Part 20

“When I obtained Wilson’s bill, which prohibited the denial by the States of _civil_ rights to persons on account of color or race, I wrote him to inquire why he had not said also _political_. The authority is certainly as clear for the latter as for the former. So, when, last evening, I read your resolution and speech, I was strengthened and rejoiced. Your positions are impregnable, and your speech, I think, the greatest of your life. We must stand there, or not at all.”

In another letter, Mr. Washburn wrote:--

“When men as patriotic and sincere as I am, and a great deal wiser, sustain the Blaine Amendment, I am confounded, and don’t know what to make of it. To my mind it is most abhorrent, and I hope it will not receive the assent of Congress.”

Rev. Rufus P. Stebbins, a Unitarian clergyman, wrote from Portland, Maine:--

“You have fought a good fight. The Amendment proposed was defeated. _Laus Deo!_ It was a blot too dark and foul to be permitted to stain the Constitution. To speak of ‘race and color’ in that instrument would be an insult to the men who framed it.”

Rev. A. Battles wrote from Bangor, Maine:--

“As a native of Massachusetts, and more than that, as a lover of my race, I want to thank you for your timely and eloquent words in behalf of universal and impartial justice. I thank you also for voting against the Blaine Amendment. Though it might accomplish one desirable object, it was a concession to prejudice against color. The black man could hope for nothing through it. We want no more compromise.”

Hon. William Greene, an enlightened citizen, who has held various public offices in Rhode Island, wrote from East Greenwich:--

“I beg to congratulate you as a friend, and to thank you as an American citizen, for the great speech recently delivered by you in the Senate. You have opened a new field of thought to American statesmen, and furnished a new book of elementary political lessons to the American people. It would seem almost impossible that such an effort should not tell grandly upon both.”

Hon. Gerrit Smith, the devoted Abolitionist, formerly a Representative in Congress, wrote from Peterboro, New York:--

“God bless you for this noble speech which you have made against the Apportionment Amendment! I have this day read the part of it in yesterday’s New York _Tribune_. I long to read the whole of it.”

In another letter, Mr. Smith wrote:--

“You are the keystone of our arch. If you fail, all falls.”

Hon. N. Niles, formerly in the diplomatic service, wrote from New York:--

“I admire and applaud the tenacity with which you advocate the equal rights of all men of all races under one Constitution and Government.… I hope you will stand up for the Asiatics as well as for the negroes. They are now treated as brutes in some of our States.”

Cephas Brainerd, lawyer, and arbitrator under the last treaty with England against the Slave Trade, wrote from New York:--

“Nearly all the copies of your great speech that I obtained have been circulated, and I don’t find any one who dares deny the correctness of the doctrines you lay down. It has my hearty assent, and I have subjected it to the examination which the argument of an opposing counsel receives from me. I consider that very many of your Senatorial speeches will be quite as permanent as any of Burke’s productions; but this last seems to be as enduring as the Constitution of our country, whether as the foundation of a government or as a matter of mere study.”

Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, always on the watch-tower, wrote from Brooklyn, New York:--

“Although I do not think with you on the specific change in the Amendment which you advocate, I cannot forbear expressing my thanks for your noble speech, which has the merit of rising far above the occasion and object for which it was uttered, and covering a ground which will abide after all temporary questions of special legislation have passed away.

“I wish that your oration might be in every school library in the Union. May your life be prolonged, and every year add some new jewel to the crown of fame, that, when you go to a higher sphere, men will place upon your name!”

Rev. A. P. Putnam, Unitarian clergyman, also wrote from Brooklyn, New York:--

“I bless God for the firm and lofty stand you have taken, and the people will yet see, if they do not now see, that it is the only wise and sure one for Union- and Freedom-loving men to take. Would that all loyal men, especially the great Union party, could see it to be their duty and their interest to meet boldly and grandly the issue which the President seems determined to force upon them!”

Rev. F. C. Ewer, anxious against compromise, wrote from New York:--

“I am but one of thousands whom you little think of as watching you with anxiety, and to whom your present firm position has given great cheer and comfort. Of course there are many who have always stood with you, and who must be sources of encouragement; but we are new recruits, who have had enough of ‘compromise,’ and who see no hope of permanent peace ahead except under a thorough adjusting of the Constitution to the principles of the Declaration of Independence.”

