the government was formed. The Missou- ri Compromise of 1820 was a triumph of the slave power, for it divided the new territory between slavery and freedom. Its re- peal, in 1854, was a greater triumph, for it opened all the new territories to slavery. The Compromises of 1850 were a victory on their side. The annexation of Texas, with the right to divide it into four slave States, was, perhaps, the greatest of all. But I will not go over the recital of the successive defeats of freedom and aggressions of slavery. The subjugation of Kansas is the latest triumph. The subjugation of free speech is its ob- •* 30 ject now. At first, you recollect, no man can have forgotten, the right of petition was denied. For that John Quincy Adams per- iled all a public man has to peril, and life itself. Next, through resolves of Congress and platforms of both the great parties, they tried again to suppress free speech. Now, they chastise it by violence, in the last spot on earth from which it should be driv- en, in the very sanctuary of its refuge. No man has received a national nomination that is not acceptable to them. No man can be confirmed in a national office, from Secretary of State or Min- ister at St. James', to the humblest postmaster, that is not satis- factory to them. Mr. Everett's appointment at St. James' hung in suspense, because he was suspected of having uttered some- where, a sentiment hostile to slavery and its interests. Tho country is one vast Dyonisius' ear. Every whisper in the closet is transmitted and punished. Mr. Sumner has demonstrated that neither Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, Franklin, nor Patrick Henry, with their recorded opinions on Slavery, could be con- firmed to-day in any national office. The issue can no longer be concealed or avoided, or delayed. The issue is between this oligarchy of slavery, bent upon exten- sion and domination, and the free classes of the North, with their free speech, free labor, and free choice of institutions. I promised to answer the question — what is to be done 1 The remedy is easy, plain, legal and peaceable. The free states have a majority of fifty-six votes in the electoral colleges. The elec- tion of President comes on next November. We can elect a President and Vice President, with votes to spare. The free states have a majority of fifty-four in the House of Representa- tives, and are entitled to a majority of two in the Senate. We can control, by right, by mere force of law, every department of the government. The only revolution we need is a change of opinion — no greater revolution than to put this ballot into the box instead of that. It is our duty to do this, and to restore the government to its original principles and condition. It would eeem to be an easy task. No king gocth to war without count- ing the cost, and seeing whether with ten thousand he can meet the king that comcth against him with twenty thousand. It would not seem to require any king to calculate long whether with seventeen millions he can meet 350,000 masters, with 4,000,000 slaves, that come against him. But let us not deceive ourselves. The task is no easy one. Oligarchies have governed the world. All Europe is governed by 31 oligarchies and monarchs. Democratic republics are rare, if indeed they ever exist in great nations, except in name. The experiment of a purely democratic, representative republic, as a sovereignty, has never been tried here. Our government has al- ways been qualified by the element of a slaveholding aristocracy. This aristocracy is powerful — powerful in its unity of interest, the common slave property, with its value and its perils. It is powerful in its character as a caste. Unlike all other modern aristocracies, it is a caste, and the most powerful, formidable and exclusive of all castes, a caste founded on race and color. It is powerful in the ordinary elements of power which oligarchies possess. The aristocratic training gives great personal elements of control, the bearing, the habit of command, the assertion of superiority. To weak minds there is a fascination in aristocracy. In social life this is especially felt, at Washington, in the society of our cities and watering places, and in our colleges, and where- ever in public affairs or in private circles, the two classes are brought in contact. Every man who feels doubtful of his own gentility, bows to the established aristocracy of slavery. That which has been is that which shall be, and there is no new thing under the sun. What are the forces we are to bring into the field ? Divided , mixed, heterogeneous races and classes of free people. John Randolph said : — " We govern you by your white slaves." The vast class of the timid and time-serving, the mere camp-followers, the soldiers of fortune, who have so long thrown their weight into • the scale against us, and turned it — they belong to the strongest. No men are so easily calculated upon as they. Show ourselves the strongest, and we have them. Is there force enough, virtue enough in our seventeen millions to assert their political equality, to achieve their own enfranchisement, to renovate the policy and retrieve the honor of the country, to make freedom national and slavery sectional, to make freedom the rule and slavery the ex- ception, to secure the future for freedom ? The Dutch revolution was as noble as our own. The Dutch began in civil and reli- gious liberty, with heroism, freedom, industry and prosperity. In time, they came to make material prosperity their ruling mo- tive. They ceased to live for ideas, and what are they now ? Rich, prosperous, educated, respectable, useless and despised ! The high tone, the glory— is gone ! What hath been is that which shall be, and there is no new thing under the sun. Is this to be the fate of Massachusetts, of New England 1 I would no$ 32 address you in the language of despondency, but of hope. Mas- sachusetts has lived in times past for glory, for honor, for ideas, for abstractions. Much has been done to bring her into subjec- tion to material interests and unheroic maxims. But I believe she will slough these off in the time of trial that is upon her. But let us not use "brave words." Shall we "unpack our hearts with words, and fall to cursing like very drabs, like scul- lions?" If we cannot act, let us not talk. But this meeting is full of encouragements. It is an omen. The men gathered here are representative men. The clergy are here because some- thing is at stake, with the loss of which religion itself will be subjected and put into thrall. The law is here, not because a question of law is in issue, but because the law itself is at stake. Learning, science are here, for what is learning, what is science, the right to think and act, what are they in the hands of a servi- ent class ? — " Quid tibi prodest Aerias t ntasse domos, animo que rotundum Percurrisse polum — morituro." Our resolutions say that the duty is plain and the work practi- cable, and " let it be done" ! We say the same — let it be done! If the men of scholarship and accomplishments, who have hith- erto held the highest posts and honors, do not feel themselves up to the work, if the men who owe to our institutions all they are, are not up to the work, the people can call the cobbler from his bench at Natick, the factory boy from the loom at Waltham, the .farmer from the plough, and the sailor from the yardarm, but the work shall be done. Fishermen and tent-makers renovated the world. The centurion was sent to a fisherman who lodged at the house of a tanner by the sea-side, to learn what should be done for mankind. Before parting to-night, let us ask any doubting friend, if there be one here, what provocation more he proposes to wait for. They have added slave states by a coup (Vetat; will you wait until they have added Cuba or Central America ? They have tried to force slavery on Kansas ; will you wait until they have suc- ceeded ? They have violated one solemn compact ; how many more must they violate before you will assert your right? They have struck dowu a senator in his place. Some of their presses have designated the next victim; will you wait until he has fallen ? For my own part, I think the senator from Georgia was right when he said the deed was done in the right place and in the right mauncr. It needed an act as bad as it could be made, 33 to ronse the spirit of the North. Let the priest be slain at the altar stone. Let these Herods mingle the blood with these sacri- fices. It was needed. We have been so long servient, that the spirit of freedom must be roused by violence. " It is not fit that the land of the pilgrims should bear the shame longer." By the duty we owe to the cause of justice and liberty in the world, to the past and to the future ; by the natural pride of men ; by the artificial honor of gentlemen ; by the universal and unerring in- stincts of nature, it is not fit that we bear the shame longer. Mr. Dana's remarks were received with great applause. On motion of the Rev. Dr. Newell it was voted that the Reso- lution be adopted and a copy of it sent to Mr. Sumner. The vote was unanimous. The assembly then very quietly retired. « W46 ■4? * * ^ «5°^