For these I have labored always by speech and vote, in the Senate and elsewhere,--at first with few only, but at last, as success began to dawn, then with multitudes flocking forward.
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 began at the beginning, and from that early day have never failed to sustain its candidates and to advance its principles.
It is a maxim in politics, which we readily admit as undisputed and universal, that a power, however great, when granted by law to an eminent magistrate, is not so dangerous to Liberty as an authority, however inconsiderable, which he…
Amongst the foremost purposes ought to be the downfall of this odious, insulting, degrading, aide-de-campish, incapable dictatorship.
Resolved, That any withdrawal from a treaty recognizing Arbitration, or any refusal to abide the judgment of the accepted tribunal, or any interposition of technicalities to limit the proceedings, is to this extent a disparagement of the…
If the experiment is successful in this respect, I shall be less curious on the question of pecuniary profit and loss; for to my mind the education of the human family is above dollars and dividends.
Here let me confess that I find this law especially valuable, because it promises more time for education and general improvement.
I therefore insist that the experiment of an eight-hour law in the national workshops shall be fairly tried, so that, if successful, it may be extended.
There is a place for all things; and this I know, the place for a railway-station is not a public park.
And now it is proposed not only to diminish that breathing-place, but to disturb it by the smoke of steam-engines, and to confuse it by the perpetual din of locomotives.
Stand on that portico, Sir, and survey the amphitheatre; your eye will then rest with satisfaction on the outline of this very Park, stretching from the Capitol beyond the Executive Mansion, and destined to be a breathing-place for the…
But as often as I think of the question, I come back to the Park, which, say what you will, is destined to be one of the most important possessions of this metropolis, and for the special enjoyment of the people.
That alone would be a reason with me against the bill.
If you put a railway station as is proposed, you will bring on the Avenue all that glut and accumulation of carriages and wagons always concentrated about the terminus of a great line of travel.
By no consent of Congress would I allow any business interest or disturbing railroad company to fasten itself upon this inclosure.
I think you will act against the best interests of the city, whether you look at health, beauty, or enjoyment; for a park ministers to all these.
Are you willing, Sir, now at this early moment of her history, when she is just beginning to grow, or rather when her growth is just beginning to be apparent, to despoil her of this unquestionable attraction, where the useful and the…
There it is, the very apple of the eye to Boston; and nobody now fears that it will be diminished by a foot.
The jealous city fathers have saved that beautiful piece of earth, till now it is the first treasure of Boston,--unless we except her common schools, where all are equal before the law.
There is in Boston what is known as The Common, set apart in the very earliest days of the old town, when it was in fact what the name implies,--a common for the pasturage of cattle; but, though often assailed, it has been preserved…
Rather should we sacredly keep it all intact, so that hereafter, when you and I, Sir, have passed away, and this metropolis has grown to a grandeur and beauty which imagination cannot now conceive, that Park may remain in its entirety, a…
I use the language of another, when I say that parks are the lungs of a great city; but where will be the lungs of this metropolis, if you begin now to reduce the Park?
It is, that our representatives abroad must be kept always above all suspicion of acting under foreign influence, or the temptation of foreign reward.
It only remains that I should say, “Stand firm!” The politicians will then know that you are in earnest, and will no longer be trifled with.
The disabilities of colored people, loyal and long-suffering, should be removed before the disabilities of former Rebels; or at least the two removals should go hand in hand.
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