CHARLES SUMNER.
A EIJLOGY
DELIVERED BEFORE THE
FJA-U-,LjLTiY ANTD SOAVIET'IES
ui  I  ~ 
OF
KALAMAZOO COLLEGE,
BY HON.
JUNE 46, i874.
PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE SOCIETIE&
KALAMAZOO:
" I)AILY TELEGRAPH" PRINTING HOUSE,
1874.
HA..
A4 Y, 
"Casting my eyes back no further than the fourth of July of the last year, when you set all the
vipers of Alecto hissing, by proclaiming the Christian law of Universal Peace and Love, and then,
casting them forward, perhaps not much further, but beyond my own allotted time, I see you have a
mission to perform.  I look from Pisgah  to the Promised  Land, — you must enter upon it."-John
Quincy Adams, 1846.
" I feel bound to say that the honorable Senator from Massachusetts has, so far as his own personal fame and reputation are concerned, done enough, by the effort he has made here to-day, to place
himself side by side with the first orators of antiquity, and as far ahead of any living American oratoe
as freedom is ahead of slavery. I believe he has founded a new era to-day in the history of the, politics and of the eloquence of the country; and that, in future generations, the young men of this
nation will be stimulated to effort by the record of what an American Senator has this day done, to
which all the appeals drawn from ancient history would be entirely inadequat(,."-Hon John P. Hale
in 1U. S. &nate, after Ur. Sumner's speech entitled,;' Freedom Vational-Slavery Sectional."  August
27, 1851.
: In an age of venalty and of reckless calumny, no man ever doubted the purity of his motives
and the singleness of his aims; and if the august title of statesman has been dese! ved by any American of his age, he is that American."-Horace Greeley.
"We have in our possession many of MR. SUMNFER'S speeches, and we  confess that for depth and
accuracy of thought, for fullness of historical information, and for a species of gigantic morality
which treads sophistry under foot, and rushes at once to the right conclusion, we know not a single
orator, speaking the English tongue, who ranks as his superior.'.-Edinburgh Journal.
"MR. SUMNER'S large ability, his careful education, his industry, his early dedication to  public
affairs, his power of exhaustive statement, and his pure character,-qualities rarely combined in one
man,-have been the strength and pride of the Republic."-Rqlph Waldo Emerson.
"One of those powerful intellects and noble hearts that have shown so brightly in our sister
country, in the Senate of the United States. What noble e.oquence! Carry his words, Sir, by the
vehicle of your almost universal paper (London Times) to the press of every country and to the heart
of every human being-man, woman or child-who has ever read the divine rule-' Whatsoever ye
would that men should do unto you, do ye even so them." -Lord Shaftesbury.
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EULOGY.
MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:
It has been truly said that the contemplation of a great character is always an interesting and instructive work. Mankind are
taught better by example than by precept, and great lives are the
best teachers of great virtues. It is the mission of great men to
quicken and exalt the common life of humanity by showing the almost divine possibilities of our nature, anid God sends such men into
the world when needed to save nations and to hold up exalted moral standards. They do not appear in regular order or in unbroken
succession.  Sometimes they come singly, sometimes in royal companies. Nor do all teach the same lesson or perform the same work.
Some stand for religion, some for patriotism, some for heroism.
Still other lofty lives, lifted above the common level, stand for warning. Not all emninence is the eminence of virtue. History has its fiery
meteors and baleful comets as well as its fixed stars and orderly
planets. The former blind by their brilliancy or awe by their mystery; the latter shine ever on in the serene depths with steady and
invigorating light, and so teach mankind the eternal verities. And
over all God watches and rules for the good of men.
You have set apart this occasion for contemplation of the life
and character of a great man and you have asked ale to4ironounce
his eulogy. It is a theme most fit to engage your attention. CHARLES
SUMNER was not only an illustrious statesman and orator, but he was
also a distinguished scholar.  I know of no name in all our annals
so well calculated to inspire the enthusiasm of young  men at col   lege or to stand for their model as his Through this shining gate way of knowledge he passed in his ardent youth;  up the rugged
steeps upon which your feet have entered he went with proud and
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EULOGY,
conquering step and he stands now yonder, on the immortal
heights, forever beckoning you onward and upward.
Nothing could be more fit therefore, than that you should
mark his name for honor and drink deep of the inspiration of his
life. And for what is not fit in him who is to speak upon such a
theme, I can only plead that CHARLES SUM NER wasmy idealstatesman; that from the days of my boyhood he has been my bright
particular star among our public men, commanding always, more
than any other, my admiration, my confidence, and my profoundest
esteem. I have greatly honored other noble men and leaders in the
struggles of our later history, but not with such honor and admiration as were called forth by the noble Senator from my native State,
who ever seemed to me to stand forth on the field of conflict like
the chivalrous knight of France, without fear and without reproach.
To you then, students and others connected with these societies
and with this institution of learn ing, and to my fellow citizens here
assembled, let me speak of CHARLES SU-MNER.'Ihe first spontaneous utterances of grief and lament for his loss which filled all the
land have ceased; the funeral pageants, so grand and impressive,
have passed; the noble old Commonwealth, like a proud and sorrowing mother, has tenderly laid the ashes of her great son in her
Westminster Abbey, where are gathered so many of the great and
good, and the flowers of the opening summer bloom upon his grave
in the beautiful Mount Auburn. In the calm which has come after
the first burst of sorrow has been spent, we may now contemplate
that great life in the light in which men will hereafter view it, and
in which it will take its permanent place in history. I know it is
the common fault of eulogy that it is too sweeping and indiscriminate; that it sees no defects or blemishes but only virtues in its
subjects. But eulogy, like history, should be truthful. It should
not make defects where there are none, and if the public and private life of CRIARLES SUMNNER was stainless and spotless, let me paint
him as he was.
MR. SUM-NER'S EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION —HIS PREPARATION FOR
STATESMANSHIP.
CHARLES SUMNER had a most ample preparation for the career
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EULOGY.
of statesmanship. Unlike so many of our public men who have
achieved eminence, he was born to fortune and to large advantages
of education. His native city was the one, of all others on the
continent, most noted for intellectual culture and historic interest,
and he was early admitted to all the opportunities of its famous institutions of literature and law. Its very streets were consecrated
to patriotism and learning.  It had been the theatre of some of the
earliest and most thrilling events in the great drama of the revolution, and many of its buildings still bore the scars of the conflict.
