Part 22

“To my mind, the speech will do much good; it was needed. The great mass of the people have become, or are becoming, what is now called conservative on the Slavery Question; they forget, amid their business and their many calls, the horrors, the crime, and the Barbarism of Slavery.”

C. J. Higginson, a merchant, wrote from Boston:--

“Notwithstanding all that has been said and written on Slavery, I think you have first perceived and expressed this ‘unconsciousness’ of slaveholders; and the additional fact of this unconsciousness being nearly as general at the North as South explains the necessity of proving at this late day, even to us of the North, the Barbarism of Slavery. We thought their wealth and leisure led them to be generous; nobody has ever so plainly shown their accepted necessity of meanness. We have been unconscious of their influence in lowering our standing.… I only wish to express my satisfaction at finding Massachusetts again represented by a man with a constitution, so valuable in the latitude of Washington, capable of standing the burning heat of the South and the chilliness of the North.”

Hon. J. Q. A. Griffin, the lawyer and earnest Republican, too early removed from life, wrote from Charlestown:--

“I must thank you for the great gratification I felt in the perusal of your great speech. Twice I have read the whole of it, and many times more various parts. It is small praise to say, what is here on all lips, that it evinces marvellous scholarship, and embraces a sternly logical statement of the whole question between Freedom and Slavery. Its amazing courage and justice will commend it yet more to the thinking men of this and all other countries.”

George Baty Blake, the banker, wrote from Boston:--

“Its unanswerable arguments will stand forever as monuments of manly effort in behalf of an oppressed race,--defending principles, too, which ought to be approved by every Christian man.”

A practical Republican, very active in the party, wrote from Boston:--

“I have read your splendid speech, and find that I cannot express in words or with pen my admiration of it. It is one of _your_ efforts, the results of which will undoubtedly place our great party one more pace onward, as in every case of the past you have done. In my opinion it was needed at this time; and as I have been something of a prophet in days past, perhaps my sanction may give you courage.”

A considerable number of constituents at Boston, among whom were James Redpath, Richard J. Hinton, and Loring Moody, friends of Kansas, and Abolitionists, forwarded the following address, signed by them:--

“Jointly and severally, as men and as citizens, we say, God bless you, Charles Sumner! Thank God for one man whom no Barbarism frightens, whom no pusillanimous policy deters from uttering the truth! Thank Heaven that in our modern Sodom one just man and fearless was found, who, in the face of despots, has dared to plead the cause of their victims, and to brand their tyranny with the titles it has won!

“Go on,--with God, and the slave, and all good men applauding you. Victory is inevitable, and near at hand.

“With gratitude and love and admiration, your friends, constituents, and fellow-citizens.”

Dr. Joseph Sargent, the eminent surgeon and strong Republican, wrote from Worcester, Massachusetts:--

“When I first read your speech, as I did immediately after its delivery, my blood boiled anew, as after the outrage which our country’s Barbarism inflicted on you four years ago. God has punished that crime, in the persons of its more immediate perpetrators, in his own way. Your speech is the apt and condign punishment of that portion of the community who supported them. In its learning, its truth, and its eloquence, it is worthy of you; while in its comprehensiveness, its compactness, and its completeness, it has exhausted the whole subject. If you never say a word more, your record will be right, and may God bless you!”

Hon. James H. Morton, holding a judicial situation, wrote from Springfield, Massachusetts:--

“I have long been expecting to hear from you in your regaining health, and my expectation has been fully realized in the noble, scorching, withering expression of the true sentiment of Massachusetts on this subject. Would to God that every man who entertains the sentiments contained in your speech, whether of the North or South, had the moral courage boldly to express them! We should soon see an end of that accursed thing, Slavery.”

Hon. D. W. Alvord, lawyer and warm Republican, wrote from Greenfield, Massachusetts:--

“I write to thank you for your recent speech. There is not elsewhere in the English language so powerful an argument on the Barbarism of Slavery. In my opinion it is just such a speech as you were bound to make,--just such a speech as the honor of Massachusetts required from you. It is such a speech as few men living but you could make. Hurt the Republican party, will it? If it will, then the party does not deserve success.”

Humphrey Stevens, Register of Deeds for Franklin County, Massachusetts, wrote from Greenfield:--

“I have just read your speech on the Barbarism of Slavery. God be praised that you did not compromise, and that the prayers of the good have been answered! Some Republicans may condemn, but hosts will rejoice that you regard the cause more than Republicanism.”

Rev. William S. Tyler, the learned Greek Professor, wrote from Amherst:--

“I cannot refrain from expressing to you the deep, though in some respects painful, interest with which I have read your late speech in the United States Senate.

