Charles Sumner

And has not the time arrived when in sincerity we should accept the olive-branch?

Their votes will be a new bond of peace, and a new assurance for the great principles declared by our fathers at our birth as a nation.

Therefore do I say, Be not deterred from voting for Horace Greeley because Democrats will also vote for him, but rather rejoice.

Not to put faith in Horace Greeley is to act not only without evidence, but against evidence so manifest and constant in unbroken continuity as to seem like a law of Nature.

A President with the ability that did all this would impart new energy to the public service, impressing it with his own faithful character, and assuring, on a larger scale, a corresponding success, so that the whole country would be…

To suppose, that, under any circumstances of pressure or temptation, he can fail in loyalty to the cause he has served so constantly, is an offence to reason and to decency.

I hardly hope to live to see that day, but hope that those who may remember me, when I am gone, will believe that I earnestly tried to hasten its coming.

Against all pretended distrust I oppose the open record of his life.

They who make the imputation forget that this old party, if it has not ceased to exist, is changed in character.

The imputation that his election will be the return to power of the old Democratic party is much like saying that he will cease to be himself, and that his surpassing individuality, making him so conspicuous, will be lost.

I dismiss the whole partisan extravagance to the contempt it deserves.

Nothing of the kind can be done without violation of the Constitution as amended,--not to speak of the departure from that rule of life which he has ever followed.

To say that under him Slavery can in any way be revived, or that the Rebel debt or the pension of Rebel soldiers or compensation for slaves can find favor, or that the equal rights of the freedmen, to which he is so solemnly pledged, can…

Had he been presented at Philadelphia with the saving sanction of a regular nomination, the same partisans who now seek to exhibit him as a tool or an imbecile would dwell with pride on his eminent qualities, making him, by the side of his…

It is difficult to hear these barefaced allegations, in utter disregard of the prodigious testimony afforded by his long career, without wonder at the extent to which prejudice and invention can be carried.

Surely the people in these communities would have been less than men, if, sinking under the intolerable burden, they did not turn for help to a new party, promising reform and honesty.

This same motive assumes another form in the desire to escape from existing misrule, which has left such traces in the disordered finances of the Southern States.

Therefore by the impulse of self-interest, now clearly manifest, are the people of the South moved to the present effort for peace.

Let any of these be in any peril, let any shadow rest upon their enjoyment, and the whole community must suffer.

There must be security in all things,--security in life, security in property, and security in rights, including Liberty and Equality, the great promises of the Declaration of Independence.

Above all, those truest allies so essential to prosperous industry, capital and immigration, will turn away from the land that is not blessed by peace.

Men will not mingle their sweat with the soil, becoming colaborers with the sun,--they will not sow and plough,--unless assured in the enjoyment of what the generous earth is ready to yield.

Violence breeds a kindred crop; nor can distrust exist without detriment to all.

There is, first, the general prostration of their region, which they would see improved; but this can be only by the establishment of peace undisturbed, so that all men, white and black, may live in security.

At once they declared their desire and offered the hand of fellowship, at the same time announcing their acceptance of those great measures by which the Equal Rights of All are assured.