Bunker Hill and Fanieul Hall were there, the memory of Warren
was a near and daily presence, and John Adams  and other great
leaders of the Revolution still lingered upon the scene, their venerable forms familiar upon the streets.
In the midst of such scenes and opportunities, the impressible
youth of SUMXER was passed.  How he improved these rich advantages the world already knows. He was early enrolled -t student
within the classic walls of Harvard, where he pursued his studies
with enthusiastic ardor, soon evincing a peculiar love for those
fields of culture which lay in the direction of his great life-work.
From the college he passed to the law school, where his fine proimise soon attracted the attention and secured the friendship of that
eminent jurist, Judge Story, the memory of whose own great learning and ability, and vast judicial labors has been revived in the
minds of his countrymen by the death of his illustrious pupil.
When called to Washington by his duties upon the bench of the
Supreme Court, Judge Story recommended young SW INER to fill
his place as law lecturer in the institution, which he did with
marked success, and afterwards, declining a permanent chair in the
law school and the still more flattering offer of a professorship in
the college, he spent several years in general and wide reading of
law and literature and in travel and study in Europe. Returning
to Boston he commenced the practice of his profession'under the
most flattering auspices.
MIR. SUNINER AS A LAWYER.
But he was not destined to run the career of the mere lawyer,
even in the higher walks of the profession. He had mastered the
noble science of the law as a part of general literature; he had
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EULOGY.
given special attention to it in its relation to government and in
its wider aspects as affecting the wellfare of races and of nations;
in short, he had imbued his mind with its history and its philosophy. While this was noble study and acquisition for a lawyer, it
was still better for the future statesman. It was better preparation for statesmanship than for practice in the courts. True, MR.
SUM.NER did, for more than ten years pur-eue the profession, arguing cases and notably filling the office of legal reporter in the Distric t Court of the United States, over which Judge Story presided
and  editing,  meanwhile, with  great  research  and  ability,  a
series of English reports, receiving from Judge Story in the meantime the high compliment that he was, at the beginning ot his professional career, well fitted in legal learning to occupy a seat on the
bench of the Supreme Court of the United States. But he never met
the rougher experiences, the severe and sometimes rude encounters
of the bar like so many eminent lawyers, and like those who achieve
success in the profession, especially at the West. In this technical and practical sense Mr. SUIMINER was not distinguished at the
bar. Indeed it is doubtful if he ever would have made a successful jury lawyer. His mind had more breadth and strength than
acuteness, his temperament was not electric and his great learning
and habits of generalization would have made him unwieldy before
a jury. Besides this his moral purposes were more suited to lofty
themes than to the questions of private dispute with whi(.h the
mere jury advocate has to deal.
But happily, he did not need to settle these questions by actual
experience   His private, inherited fortune placed him above that
pecuniary want which has been the hard but powerful stimulus of
so many noble minds.  He did not, like Erskine, that foremost and
greatest of advocates, feel dependent offspring tugging at his lawyer's gown for bread, but he was left free to puree congenial
studies and to follow the natural bent of his mind.  Thus saved
from sinking the man in the lawyer and repressing noble desires
from base necessities, with learning so ample and profound, with a
fine and manly presen(ce and an eloquence at once polished, graceful and commanding, he was a public man even before he  was
called to fill public station; a man well and Carefully fitted for the
service of the State when she should need him.  And so, when in
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EULOGY.
1845, after a succession of masterly addresses, he pronounced before the corporation of his native city that great oration on "The
True Grandeur of Nations;" an oration which filled the country
with admiration and drew answering plaudits from across the Atlantic, all the world saw that Masachusetts had a noble scholar
and orator, with the highest graces of person, mind and character,
with lofty aims and principles, full armed and equipped, and
ready to obey her call to enter the arena of statesmanship and
bear aloft her traditional standard.
HIS ELECTION TO THE SENATE.
The summons soon came. In the Spring of 1851, by a fortunate combination of parties in the Legislature, building wiser than
they knew, he was elected to the Senate of the United States.
The office had come unsought, though not unwelcome. During
the long struggle at the State House, which lasted for months and
attracted the attention of the whole country, he had daily passed
to and from his office, but had never once looked in upon the contest, nor spoken to a single member upon the subject of the election. In vain over-anxious and well-meaning friends besought himto do this. I-Ie stood firm, and no word of importunity or impatience escaped him. And when at last the position was his, it had
come without solicitation and without pledges. It is doubtful if a
United States Senator has ever since been elected in that way;
but that was the fashion in the early days of the Republic, before
the evil days came upon us, and before the public service had become demoralized.  The office used to seek the man, and not the
man the office.
CONDITION OF PARTIES AT HIS ENTRANCE UPON PUBLIC LIFE.
CHARLES SUIMNER was now forty years of age and in the first
full strength of his intellectual manhood. He had appeared upon
the national scene at an important conjuncture of public affairs.
There were evidences on every hand of an approaching change in
public sentiment and in the control of political parties. His ownl
erection had, indeed, been one of the most ominous portents of. the
coming revolution. The slavery question had entered the field of
political action, and the old parties had already begun to be dashed
to pieces upon that unyielding rock. The Whig party which had
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IEULOGY.
carried the country for Harrison in 1840, been defeated by its adversary in 1844, though led by Henry Clay, and again successful
with Gen. Taylor in 1848, was the first to show signs of disintegration. The leaven of anti-slavery had largely entered this organization, especially in New England; but an attempt had been made in
the party to suppress these anti-slavery tendencies, and this effort
had the weight and sanction of the name and leadership of Daniel
Webster, the great Whig orator and statesman.
The open rupture came in 1848, when the then immediate question of the prohibition of slavery in the new territories acquired
in the Mexican war divided the party and led to the formation of
what was called, with felicitous propriety, the "Free Soil party;" an
organization composed of the seceding anti-slavery Whigs, of independent Democrats, and largely reinforced by the members of the
"Liberty party," the pioneers of practical anti-slavery, an organization which had polled about seven thousand votes for Jas. G. Birney for President in 1840 and nearly seventy thousand for the
same candidate in 1844.  CHARLES SUMNER had, after vainly struggling to bring the Whig party of Massachusetts up to the antislavery standard, joined the new Free Soil party. It carried no
State for Van Buren and Adams in 1848, but it polled more than a
third of a million votes, and it was the forerunner of the great Republican party which was formed sixyears later, and which carried
the country for Abraham Lincoln in 1860.
