Of course, Sir, it is not true, as is complained by the Senator from South Carolina, with that proclivity to error which marks all his utterances, that men have been sent by the Company “with one uniform gun, Sharp’s rifle”; for it has…
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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These allegations are of small importance, and I mention them only because they show the character of the report, and also something of the quicksand on which the Senator from Illinois chooses to plant himself.
At any other moment an association for these purposes would take its place, by general consent, among philanthropic experiments; but Crime is always suspicious, and shakes, like a sick man, merely at the pointing of a finger.
In quest of better homes, annually it presses to the unsettled lands, in numbers counted by tens of thousands; but this has been done heretofore with little knowledge, and without guide or counsel.
For a long time, emigration to the West, from the Northern and Middle States, but particularly from New England, has been of marked significance.
It was under the auspices of Emigrant Aid Companies that our country was originally settled by the Pilgrim Fathers of Plymouth, by the Adventurers of Virginia, and by the philanthropic Oglethorpe, whose “benevolent soul,” commemorated by…
To complain that this prevailing principle has been applied to living emigration is to complain of Providence and the irresistible tendencies implanted in man.
Especially at this moment, there is no interest, public or private, high or low, of charity or trade, of luxury or convenience, which does not seek its aid.
They who seek to do the mission of the Saviour are scourged and crucified, while the murderer, Barabbas, with the sympathy of the chief priests, goes at large.
Nay, more,--the innocent are sacrificed, and the guilty set at liberty.
Falsehood, always infamous, in this case arouses unwonted scorn.
Defying truth and mocking decency, this Apology excels all others in futility and audacity, while, from its utter hollowness, it proves the utter impotence of the conspirators to defend their Crime.
It only remains, under this head, that I should speak of the Apology infamous,--founded on false testimony against the Emigrant Aid Company, and assumptions of duty more false than the testimony.
The whole tale, with the mode of obtaining the copy of the Constitution, is at once cock-and-bull story and mare’s nest,--trivial as the former, absurd as the latter,--and to be dismissed, with the Apology founded upon it, to the derision…
Secret societies, with extravagant oaths, are justly offensive; but who can find in this mistaken machinery any excuse for the denial of all rights to the people of Kansas?
Grant that the Legion was constituted, can you extract from it any Apology for the original Crime, or for its present ratification?
Kansas is to be made a Free State by an honorable movement which will not conflict with the laws and the Constitution.
I will never knowingly propose a person for membership in this order who is not in favor of making Kansas a Free State, and whom I feel satisfied will exert his entire influence to bring about this result.
The oaths and grandiose titles of the pretended Legion are all set forth, and this poor mummery of a secret society, which existed only on paper, is gravely introduced on this floor, in order to extenuate the Crime against Kansas.
To assert ignorance of this obstruction--premeditated, long-continued, and stretching through months--attributes to him not merely imbecility, but idiocy.
It is his high duty, under his oath of office, to see that they are executed, and, if need be, by the National forces.
True it is, that, when the laws of a State are obstructed, he can interfere only on the application of the Legislature of such State, or of the Executive, when the Legislature cannot be convened; but when the National laws are obstructed…
In no case, where the laws of the United States are opposed, or their execution obstructed, is the President constrained to wait for the requisition of a Governor, or even the petition of a citizen.
Where there is a will, there is a way; and in his case, had the will existed, there would have been a way, easy and triumphant, to guard against the Crime we deplore.
No, Sir, the imbecility of the Chief Magistrate shall not be charged upon American Institutions.
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