Charles Sumner

The former I can freely condemn, without presuming to judge the individuals themselves.

It has taught me to make a proper distinction between the OPINIONS of men and their PERSONS.

Thank God, the great volume of the Past is always open, with its lessons of warning and example.

His character of pure and courageous principle may be little regarded yet; but as time advances, it will become a guiding luminary.

Like the monster, it must be overpowered; like the robber, it must be chained; like the wild beast, it must be exterminated.

A wicked man is a deplorable sight; but a wicked law is worse than any wicked man, even than the wretch who steals human beings from their home in Africa; nor can its outrage be redressed by any incidental charities, perishing at night as…

Even if I err in attributing to him this peculiar position, I do not err in attributing to him these duties; for his influence is surely great, and he is at least a man, bound by simple manhood to regard nothing human as foreign to his…

If the merchant be in reality our feudal lord, he must render feudal service; if he be our modern knight, he must do knightly deeds; if he be the baron of our day, let him maintain baronial charity to the humble,--ay, Sir, and baronial…

If, by the rule of increase, to him that hath is given, so in the same degree new duties are superadded: nor can any man escape from their behests.

Wealth, power, and influence are not for self-indulgence merely, and just according to their extent are the obligations to others which they impose.

Such, in our social system, is the merchant; and on this precise and incontrovertible statement I found his duties.

Of all pursuits or relations, his is now the most extensive and formidable, making all others its tributaries, and bending at times even the lawyer and the clergyman to be its dependent stipendiaries.

I would not press this parallel too far; but at this moment, especially in our country, the merchant, more than any other character, stands in the very boots of the feudal chief.

As the feudal chief allocated to himself and his followers that soil which was the prize of his strong arm, so now the merchant, with grasp more subtle and reaching, allocates to himself and his followers, ranging through multitudinous…

There are European bankers who vie in power with the dukes and princes of other days, and there are traffickers everywhere whose title comes from the ledger and not the sword, fit successors to counts, barons, and knights.

And trade summons from the quarry choicest marble and granite to build its capacious homes, and now, in our own city, displays warehouses which outdo the baronial castle, and sales-rooms which outdo the ducal palace.

In our country every man is trader: the physician trades his benevolent care; the lawyer trades his ingenious tongue; the clergyman trades his prayers.

If they go abroad, or if they stay at home, it is trade that controls them, without distinction of persons.

Not for protection against violence, but for trade, do men come together in cities, and rear the marvellous superstructure of social order.

Not for adventures of the sword, but for trade, do men descend upon the sea in ships, and traverse broad continents on iron pathways.

War, which was once the universal business, is now confined to a few; once a daily terror, it is now the accident of an age.

Yes, Sir! say what you will, this is the day of the merchant.

Here I see the triumph of personal merit, but still more the consummation of a new epoch.

It was fit, that, in promulgating the Declaration of Independence, by which, in the face of kings, princes, and nobles, the New Era was inaugurated, the education of the counting-house should flaunt conspicuously in the broad and clerkly…

It was fit that the Congress which performed this memorable act should have for its President a merchant.