MR. SUMNER AN ANTI-SLAVERY MIAN-HIS WiTCHWORD.
CHARLES SUMNER had long been an anti-slavery man. With rare
fidelity to conviction and to truth he had turned his back upon all
apparent self-interest, upon all the professional and political prospects so inviting to a talented and ambitious young man, had at the
same time resisted the still stionger blandishments and menaces of
his aristocratic social surroundings, freely dedicating himself to
the cause of the poor and oppressed, and braving the social and
political ostracism of the rich and the powerful.  But though a*
anti-slavery man, he believed in political action. Garrison, on the
contrary, had taken the ground of disunion, and for his motto in
the struggle, "ThIe Costitutio)n is a league with (deat/h a)nct a cove-,auit with hell." CHARLES SUMNER took for his watchword, "FREE
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EULOGY.
DOAL NATIONAL —?LAVERY SECTIONAL," and kept that lofty political truth upon his banner until the battle was over.  He believed
and insisted that there was power enough under the Constitution
to resist the spread of slavery and to bring back the Government
to the anti-slavery ground held by the founders and early statesmen of the Republic.
A (.LAN-CE AT MIR.  LMNER'S CAREER IN THiE SENATE —HIS ASSOCI                       ATES AND LABORS.
Of Mu. SUM:.- ER'S career in the Senate I shall not speak in detail nor follow further his life in chronological order.  His history
since his entrance into publ c life has been a part of the history of
the nation in its most imnportant and tragic epoch; he has played
his part in a high place and in the sight of all his countrymen, and
if there were any need that the facts and incidents of his Senatorial career should be recounted, it has already been amply and sufficiently done in the thousand eulogies of press and tongue since his
death.  HIis early history was less familiar, and seemed a fitting
and necessary introduction to a proper analysis of his public character.
Let me pass on, therefore, with only a glance at MR. SUINERI'S
career in the Senate from that first day of December, 185l, when
he took his seat in that historic chamber as the successor of Daniel WTebster, the very day on which Henry  Clay, the great  Commoner of America, spoke his last word and left it forever, until the
10th day of March, 1874, when he, also, weary and worn with pain
and disease, though nrot yet broken by age, hii gray locks illustrious with service to his country and mankind, bade a pathetic
though unconscious adieu to the great hall and went'home to die.
When hle sat down in that Senate of 1851, with Cass, and Seward
and Douglas for his associates, slavery and compromise ruled supreme.  The senatorial seats were filled with haughty save masters from the south and submissive politicians from the north,
with two men only in the whole body who fully sympathized with
him in his anti-slavery position and stood with him in that apparently forlorn hope of freedom,-the bold and ready John P. Hale,
and Salmon P. Chase, afterwards the great Secretary and Chief
Justice. Seward, it is true, was anti-slavery, but he was a Whig,
and he had not yet broken with his party at the South.
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I.. ". I. 
EULOGY.
In that body of slave-holders and slavery-supporters, SUMNER
received no political or social recognition. He was assigned no
place on the Committees, and when in the summer of 1852 he raised
his voice for the first time in that splendid and memorable speech
against the Fugitive Slave Law, he met the scornful and defiant
glances of an enraged Senate. Other great speeches succeeded,
arraigning Slavery at the bar of the public judgment and conscience.
Then followed the murderous assault of Brooks, which planted
physical, nervous torture in his frame and shortened his life. IByand-by came the war, and then, as the haughty representatives of
slavery retired, SUMNER for the first time found himself with the
majority and was entrusted with the practical direction of measures and policies. How he filled that important chairmanship which
was then given him, until within recent years he was dismissed
from it under circumstances of honor to him but of everlasting
shame to those who did it. all the world knows. And all the while
he was true to Freedom and the Union, never losing heart or hope.
Finally, at the last, when the war toad long been over and when the
great work of reconstruction was finished, there came that separation from the administration of his party and from old political and
personal friends, which tried anew his couLrage, and furnished the
last severe test of his absolute obedience to his convictions of duty.
MR. SUMNER AS A STATESMAN-PECULIARITIES IN HIS CAREER.
In considering CHARLES SUMNER as a statesman, we are met at
the outset by this striking peculiarity in his career: It was passed
in the discharge of the duties of a single office, that of Senator from
Massachusetts in the Congress of the United States. In this office,
which has been filled by so many hundreds of undistinguished men
since the foundation of the government, he performed his work and
won his great fame.  The man in our history who comes nearest to
him in this respect is Thomas H. Ienton, and he fails to furnish a
parallel, for he had been a member of the other house of Congress.
Most of our national statesmen of wide fame have filled different
stations in the public service, and have had large opportunities and
experiences. John Quincy Adams, whom SUMNER resembled in
scholarship and integrity, filled almost the entire round of the chief
offices under the government. Henry Clay, also, had a wide and
diversified experience.
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EULOGY.
Still another peculiarity is found in the fact that StUMXER entered public life at the comparatively mature age of forty, and
finished his career at sixty-three, an age which is not considered
old among statesmen. Here, also, he differs from most eminent
statesmen in this and other countries. William Pitt, the younger,
entered Parliament at twenty-one; Gladstone at twenty-three;
John Quincy Adalas began his public career at twenty-seven;
Henry Clay at twenty-nine; John C. Calhoun at twenty-eight, and
Daniel Webster at thirty-two.
CuIARI,ES SUMNER, therefore, was not fortunate in large opportunities, and his career, as we have seen, was not among the longest. Only was he felicitous in being privileged to act his part in
our grand and stirring times. Here he had an opportunity worthy
of his mature preparation and his commanding talents, and he improved it with sublime fidelity and courage. His is still another
notable instance of that divine selection of men to serve and save
great causes and interests at supreme moments and in national
crises.
THE COLOSSAL POWER OF SLAVERY WHICH HE ATTACKED.
