Great as was the Republic in arms, it is greater still in the majesty of its charity.
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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Never before was clemency so sublime; never before was a rebel people surrounded by beneficence so comprehensive.
But all that we have done, next after the safety of the Republic, is for the good of those who were our enemies, and who despitefully used us.
As under this sunshine the land yields its increase and the gardens bloom with beauty, while commerce and manufactures enjoy a new life, they will confess that we did well for them, and will hail with pride the increased glory of the…
With Human Rights under a permanent safeguard, there can be no limit to prosperity.
Only in this way will the Barbarism of Slavery be banished, and a true civilization organized in its place.
Nothing can be truer than that under such influences society will be improved, character will be elevated, and the general resources will be enlarged.
Nor is it only in justice to the freedman, who has a bill against his former master for unpaid wages, and also against the country for an infinite debt, but it is for the good of all constituting the community, including the former master.
In these demands, as in every other measure of Reconstruction, I would do nothing in severity or triumph, nothing to punish or humble.
They should have secured a piece of land to the landless freedman, whose unrewarded toil has mingled for generations in the soil; and they should have secured a system of common schools open to all.
The Reconstruction Acts err from what they fail to do rather than from what they do.
Secession is war out of the Union; Nullification is war in the Union.
Secession is declared to be settled by the war; but Nullification is openly recognized.
Instead of Secession maintained by arms, it is now Nullification maintained by arms.
Even while professing allegiance and asking your vote, they proclaim war in a new form.
Under the pretence of restoring Rebels to rights, it seeks to restore them to power; and this is the very question on which you are to vote.
Such is the simple issue, stripped of all hypocritical guise; for here, as in other days, the real question is concealed by the enemy.
It may be put more precisely still: Shall the men who saved the Republic continue to rule it, or shall it be handed over to Rebels and their allies?
I need not add, that, if you are in earnest against the Rebellion, and seek just safeguards for the Republic, then vote for Grant and Colfax.
If you sympathize with the Rebellion, or decline to take security against its recurrence, then vote for Seymour and Blair.
Shall the Rebellion which you have subdued on the bloody field be permitted to assert its power again, or shall it be trampled out, so that its infamous pretensions shall disappear forever?
Call it “one idea.” That idea is nothing less than country, with all that is contained in that inspiring word, and with the infinite vista of the same blessings for all mankind.
Permit me to say that the “practical” statesman foresees the future and provides for it.
Human Rights were in jeopardy; who that had a heart to feel could be indifferent?
The Republic was menaced; where was the limit to patriotic duty?
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