Part 1

Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustration. See 45637-h.htm or 45637-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45637/pg45637-images.html) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45637/45637-h.zip)

Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/completeworks03sumnuoft

Illustration: ROBERT C. WINTHROP

Statesman Edition VOL. III

CHARLES SUMNER

HIS COMPLETE WORKS

With Introduction by Hon. George Frisbie Hoar

Boston Lee and Shepard MCM

Copyright, 1900, By Lee and Shepard.

Statesman Edition. Limited to One Thousand Copies. of Which This Is No. 565

Norwood Press: Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.

CONTENTS OF VOLUME III.

PAGE

BE TRUE TO THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. Letter to a Public Meeting in Ohio, on the Anniversary of the Ordinance of Freedom, July 6, 1849 1

WHERE LIBERTY IS, THERE IS MY PARTY. Speech on calling the Free-Soil State Convention to Order, at Worcester, September 12, 1849 4

THE FREE-SOIL PARTY EXPLAINED AND VINDICATED. Address to the People of Massachusetts, reported to and adopted by the Free-Soil State Convention at Worcester, September 12, 1849 6

WASHINGTON AN ABOLITIONIST. Letter to the Boston Daily Atlas, September 27, 1849 46

EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW: UNCONSTITUTIONALITY OF SEPARATE COLORED SCHOOLS IN MASSACHUSETTS. Argument before the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, in the Case of Sarah C. Roberts _v._ The City of Boston, December 4, 1849 51

CHARACTER AND HISTORY OF THE LAW SCHOOL OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY. Report of the Committee of Overseers, February 7, 1850 101

STIPULATED ARBITRATION, OR A CONGRESS OF NATIONS, WITH DISARMAMENT. Address to the People of the United States, February 22, 1850 117

OUR IMMEDIATE ANTISLAVERY DUTIES. Speech at a Free-Soil Meeting at Faneuil Hall, November 6, 1850 122

ACCEPTANCE OF THE OFFICE OF SENATOR OF THE UNITED STATES. Letter to the Legislature of Massachusetts, May 14, 1851 149

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE AND THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OUR TWO TITLE-DEEDS. Letter to the Mayor of Boston, for July 4, 1851 165

POSITION OF THE AMERICAN LAWYER. Letter to the Secretary of the Story Association, July 15, 1851 166

SYMPATHY WITH THE RIGHTS OF MAN EVERYWHERE. Letter to a meeting at Faneuil Hall, October 27, 1851 168

WELCOME TO KOSSUTH. Speech in the Senate, December 10, 1851 171

OUR COUNTRY ON THE SIDE OF FREEDOM, WITHOUT BELLIGERENT INTERVENTION. Letter to a Philadelphia Committee, December 23, 1851 180

CLEMENCY TO POLITICAL OFFENDERS. Letter to an Irish Festival at Washington, January 22, 1852 181

JUSTICE TO THE LAND STATES, AND POLICY OF ROADS. Speeches in the Senate, on the Iowa Railroad Bill, January 27, February 17, and March 16, 1852 182

J. FENIMORE COOPER, THE NOVELIST. Letter to the Rev. Rufus W. Griswold, February 22, 1852 213

CHEAP OCEAN POSTAGE. Speech in the Senate, on a Resolution in Relation to Cheap Ocean Postage, March 8, 1852 215

PARDONING POWER OF THE PRESIDENT. Opinion submitted to the President, May 14, 1852, on the Application for the Pardon of Drayton and Sayres, incarcerated at Washington for helping the Escape of Slaves 219

PRESENTATION OF A MEMORIAL AGAINST THE FUGITIVE SLAVE BILL. Remarks in the Senate, May 26, 1852 234

THE NATIONAL FLAG THE EMBLEM OF UNION FOR FREEDOM. Letter to the Boston Committee for the Celebration of the 4th of July, 1852 238

UNION AGAINST THE SECTIONALISM OF SLAVERY. Letter to a Free-Soil Convention at Worcester, July 6, 1852 240

