Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1856-05-29
SPEECH OF
HON. CHARLES SUMNER
Kansas Affair s.

74 Kansas Affairs.
In the United STATES Senate, May 10, 1856.
Nh. PRESIDENT: You are now called to redress
great transgresson Seldom in the history of
nations has such a question been presented
Tariffs, army bills, navy bills, land bills, are im
portant, and justly occupy your care but these
all belong to the course of ordinary legislation.
AS means and instruments only, they are neces-
sarily subordinate to the conservation Of gov
eminent itself. Grant them or deny them, in
greater or less degree, and you will inaict no
shock. The machinery of government will con-
tinue to move The state will not cease to ex-
st Far otherwise is it with the eminent ques
ton now before you, involving, as it does, iber
ty in broad territory, and also involving the
peace Of the whole country with our good name
in history for eyermore.
Take down your map, sir, and you will find
that the territory of Kansas, more than any
other region, occupies the middle spot of North
America, equally distant from the Atlantic on
the east, and the Pacific On the west from the
frozen waters of Hudsons Bay on the north,
and the tepd gulf stream on the south, consti-
tuting the precise territorial centre of the whole
vast continent. To such advantage of situation,
on the very highway between two oceans, are
added "a soil of unsurpassed richness and fls-
cinating, undulating beauty of surface, with
health-gving climate, calculated to nurture q
powerful and generous people, worthy to be a
central pivot of American institutions
few short months only have passed since
this spacious mediterranean country was open
only to the savage, who ran wild in its woods
and prairies; and now it has already drawn to
its bosom population of freemen larger than
Athens crowded with her historic gates, when
her sons, under Miltiades, won liberty for man
kind on the field of Marathon more than Spar
ia contained when she ruled Greece, and sent
forth her devoted children, quickened by
mothers benedictiOn, to return with their
shields or on them more than Rome gathered
on her seven hills, when, under her kings, she
commenced that sovereign sway, which after
wards embraced the whole earth more than
London held, when on the fields of Crecy and
Agncourt, the English banner was carried VIC
toriously over the chivarous hosts of France.
Against this territory, thus fortunate in posi-
ton and population Il crime has been commit
ted, which is without example in the records Of
the past Not in pundercd provinces, nor in
the cruelties of selfish governors will you find
its parallel and yet there is ancien, instance,
which may show at least the path of Justice
In the terrible impeachment, which the great
Roman Orator has blasted through all time the
name Of Verres, amidst charges Of robbery and
sacriege, the enormity which most aronsei the
indignant voice of his acouser and which still
stands forth withstrongest distinctness, arreSting
the sympathetic indignation of all who read
the story, is, that away in Sicily he had scourg-
ed a citizen Of Rome-that the cry" am IL
Roman citizen " had been nterposed in vain
:, against the lash of the tyraut governor. Other
charges were, that he had carried away produc-
tions of art, and that he had violated the s,cred
shrines.
1t WAS in the presence of tbs Roman Senate
that this arrangement proceeded in Il temple
Of the Forum, amidst crowds-such us no ora
tor had ever before drawn ogether-thronging
the portcos and colonades, even clingilg to the
t house tops and neighboring sopes-and under
the anxious gaze of witnesses summoned from
the scene Of crime. But an audience glander
far-of higher dignity-of more various people,
3 and of wider intelligence-the countless multi
tudc OF succeeding generations, in every land
where eloquence has been studied. or where the
Roman name has been recognised-has listened
to the accusation, and throbbed with condemna-
ton of the criminal
0 Sir, speaking in an aye of light and in land
Of constitutional liberty, where the safeguards
OF elections are justly placed among the highest
triumphs of civilization, fearessly assert that
the wrongs of much abused Sicily, thus memoir
t able in history, were small by the side of the
wrongs Of Kansas, where the very shrnes of
popular Institutions, more sacred than any
: heathnn altar, have been desccrated where the
y ballot-box, more precious than any work in ivory
= or marble, from the cunning hand of art, has
been plundered and where the cry II ain an
; American Citizen has been interposed in vain
, against outrage Of every kind even upon life
! itself. Are you against sacrilegcl I present
it for your execration. Are you against robbery
| hold it up to your scorn Are you for the
protection of American citizens | show you
how their dearest rights have been cloven down
i while tyrannical usurpation has sought to in
I stall itself on their very necks
But the wickedness which now begin to ex
pose is immeasurably aggravated by the motv,
J. which prompted it. Not in any common lus
n for power did this uncommon tragedy have il;
"a origin. 1t is the rape Of virgin territory, com
pelling it to the hateful embrace of Slavey: anC
it may be clearly traced to q depraved longing
P for new Save state the hideous offspring o
e such u crime, in the hope of adding to the pow
e er of slavery in the national government. Yes
sir; when the whole world, alike Christian am
Turk, is rising up to condemn this wrong ant
to make it Kissing to the nations, here in GU
republic, force aye, sir FORCE-has been open
ly employed in compelling Kansas to the pollu
ton Of Slavery, all for the sake of poticl
in power There is u simple Fact, which you vii
ne vainly attempt to deny but which in itself pre-
e. senis an essential wickedness that makes othe
public crimes seem like public virtues. s,
n But this enormity. vast beyond comparison
d swells to dimensions Of wickedness which tn
n imagination tolls in vain to grasp, when it i
81 understood that for this purpose are hazarde'
y the horrors OF intestine eud, not only in thi
l. distant territory, but everywhere Throughout
J. the country. Already the mester has begun
Sc The strife is no longer local. Even now, Will
y speak, porrents hang on'all the arches OF th
lc horizon, threatening TO darkcn the broad land
in which already yawns with the mutterinss o
t. civil war.
n The fury of the propagandists of Slavery, ant
,e the calm determination of their opponents, ar
a. now diffused from the distant territory owe
widespread communities, and the whole coun
a try, in all its Notwithstanding hostile diyis
n ions, and foreshadowing strife, which, unles
is happily averted by the triumph of Freedom
e will become war-fratricidal, parridcial war
to with an accumulated wickedness beyond tn
is wickedness Of any war in human annals; just
r. provoking the avenging judgment of Proyidenc
d and the avenging pen of history, and constta
5, ting strife, in the language of the ancien
K writer, more than foreign, more than social
n more than cioii; but something compounded o
all stries, and in itself more than war Sc
$, commune quoddam er omnibus et pins guam bel
d. ium.
I'd Such is the crime which you are to judge
tn But the criminal must also be dragged into day
to chat you may see and measure the power b
er which oil this wrong is sustained From n
s. common source could it proceed. In its perpe
s. tration was needed spirit of vaulting ambitio
no which would hesitate at nothing; o hardihoo
Of purpose which was insensible to the iuda
er ment OF mankind madness for Slavery whic