Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1855-05-19
CHIRLES SUMNER.

=
Mr.. Sumner was introduced to the audience, by
the Hon. William Jay, in the following terms:
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: l have been requested,
on tire part of the Society, to perform the pleasing,
but unnecessary, Office of introducing to you the
honorcd and well-known advocate Of Justice, HUI
manitv and Freedom, Charles Sumner. 1t is not
for his learning and clOquence that | commend
him to your respectful attention for learning, elo-.
o,e4,ce, ard even theology itself, have been prosti-
tuted in the service of an institution well described
by John Wesley as the sum Of all viilainies. | in
truduce him to you as a Northern Senator, on
whom nature has conferred the unusual gift of IL
back-hOne-a man who, standing erect on the floor
of Congress, amid creeping things from the North,
with Christian fidelity denounced the stupenduus
wickedness of the Fugitive law and the Nebraska
pcrfdy, and in the name Of Liberty, Humanity
and Religion, deml nds the repeal of those most
atrocious enactments. May the words he is about
to utter be impressed on your conscierces, and intlu-
ence your cOndHct.
Mr. Sumner then proceeded to speak as follows:
Mr.. President AND Fellow CITIZENS OF NEW YORK:
History abuunds i'll vicissitudes. From weak
ness and humility, men ascend to power and place.
From defeat and disparAgemeHt, enterprises are
lifted to Triumph and acceptance. The martyr Of
today is gratefully enshrined ON the morrow.
The stone that the builders rejected Is made the
head ul the cUrlor. Thus it always has been, and
ever will be.
Only twenty years ago-in lSS5-thc friends of
the slave in our country were weak and humble,
while their great Enterprise, just then showing
itself, was t~rampled down and despised. The
small companies gathered together in the name Of
Freedom, were interrupted and often dispersed by
riUtuus MODS. At Boston, a feeble association of
women, called the Female Anti-Slavery Society,
convened in a small room of an upper story in an
obscure building. WIS insulted and then driven
into the streets 10y IL frantic crowd, politely termcd,
at the time, an assemblage Of gentlemen of prop
crty and standing" which, after various deeds Of
violence and vllcuess, next directed itself upon
/ William Lloyd GaIrison-known as the deter
mined editor Of the LideIdto1, and the originator
of the Anti-slavery Enterprise in our day-a d
ruthlessly tearing him away, amidst savage threats
and with II halter about his neck, dragged him
through the streets, until, at last, guilty only OF
loving liberty, If not wisely, to well, this unUt-
Tending citizen was thrust into the cOmmO jail
for protection against an lniuriatc pUpulhce. Nor
was Boston alone. Even villages III remote rufai
solitude beicicd forth in simliar outrage: while
Utica, Worcester, Alton, Cincinnati, Baltimore,
Philadelphia. and New York, became SO many
fiery craters, Overlooking with rage and madness.
What lawless violence failed to plish waS
next urged through the forms Ut law. by solemn
Legislative acts, the Slave States called On the
Free States, "promplly and etiectually To suppress
ali associations within their respective limits par.
PORTING TO he Abolition Societies - and Rhode Is
land, Massachusetts, ana New York, baseIy heirk'
ened u the Luse propositions. The press, too, with
5 untold power, eXertcd itself in this behalf, while
the pulpit, the politician, and the merchant, con-
:, spired to stitle discussion until the voice OF Freedom
MAS husne,l to a whisper, alas almost afraid It
$ know itself"
Since thcn-in tho lapse Of fow ycars only
Il change has taken place. Instead ut those small
companies, counted by tens, we have now thu
nightly assembly, counted by thousands instead
of an lusluu1Hpant Dpartupnt. like that in Boston
: the mere appendage Of u printing-utice, where, II
c in the mauger itself, Trutn was Graded, we hav,
a now this Metropolitan Hall, ample in proportion
and central in place; instead Of a prUfane anC
clamorous mob, beating at our gates, dIspersln;
u our ~assemniy, and making one OF Uer nuu4ber IN,
victim of its fury, We have now peace and harmony
e at unguarded doors, rutlcd only by II generUu
II competition to participate III this occasion Will
legislatures openly declare their symputhies vii
lagos, towns and cities vie in the new manifesto
ton and the press, itself, with increased power
d horaldS, applauds and extends the prevailing in
fuence, which, overiowing from every fountain
and pouring through every channel, at last, by til
awakened voice OF pulpit, politician and merchant
swells into an irresistible cry.
? Here is a great change, worthy of notice an
IS memory, for it attests the first stage Of victor
+. Slavery, in all its many-sided wrong, still col
inucs but here in this metropolis--ay, Sir. an
throughout the whole North-freedOm of discu,
= sion is ut length secured. And this, | say, is til
first stage Of victory-herald Of the transcendan
,e Future.
"Hark a glad voice the lonely desert cheers;
Prepare the way a God, a God a%ppearsl
! A God! a God the vocal hills reply,
The rocks proclaim tn approaching Deity"
n Nor is there anything peculiar in the trials t
70 which our cause has teen exposed. Thus III II
" ages has Truth been encountered. At first pers,
re Intpl- un prpI- SIipncpI- arnpIhnl SIa has pig
ID uut from the prison, from the torture, from III
r. stake, from the cross, until at last her voice lad
been heard. And when that voice is really heard
whether IN martyr cries, or earthquake tunes u
" civil CONFUSION, or la the calmness of ordinar
lie speech, such as | now employ, on in that still sma
utterance inaudible to the common ear, then is til
70 beginning Of victory! Give me where to stan,
- and | viii move the world" said Archimedes an
Truth asks nc more than did the master of geou
~ etry.
ut Viewed in this respect, the present occasio
l. rises above any ordinary course Of lectures or serit
20 of political meetings. 1t is the Inauguration
Freedom. From this time forward, her voice
nc warning and command cannot be silenced. Tn
u sensitive sympathies OF property may, in this con
I'd mercial mart, once again recognize property i
to man the watchlul press itself may falter or fai
bat the vantage ground Of free discussion no
achieved cannot be lost. On this | take my stan,
and, as from the Mount of Vision, behold ii
,h whole field Of our great controveis y spread befoi
er me. There is no point, topic, fact, matter, reaso
or argument touching the question between 81
= very and Freedom, which is not now open. or a
these | might, perhaps, aptly select some one an
H. coniine myself 10 its deyelopement. But | shout
A. not, in tails way, best satisfy the seeming requir
ments Of the occasion. According To the i~nyitatiu
of your Committee, | was to make an address, il
troduc DRY to the present course of lectures, bl
IN was prevented by ill-health, And now, at the clos
of the course, | am to say what | failed to say
its beginning. Not as Il caucus or as Congress ca
address you; nor am | moved to undertake a T.
iltical haransue or constitutional argument. 81
n. of the occasion let me speak, and, disrarding an
hit individual topic, aim to review the entire feldip a
its divisions and subdivisions, with all its net,
" and bounds.