He deeply wounds the self-sacrificing, loyal Union men of the Border States and Far South; in every breath he utters, and in every speech he makes, he sets back upon the clock of advancing time the hour-hand of Peace.
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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They are not only eloquent tributes to the dead, but powerful appeals to the living.
Be in no wise daunted, but rather strengthened and stimulated, by the abusive clamors and assaults following all your efforts, on the part of the ‘Satanic press,’ and unprincipled demagogues generally.
These are surer evidences of the wisdom, goodness, and nobility of your cause than all the praises of your numerous friends and admirers.
You may confidently make ‘the safe appeal of truth to time,’ and rely upon a universal verdict of approval at no distant day.
To be in the right is as surely to be allied to victory as that God reigns.
Should this privilege ever fail in your new hall, or anywhere within its influence, then must you forget the great example consecrated in the name of Roger Williams.
With this privilege securely established, you may proudly point to a higher token of civilization than a column of the Roman Forum or a frieze of the Parthenon.
An American citizen, who, after enjoying the honors of the nation as Senator and as Minister to France, could become a Proslavery Rebel, was incompetent to sit in judgment on Lafayette.
In declaring “the comparative nullity” of his career at home, “contrasted with the unquestionable splendor of his American services and deeds,” he writes as a Slave-Master, whose standard of merit excludes what is done for Liberty and…
Sumner insisted that the Union could be saved only through Freedom.
If this cannot be said of our statutes, nobody will deny that they are cumbersome, swelling to at least eleven or twelve heavy volumes, besides being most expensive.
They ought to be in every public library, and also in the offices of lawyers throughout the country.
That can be only by reducing them in size so that they will form a single volume, which is entirely practicable,--thus rendering them easy to read and cheap to buy.
Certainly I am justified in this conclusion, when I think of my own State; for it is within my knowledge that the statutes of Massachusetts, reduced to a single volume, as they now are, have, during a very brief period, been purchased by…
I do not forget the old saying, that the laws are silent in the midst of arms; but I would have our Republic show by example that such is not always the case.
Indeed, should we not all look with increased pride upon our country, most cherished when most in peril, if, while dealing with a fearful Rebellion, Congress turned aside to the edification of the people in objects that are useful, among…
It will be something, if, through the din of war, this work of peace proceeds, changing the national statutes into a harmonious text, and making them accessible to all.
Resolved, That the Committee on Patents and the Patent Office be directed to consider if any further legislation is necessary in order to secure to persons of African descent, in our own country, the right to take out patents for useful…
It has come to my knowledge that an inventor of African descent, living in Boston, applied for a patent under the Constitution and laws of the land, and was refused, on the ground, that, according to the Dred Scott decision, he is not a…
Let this bill pass, and then will be accomplished the first practical triumph of Freedom, for which good men have longed, dying without the sight,--for which a whole generation has petitioned, and for which orators and statesmen have…
I wish to say in addition that I have lived twenty-four years in Missouri, that I know the people well, have served them in various offices; and let me assure you, it is nonsense to try to save Missouri to the Union, and the institution of…
Let our armies proclaim freedom to the slaves of the Secessionists and the Rebellion will soon close.
I agree with the Governor; and when I ask your attention to this outrage, I make myself his representative, as well as my own.
Let us at all hazards prevent the extension of Slavery and the increase of the Slave Power.
Politicians like Charles Sumner
