Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 14 (of 20)

MR. SUMNER. The Senator says, “For a statue”: an impossible statue, I say,--one which cannot be made. However, I say nothing on the merits now; that will come at another time, i...

But are we not obliged to deal with many thousand postmasters, and also with many thousand officers in the army? How have we carried this great war along? The Senate has acted a...

The House of Commons chooses its Speaker by majority. It may be said, also, that it chooses the Ministers of the Crown in the same way, because the fate of a cabinet depends upo...

It was not until 1856 that this American enterprise showed itself in England, where it was carried by Mr. Field. Through his energies the Atlantic Telegraphic Company was organi...

MR. SUMNER. But two things he forgot were so great, so essential, that to forget them was to forget everything. In the first place, he forgot that we had been in a war; and, in...

Then, again, we are told that we must not abandon the system of our fathers. I have already answered this objection precisely, in saying, that, whatever may have been the system...

The office of President _pro tempore_ among us grows out of the anomalous relations of the Vice-President to the Senate. There is no such officer in the other House, nor was the...

This question is perhaps more important than it appears. On its face it is of form only, or rather of dress, proper for the learned in Carlyle’s “Sartor Resartus.” But I am not...

MR. SUMNER. The Senator from Iowa has not been in this body very long. Had he been here longer, he would have known that toward the people of Iowa, by vote and voice, I have alw...

From this requirement the bill proceeds to enumerate certain classes excluded from office and also from the elective franchise. This is less stringent than what is known as the...

Mr. Trumbull, of Illinois, recently presented a petition from citizens of Augusta County, Virginia, which was duly referred, stating that the Union men in that locality were wit...

MR. PRESIDENT,--In what the Senator from Illinois [Mr. TRUMBULL] has said of the failure by the President to discharge his duties under existing laws I entirely agree. He touche...

But this tax will be positively oppressive to coal-purchasers in New England, to say nothing of New York. Nature has denied coal to this region of country,--or rather, Nature ha...

Now, Sir, apply that principle to your journal. It has recognized a man as judge in his own case. I insist that the recognition was void. Is not the true remedy by amending the...

In making this change, we shall simply enlarge and expand the existing powers of the Secretary of the Treasury. He is now the head of the custom-house; he regulates the passenge...

MR. PRESIDENT,--I was impressed by a remark of the Senator from Illinois [Mr. TRUMBULL], to the effect, that, while regulating the election of Senators, it would be well to requ...

Plainly the Senate Chamber is too big for our daily life. It is not proportioned to ordinary occasions or every-day business. We all know that anything in a common tone of voice...

THE PRESIDENT _pro tempore_. In the opinion of the Chair, a Senator, in making a speech to the Senate, has a right to read from a letter in his possession, if he deems proper.

That I may give practical direction to these remarks, let me tell you plainly what must be done. In the first place, Congress must be sustained in its conflict with the One Man...

This brief sketch shows how from the beginning the National Government has been looking to a system common to the civilized world. And now this aspiration seems about to be fulf...

“_Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled_, That the thanks of Congress be, and they hereby are, presented to G...

There is nothing within reach of the President which he has not lavished on ex-Rebels. The power of pardon and amnesty, like the power of appointment, has been used for them, wh...

“And my idea of the great Senator from Massachusetts (by which name I am very proud to call him, and which is so well deserved) is, that he is never so great as when he rises an...

POWER OF CONGRESS TO COUNTERACT THE CATTLE-PLAGUE. Remarks in the Senate, on a Resolution to print a Letter of the Commissioner of Agriculture on the Cattle-Plague, April 25, 18...

March 29th, on motion of Mr. Sprague, of Rhode Island, the Senate proceeded to consider a joint resolution directing an examination and estimate to be made of the cost of recons...