Charles Sumner

If it can be done in the one, it can be done in the other.

As Congress made a Civil Rights Law, so should it have made a Political Rights Law.

There it is, as it came from our fathers, in lofty, self-evident truth; and Congress should have applied it.

It was for Congress to fix the definition of a republican government; nor need it go further than our own Declaration of Independence, where is a definition from which there is no appeal.

To that security one thing is needed,--simply this: All men must be safe in their rights, so that affairs, whether of government or business, shall have a free and natural course.

It was upon security that I then insisted,--believing, that, though the war of armies was ended, this was a just object of national care, all contained in the famous time-honored postulate of war, Security for the Future, without which…

How easy to see that these men should have been admonished frankly and kindly to return home, there to plant, plough, sow, reap, buy, sell, and be prosperous, but not to expect any place in the copartnership of government until there was…

Then was the time for a few decisive words in the name of the Republic, on which for four years they had waged bloody war.

If it did not spring forth once more fully armed, it did spring forth filled with hate and diabolism towards all who loved the Union, whether white or black.

But the defection of Andrew Johnson had then begun, and out of that defection the Rebellion assumed new life, with new purposes and new hopes.

Therefore I begin by asking you to think of our country, our whole country,--in other words, of National Affairs at Home and Abroad.

Massachusetts cannot afford to occupy an uncertain position.

But Boston was at that time Massachusetts, and it was her stand for Liberty that made her name the synonym for all.

I merely wish to allude to the notorious fact that for half a century before the Rebellion the proportion of persons in civil office in the Departments in Washington from the Southern States was very nearly, if not quite, two to one to…

Perhaps I am mistaken, but I see no reason why there should be three Ohio generals in command before Vicksburg, and not three Ohio citizens in eminent civil service.

But first and foremost above all is the public service: that must be maintained; it must not be sacrificed; and how can it be maintained, unless you advance to prominent posts in this service those who are the most meritorious, and who can…

Such a generous expression would be the beginning of a just settlement, and the best assurance of that harmony between two great and kindred nations which all must desire.

And yet down to this day there is no acknowledgment of this wrong,--not a single word.

Like every departure from the rule of justice and good neighborhood, her conduct was pernicious in proportion to the scale of operations, affecting individuals, corporations, communities, and the nation itself.

Strange that the land of Wilberforce, after spending millions for Emancipation, after proclaiming everywhere the truths of Liberty, and ascending to glorious primacy in the sublime movement for the Universal Abolition of Slavery, could do…

At a great epoch of history, not less momentous than that of the French Revolution or that of the Reformation, when Civilization was fighting a last battle with Slavery, England gave her name, her influence, her material resources to the…

England has done to the United States an injury most difficult to measure.

The truth must be told,--not in anger, but in sadness.

Meanwhile good men must unite to make it impossible.

It is not difficult to imagine one of our countrymen saying, with Shakespeare’s Jew, “The villany you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction”; nor is it difficult to imagine an Englishman firm in…