"STRIKE, BUT HEAR:" ATTEMPT TO DISCUSS THE FUGITIVE SLAVE BILL. Remarks in the Senate, on taking up the Resolution instructing the Committee on the Judiciary to report a Bill for Immediate Repeal of the Fugitive Slave Act, July 27 and 28, 1852 243

TRIBUTE TO ROBERT RANTOUL, JR. Speech in the Senate, on the Death of Hon. Robert Rantoul, Jr., August 9, 1852 246

AUTHORSHIP OF THE ORDINANCE OF FREEDOM IN THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY. Letter to Hon. Edward Coles, August 23, 1852 253

FREEDOM NATIONAL, SLAVERY SECTIONAL. Speech in the Senate, on a Motion to repeal the Fugitive Slave Act, August 26, 1852 257

BE TRUE TO THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

LETTER TO A PUBLIC MEETING IN OHIO, ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE ORDINANCE OF FREEDOM, JULY 6, 1849.

Be True to the Declaration of Independence.

LETTER TO A PUBLIC MEETING IN OHIO, ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE ORDINANCE OF FREEDOM, JULY 6, 1849.

BOSTON, July 6, 1849.

Gentlemen,--I wish I could join the freemen of the Reserve in celebrating the anniversary of the great Ordinance of Freedom; but engagements detain me at home.

The occasion, the place of meeting, the assembly, will all speak with animating voices. May God speed the work!

Let us all strive, with united power, to extend the beneficent Ordinance over the territories of our country. So doing, we must take from its original authors something of their devotion to its great conservative truth.

The National Government has been for a long time controlled by Slavery. It must be emancipated immediately. Ours be the duty, worthy of freemen, to place the Government under the auspices of Freedom, that it may be true to the Declaration of Independence and to the spirit of the Fathers!

In this work, welcome to honest, earnest men, of _all parties_ and _all places_! Welcome to the efforts of Benton in Missouri, and of Clay in Kentucky! Above all, welcome to the united regenerated Democracy of the North, which spurns the mockery of a Republic, with professions of Freedom on the lips, while the chains of Slavery clank in the Capitol!

Faithfully yours, CHARLES SUMNER.

Messrs. JOHN C. VAUGHAN, } _Committee._ THOMAS BROWN, }

WHERE LIBERTY IS, THERE IS MY PARTY.

SPEECH ON CALLING THE FREE-SOIL STATE CONVENTION TO ORDER, AT WORCESTER, SEPTEMBER 12, 1849.

The Annual State Convention of the Free-Soil Party, called at the time the Free Democracy, met at Worcester, September 12, 1849. It became the duty of Mr. Sumner, as Chairman of the State Central Committee, to call the Convention to order. In doing this he made the following remarks.

FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE CONVENTION:--

In behalf of the State Central Committee of the Free Democracy of Massachusetts, it is my duty to call this body to order.

I do not know that it is my privilege, at this stage of your proceedings, to add one other word to the words of form I have already pronounced; but I cannot look at this large and generous assembly without uttering from my heart one salutation of welcome and encouragement. From widely scattered homes you have come to bear testimony once more in that great cause containing country with all its truest welfare and honor, and also the highest aspirations of our souls. Others may prefer the old combinations of party, stitched together by devices of expediency only. You have chosen the better part, in coming to this alliance of principle.

In the labors before you there will be, I doubt not, that concord which becomes earnest men, devoted to a good work. We all have but one object in view,--the success of our cause. Turning neither to the right nor to the left, moving ever onward, we adopt into our ranks all who adopt our principles. These we offer freely to all who will come and take them. These we can communicate to others without losing them ourselves. These are gifts which, without parting with, we can yet bestow, as from the burning candle other candles may be lighted without diminishing the original flame.

It was the sentiment of Benjamin Franklin, that apostle of Freedom, uttered during the trials of the Revolution, "Where Liberty is, there is my country." I doubt not that each of you will be ready to respond, in similar strain, "Where Liberty is, there is my party."

It now remains, Gentlemen of the Convention, that I should call upon you to proceed with the business of the day.

