In reaching across the sea as far as distant Turkey, to plead for the freedom of the fugitive Kossuth, our Republic has done well; and the Mahometan Sultan, in consenting to his liberation, at extraordinary hazards, has taught a lesson of…
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 people, for the sake of any seeming temporary expediency, can afford to sacrifice a principle of justice or a sentiment of humanity, and thus to peril the everlasting verdict of History.
Austria brands the great Hungarian as traitor; but an enlightened Public Opinion, the predestined queen of the civilized world, already re-judges the justice of the tyrant government.
His emancipation, promoted by the aspirations, the prayers, and the express intervention of our Republic, is an example to all nations,--while the brightness of his fame shows how vain it is for any earthly edict to stigmatize as crime a…
Nor can I forbear to add, that the clemency which you entreat from a powerful government towards those whom it classes as political offenders is in harmony with the Spirit of the Age and with the lessons of Christianity.
To this cause we are pledged as a nation by the Declaration of Independence; and my heart warmly responds to the vow.
But though not present with you, and not undertaking to express any opinion on the precise question of national duty, I wish it to be understood that I can never fail to unite in every earnest, manly word by which the sympathies of our…
Defenders of the Constitution, let us not forget the principles of the Declaration, but, for the equal support of both, in the spirit of our fathers, without compromise, and with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence…
The Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution of the United States,--the two immortal title-deeds of American liberties.
And since true politics are simply morals applied to public affairs, I shall find constant assistance from those everlasting rules of right and wrong which are a law alike to individuals and communities.
If I decline to recognize as my guides the leading men of to-day, I shall feel safe while I follow the master principles which the Union was established to secure, leaning for support on the great Triumvirate of American…
In the conflict of opinion, natural to the atmosphere of liberal institutions, I may err; but I trust never to forget the prudence which should temper firmness, or the modesty which becomes the consciousness of right.
I may fail in ability, but not in sincere effort, to promote the general weal.
Entering now upon the public service, I venture to bespeak for what I do or say that candid judgment which I trust always to have for others, but which I am well aware the prejudices of party too rarely concede.
Though composed of many parts united into one, the Union is separable only by a crash which shall destroy the whole.
E Pluribus Unum is stamped upon the national coin, the national territory, and the national heart.
Nor do I believe it possible, whatever the delusion of the hour, that any part can be permanently lost from its well-compacted bulk.
With me the Union is twice blessed: first, as powerful guardian of the repose and happiness of thirty-one States, clasped by the endearing name of country; and next, as model and beginning of that all-embracing Federation of States, by…
I accept it as the servant of Massachusetts, mindful of the sentiments solemnly uttered by her successive Legislatures, of the genius which inspires her history, and of the men, her perpetual pride and ornament, who breathed into her that…
Acknowledging the right of my country to the service of her sons wherever she chooses to place them, and with a heart full of gratitude that a sacred cause is permitted to triumph through me, I now accept the post of Senator.
But when I think what it requires, I am obliged to say that its honors are all eclipsed by its duties.
It concerns the grandest interests of our own Commonwealth, and also of the Union in which we are an indissoluble link.
The trust conferred on me is one of the most weighty which a citizen can receive.
I am sure that upon the floor of the Senate you will not forget to assert the rights of your State, and maintain with firmness and dignity the great principles upon which a free government should be based." Mr.
I never knew such a general feeling of real heart pleasure and satisfaction as is manifested by all except inveterate Hunkers in view of thy election.
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