James P. Lee and fourteen others united in a letter from Herkimer, New York:--

“In this centre of the Empire State there are not a few who would express their thanks to you personally, if they could, but more especially to God, our Heavenly Father, for having endowed you, as Joshua of old, with the determination to lead His oppressed people to the promised land, ‘a land flowing with milk and honey’ (not with disgrace), after their Moses had been taken from them.”

F. Hawley wrote with much feeling, from Cazenovia, New York:--

“In God’s name, in the name of Justice and Freedom, and in behalf of the millions of God’s outraged poor, I thank you for your noble speech. Brooks could not kill you. God predetermined that you should live to be mouth for Him, that this preëminently guilty nation might know their duty, and that the great idea that lies at the foundation of all righteous civil government might be vindicated. It is to be regretted that your proposition could not have been brought forward before the House had committed itself to that miserable Amendment.”

Alexander Ostrander, a lawyer, wrote from New York:--

“I thank God that we have a man in the Senate bold enough and capable enough to point the nation the road back to the foundation principles of the Government.”

E. W. Stewart, originally of the Liberty party, wrote from North Evans, New York:--

“Having read your truly noble plea for the ‘great guaranty’ of personal and political rights under the Constitution, in the Senate, I write to thank you with my whole heart. It is the right word spoken at the right time and in the right place, and it will reach the hearts of the people and produce there a deep conviction, if it does not in Congress.… The positions in your speech are unanswerable.”

Dr. Henry A. Hartt, a radical Abolitionist, wrote from New York:--

“I must tell you how proud I feel, as a man and as an American citizen, on account of the position you have taken. When the Amendment of the Committee was proposed, I felt chagrined and mortified beyond expression, and I did fervently pray that we might be saved from the intolerable infamy of putting into our Constitution a sanction, even by implication, of the right of a State to deny or abridge the franchise in consequence of race or color. You may, then, imagine my joy, when I saw you break loose from all considerations of policy and party, and place yourself immovably upon the elevated platform of a just and righteous statesmanship.

“I have read the report of your speech in the extra of the _Tribune_, and I am sure that history will confirm the verdict which I give, when I say that it was equal to the great occasion.”

Edward Cary, editor of the Brooklyn _Daily Union_, wrote from that place:--

“The loyal people in Brooklyn have felt very keenly the outrage and insult you have suffered at the hands of Mr. Johnson. They honor and trust you, and will uphold you. The mention of your name by Mr. Garrison, on Tuesday evening, drew from the large audience rounds of applause, which died away only to be renewed, until it was the most prolonged I ever heard.”

William Silvey, of New Jersey, earnest in patriotism and Antislavery, wrote from Alexandria, Virginia:--

“How all the hearts of the true lovers of their country, even in this rebellious city, are thrilling with gratitude and thankfulness for your uniform noble efforts, which have opened and will continue to open the eyes of the citizens of our country and the whole world as to the true significance or meaning of what constitutes a republican government, which has been so sadly perverted by our practice as a nation!”

W. H. Ashhurst, an eminent merchant, wrote from Philadelphia:--

“I have read nothing for a long while that has moved me so much as your speech in the Senate on the 5th and 6th inst.”

George D. Parrish, an earnest friend of peace, wrote from Philadelphia:--

“I have written you more than once before, but, having no personal acquaintance, hesitated to thank you for the strength and instruction which really called for thanks and congratulations. You have done nobly, Sir, for your country and for this generation.”

Joseph T. Thomas, of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, wrote from Harrisburg:--

“You may be vilified and abused, and no doubt are, as all great benefactors of their race are in their day and generation. But future ages will do you full justice, and your name will be illustrious when the names of your revilers will be consigned to the most ignoble oblivion.”

T. E. Hall wrote from Galion, Ohio:--

“In the joy of my heart I congratulate the people of this Government that the old ship of state has at its helm a statesman who, despite the storms, the howling tempests, the Cimmerian darkness which enshrouds us, stands boldly and fearlessly at his post, unawed, calm, self-possessed, ready for any emergency.

“The great speech, portions of which it has been my privilege to peruse, is only second in importance to President Lincoln’s proclamation which liberated four millions of slaves; and, indeed, this speech carried out is virtually but the fulfilling of that proclamation.”

Rev. George Duffield wrote from Detroit, Michigan:--

“I feel constrained, though entirely unknown to you, to thank you most cordially for the intense pleasure I have enjoyed in the perusal of your great oration on the question of Universal Enfranchisement, as involved in the proposed Constitutional Amendment, looking towards universal suffrage. Its lucid didactic statements, its admirable analysis, its irresistible logic, and its glowing, brilliant eloquence, with its valuable historic instruction and its burning love of freedom and humanity, have both convinced my understanding and captivated my heart.”

