In this work it is needless to say there is no place for any sentiment of hate or any suggestion of vengeance.
Charles Sumner
The Public Record
Charles Sumner was an American lawyer and statesman who represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate from 1851 until his death in 1874. Before and during the American Civil War, he was a leading American advocate for the abolition of slavery, and after the war he was a key figure in the Reconstruction era, during which he and other Radical Republicans successfully fought to end slavery and ensure basic rights for Black Americans. He continued advocating for racial equality until his death, lobbying in his final days for a civil rights bill that served as a model for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Historians credit Sumner with coining the phrase "equality before the law," which he first used as part of an early attempt to integrate Boston's public school system.
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The usage of civilized nations is against placing on regimental colors the names of victories gained over fellow-countrymen.
My first public utterance, as far back as July 4, 1845, was to commend the cause of Peace, which from that early day, amidst the contentions of public duty and the terrible responsibilities of war, has never been absent from my mind.
Had I failed to sympathize with this endeavor, I should have been false to the record of my life.
For me there can be but one course on this issue, and the moment it was presented I seemed to behold, for the first time, the dawn of that better era in our country when the Equal Rights of All should be placed under the safeguard of…
If not war, they would preserve at least the passions of war, and instead of peace would scatter distrust and defiance.
But these things are forgotten; the Sermon on the Mount is forgotten also; the Beatitudes are put aside.
By no effort of ingenuity or malignity can it be tortured into anything but an offer of reconciliation, while the very letter of acceptance, where it appears, declares the established supremacy of Equal Rights.
Nothing but a party spirit which forgets the obligations of Christian duty could treat it with indifference, much less make it the occasion of misrepresentation.
From the practical question of Civil Service Reform I pass to Reconciliation, being the most important issue ever presented to the American people,--reconciliation not only between the two once warring sections, but also between the two…
Nor do I see any corrective of this undoubted abuse, especially after the example now set in high quarters, so long as the President is a candidate for reëlection.
The offices are employed to preëngage the electors, and prescribe the persons to be chosen.
This prostitution of the offices of the country to the Presidential will can be upheld only by unhesitating partisan zeal, discarding reason and patriotism.
Is he faithful to the Constitution?” But this is now lost in the mightier law, “Is he faithful to reëlection?” This failing, all merit fails.
Intrigue and corruption are the natural vices of elective government; but when the head of the State can be reëlected, these evils rise to a great height and compromise the very existence of the country.
Never before was the necessity for this beneficent Amendment more apparent; for never before was the wide-spread abuse from the reëligibility of the President more grievously conspicuous.
That he should now disregard it gives new reason for the prayer, “Lead us not into temptation.
In attributing peril to this influence, I speak not only from my own careful observation, but from the testimony of others whose words are authoritative.
The misuse of the appointing power to advance ambitious aims is a temptation to which a President must not be exposed.
How futile to recommend, as is done by the Commissioners on Civil Service, “an honest competitive examination,” while the rules for this system are left to the discretion of a President seeking reëlection!
Let this be changed, and you have the first stage of reform, without which all other measures are dilatory, if not feeble and inefficient.
Here is the comprehensive abuse which envelops all the offices of the country, making them tributary to one man, and subordinate to his desires.
So plain is this to my apprehension, that I am at a loss to understand how any one sincerely in favor of such reform can fail to insist upon this principle.
The principle of One Term for President is the corner-stone of a reformed civil service.
I am now brought to those two chief measures to be advanced by the election of Horace Greeley, each of controlling importance,--one looking directly to purity and efficiency in the government, and the other to the peace and welfare of our…
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