“That your life has been spared, your health in such a measure restored, and that you were able to begin ‘where you left off,’ and finish such a faithful and complete exposition of the monstrous Barbarism--that is the word--of American Slavery, is just matter of congratulation to the country, and of thanksgiving to God. The enemies of Freedom and Humanity will of course gnash their teeth upon you, and timid friends will question the expediency of such a speech; but when the passions and prejudices of the hour have passed away, it will be remembered and honored as one of the truest, greatest, best utterances of our age.”

Hon. Henry Hubbard, the agent of Massachusetts to visit New Orleans in behalf of colored seamen imprisoned there, wrote from Pittsfield:--

“I cannot, even at the hazard of offending you, refrain from expressing the sense of honor and gratitude I feel for your sending me your immortal and all-conquering speech on the Kansas Question, showing and proving the unmitigated atrocity and monstrous deformity of Slavery, maintained in many States of this confederacy, and threatening all the rest. Boldly, manfully, faithfully you have ‘done the austere work,’ not letting, by your laches, ‘Freedom fling away any of her weapons.’ Oh, no! Freedom stood in all her majesty, and used all her weapons.”

Henry D. Thoreau, author and man of genius, wrote from Concord, Massachusetts:--

“Especially I wish to thank you for your speech on the Barbarism of Slavery, which I hope and suspect commences a new era in the history of our Congress, when questions of national importance have come to be considered from a broadly ethical, and not from a narrowly political point of view alone. It is refreshing to hear some naked truth, moral or otherwise, uttered there, which can always take care of itself, when uttered, and of course belongs to no party. (That was the whole value of Gerrit Smith’s presence there, methinks, though he did go to bed early.) Whereas this has only been employed occasionally to perfume the wheel-grease of party or national politics.”

Frank B. Sanborn, teacher and earnest man, afterwards an able journalist, wrote from Concord:--

“Whatever politicians and editors may say, or even think, you have more endeared yourself to the popular heart by your labors in the last Session than by all that you have previously done. Neither the North nor the South can soon forget the faithful picture held up before us in your speeches.”

Miles Pratt, a business man and active Republican, of Watertown, Massachusetts, wrote:--

“I am sure I express the sentiments of nine tenths of the Republicans of this town, when I say that your speech is received with joy by us all. Strange that such papers as the _Tribune_ can wish that it had been made at some other time! We don’t want victory, if at such sacrifice as the _Tribune_ proposes. Let me assure you that such sentiments as you have uttered are what keep very many men in the Republican ranks.”

E. P. Hill, of Haverhill, Massachusetts, wrote:--

“Allow me to congratulate you upon the delivery of one of the most effective speeches upon the great question of the age that have ever been given to the American people. I rejoice most heartily that the facts and sentiments it contains have found a timely utterance, and it is safe to predict for it a decided effect upon the moral sense of the whole world.”

P. L. Page wrote from Pittsfield, Massachusetts:--

“I have just read your speech, ‘The Barbarism of Slavery,’ and, notwithstanding the opinions of some politicians, am glad you have delivered it just as it is. It is terrible, but truthful. I think it will do good. While there is immense sympathy for the Republican party, as a party, there is too little sympathy for the Slave, and too little indignation against that abominable system by which he is held in bondage. The tendency of that speech is to show that it is not this or that measure merely we have to contend with, but the monster Slavery.”

Andrew L. Russell, an excellent citizen, of Pilgrim stock, and an early Abolitionist, wrote from Plymouth, Massachusetts:--

“I have just read your speech with great interest, and thank you for it. It is just the thing, manly and conclusive. I hope in all the copies of your speech Mr. Chesnut’s beautiful specimen of Southern Chivalry manners will be printed, with your rejoinder.

“We must be bold and determined now, and the victory is sure. The ravings of the Oligarchy show that they are wounded.”

Mrs. Lydia Maria Child, of beautiful genius, and equal devotion to the cause, wrote from Wayland, Massachusetts:--

“I presume you were not disappointed that so many Republican editors pronounced your speech injudicious, ill-timed, etc. I was not surprised, though I confess I did expect something better from the _New York Evening Post_. Honest utterance generally frightens or offends the wise and prudent; but it gains the popular heart, and thus renders political parties the greatest service, though it is one they least know how to appreciate. They themselves are also carried onward by such agencies, as certainly as cars follow the engine.”

* * * * *

From representative colored men similar testimony proceeded. That of Frederick Douglass has been given already. Robert Morris, the colored lawyer, wrote from Boston:--

“In behalf of the colored young men of Boston, and following the dictates of my own heart, I write to thank you for the speech you have just made in exposition of the Barbarism of Slavery.…

“In battle, when a bombshell is thrown into the camp of the enemy, if it creates consternation and surprise, rest assured it has been thrown successfully, and done good service. So your speech, every word of which is truthful, fearlessly spoken to the guilty parties in the iniquitous system of Slavery, was properly directed, and has done good service, as is fully demonstrated by the renewed attempts on the part of the Southerners to assault you again and silence your voice.”