Rev. Charles H. Brigham, an accomplished Unitarian clergyman, in a letter describing an exhibition at the University of Michigan, wrote from Ann Arbor:--

“But the most attractive piece on the programme, which brought the house down with the most prolonged and hearty applause, was Number Four [entitled “Charles Sumner”], in which a most glowing and animated tribute was paid to the scholarship, industry, fidelity, patriotism, love of justice, and love of man, of the Senator whom Massachusetts delights to honor. It was a delight, I assure you, to a Massachusetts man, and a friend of yours, to hear, out here in the West, among these ‘Fogies’ and ‘Copperheads,’ such noble words about the old Bay State and her representative man, and to hear the response to them from the great audience.”

Hon. Charles V. Dyer, a Judge under the final treaty with England against the Slave Trade, wrote from Chicago:--

“I am greatly your debtor for your two speeches, in a form for preservation and re-perusal, and any word of mine in regard to their ability or patriotism is quite needless. But I will say that the courage that can face cold looks of friends, cruel animadversions of one’s own party press, and, what is easier, the unceasing abuse and bullyism of the enemies of all good, is so rare that it commands my admiration.”

Jesse W. Fell wrote from Normal, Illinois:--

“I have just finished reading your late speech on Reconstruction, and I cannot forbear dropping you a line to say how much I have been gratified by its perusal. I will not characterize it as under different circumstances I should be tempted to. Suffice it to say, in my poor judgment it is the noblest, ablest effort of your life, and is just the document to send broadcast over the land.”

James H. Alderman wrote from Jacksonville, Illinois:--

“A thousand thanks for your incomparable speech, expounding and defining the true theory of a republican government. Yes, I say a thousand thanks. I have always believed the Constitution was fully adequate for every exigency. Congress, therefore, must of necessity guaranty to every State a republican form of government.”

Worthington G. Snethen, an Abolitionist, of Baltimore, wrote:--

“Thanks, thanks for your two great speeches. They will live and breathe and stir the heart of humanity, when the memory of A. Johnson and his Republican renegade sycophants will be forgotten, or brought to mind only to be execrated. Millions of black men bless you now, and hundreds of millions of God’s dusky skins will bless you in the ages to come, for these two grand and eloquent vindications of human liberty from the assaults of despotism, caste, and the white man’s meanness; and the white world, too, far down in the future, will bless your name. The spirit of prophecy pervades every line of these speeches, and lights up every step you take with the blaze of logic and truth.…

“Your resistance to the Trojan horse of the Apportionment Amendment I sincerely hope was crowned with success in to-day’s vote. That Amendment is the basest compromise that has yet bubbled to the surface of the cesspool of American politics.…

“You must all come to it, sooner or later. Congress must legislate impartial suffrage into all the States by direct statute. Strange that the States in Congress cannot do what the States separately out of Congress can do!”

Hon. R. Stockett Mathews, the orator and lawyer, wrote from Baltimore:--

“I thank you most profoundly for the seasonable courage which will admonish others of their duty, although I have but small hope of witnessing any immediate fruition of the good work you have done for us all.”

F. W. Alexander, of Maryland, who served patriotically in the war, wrote from New York:--

“I read your speech in the paper this morning, and I write to express my gratification that you have refused to accept any half-measures, but have sought to induce Congress to proceed in its work of Reconstruction on the only sure foundation, that of justice to all. Whether the measure is carried or not, your speech will not be lost, and it is a mere question of time.”

S. F. Chapman wrote from Alexandria, Virginia:--

“I thank you for your speech. I think it an honor to the age in which you live, and believe it will remain a monument to your genius and eloquence. I am proud of it, and that you sent it to me. I shall preserve it, and leave it to my children, as one of the noblest consecrations to Liberty and Man.”

John W. Osborne, Hospital Steward of the United States Army, wrote from Washington:--

“That elaborate exposition will endure for ages as a monument of your noble patriotism and unparalleled eloquence. Its sentences will be read with grateful emotion by the freedom-loving people of all nations, and their prayers for your welfare and warfare will daily ascend to Heaven.”