THE FREE-SOIL PARTY EXPLAINED AND VINDICATED.

ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF MASSACHUSETTS, REPORTED TO AND ADOPTED BY THE FREE-SOIL STATE CONVENTION AT WORCESTER, SEPTEMBER 12, 1849.

The State Convention of the Free-Soil party at Worcester, 12th September, was organized with the following officers: Hon. William Jackson, of Newton, President; Bradford Sumner, of Boston, Daniel E. Potter, of Salem, C.L. Knapp, of Lowell, J.T. Buckingham, of Cambridge, John Milton Earle, of Worcester, D.S. Jones, of Greenfield, Edward F. Ensign, of Sheffield, Benjamin V. French, of Braintree, Gershom B. Weston, of Duxbury, and Job Coleman, of Nantucket, Vice-Presidents; William F. Channing, of Boston, Samuel Fowler, of Westfield, Noah Kimball, of Grafton, A.A. Leach, of Taunton, Secretaries.

On motion of Mr. Sumner, a committee of one from each county was appointed to report an Address and Resolutions, consisting of Charles Sumner, of Boston, John A. Bolles, of Woburn, J.G. Whittier, of Amesbury, John M. Earle, of Worcester, Melvin Copeland, of Chester, Erastus Hopkins, of Northampton, D.W. Alvord, of Greenfield, F.M. Lowrey, of Lee, F.W. Bird, of Walpole, Jesse Perkins, of Bridgewater, Joseph Brownell, of New Bedford, Nathaniel Hinckley, of Barnstable, and E. W. Gardner, of Nantucket.

In the course of the proceedings, speeches were made by Anson Burlingame, Esq., Hon. Charles F. Adams, Hon. Charles Allen, Hon. Edward L. Keyes, and James A. Briggs, Esq., of Ohio. From the committee of which he was chairman Mr. Sumner reported an Address to the People of Massachusetts, explaining and vindicating the Free-Soil movement, with a series of Resolutions, all of which were unanimously adopted by the Convention. Of this Address, which became the authorized declaration of the party, the _Daily Republican_ remarked: "The Address, prepared by that gifted scholar and writer, Charles Sumner, is an elaborate, complete, and unanswerable vindication of the principles embodied in the Resolutions. Clear, logical, and triumphant in argument, it glows with the warm and genial spirit of love for humanity which distinguishes all the productions of its author."

Among the Resolutions was the following, which seems the prelude to the debates of twenty years later.

"_Resolved_, That we adopt, as the only safe and stable basis of our State, as well as our National policy, the great principles of Equal Rights for All, guarantied and secured by Equal Laws."

TO THE PEOPLE OF MASSACHUSETTS.

Fellow-citizens,--Another year has gone round, and you are once more called to bear testimony at the polls to those truths which you deem vital in the government of the country. By votes you are to declare not merely predilections for men, but devotion to principles. Men are erring and mortal; principles are steadfast and immortal.

If the occasion is calculated less than a Presidential contest to arouse ardors of opposition, it is also less calculated to stimulate animosities. With less passion, the people are more under the influence of reason. Truth may be heard over the prejudices of party. Candor, kindly feeling, and conscientious thought may take the place of embittered, unreasoning antagonism, or of timid, unprincipled compliance. If the controversy is without heat, there may be no viper to come forth and fasten upon the hand.

Though of less apparent consequence in immediate results, the election now approaching is nevertheless of great importance. We do not choose a President of the United States, or Members of Congress, but a Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, and other State officers. Still, the same question which entered into the election of National officers arises now. The Great Issue which has already convulsed the whole country presents itself anew in a local sphere. Omnipresent wherever any political election occurs, it will never cease to challenge attention, until at least two things are accomplished: _first_, the divorce of the National Government from all support or sanction of Slavery,--and, _secondly_, the conversion of this Government, within its constitutional limits, to the cause of Freedom, so that it shall become Freedom's open, active, and perpetual ally.