John S. Rock, also a colored lawyer, afterwards, on motion of Mr. Sumner, admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States, wrote from Boston:--

“Your immortal speech has sent a thrill of joy to all the lovers of Freedom everywhere, and especially so to the down-trodden. We feel the value of it the more since the Republican party appears determined to treat us in the spirit of the Dred Scott decision.”

J. B. Smith, colored, of New Bedford, wrote from Boston:--

“Permit me, as a citizen of your native State, and especially as a colored man, who has faithfully devoted more than twenty years of his brief life to the elevation of his race, most sincerely and heartily to thank you for your very masterly speech in exposition of the monstrous iniquity of American Slavery. I can assure you that the gratitude of the colored people of this country towards you, who so eminently deserve it, is incalculable.”

Ebenezer D. Bassett, a colored professor, afterwards Minister at Hayti, wrote from Philadelphia:--

“The speech, which I read in the _Herald_, is, it seems to me, unequalled by anything in the oratory of modern times, and I venture to predict that future ages will place it, as a work of art, side by side with the matchless _De Corona_ of Demosthenes. It is certainly beyond all praise.”

William Still, colored, and with the natural sentiments of his race, wrote from Philadelphia:--

“In my humble opinion, you have so effectually laid the axe at the root of the tree that thousands and tens of thousands who have been indifferent or Proslavery will henceforth work for the deliverance of the bondman,--will labor to help cut the tree down. Thus I am greatly encouraged, and devoutly hope and pray for a better day for my race soon.”

Robert Purvis, an accomplished gentleman, connected by blood with the colored race, wrote from his home at Byberry, near Philadelphia:--

“Permit me, out of the fulness of my heart, to make to you my grateful acknowledgments for the most powerfully effective speech, in my humble opinion, against the ‘Barbarism of Slavery,’ ever made in this or any other country. Its _timeliness_, as well as its vital power, stirs within me the deepest emotions, which, indeed, are poorly expressed in subscribing myself as being your grateful and admiring friend and obedient servant.”

H. O. Wagoner testifies to the sentiments of the colored people of Illinois, in a letter from Chicago:--

“For the great words you have spoken, and the ever-memorable services which you have just rendered in the Senate of the United States to the cause of my enslaved and down-trodden fellow-countrymen, I return you not only my own individual heartfelt thanks, but I venture to speak in the name and in the behalf of the seven or eight thousand colored people of the State of Illinois.… Could the poor slave but know the substance of that speech, the circumstances under which it was given, in the very face of the Slave Power,--I say could the slaves be made to comprehend fully all this, it would thrill their very souls with emotions of joy unspeakable.”

* * * * *

This collection, which might be extended, is concluded with a voice from the Land of Slavery. J. R. S. Van Vleet wrote from Richmond:--

“As a citizen of the ‘Old Dominion,’ and a hater of Slavery, I hereby send to you my unqualified approbation of your manly, bold, eloquent, and truthful exposition of the great crime of our common country; and let this come to you as from the slave-pens of Richmond, in the midst of which these lines are secretly written, and within which hundreds of human hearts this moment feel the crushing weight of the ‘Barbarism’ you have so faithfully illustrated. If these poor slaves were permitted to give you thanks, their dark and gloomy prisons for once would be made vocal with praise, and their tears of sorrowing and bitterness be changed to tears of joy.

“If you knew the deep and secret interest which these people take in the great battle now waging, you would be stimulated in your efforts to hasten the day when we white men of Virginia could unite with the colored slave to celebrate our common emancipation.…

“Some of the Northern Republicans affect to think that your speech was ill-timed; but I think it was just in time, and not a moment too soon. The Southern party demand that the area of Slavery shall be extended,--that the system shall be protected by Congressional legislation backed by the whole power of the Government; is it not, therefore, right and proper that the people of the Free States should know what that system is which they are required to perpetuate and protect? You have torn off its mask and exhibited to them its hideous features, and now let them say whether they will crush it beneath their feet, or foster, caress, and protect it.”

William Rabé, Secretary of the Republican Central Committee of California, wrote from San Francisco:--

“We have republished your speech.… I have the honor to hail from Mr. Chesnut’s State, but am extremely sorry to be obliged to disagree with him, and to be obliged to indorse the reasoning of your speech, notwithstanding, or, in fact, in consequence of, my having been a planter in South Carolina for years.… It may not be for me to eulogize you and your speeches; but that you have created an enthusiasm and opened the door for free talk on the subject of Slavery no one will deny, and the effect has already been electric.”

