Soft words turn away wrath; but there is a time for strong words as for soft words.
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.
gutenberg.org
A good cause is helped, if its enemies are driven back; and it cannot be doubted that the supporters of wrong and the procrastinators shrank often before the weapons he wielded.
They are faculties to be employed prudently in support of truth and justice.
Sarcasm, satire, and ridicule are not given in vain.
Speech was with him at times a cat-o’-nine-tails, and woe to the victim on whom the terrible lash descended!
Nobody said more in fewer words, or gave to language a sharper bite.
Strong in his cause and in the consciousness of power, he did not shrink from encounter; and when it was joined, he used not only argument and history, but all those other weapons by which a bad cause is exposed to scorn and contempt.
Slavery was wrong, and he would not tolerate it.
His powerful word turned the scale, and a great cause was won.
He taught her to cherish Education for the People, and he taught her respect for Human Rights.
By the side of their far-sighted, far-reaching, and heroic efforts, how diminutive is all that was done by others at the time!
As the cause they upheld so bravely is exalted, so is their fame.
All of these hated Slavery, and labored for its overthrow.
Under its kindly influence the past Rebellion will disappear, alike in its principles and its passions; future Rebellion will be impossible; and there will be a peace never to be disturbed.
It is the twofold promise, first, that all are equal in rights, and, secondly, that just government stands only on the consent of the governed,--being the two great political commandments on which hang all laws and constitutions.
In harmony with the promise of Nature is the promise of our fathers, recorded in the Declaration of Independence, to which the Republic has succeeded also.
Equality of rights is the standing promise of Nature to man, and the Republic has succeeded to this promise.
Let despots break promises, but not our Republic.
Here again I catch the aspiration of our leader in war, “Let us have peace.” Out of peace will spring all else.
I would not seem too confident in the destinies of my country; but I cannot doubt, that, if only true to herself, there is nothing too vast for her peaceful ambition.
The struggling people in foreign lands, now turned to us with hope, will sink in despair as they observe the disastrous eclipse.
The shock will begin at home; but it will spread wherever there are hearts to thrill with anguish.
Earth felt the wound; and Nature from her seat, Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe That all was lost.
Alas! the example of the Republic is lost, and our Western star is quenched in darkness.
The bonds of the Nation repudiated, and the Equal Rights of the freedman, which are nothing but bonds of the Nation, repudiated also.
Politicians like Charles Sumner
