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.
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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I may fail in ability, but not in sincere effort, to promote the general weal.
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.
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…
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.
The Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution of the United States,--the two immortal title-deeds of American liberties.
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…
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…
To this cause we are pledged as a nation by the Declaration of Independence; and my heart warmly responds to the vow.
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.
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…
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.
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.
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…
The influence we now wield is a sacred trust, to be exercised firmly and discreetly, in conformity with the Laws of Nations, and with an anxious eye to the peace of the world, but always so as most to promote Human Rights.
Their native love of Liberty and hatred of Oppression will here find opportunity for action.
The best place this day on earth for reasoned and thoughtful, yet stimulant public speech.
PRESIDENT,--Words are sometimes things; and I cannot disguise from myself that the resolution in honor of Louis Kossuth now pending before the Senate, when finally passed, will be an act of no small significance in the history of our…
Therefore it becomes us to consider well what we do, and to understand the grounds of our conduct.
I am prepared to vote for it without amendment or condition of any kind, and on reasons which seem to me at once obvious and conclusive.
The hearts of the people are already open to receive him; Congress cannot turn its back upon him.
I would join in this welcome, not merely because it is essential to complete and crown the work of the last Congress, but because our guest deserves it.
He deserves it by the precious truth he now so eloquently proclaims, of the Fraternity of Nations.
I see in him, more than in any other living man, the power which may be exerted by a single, earnest, honest soul in a noble cause.
Let us at all hazards prevent the extension of Slavery and the increase of the Slave Power.
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