* * * * *

From the press, and from correspondence, it is plain, that, whatever the efforts or desires of politicians, the question of Slavery had reached a crisis. Nothing touched the universal heart so strongly, and the interest extended abroad. For years the South had been growing passionate for this Barbarism, and determined on its extension. It now appeared that in the North there was a passion the other way. The Presidential election turned on Slavery, and nothing else. The precise point in issue was its limitation by preventing its spread into the Territories; but this issue, even in its moderate form, involved the whole character of Slavery, and the supremacy of the Slave Power in the National Government.

The speeches during the canvass were on this issue. Politicians were swept into the irresistible current. This appeared in the pressure upon Mr. Sumner to speak. At the close of the session of Congress, only a brief period after his exposure of the Barbarism of Slavery, on the invitation of the Young Men’s Republican Union of New York, he delivered an address at Cooper Institute, on “The Origin, Necessity, and Permanence of the Republican Party,” where he presented anew the argument against Slavery. This was followed by urgent requests to speak in other places. Hon. Hannibal Hamlin, the Republican candidate for Vice-President, wrote from Maine: “We want you much, very much.… Will you come? Don’t say, No.” Hon. William P. Fessenden, learning that he was coming, wrote: “The news has rejoiced all our hearts.” Hon. Neal Dow urged: “You may say _all_ that is in your heart, relying _fully_ upon the entire sympathy of the people.” And John A. Andrew, who was visiting there, reported: “Your name will draw like a thousand elephants.” There were other States where there was similar urgency. A private letter from Thurlow Weed, at Albany, hoping it would be in Mr. Sumner’s power to visit New York, was followed by a formal letter from the New York State Republican Central Committee, pressing him to address the electors of this State, and saying: “The Committee are very urgent in this request, and hope you will consent to speak for us as much as possible”; and this was followed by a special appeal from Simeon Draper, Chairman of the State Committee. A similar call, with the same urgency, came from Illinois,--and here the agents were Hon. Elihu B. Washburne, of the Republican Congressional Committee at Washington, and Hon. N. B. Judd, Chairman of the Illinois Republican State Committee. In pressing the invitation, the latter said: “We can promise you such welcome as Western Republicans can give to laborers in the cause of Freedom”; and then again, in another letter: “The people expect you, and know that no personal motive or interest induces you to come,--only a deep conviction of the necessity for the election of Mr. Lincoln, and the triumph of the principles of which he is the representative.” Another ardent Republican wrote from Chicago: “A glorious reception is awaiting you.”

During the canvass, Mr. Sumner spoke several times in Massachusetts, treating different heads of the Great Question, as will appear in the course of this volume; but after his address at New York, he did not speak out of his own State. The appeals from other States attest that his method was not discarded by the people. As the Rebellion began to show itself, the Barbarism of Slavery was more and more recognized.

A VICTORY OF PRINCIPLE IN THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.

LETTER TO A PUBLIC MEETING AT MIDDLEBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS, JUNE 11, 1860.

SENATE CHAMBER, June 11, 1860.

DEAR SIR,--It would give me pleasure to mingle with my fellow-citizens at Middleborough in pledges of earnest support to our candidates recently nominated at Chicago, but duties here will keep me away.

Be assured, however, of the sympathy, which I offer more freely because I find in the Platform declarations full of glorious promise. Our victory will be worth having, only as it is a victory of principle; but such a victory I expect.

Because I believe that our candidates hate the _five-headed_ Barbarism of Slavery, and will set their faces against all its irrational and unconstitutional pretensions, I am earnest for their success.

Accept my thanks for the honor of your invitation, and believe me, dear Sir,

Faithfully yours,

CHARLES SUMNER.

F. M. VAUGHAN, Esq., Secretary, &c., &c.

REFUSAL TO COLORED PERSONS OF RIGHT OF PETITION.

NOTES OF UNDELIVERED SPEECH IN THE SENATE, ON RESOLUTION REFUSING TO RECEIVE PETITION FROM CITIZENS OF MASSACHUSETTS OF AFRICAN DESCENT, JUNE 15, 1860.

June 5, 1860, Mr. Sumner presented a petition of citizens of Massachusetts, of African descent, praying the Senate to suspend the labors of the Select Committee appointed to investigate the facts of the late invasion and seizure of public property at Harper’s Ferry, and that all persons now in custody under the proceedings of such Committee be discharged, which was duly referred to the Select Committee.

* * * * *

June 15, Mr. Mason submitted a report from the Committee, accompanied by the following resolution:--

“_Resolved_, That the paper purporting to be a petition from ‘citizens of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, of African descent,’ presented to the Senate by Charles Sumner, a Senator of Massachusetts, on the 5th of June, instant, and on his motion referred to a Select Committee of the Senate, be returned by the Secretary to the Senator who presented it.”

This resolution was never called up for consideration, but it stands on the Journal of the Senate in perpetual testimony of the assumption of the Slave Power and its tyrannical hardihood. Anticipating its discussion, Mr. Sumner prepared the notes of a speech upon it, which are here preserved precisely as sketched at the time.