If we approach now to a view of the essential character of
MR. SUMNNER'S work as a statesman, we shall see that it was his
mission to lead in the great effort for national regeneration; in
lifting the nation up from slavery to freedom, and thus in serving
it and saving it in the best and highest sense. We had this great
evil of slavery in our political system, and from being at first an
unfortunate exception it had come to be the rule in the administration of the government and in the general course of public
opinion.  It swayed and dominated alike over church and state,
over pulpit and caucus. It laid its hand on the two great political
parties of the country, and they made haste to do its bidding.
Statesmen bowed their heads in the dust before it and trembled at
its slightest frown. Its subtle and baleful influence permeated all
public opinion and penetrated to every avenue and corner of
society. All organizations of men, of whatever name or purpose,
yielded unquestioning obedience to its lordly behests. Free speech
was cowed into silence or pursued to martyrdom.    The very
springs and fountains of the popular thought and conscience were
11 
poisoned and corrupted.   Nor did the sacred altars of religion
escape the fearful contamination. Strange as it may seem now,
even the churches of the land were made to uphold slavery, and
the ghastly and blasphemous parodox was exhibited of defending
"the sum of all villainies" in the name of the blessed gospel of
peace, charity and liberty! The institution which was afterwards
guilty of treason and rebellion against the government, thus began
its work by insulting reason, stifling conscience and dethroning
God in the souls of men.
I know it is difficult by any use of words, to make the genertion which has come upon the stage since the war, realize the fearful sway and tyranny of the slave power in this country thirty years
ago; and even the men who lived and acted then have almost forgotten in these days of liberty, when slavery has been in its grave
ten years, the full strength and prevalence of that fearful moral,
political and social influence which then ruled supreme.   Some
there are, the few survivors of that little band who composed the
van-guard of the after swelling and triumphant hosts of freedom,
who will perhaps remember the terrors of that collossal power
against which they threw themselves with s,ch uncalculating and
heroic courage, in those dark days of the past. It was indeed, a
time of moral and political paralysis. All true love of liberty, all
genuine manhood, seemed expiring in the hearts of men.  We
know now that this was the thick, stifling atmosphere which presages the earthquake and the hurricane. Only the war with its
flashing thunderbolts, was able to rend  and lift those  murky
clouds, and let in once more the pure light and air of freedom.
It was against this dark institution of slavery, this gigantic
public enemy, that MR. SUMNER waged unrelenting, unceasing
war.   Slavery had become the nation's master.  Its firm grasp
upon the nation's throat must be shaken off or the nation would
die. SUMXNER entered upon the stage in the days of expedients
and compromises. The national capital was then, as it long had
been before, the very fortress and citadel of oppression. The halls
of Congress had long resounded to the apotheosis of slavery. HIere
his public career as a statesman commenced,-here in the  very
face of the enemy he began his work. Ile became the champion
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E-ULOGY. 
EULOGY.
of imperiled freedom and the unrelenting foe of compromise.
"FREEDOM NATIONAL-SLAVERY SECTIONAL "-" NO COMPROMISE
WITH SLAVERY"-these were his watchwords.
THE CHAMIPION OF AN IDEA IN STATESMANSHIP.
CHARLES SUMINER thus became the advocate and champion of
an idea, a principle in statesmanship. It has often been said of him
since, by way of criticism, that he was not a practical statesman;
that he was not expert and crafty in the details of legislation. Let
this be fully admitted and it falls far short of proving that MR.
SUANlER was not a statesman of the best and highest type.
For certainly it must be the noblest business of a statesman
to deal with principles and ideas, and he must be greatest in the
service of the State who builds his superstructure upon these eternal foundations.    I have no patience with that super-practical
view of statesmanship which insists that he only is a statesman
who shows aptitude and skill in the measures and policies of today. Undoubtedly, the affairs of to-day must be attended to, but
they are not necessarily the mniost important. Statesmanship, like
every other human interest, has its to-morrows; and these must be
provided for.  The rule here holds good in greater things as it
does in lesser. The wise man builds his house upon a rock and
makes careful provision for the future.   So the wise statesman
seeks to lay the beams of the national edifice on the solid and enduring foundations of eternal right and justice, and to provide
wise rule for all after generations.
NOT A VISIONARY AND IMPRACTICABLIE STATESMAN.
It is in this larger sense that I claim the highest meed of statesmanship for CHiARLES SUTMNER.  He  did great and far-reaching
work. At the same time I confidently assert that he was a careful
and sound legislator upon minor questions of state, evincng always
an excellent judgment in what have been called practical, every-day
affairs. I know the popular impression is the other way, but the
popular impression has never been right upon this point. He was
never wild or visionary. In the affair of the Trent he showed the
highest prudence of diplomacy; he was sound always upon the
finances.  These instances are notable, but they are not the only
ones that might be given to show.that MR. SUMNER was not a rash.
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EULOGY.
or imprudent public man. But it was in the greater questions of
State, where men did not see as far and as clearly as he, that he
was called visionary and impracticable.
True, it was MR. SUMNER'S great work and distinction as a
statesman to advocate an idea, a principle in government, rather
than to manage a party or provide for the annual budget. But his
idea was a grand one, his principle was an immortal one, and its
effects on men and governments most powerful and practical. An
idealist, men say. But what was his idea? Liberty, that great
flame which has fired the hearts of men in all lands and ages; the
quenchless inspiration of the heroes and martyrs of history; Liberty, the glory and felicity of nations which enjoy it, the undying
aspiration of nations and peoples which seek after it. The best
blood of the centuries has reddened field and scaffold for it; the
most eloquent voices of the ages have pleaded in immortal words
for this greatest boon of humanity. And is it not the best work of
a statesman to seek to crystalize this beneficent principle into government, and to make it the sure possession of posterity?
THE CHARGE THAT HE WAS NOT A PRACTICAL STATESMAN
DENIED-AN APPEAL TO THE RECORD.
The claim which I make here for MR. SUMNER'S:tatesmatiship
is justified by the great and beneficent results which have flowed
from it. Not a practical statesman! Whose work has been more
grandly practical than his?  Look at it.  Four millions of slaves
emancipated and made freemen and citizens of the Republic. What
could be more practical to them?  The Republic itself at last rid
of its greatest curse and most dangerous enemy; what could be
more practical to it and to us? Liberty, Citizenship, Enfranchisement and Civil Rights; National Salvation and National Honlor,
these are intensely practical things, and these are the bjects which
MR. SUMNER'S statesmanship compassed.
