Let this be spoken in his honor; let it be written on his monument.
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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On the abolition of Slavery we were solemnly warned that riot, confusion, and chaos would ensue.
Confront the Mayflower and the Pilgrims with the potentates who occupied such space in the world.
If I erred at all, it was because I trusted the Senate.
The first declaration of human rights, VI. 363; VII. 50.
Degraded by limitations on equal rights, XIX. 223.
Opening of offices to colored persons in, XV. 234.
The third great epoch in American history, VII. 312.
Disunion no remedy for grievances of, VII. 33.
Sovereignty of, belongs to the people, XVI. 28.
The conqueror that survives Must reap the harvest of his bloody labor.
The enlightened morality of our age will yet confess that it is equally wrong to commemorate by thanksgiving or holiday any bloody success, even in a just contest, over our brother man.
Resolved, That a war of aggression, conquest, and robbery is a national crime of unquestionable atrocity, which good citizens should strive by unceasing exertion to prevent and arrest.
Resolved, That such a war becomes doubly hateful, when the lust of conquest is inflamed and stimulated by the passion to extend Slavery and to strengthen the Slave Power.
Slavery, already expelled from distant despotic states, seeks shelter here by the altars of Freedom.
On the original suggestion of Jefferson, subsequently sustained and modified by others, a clause was introduced into the fundamental law of the Northwest Territory by which Slavery has been forever excluded from that extensive region.
This act of wisdom and justice is a source of prosperity and pride to the millions living beneath its influence.
And shall we be less true to Freedom than the authors of that instrument?
A proposal is made that the Missouri Compromise shall be applied to any territory acquired from Mexico,--in other words, that all south of the parallel of 36° 30' shall be devoted to Slavery.
Are you aware, Sir, that this line, so unhappily notorious in our history, is almost precisely the parallel of Algiers, once the chief seat of White Slavery?
It is the proper parallel to mark a boundary so disgraceful.
Compromise with Slavery is treason to Freedom and to Humanity.
With every new extension of Slavery, fresh strength is imparted to that political influence, monstrous offspring of Slavery, known as the Slave Power.
This influence, beyond any other under our government, has deranged our institutions.
Let us at all hazards prevent the extension of Slavery and the increase of the Slave Power.
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