And I wish to see a President through whom we may expect peace and harmony, instead of discord.
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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I also wish a President who sets the example of industry and unselfish dedication to the public good.
I also wish a President sincerely devoted to Civil-Service Reform, beginning with the “One-Term Principle,” which President Grant once accepted, but now disowns.
I am so much of a Republican that I wish to see in the Presidential chair a life-time Abolitionist.
Speaking now for myself, I have to say that my vote will be given for Horace Greeley; but in giving it I do not go to the Democratic party, nor am I any less a Republican.
The supporters of President Grant compel us to observe his offences and shortcomings, and thus the painful contrast with Horace Greeley becomes manifest.
Therefore, while justly careful of your own rights, you cannot be indifferent to the blessings of good government.
The two together will carry into the National Government an unswerving devotion to your rights, not to be disturbed by partisan dictation or sectional prejudice.
In everything for your protection and advancement he will show always the most heart-felt sympathy and the greatest vigor beyond what can be expected from President Grant.
Unquestionably the surest trust of the colored people is in Horace Greeley.
Nobody who votes for Horace Greeley will go to the Democrats; nor do I believe, that, when elected, Horace Greeley will be under any influence except that enlightened conscience which will keep him ever true to the principles he represents.
On the contrary, they have in his election not only the promises of the platform, but also his splendid example for a full generation, during which he has never wavered in the assertion of their rights.
The hardihood of political falsehood reaches its extreme point, when it is asserted that under Horace Greeley the freedmen will be reënslaved, or that colored people will in any way suffer in their equal rights.
On the contrary, it will be the inauguration of Republican principles, under the safeguard of a Republican President and Republican Vice-President, with Democrats as avowed supporters.
On equal reason and with higher pride may the supporters of Horace Greeley announce the adhesion of the Democratic party, which, turning from the things that are behind, presses on to those that are before.
It is idle to say that Horace Greeley and the Republicans who nominated him are any less Republican because Democrats unite with them in support of cherished principles and the candidate who represents them.
They may continue Democrats in name, but they are in reality Republicans, by the same title that those who sustain Republican principles are Republicans,--or rather they are Democrats, according to the original signification of that word…
Horace Greeley finds flocking to his cause large numbers of Republicans unwilling to continue the existing misrule, and as allies with them a regenerated party springing forward to unite in this liberal movement.
After violating the Constitution and International Law to insult the Black Republic, and setting an example of insubordination, he is not in condition to rebuke law-breakers.
Nobody can doubt that a small portion of the effort and earnest will, even without the lobbying, so freely given to the San Domingo scheme, would have averted those Ku-Klux outrages which we deplore,--thus superseding all pretence for…
President Grant, who could lobby so assiduously for his San Domingo scheme, full of wrong to the colored race, could do nothing for this beneficent measure.
Other things might be mentioned, showing the sympathies of the President; but I cannot forget the Civil Rights Bill, which is the cap-stone of that Equality before the Law to which all are entitled without distinction of color.
Especially was I moved when I saw the indignity to the colored race, which was accomplished by trampling upon a fundamental principle of International Law, declaring the equality of nations, as our Declaration of Independence declares the…
Devoted to the African race, I felt for them,--besides being humbled that the Great Republic, acting through its President, could set such an example, where the National Constitution, International Law, and Humanity were all sacrificed.
It was only when I saw the breach of all law, human and divine, that I was aroused; and then began the anger of the President and of his rings, military and senatorial.
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