But it is said that he was impracticable. If by this it is meant
that he was unmanageable by mere politicians and could not be
induced to surrender principle for party, it is undoubtedly true.
But if it be intended by this to say that as a statesman he proposed
and advocated measures that could not be practically realized, or
which were opposed to the true good of the country, then I confi
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EULOGY.
dently deny the charge and appeal to the facts to disprove it.
What MR. SUMNER proposed and advocated in the Senate of the
United States is well known to all the world. Let us look a monent
at the record.
HIS STATESMANSHIP BEFORE THE WAR.
Take the questions which grew out of slavery and the war as
the tests in this matter, for it was in these that he was said to be
impracticable. His first speech in the Senate was in opposition to
the fugitive slave law. He denounced it as unconstitutional, impolitic and inhuman.  His vote was recorded against it.  Was he
not right in this? What man now would have the country go back
and stand upon the fugitive slave law? Millard Fillmore signed
that bill as President, and it was a millstone about his neck forever
after. Which was right, the President or the Senator?
Then, MR. SUMINER opposed the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and the Nebraska bill, voting and protesting in some of his
most powerful speeches against those ill-starred measures. Who
questions now that it would have been better for the country and
its peace to have left the landmark of freedom undisturbed?
Stephen A. Douglass made here the mistake of his life; a mistake
which cost him the presidency.
Next, MR. SUMNER voted and protested against the spread of
slavery into the Territories, and lifted up his voice in one of his
most memorable utterances in denunciation of the "Crime against
Kansas,"-the daring attempt of slavery propagandists to plant
slavery in that Territory by fraud and violence. Was he not right
here? Let the memory of Franklinr Pierce, whose administration
was guilty of complicity in the crime, answer.
Then, in 1860, Mit. SUMNER, gathering all his learning, ability
and eloquence, from his high place in the Senate, arraigned the
turbulent and threatening institution in that terrible indictment
contained in his speech, entitled, " The Barbarism of Slavery."
Here certainly he needs no vindication. All the world knows now
that slavery was a relic of barbarism, and the very next year it
added to its other crimes the greatest of all, and lighted the torch
of civil war.
Ie S RECORD DURING THE WAR.
When the war was impending, MR. SUMiN ER opposed the grant
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ing of the last concessions which slavery demanded of the North as
the price of peace.  He refused to compromise, and demanded that
the government assert its just authority. Right again, clearly
right. Concession would have been national humiliation, and peace
thus purchased would have been national shame. Let the dishonored memory of James Buchanan, loaded dowi with the record of
his criminal weakn,ess, in a great crisis which demanded the will
and courage of a man, testify to the clear, courageous and lofty
statesmanship of CHARLES SUMAINER, at this supreme moment of our
history.
When the war came, MR. SUMINER was the first among our
statesmen to urge the policy of emancipation. The policy was
afterwards adopted, it is true, but not until hundreds of thousands
of precious lives had been sacrificed, and hundreds of millions of
treasure had been sunk. History, which has already vindicated
the policy will, I think, write it down also, that MR. SUMNER was
nearest right in point of time.
IMR. SUMNER AND RECONSTRUCTION.
Then, after the war, followed the work of reconstruction.
MR. SUMINER was again the first among all our statesmen to comprehend the full significance of the revolution which the war had
effected and the great political changes which it had made necessary. He demanded and advocated for the emancipated millions,
those measures which he denominated the "irreversible guarantees of freedom"-Citizenship,  Enfranchise,,ient, Civil Rights;
these were the outlines of his policy.
I have not the time to go into the details here, as I would
like; but the history is recent, and I simply call your attention to
the  frct that  in  every  step of this policy of reconstruction
and legislative dealing with the emancipated race, Mu. SIUMINER
led the way, reluctantly followed, a yeai behind, by a Senate and
Congress which continually denounced him as "impracticable."
Year by year, the spectacle was presented of MR. SUMNER, at the
opening of Congress, proposing measures which after being duly
criticised and condemned as unreasonable and impracticable,
were voted down by the majority only to be adopted at the next
session or by the next Congress, when the wise and tireless cham
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pion had set his stakes still further ahead to be again denounced
and again followed.
CRUEL I)ELAY OF HIS CIVIL RIGHTS BILL BY THE  "PRACTICAL"
STATESMEN.
It is a singular history and a sad commentary on what is
called practical statesmanship. We spent ten years in this work
of reconstruction and in adopting measures which MR. SUMNER
proposed at the outset, and which are now clearly seen to have
been necessary. Saddest of all, the jealousy and opposition of
these laggards who are called "practical" statesmen finally cheated
MR. SUaiNER of what would have been the extreme felicity of his
life. Even his great Civil Rights bill, the crowning measure of
reconstruction and of his glorious career as a statesman, must be
postponed by them until after his death.  Oh, cruel delay!  The
death agony was made more intense by the thought, and this drew
from the dying statesman that pathetic injunction to his friend,
which so touched millions of hearts. How would that noble soul
have thrilled with joy at the completion of the great work!  The
grand old warrior of Freedom could then have loosed his helmet,
unbuckled his armor, and tasted the sweets of victory, on the field
where he had fought so long.
What need that I should say more to prove that the charge, so
often repeated, that MR. SUMNER was an impracticable and visionary statesman, is not founded in the truth of history.  Happy
would it have been for the government and the people if all our
statesmen and public men had been as "practical" as he, and had
followed his example and had recorded their votes and influence
with him on these great questions to which I have referred. In
every instance he is proved to have been right, and the practical
statesmen to have been wrong. Thus time and history vindicate
the truth and its champions.  The "practical" statesmen are put
to shame, their quibbling evasions and hollow compromises are
exposed and overthrown, and the man who stood upon uncompromising truth is crowned with immortal honor, and again is vindicated in these greater things the old and homely maxim, "honesty
is the best policy."
SAN DOMINGO AND THE BATTLE-FLAG RESOLUTIONS.
