Evidently the party was in process of change from that generous association dedicated to Human Rights and to the guardianship of the African race.
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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Too plainly it was becoming the instrument of one man and his personal will,--no matter how much he set at defiance the Constitution and International Law, or how much he insulted the colored people.
Believe me, Sir, I should gladly leave this matter to the judgment already recorded, if it were not put in issue again by the extraordinary efforts, radiating on every line of office, to press its author for a second term as President; and…
Let the party split,” says the President, “I will not renounce my chance of a second term.” The extent of this personal pressure and the subordination of the party to the will of an individual compel us to consider his pretensions.
No honor for victory in war can justify disobedience to the Constitution and to Law; nor can it afford the least apology for any personal immunity, privilege, or license in the Presidential office.
A President must turn into a King before it can be said of him that he can do no wrong.
As President he is foremost servant of the Law, bound to obey its slightest mandate.
As the elect of the people he owes not only the example of willing obedience, but also of fidelity and industry in the discharge of his exalted office, with an absolute abnegation of all self-seeking.
Not only are Constitution and Law disregarded, but the Presidential office itself is treated as little more than a plaything and a perquisite,--when not the former, then the latter.
It is easy to see that Cæsarism even in Europe is at a discount, that “personal government” has been beaten on that ancient field, and that “Cæsar with a Senate at his heels” is not the fit model for our Republic.
King George the Third of England, so peculiar for narrowness and obstinacy, had retainers in Parliament who went under the name of “The King’s Friends.” Nothing can be allowed here to justify the inquiry, “Have we a King George among…
It is the One-Man Power elevated above all else, and is therefore in direct conflict with republican government, whose consummate form is tripartite, being executive, legislative, and judicial,--each independent and coëqual.
A government of laws and not of men is the object of republican government; nay, more, it is the distinctive essence without which it becomes a tyranny.
Therefore personal government in all its forms, and especially when it seeks to sway the action of any other branch or overturn its constitutional negative, is hostile to the first principles of republican institutions, and an…
As if to exclude all question, he is classed by the Constitution among “civil officers.” Therefore as civilian is he to be seen.
To appreciate his peculiar character as a civilian it is important to know his triumphs as a soldier, for the one is the natural complement of the other.
One always a soldier cannot late in life become a statesman; one always a civilian cannot late in life become a soldier.
The camp is peculiar in the influence it exercises; it is in itself an education; but it is not the education of the statesman.
His study is the nation and its welfare, turning always to history for example, to law for authority, and to the loftiest truth for rules of conduct.
The pilot is not accepted in his trust until he knows the signs of the storm, the secrets of navigation, the rocks of the coast,--all of which are learned only by careful study with charts and soundings, by coasting the land and watching…
But can less be expected of that other pilot who is to steer the ship which contains us all?
It is easy to see how some very moderate experience in civil life, involving of course the lesson of subordination to republican principles, would have prevented indefensible acts.
Pardon me, if I repeat that it is my duty to make this exposure, spreading before you the proofs of that personal government, which will only pass without censure when it passes without observation.
Insisting upon reëlection, the President challenges inquiry and puts himself upon the country.
But even if his pressure for reëlection did not menace the tranquillity of the country, it is important that the personal pretensions he has set up should be exposed, that no President hereafter may venture upon such ways, and no Senator…
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