Rev. Henry Highland Garnet, a colored clergyman and orator, for some time settled in New York, wrote from Washington, where he was on a visit:--

“I was one of the many who heard your speech which you concluded yesterday afternoon in the Senate of the United States, and I take this opportunity to tender you my thanks and undying gratitude for that glorious and inspired production. I think that I may safely say that you have the gratitude of my entire race for your fearless and radical advocacy of the rights of all men, as I know you have their sincere and ardent love.

“After having slept upon your speech, and the excitement which was produced at the moment of its delivery is somewhat subdued, I must say, that, if I were able, I would cause a million of copies to be printed and scattered over the land.”

This was followed by the presentation of the Memorial Discourse by Mr. Garnet in the Hall of the House of Representatives, Washington, February 12, 1866, with the inscription, “To the Hon. Charles Sumner, as a small and humble token of respect, and admiration of the ablest speech ever delivered in the Senate of the United States.”

* * * * *

Among the most enlightened women of the country the pending question awakened a deep interest; nor was their testimony wanting.

Mrs. Josephine S. Griffing, devoted to good works in Washington, and especially to the care and protection of poor colored people, young and old, wrote from Washington:--

“I hope I shall not be considered intrusive in expressing to you my deep gratitude for and high estimation of your unparalleled speech, made in the United States Senate, February 5th and 6th, not only as contrasted with that of President Johnson to the colored delegation, but as an independent effort, the greatest, because the broadest in its application, of any ever made before the American people.”

Mrs. L. M. Worden, sister of the late Mrs. William H. Seward, and always a warm Abolitionist, wrote from Auburn, New York:--

“Please accept my thanks for your noble speech of the 5th and 6th of February, which I have read and re-read with great attention and deep gratitude and admiration. This ‘testimony of the truth’ will add yet another bright page to the record of your undeviating fidelity to the cause of Justice and Humanity.”

Mrs. Horace Mann, widow of the philanthropist, teacher, and Representative in Congress, wrote from Concord, Massachusetts:--

“I presume you will receive a thousand letters expressive of the satisfaction and delight that your speech upon the Suffrage question has given; and yet I must add mine, for it is but rarely that one feels that a moral subject is exhausted, and you appear to have accomplished this astonishing result. It is difficult to conceive how Congress can act otherwise than in the highest manner, after listening to it and reading it.”

Miss Susan B. Anthony, so earnest to secure suffrage for her own sex, was not less earnest for the colored race:--

“A thousand thanks for your renewed, repeated protest against that proposed Amendment. You stand in the Senate almost the lone man to vindicate the absolute Right. May you be spared these many years, thus to stand and thus to speak!”

PRESIDENT JOHNSON AND HIS COUNTER MANIFESTATIONS.

An immediate effect of the speech was to hasten yet more the issue with President Johnson. On the day after its delivery he was visited by a delegation of colored citizens, who pleaded especially for the ballot. The President answered with feeling, that he had always been a friend of the colored race, and said:--

“I do not like to be arraigned by some who can get up handsomely rounded periods, and deal in rhetoric, and talk about abstract ideas of Liberty, who never perilled life, liberty, or property. This kind of theoretical, hollow, unpractical friendship amounts to but very little. While I say that I am a friend of the colored man, I do not want to adopt a policy that I believe will end in a contest between the races, which, if persisted in, will result in the extermination of one or the other.”

The idea of “a contest between the races” recurred in stronger language, when, alluding to the colored man, he spoke of “the sacrifice of his life and the shedding of his blood.… I feel what I say, and I feel well assured, that, if the policy urged by some be persisted in, it will result in great injury to the white as well as to the colored man.… The query comes up right there, whether we don’t commence a war of races.… I do not want to be engaged in a work that will commence a war of races.… I feel a conviction that driving this matter upon the people, upon the community, will result in the injury of both races, and the ruin of one or the other.”[205]

Shortly afterwards he was reported in the press as saying to a colored delegation of North Carolina, “I suppose Sumner is your God”; to which the spokesman replied, “We respect and love Mr. Sumner, Sir, but no man is our God.”

Then came the incendiary speech of the 22d February, when the President, standing on the steps of the Executive Mansion, threw away all reserve.

“I am opposed to the Davises, the Toombses, the Slidells, and the long list of such. But when I perceive, on the other hand, men [_A voice, “Call them off!”_]--I care not by what name you call them--still opposed to the Union, I am free to say to you that I am still with the people. I am still for the preservation of these States, for the preservation of this Union, and in favor of this great Government accomplishing its destiny.”

Here the President was called upon to give the names of three of the Members of Congress to whom he had alluded as being opposed to the Union.