But I ought not to omit, in this connection, to speak of two
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important public questions where MR. SUMl.NER'S action subjected
him, at the time, to wide-spread misapprehension and denunciation.
I allude to the San Domingo annexation scheme and the battle-flag
resolution.
His action on the first of these questions was taken in opposition to the administration of his own party, and subjected him to
great personal annoyance and insult, finally leading to an open
rupture with the President and a sundering of his party relations.
Yet here he was clearly right, and his conduct in courageously
opposing that ill-starred project was a signal service to his country,
and worthy the highest admiration. For once he carried the country with him and defeated the measure.   This certainly was
"4 practical" statesmanship.
His battle-flag resolution was least understood of all his public
acts, at the time, and subjected him to a perfect tempest of denunciation from the political friends of a life time. diven Massachusetts
made haste to visit her public censure upon the head of her great,
true son as he sat there in his darkened chamber at Washington,
bowed with disease and suffering. It is the saddest story in MR.
SUMNIER's life, and the blow was more cruel than that of Preston
Brooks. The victim suffered in a silence that was heroic and
grand. Thank God, the madness and misconception were only
temporary. When reason returned, it was seen that the statesman
was right and the people were wrong. Now, in all the land, the
man could hardly be found to stand up and oppose the spirit and
policy of MR. SUMNER'S resolution.  Seldom is a vindication so
speedy and overwhelming, and this is the last instance which I
need to give of the  practical wisdom  of CHARLES  SUMNER'S
statesmanship.
"By their fruits ye shall know them" is a rule of the highest
wisdom and authority, and as applicable to statesmen as to other
men.   Tried by this standard, MR. SUINER is exalted among
statesmen. A striking instance and contrast in our own history
is in point.
SUMNER AND C.ALROUN.
A year before CHARLES SUMNER'S election to the Senate,
John C. Calhoun died at Washington, after a long, and distin
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guLished career in the councils of the nation.  Like SUXiNEIR he
died a Senator and the greatest from his section. These two men
will stand in our history as the fittest and ablest representatives
of the North and the South, of Freedom and Slavery.    They
were both men of strong will, of unblemished private life and
of commanding talents. As the sun of the great South Carolinian
set, that of the Northern statesman arose.   Massachusetts and
South Carolina, the States that" shoulder to shoulder went through
the revolution and felt the strong arm of Washington lean on
them for support," furnished these two statesmen to the Union.
As Slavery and the South found in Calhoun their ablest and most
tireless senatorial advocate and statesman, so Freedom and the
North at last had in SUMrNER, in the same great arena, their most
persistent and powerful champion. The one spent his life and his
great talents defending human bondage and warring upon Freedom; the other as freely gave his great acquirements and noble
faculties to the cause of freedom amd the slave.
Behold now how time and history have dealt with the two
champions and the opposing systems which they defended. The
doctrines of Calhoun ripened into secession and civil war to
overthrow the government; those of SLUMNER into emancipation,
a restored Union and civil rights to all.  The grim spirits of slavery and treason, of war and bloodshed, rise up at the name of
Calhoun; upon the memory of SUMNlER Freedom and white-winged
Peace shed their sweetest benedictions, and millions of broken fetters are his trophies of victory.
IR. SUM\NER AS AN ORATOR.
Plutarch, in comparing the two great orators of antiquity,
says: "It is necessary, indeed for a statesman to have the advantage of eloquence."  This advantage MR. SUMNER possessed in a
very eminent degree.  He was indeed an orator of the classic type
and of the most massive kind.  Few, if any, modern parliamentary
speakers have excelled him.  Nature had done much for him in
this respect. His personal presence was noble and commanding,
and his voice, a deep and mellow bass, was sonorous and far-resounding. His temperament was not electrical, and hence he was
never fiery or rapid in delivery, but spoke with judicial gravity
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with full articulation and with measured, impressive periods.  He
had the majesty and weight of manner which give such dignity to
senatorial eloquence. It is a singular co-incidence that in these
respects he more nearly resembled his great predecessor in the
Senate, Daniel Webster, than any other modern orator.
His style partook of the qualities of his moral nature and of
his personal presence. It was lofty in thought and purpose and
stately in utterance. Not always flexible and never diffuse; sometimes, indeed, seeming stiff and lacking in euphony, it was always
pitched upon a lofty key, and rose in volume and grandeur to the
close. Here he most resembled Milton, to whom, indeed, there was
still further resemblance in the grave and majestic expression of
countenance, in vast and affluent scholarship, in lofty and severe
integrity of life, and in unswerving devotion to the rights of man.
It was a style admirably suited to the great themes of State which
it became his mission to discuss. HIe was the advocate of Liberty,
Humanity, Justice and Nationality, and he needed the highest
dignity and power of speech to plead for these.
MR. SUMNER was not distinguished or dexterous in off-hand
debate, but chose rather to advocate or oppose measures in full and
well considered speeches. In this respect he was peculiar and, I
think, unapproachable by any other statesman or orator we have
ever had.  His great speeches were so thoroughly prepared that
they were exhaustive of the question and literally unanswerable.
(History, literature, learning, logic and eloquence were gathered
with a mighty sweep from far and near, and molded and welded in
a great volume of argument, demonstration and persuasion which
was absolutely overwhelming and irresistible.) No modern orator
ever excelled him in this cumulative power. It is a singular fact
that while his greatest senatorial efforts always provoked fierce
opposition aud called forth unmeasured personal denunciation, they
were never answered. The orator was assailed with angry words,
and even personal violence, but his speech was not replied to.
And this was simply for the reason that it could not be replied to,
An argument, founded on the truths of nature and history, with
the adjuncts of all reason, learning and literature to support and
fortify it, and fused and kindled by a sublime moral enthusiasm into
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a blaze of majestic eloquence, it was a power which could not be
resisted in kind.
SUM:NER AND EDMUND BURKE.
