Charles Sumner

By such men, and under the benign influence of such sentiments, was the National Government inaugurated, and dedicated to Freedom.

It is a part of their lives which the honest historian commemorates with pride, that they were unhesitating, open, avowed Abolitionists.

Fellow-citizens, there are men in our day, who, while professing a certain disinclination to Slavery, are careful to add that they are not Abolitionists.

Such a prayer, signed by Franklin as President of an Abolition Society, not only shows the spirit of the times, but fixes forever the true policy of the Republic.

Nor do any words employed in our day denounce it with an indignation more burning than that which glowed on the lips of the fathers.

It was specifically declared, that "no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.

Thus early and distinctly do we discern the Antislavery character of the founders, and their determination to place the National Government openly, actively, and perpetually on the side of Freedom.

The soul of Virginia, at this period, found eloquent utterance through Jefferson, who, by precocious and immortal words, enrolled himself among the earliest Abolitionists of the country.

The fathers of the Republic, leaders in the War of Independence, were struck with the impious inconsistency of an appeal for their own liberties, while holding fellow-men in bondage.

But the spirit of Freedom was then abroad in the land.

In the city and in the village, in the field and in the workshop, everywhere will this question be sounded in the ears: "Are you for Freedom, or are you for Slavery?

Wherever men assemble to speak of public affairs, there again it will be.

Wherever an election occurs, there this question will arise.

The tricks of the office-seeker cannot dodge it.

The subterfuges of the politician cannot escape it.

The devices of party can no longer stave it off.

It is a cause which, though long kept in check throughout our country, as also in Europe, now confronts the people and their rulers, demanding to be heard.

I am opposed to a tariff for protection merely, and not for revenue."--Letter to John K.

In adjusting the details of a revenue tariff, I have heretofore sanctioned such moderate discriminating duties as would produce the amount of revenue needed, and at the same time afford reasonable incidental protection to our home industry.

I am in favor of a tariff for revenue, such a one as will yield a sufficient amount to the treasury to defray the expenses of the government, economically administered.

Let the amount which is requisite for an economical administration of the government, when we are not engaged in war, be raised exclusively on foreign imports; and in adjusting a tariff for that purpose, let such discriminations be made as…

Devotion to Freedom impels us; Providence itself seems to open the path for our triumphant efforts.

It is not a combination fired by partisan zeal, and kept together, as with mechanical force, by considerations of political expediency only,--but a sincere, conscientious, inflexible union for the sake of Freedom.

And the reason is, because our party, unlike the other parties, is bound together in support of fixed and well-defined principles.

Professing honestly the same sentiments, wherever we exist, in all parts of the country, East and West, North and South, we are truly a NATIONAL party.