Impressed by the magnitude of these interests, devoted to the triumph of the righteous cause, solicitous for the national welfare, animated by the example of the fathers, and desirous of breathing their spirit into our Government, the Free Democracy of Massachusetts, in Convention assembled at Worcester, now address their fellow-citizens throughout the Commonwealth. Imperfectly, according to the necessity of the occasion, earnestly, according to the fulness of their convictions, hopefully, according to the confidence of their aspirations, they proceed to unfold the reasons of their appeal. They now ask your attention. They trust to secure your votes.

* * * * *

_Our Party a permanent National Party._--We make our appeal as a _National_ party, established to promote principles of paramount importance to the country. In assuming our place as a distinct party, we simply give form and direction, in harmony with the usage and the genius of popular governments, to a movement which stirs the whole country, and does not find an adequate and constant organ in either of the other existing parties. In France, under the royalty of Louis Philippe, the faithful friends of the yet unborn Republic formed a band together, and by publications, speeches, and votes sought to influence the public mind. Few at first in numbers, they became strong by united political action. In England, the most brilliant popular triumph in her history, the repeal of the monopoly of the Corn Laws, was finally carried by means of a newly formed, but wide-spread, political organization, which combined men of all the old parties, Whigs, Tories, and Radicals, and recognized opposition to the Corn Laws as a special test. In the spirit of these examples, the friends of Freedom have come together, in well-compacted ranks, to uphold their cherished principles, and by combined efforts, according to the course of parties, to urge them upon the Government, and upon the country.

All the old organizations contribute to our number, and good citizens come to us who have not heretofore mingled in the contests of party. Here are men from the ancient Democracy, believing that any democracy must be a name only, no better than sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal, which does not recognize on every occasion the supremacy of Human Rights, and is not ready to do and to suffer in their behalf. Here also are men who have come out of the Whig party, weary of its many professions and its little performance, and especially revolting at its recent sinister course with regard to Freedom, believing that in any devotion to Human Rights they cannot err. Here also, in solid legion, is the well-tried band of the Liberty Party, to whom belongs the praise of first placing Freedom under the guardianship of a special political organization, whose exclusive test was opposition to Slavery.

Associating and harmonizing from opposite quarters to promote a common cause, we learn to forget former differences, and to appreciate the motives of each other,--also how trivial are the matters on which we disagree, compared with the Great Issue on which we all agree. Old prejudices vanish. Even the rancors of political antagonism are changed and dissolved, as in a potent alembic, while the natural irresistible affinities of Freedom prevail. In our union we cease to wear the badge of either of the old organizations. We have become a party distinct, independent, permanent, under the name of the Free Democracy, thus in our very designation expressing devotion to Human Rights, and especially to Human Freedom.

Professing honestly the same sentiments, wherever we exist, in all parts of the country, East and West, North and South, we are truly a NATIONAL party. We are not compelled to assume one face at the South and another at the North,--to blow hot in one place, and blow cold in another,--to speak loudly of Freedom in one region, and vindicate Slavery in another--in short, to present a combination where the two extreme wings profess opinions, on the Great Issue before the country, diametrically opposed to each other. We are the same everywhere. And the reason is, because our party, unlike the other parties, is bound together in support of fixed and well-defined principles. It is not a combination fired by partisan zeal, and kept together, as with mechanical force, by considerations of political expediency only,--but a sincere, conscientious, inflexible union for the sake of Freedom.

* * * * *

_Old Issues obsolete._--Taking position as an independent party, we are cheered not only by the grandeur of our cause, but by favorable omens in the existing condition of parties. Devotion to Freedom impels us; Providence itself seems to open the path for our triumphant efforts. Old questions which have divided the minds of men have lost their importance. One by one they have disappeared from the political field, leaving it free to a question more transcendent far. The Bank, the Sub-Treasury, the Public Lands, are all obsolete issues. Even the Tariff is not a question where opposite political parties take opposite sides. The opinions of Mr. Clay and Mr. Polk, as expressed in 1844, when they were rival candidates for the Presidency, are so nearly identical, that it is difficult to distinguish between them.