As a parliamentary orator, besides Webster, MR. SUMNER
nearest resembled Edmund Burke. The men were not unlike in
many respects, and the subjects upon which they spoke were not
altogether dissimilar. Both had great resources of statesmanship,
learning and eloquence; both spoke upon full preparation and
exhaustively, and both denounced great public wrongs. SUMNER
excelled Burke in delivery as much as he was excelled by the latter
in style, which, for purity and richness of language, and imperial
sweep of imagination, is still the study of rhetoricians and the
model of statesmen. The speech of Burke in the British House of
Lords, against the oppressor of India, and the speech of SUMNER
in the American Senate, on the Barbarism of Slavery, are the two
most remarkable and powerful philipics in the English language,
and they will be read and ranked in times to come with their great
originals the orations of Cicero against Cataline and Verres, and
of Demosthenes against Phillip. As Edmund Burke is the ornament and glory of English statesmanship and eloquence, so, I
think, will CHARLES SUMNER hereafter be of American, for he had
the high themes and the great purpose which will give his eloquence immortality.
MR. SUMNER NOT A POPULAR FAVORITE.
MIt. SUMJNINER was never, in his life time, a popular public man.
He had none of the arts of the demagogue, and his aims were
always high above the multitude. It is one of the penalties of real
greatness to be misunderstood and opposed. He was a statesman
who followed the truth with a martyr's devotion, and he frequently
received the martyr's reward. Men of lofty aims and -ncompromising ways always make enemies. It will not answer to say that
this is their fault. The multitude in all ages have stoned their
prophets and crucified their benefactors. Even the noblest and
greatest being that ever appeared in human form was surrounded
at every step of his beneficent mission by enemies, who finally took
his life. MR. SUMNER never asked favors of the people, and always
opposed them when they were wrong. In this, of course, he was
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their truest friend, because he served their best interests. (For
many years the purest and greatest of our statesmen, there was no
time when his name could have commanded any considerable or
formidable support for President, either in his party or before the
people.) Not that the country did not need such men as he was for
that office, but his great, pure life was a constant rebuke to the
average smallness and meanness of politicians, and his courageous
denunciation of popular wrongs had offended the easy-going complacency of the people. But happily, he never sought the Presidency, like so many of our public men, and he therefore suffered
no disappointment.
I do not mean to say that a popular statesman or public man
is always or necessarily unworthy. Notable instances in our own
history would prove the contrary. A good man may represent or
reflect the people in their best and highest moods and be popular
with them, while at the same time he serves his country and secures an honorable name in history.   In this way Lincoln was
popular, because, a man of the people himself, he caught their inspiration and reflected their will at a great crisis, when they were
at the white moral heat of revolution.  But SIUMINR led the way
to national reform through popular opposition, prejudice and
clamor, and spent his life in the advocacy of unpopular causes and
ideas.  Hence he could never be a favorite with the masses.  Clay
and Douglas were great party leaders and were idolized by their
followers. They marshalled their forces like skillful generals and
fought the battles of their day on the field of national politics. But
they took the people as they found them, and left them little better.  S~-INER, on the contrary, was not a politician or the leader
of a party, but the bold proclaimer and chanipion of unpopular
and unwelcome political truths, and he finally left the people, who
reluctantly followed him, upoil a higher plane of political knowledge, equality and liberty.
HIS ABILITIES OF THE FIRST ORDER.
The natural endowments of MR. SUMN,ElER were large, and even
in this respect, I think he was entitled to rank in the first order of
statesmen. If he had not the vast brain and the intellectual affiunee of Webster, he nevertheless was gifted by nature with a mind
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of uncommon strength, having the capacity for continued labor
and acquisition and the blended moral and intellectual insight. to
direct it to great and noble achievement. In learning, whether
useful or ornamental, in the knowledge of history and literature,
so important to a statesman, he greatly excelled Webster, while in
moral character and purpose he rose far above him.  It is difficult
to separate and lay apart the qualities of such a mind as MR. SUMXER'S, and to say how much was natural endowment and how
much was acquired, for the very capacity to acquire and the moral
inspiration to guide and direct the intellectual effort were equally
the original gifts of nature. It is, therefore, useless to speculate
in a matter of this kind.   Enough that the full assemblage of
of qualities and graces which made up the entire of MR. SU,MNER'S
moral and intellectual character were ample to entitle him to rank
in the first order of publicists and statesmen.   Washington, in
spite of the celebrated aphorism of Henry Lee, has been excelled
in war and peace alike, but never, perhaps, in the wonderful poise
and balance of faculties which have made him one of the few romantic and legendary heroes of history.
Men of conspicuous lives, who play important parts upon the
world's stage, whether warriors, rulers or statesmen, must be
judged by what they do and what they are, and the measure of
their greatness must be the impression which their work and influence makes upon their times, their nation and the world. Tried
by this standard CHARLES SUMINER must be admitted into the immortal company of the world's great men.   He  was great as a
scholar, orator and statesman, and exceptionally great in the moral
qualities which he brought to statesmanship.    History will be
searched i, vain to find another statesman  who so steadily, unswervingly and consis ently devoted his public life to truth, justice
and freedom, and who sought with such zeal and courage to bringz
the Sermon on the Mount into the field of legislation and government.   He was called "the Senator with a conscience," a term
which truly described him while it indicated the contrast between
him and so many other of our public men. Another title which
in his last years, especially, he bore unquestioned, was that of
"The Great Senator." How much that expresses, and how true it
was!   He towered intellectually above the dull commonplace of
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the Senate in these later, degenerate days, like the lofty peak of
Teneriffe; or like Mont Blanc in the whiteness and majesty of his
character.
HIS MORAL GREATNESS.
It is indeed, in the moral greatness of his life that CHARLES
SUMNER surpasses all our statesmen.    This will constitute his
chief distinction in history, for other statesmen have been learned,
able and eloquent, but not onie of all the great names our country
can boast has so exalted statesmanship above the mere policies and
expedients of to-day into the grand, clear region of eternal and
immortal principles. Liberty and the equality of all men before
the law-these were his guiding stars and the rule of his life.
HIS FIRMAINESS AND CoNSTANCY.
From these lofty purposes nothing could tempt him, nothing
could swerve him. In the long anti-slavery struggle, his firmness
and constancy never changed. What Martin Luther was at the
Diet of Worms CHARLES SU:MNER WaS, three hundred years later,
in the American Congress.   Hle stood as bravely and firmly for
personal and political liberty as Luther did for liberty of conscience.
