The blood of martyrs and of patriots, crying from the ground, summons them to judgment.
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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Alas! alas! the worst crimes of history have been perpetrated under their sanction.
If the Court itself be not constrained by its own precedents, how can coördinate branches, under oath to support the Constitution, and, like the Court itself, called incidentally to interpret the Constitution, be constrained by them?
The power of our Supreme Court is great, and its sphere is vast; but there are limits to its power and its sphere.
Surely not by that of the President: this is not alleged: but by the understanding of the Supreme Court.
But let me ask gentlemen disposed to abandon their own understanding of the Constitution, and to submit their conscience to the standard of other men, By whose understanding do they swear?
Beyond these, it has the unquestionable authority of Thomas Jefferson, by whom it was asserted again and again as a rule of conduct.
In adopting this rule, first authoritatively enunciated by Andrew Jackson, when, as President of the United States, in the face of the Supreme Court, he asserted the unconstitutionality of the Bank, I desire to be understood as not acting…
Now, without stopping to consider the soundness of the judgment affirming the constitutionality of this Act, let me say that the Constitution, as I understand it, exacts no such passive obedience.
Yes, Sir, that is the assumption, which you will perceive is applied to the humblest citizen who holds no office and has taken no oath to support the Constitution, as well as to the public servant who is under the special obligations of an…
It is sometimes gravely urged, that, since the Supreme Court of the United States has affirmed the constitutionality of the Fugitive Act, there only remains to us, in all places, whether in public station or in private life, the duty of…
Let magistrates and officers, called to enforce a cruel injustice, take notice.
When, under the heartless Charles the Second of England, the Act of Uniformity went into operation, upwards of two thousand pulpits were vacated by the voluntary withdrawal of men who thought it better to face starvation than treachery to…
Besides more rigorous legislation, Public Opinion must be invoked to step forward and throw over the fugitive its protecting ægis.
Massachusetts will do well in following Vermont, which by special law places the fugitive slave under the safeguard of Trial by Jury and the writ of Habeas Corpus.
I might go further, and say that by no other organization can we reasonably hope to obtain such men, unless in rare and exceptional cases.
Through this organization we shall secure the election of men who, unseduced and unterrified, will at Washington uphold the principles of Freedom,--and also here at home, in our own community, by example, influence, and vote, will help…
Here in Massachusetts a large majority concur in sentiment on Slavery,--a large majority desire the overthrow of the Slave Power.
Recent events on her own soil have taught the necessity of new safeguards to these great principles,--to the end that Massachusetts may not be the vassal of South Carolina and Virginia, that the Slave-Hunter may not range at will among us…
At the head of her Declaration of Rights she solemnly asserted that all men are born free and equal, and in the same Declaration surrounded the liberties of all within her borders by the inestimable rights of Trial by Jury and Habeas…
The Fugitive Slave Bill, monstrous in cruelty, as in unconstitutionality, is a usurpation, which must be opposed.
The existence of Slavery anywhere within the national jurisdiction, in the Territories, in the District of Columbia, or on the high seas beneath the national flag, is an unconstitutional usurpation, which must be opposed.
The Committees of Congress, where Slavery now rules,--Congress itself, and the Cabinet also,--would all be organized for Freedom.
Its powers, its treasury, its patronage, would all be turned, in harmony with the Constitution, to promote Freedom.
Not only would Freedom become national and Slavery sectional, as was intended by our fathers, but the National Government would become the mighty instrument and herald of Freedom, as it is now the mighty instrument and herald of Slavery.
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