Now, if it be a violation of our Neutrality Act for one of those bodies to come in and fit out vessels in the United States, is it not equally so for the other?--or is our pretence of neutrality a falsehood, a cheat, and a delusion?
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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Its continued existence is a shame, and it should cease.
I do know enough, however, to satisfy me that Spain is a laggard on this question; and if my voice could reach her now, it would plead with her to be quick, to make haste to abolish slavery, not only in Cuba, but in Porto Rico.
I ask the Senator if Spain has not recently affirmed the existence of slavery in Cuba and Porto Rico, especially in Porto Rico, by publishing a new constitution guarantying the existence of slavery?
But while I require the surrender of slavery from the insurrectionists, I make the same requirement of Spain.
What assurance have we that slavery will be terminated by these insurgents?
The Senator confesses we are in the dark, and on this account I consider the debate premature.
They are expected day by day, and they are explicit, unless I have been misinformed, on this single point,--that, whatever may be the inspiration of that insurrection, it has not yet reached that condition of maturity, that corporate…
The Cuban insurgents, whatever the inspiration of their action, have not reached the condition of belligerents.
The important words “any colony, district, or people” were introduced to cover the precise case of the revolted Spanish colonies and their precise condition at that moment, there being no question of belligerence.
Their independence was recognized more tardily, after ample discussion in these two Chambers as late as 1820; but their belligerence was a fact perfectly established and recognized by every branch of the Government.
Our Government, our courts, every department of the Government, recognized the belligerence of those Spanish colonies.
It was to meet the case of the revolted Spanish colonies already for eight years in arms against the parent Government, having ships in every sea, largely possessing the territories on the Spanish main, and with independence nearly…
The Senator we mourn was human; but the error and frailty which belonged to him often took their color from virtue itself.
If this were not so, earth would be heaven; for what could add to the happiness of life free from error and frailty?
More penetrating than grasping, he easily pierced the argument of his opponent, and, once engaged, he yielded to the excitement of the moment and the joy of conflict.
Men are tempted by the talent which they possess; and he could not resist the impulse to employ, sometimes out of place, those extraordinary powers which he commanded so easily.
All that our best generals were in arms he was in the financial field.
Of perfect integrity and austerest virtue, he was inaccessible to those temptations which in various forms beset the avenues of public life.
A seat here is a lofty pulpit with a mighty sounding-board, and the whole wide-spread people is the congregation.
Since then the transformation has proceeded, speech becoming constantly more important, until now, without neglect of business, the Senate has become a centre from which to address the country.
But while this great talent secured for him always the first honors of debate, it was less important with the country, which, except in rare instances, is more impressed by ideas and by those forms in which truth is manifest.
His words were swift, and sharp as a cimeter,--or, borrowing an illustration from an opposite quarter, he “shot flying” and with unerring aim.
Nobody could match him in immediate and incisive reply.
His speech, which was argumentative, direct, and pungent, exerted more influence on those who heard it than on those who only read it, vindicating his place as debater rather than orator.
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