Wendell Phillips once said that John Quincy Adams carried Plymouth Rock to Washington. This was even truer of SUMINER. A
son of the Puritans himself, he stood for the truth as firm set and
unshaken as Plymouth Rock, always and everywhere. When the
hearts of other men grew faint in the long contest, when the clouds
gathered and the heavens were dark above them and there was
talk of compromise or surrender, the great leader never faltered
or turned aside but kept straight on, his face to the foe, and his
clarion voice ringing out words of lofty encouragement. He was
indeed,
"Constant as the Northern Star,
Of whose true-fixed and resting quality
There is no fellow in the firmament."
HIS INTEGRITY.
iNeed I speak of his integrity?  In an age of venality in politics and of corruption among public men, he stood so conspicuously
white in his character that no breath of suspicion, even, ever for a
moment rested upon his name.  What praise was that!  All around
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him in these few, sad years which have gone, were the wrecks of
character, his fellows in the public service broken, dishonored and
disgraced, while he stood like a rock in the midst of the sea, giving
his countrymen assurance still that all honor and integrity were
not gone from the high places of the Republic. Alas, that he is
now gone from the place where his example is so much needed!
HIS MORAL COURAGE.
And then, what lofty moral courage he had! Here he was sublime. We have seen that in his young manhood he put all the
prospects of his life and of his ambition in peril for the cause of
the slave. This was but the beginning, the dedication to a work
which demanded of [him ever after to face opposition, obloquy,
slander, danger and death itself Oh! it has been easy in these
recent years to be anti-slavery, to go with the majority, to swim
with the tide, when the Norththas been all aroused, and when antislavery has been the passport to public office and public favor.
But think what it was in the dark days when CHARLES SUMNER
put on his armor and went forth like David against Goliath, to
battle against the colossal power of Slavery.
Nor was it always or alone that he had enemies to face, as he
did in the first half of his public life.  In these later years he frequently had to brave the opposition and frowns of friends. To a
lofty and sensitive soul this is the hardest of all. But even this
could not daunt him. He met their cruel wrong and ingratitude
as he had the rage of enemies.
I have no language to express my admiration for such courage
as  CHARLES  SUMtNER  displayed throughout  his entire public
career. It was as rare as it was grand and heroic. It was the chivalry of statesmanship. The courage of war and the battle field
pales before it. What is mere physical bravery in comparison!
To charge on serried lines or flaming batteries, in the shock and
fury of battle, when the blood is mounting and hot with_the fiery
contagion of thousands all around, and the splendid intoxication
of war drowns all thought of danger-this is the physical courage
of the soldier, which the world in all ages has admired and applauded. But to stand alone, if need be, against the world, for a cause
or an idea, to endure the snleers, the scorn and the scoffs of men;
....,   *,.
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to put reputation, character, prospects all at hazard for a principle
-this is moral courage, this is courage which is Godlike and
sublime!
HIS DEATH-THE UNIVERSAL TRIBUTE -WHO SHALL TAKE
HIS PLACE?
The grand old patriot and statesman is at rest now. No more
strife and opposition, no more weariness and pain, no more cruel
wrong and ingratitude. He died as he had lived. There was no
weakness, no obscuration of intellect, no unmanly fear of death.
His sun went down like the full orb of day, with no clouds about
its setting. How fitting here the noble passage from Milton:
"Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail
Or knock the breast, no weakness, no contempt,
Dispraise or blame, nothing but well and fair
And what may quiet us in a death so noble."
All men honor his memory. The same fickle and ungrateful
people who kill their prophets, build sepulchres and monuments to
them after they are dead. And so in all the land, as in the whole
wide circuit of civilization, nothing but good is said of the great
Senator. All races and sections speak with the same voice. Next
to the noble tribute of that brilliant Senator who was the great
man's friend and associate, and who, though of foreign birth,
speaks our language with such marvelous fluency and grace, there
have been laid upon the statesman's bier no finer offerings than
from those two men of the South, one the representative ot the
emancipated slave, the other of the once lordly slave master.
Happy coincidence!  Auspicious omen!  Thus the wide gap closes
between master and slave, between North and South; thus is the
problem of statesmanship solved, and thus does a great life-work
for common country and common humanity meet with its sure and
glorious reward.
Thank God, there is appreciation and honor yet in America
for a great, true man. As truly now can it be said as when Daniel
Web ter said it of Adams and Jefferson, that " The tears which are
shed and the honors which are paid when the defenders of the
Republic die, give hope that the Republic itself may be immortal."
Well may the people mourn.  Just as we are approaching our hun
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dreth national anniversary, our greatest and noblest statesman, the
most august and commanding presence in our national councils is
removed. Where shall we look for his like? The strong tower is,
indeed, fallen. As our eyes sweep enquiringly around the political horizon, we see no one to take his place. And well may Massachusetts, once the proud mother of so many statesmen, weep for
her buried greatness. Her long and illustrious line in the national
Senate ends with him, her purest and her greatest, the light and
glory of whose splendid name and services only make more palpable and dark the void which is left.
HIS PLACE IN HISTORY.
CHARLES SUMNNER'S place in history is secure.  Allied to immortal principles, to Conscience and to God, his fame will live as
long as the records of civilization shall endure. Liberty will enroll him with her immortal advocates and defenders; Eloquence
willpoint to him as one of her noblest orators, and Humanity will
enshrine him with her great benefactors.   He will be the hero
statesman; and as the noble knight of Liberty he will ride down
the centuries.  For he went forth with more than knightly courage, not to rescue from heathen profanation the earthly sepulchre
where the Lord's body lay, but to save from the profaner hands of
tyrannyand oppression millions of human souls in which the
Lord's spirit now dwells.
As the statesman who led in the great effort which finally rid
the Republic of the New World from the curse of African slavery
he will keep company in history with Washington the founder
and Lincoln the liberator; and in after ages when accurate historical narrative begins to blend with legend and tradition, a halo will
surround his name like that which glorifies the names of Sidney
and Hampden, of Bayard and Bozzaris and other illustrious defenders and martyrs of country and liberty. Thus do such lofty
souls become the guardian angels of their country as the_traditionary fame of William Tell hovers like a protecting aegis above the
mountains of Switzerland. And such is the transfiguration which
God vouchsafes to his great ones who help to lift humanity up to
knowledge, to liberty and to Him.
27