CLAY.

"Let the amount which is requisite for an economical administration of the government, when we are not engaged in war, be raised exclusively on foreign imports; and in adjusting a tariff for that purpose, let such discriminations be made as will foster and encourage our own domestic industry. All parties ought to be satisfied with a tariff for revenue and discriminations for protection."--_Speech at Raleigh, April 13, in the National Intelligencer of June 29, 1844._

POLK.

"I am in favor of a tariff for revenue, such a one as will yield a sufficient amount to the treasury to defray the expenses of the government, economically administered. In adjusting the details of a revenue tariff, I have heretofore sanctioned such moderate discriminating duties as would produce the amount of revenue needed, and at the same time afford reasonable incidental protection to our home industry. I am opposed to a tariff for protection merely, and not for revenue."--_Letter to John K. Kane, June 19, 1844._

Friends and enemies of the Tariff are to be found, more or less, in both the old organizations. From opposite quarters we are admonished that it is not a proper question for the strife of party. Mr. Webster, from the Whigs, and Mr. Robert J. Walker, from the Democrats, both plead for its withdrawal from the list of political issues, that the industry of the country may not be entangled in constantly recurring contests. And why have they thus far pleaded in vain? It is feared no better reason can be given than that certain political leaders wish to use the Tariff as a battle-horse by which to rally their followers in desperate warfare for office. The debt entailed by the Mexican War comes to aid the admonitions of wisdom, and to disappoint the plots of partisans, by imposing upon the country the necessity for such large taxation as to make the protection thus incidentally afforded satisfactory to judicious minds.

* * * * *

_The Great Issue._--And now, instead of these superseded questions, connected for the most part only with the material interests of the country, and, though not unimportant in their time, all having the odor of the dollar, you are called to consider a cause connected with all that is divine in Religion, pure in Morals, and truly practical in Politics. Unlike the other questions, it is not temporary or local in character. It belongs to all times and to all countries. It is part of the great movement under whose strong pulsations all Christendom now shakes from side to side. It is a cause which, though long kept in check throughout our country, as also in Europe, now confronts the people and their rulers, demanding to be heard. It can no longer be avoided or silenced. To every man in the land it now says, with clear, penetrating voice, "Are you for Freedom, or are you for Slavery?" And every man in the land must answer this question, when he votes.

The devices of party can no longer stave it off. The subterfuges of the politician cannot escape it. The tricks of the office-seeker cannot dodge it. Wherever an election occurs, there this question will arise. Wherever men assemble to speak of public affairs, there again it will be. In the city and in the village, in the field and in the workshop, everywhere will this question be sounded in the ears: "Are you for Freedom, or are you for Slavery?"

* * * * *

_The AntiSlavery Sentiments of the Founders of the Republic._--A plain recital of facts will show the urgency of this question. At the period of the Declaration of Independence there were upwards of half a million colored persons held as slaves in the United States. These unhappy people were originally stolen from Africa, or were the children of those stolen, and, though distributed through the whole country, were to be found mostly in the Southern States. But the spirit of Freedom was then abroad in the land. The fathers of the Republic, leaders in the War of Independence, were struck with the impious inconsistency of an appeal for their own liberties, while holding fellow-men in bondage. Out of ample illustrations, I select one which specially reveals this conviction, and possesses a local interest in this community. It is a deed of manumission, made after our struggles had begun, and preserved in the Probate Records of the County of Suffolk.[1] Here it is.

"Know all men by these presents, that I, JONATHAN JACKSON, of Newburyport, in the County of Essex, gentleman, _in consideration of the impropriety I feel, and have long felt, in holding any person in constant bondage, more especially at a time when my country is so warmly contending for the liberty every man ought to enjoy_, and having sometime since promised my negro man, POMP, that I would give him his freedom, and in further consideration of five shillings paid me by said POMP, I do hereby liberate, manumit, and set him free; and I do hereby remise and release unto said POMP all demands of whatever nature I have against POMP. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this 19th of June, 1776.

"JONATHAN JACKSON. [Seal.]