To me it seems bursting with new and most inspiring ideas.
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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No single man has ever so grandly struggled against the barbaric tendencies of a frightfully debauched generation.
I cannot certainly foresee the future; you may be worsted in this encounter; but I know the world will be the better for it.
It must have a large and beneficial effect, not only here, but in Europe, where your reputation will secure for it the consideration of those who control public affairs and mould public opinion.
I have just read your New York speech on our Foreign Relations, and most cordially thank you for a statement of our cause which ought to give us the verdict of the civilized world.
It is a masterly production of a master mind, and if you had never made a single mental effort before, or if you should cease from this moment to enjoy the power of speech, it would stand as a monument unrivalled among the many great…
Its influence, like all great ideas founded on truth, may be comparatively slow, but it is already acting over the world, and in a brief period it will be so potent that men and nations will be ashamed to avow a belief in any other code of…
Allow me to express to you my most hearty thanks for your noble, and, as it seems to me, unanswerable, speech at New York.
It is truly statesmanlike, and I regard it in that light as one that will last longer and have more effect than any delivered by any one in this country since the war began.
It will aid mightily public sentiment in England, and tend to force the Government of that country, for consistency’s sake, at least, to deal more fairly.
I have the impression that there is no speech of any American statesman, that has ever been printed, that will secure such a lasting reputation, and be so often referred to in the future, as this.
In my humble opinion you have rendered a great service to our country and to humanity.
The words of truth and wisdom which you have spoken cannot fail to command the attention and respect of the statesmen of England as well as of this country.
I hardly know what to say of this eloquent exposition, so full of righteous indignation, terrible denunciation, exhaustive research, unanswerable argument,--so abundant, so powerful, and so eloquent in the cause of humanity.
Plain speech with John Bull, and to the point frankly, is what always proves most effective with him, in my experience.
I do not think it extravagant to say that it is the ablest speech ever delivered in this country.
I think you have touched the public pulse more widely than ever before.
He denounced the conduct of the British Government in permitting the building of war steamers in British ports for the Confederates and recognizing on the part of the South any belligerent rights upon the ocean.
He disbelieved that either France or England would intervene in favor of a state that based itself upon Negro Slavery, and asserted that all intervention in the internal affairs of another nation was contrary to law and reason, unless such…
Sumner had the authority of the English Law Lords in Parliament, openly declaring that without such concession the building of a Rebel ship in England would have been under the penalties of piracy, and it is difficult to see why a…
If you are willing to descend deep down to the fathomless infamy of renouncing the Proclamation, then in the name of peace do I protest against any such surrender.
The absurd injustice of this often repeated complaint is sufficiently shown by the simple observation, that, in recognizing the belligerent rights of the South, we did exactly what the Federal Government itself did, and has continued to do…
We did, moreover, what no power could have avoided, without absolutely intending to take a direct part in the subjugation of the seceding States.
Sumner correctly appreciates the consequences of this course, as adopted by ourselves and France, in perceiving that it insured to the South the free exercise of all the power of making war from its own resources which an independent state…
Let us at all hazards prevent the extension of Slavery and the increase of the Slave Power.
Politicians like Charles Sumner
