Minnesota weekly times. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1854-1859, 1856-05-31
THE GREAT SPEECH OF MIR. SUMNER,

/
! Senate of the United States, May Goth, 1856
Mn. PRESIDENT You are now called to re
dress great transgression. Seldom in the his
| tory of nations has such question been present
ed. Tariffs, army bills, navy bills, land bills, Jar
important, and justly occupy your care blu
these all belong to the course of ordinary egisla
ton. AS means and instruments only, they arr
necessarily subordinate to the conservation o.
Government itself. Grant them or deny them, il
| greater or less degree, and YOU will in1ict M
shock. The machinery of Government will con
tinue to move. The State will not cease to ex
ist. Far otherwise is it with the eminent ques
ton now before you, involving, as it does, Lib
erty in broad territory, and also involving the
peace of the whole country, with our good name
| in history forever more. 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 IIudson's Bay on the
north, and the tepid Gulf Stream on the south
| constituting the precise territorial centre of the
! whole vast continent. To such advantages OF
situation, on the very highway between two
oceans, are added soil of unsurpassed richness,
and IA fascinating undulating beauty of surface
with a health giving climate, calculated to nur-
ture II powerful and generous people worthy to
be central pivot of American institutions. A
few short months only have passed since this
spacious mediterranean country was open only
to the savage, who wild in its woods and pra-
tries; and now it has already drawn to its bosom
n population of freemen larger than Athens
crowded within her historic gates, when her sons
under NIiltades won Liberty for mankind on the
field of Marathon more than Sparta contained
when she ruled Greece, and sent forth her devo-
ted children, quckened by mothers benedic-
ton, 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 afterward embraced the whole earth +:
more than London held when on the fields of
Crecv and Agincourt, the English banner was
carried victoriouslv over the chiyalrous hosts of
France.
Against this Territory, thus fortunate in posi-
ton and population. II Crime has been commit
ted, which is without example in the records of
the past Not in plundered provinces or in the
crueltes of selfish governors, will you find its par
allci and yet, there is ancient instance
which may show at least the path of Justice. In
the terrible impeachment by which the great Ro-
man Orator has blasted through all time the
name of Verres, amid charges of robbery and
sacriege, the enormity which aroused the in
dignant voice of his accuser, and which still
stands forth with stronges; distincness, arrestng
the sympathetic indi gnation of all who read the
story, is. that away in Sicily he had scourged a
citizen of ROme--that the cry 81 am Roman
citizen'' had been nterposed in vain against the
lash Of the tyrant governor. Other charges were
that he had carried away productions of art, and
that he had violated the sacred shrines. 1t was
in the presence of the Roman Senate that this
Arrangement proceeded: in 4 temple of the FO-
rum amid crowds-suIh no orator had ever
before drawn thrOnging the porticos
and colona9cS, even clinging to the hOuse-tops
and neighborng sopeS-and under the anxious
gaze Of witnesses summoned from the scene of
crme. But an audience grander far-of higher
diSnlty-ol more various people and OF wider
intellgence-the countless multitude Of succeed
ing generations, in every land, where eloquence
has been studied or where the Roman name has
been recognzed--has listened to the accusaton,
and thr0bbed with condemnation OF the criminal
Sir, speaking in age Of light, and in land of
constit rational liberty, where the safeguards of
elections are justly placed among the highest tri-
umphs OF civilization, | fearlessly assert the
wrongs of much abused Sicily, thus memorable
in history. small by the side of the wrongs
If Kansas, where the very shrines of popular in
stitutions, more sacred than any heather altar,
have been desecrated where the ballot box.
more precious than any work in ivory marble
from the cunning hand of Art-has been plum.
dered and where the cry,''l am an American
ctiZen,' has been interposed in vain against out.
rage OF every kind, and even upon life itself Are
YOU against sacrilege? | present it for your ex-
ecration. Are you against robbery? l hold it
up to your scorn. Are you for the protection of
American citizens? show you how their dear
est rights have been cloven down, while Tyran-
zeal Usurpation has sought to install itself on
their very necks But the wlckedness which Inow
begin to expose is immeasnrably aggravated by
the motive which prompted it. Not in any COM
mon lust for power did this uncommon tragedy
have its origin. 1t is the rape Of virgin Ter
rtory, compelling it to the hateful embrace of
Slavery and it may be clearly traced to a de-
PRAYED longing for Slave State, the
hedious offspring Of such crime, in the
hope of adding to the power of Slavery
in the National Government. Yes, Sir, when
the whole world, alike Christian and Turk
is rising up to condemn this wrong, and to make
it Kissing to the nations, here in our Republic,
torce--aye, Sir, FORCE-nas been openly en-
ployed in compelling Kansas to the pollution of
Slavery, all for the sake of political power.
There is the simple fact, which you will vainlv
attempt to deny, but which in itself presents I'm
essential wickedness that makes other public
crimes seem like public virtues. But their enor-
NIFTY vast beyond comparison, swcs to dmen-
sions of wickedncss which the Imagination tolls
in vain to grasp, when it is understood, that for
this purpose are hazarded the horrors of ntes-
tine feud, not only in this distant Territory but
everywhere throughout the country. Already the
monster has begun. The strife is no longer local.
but national. Even now. while speak, portents
hang on all the arches Of the horizon, threatening
to aarhen the broad land, which already vawns
with the mutterings of civil war. The fury of
the propagandiss of slavery and the calm deter
mination of their opponents are now diffused
from the distant Territory wide spread COM
munities, and the whole country in all it sextent
hostile divisions, and foreshadow-
ing . strife which, unless happily averted by the
triumph of Freedom, will become war-fratri-
cidai, parricidal war-with an accumulated wick
edness beyond the wickedness Of any war in
human annals-justly provoking avenging judy
ment OF Providence and the avengin. pen of
history, and constituting strife, in the language
OF the ancient writer, more than foreign, more
than social, more than cir;l, but something COM
pounded of all these strifes, and in itself more
than war-Sed potius commune quOddam er On,ai-
bus. ct ptns guam, belltm. Such is the crime you
are to judge. But the criminal also must be
dragged into day, that you may see and measure
the power by WHICH all this wrong is sustained
From no common source could it proceed. In
Its preparation was needed vaultng ambition
which would hesitate at nothing; hardihood of
purpose which was insensible to the Judgment of
mankind; madness for Slavery which should
disregard the Constitution, the laws, and all the
great examples of our history also conscious
ness of power such comes from the habit of
power; a combination of energies found only in
a hundred arms directed by hundred eyes: a
control of Public Opinion through venal pens
and a prostituted press; an ability to subsidze
crowds in every vocation of ife-the politician
with his local Importance, the lawyer with his
subtle tongue, and even the authority of the Judge
on the bench and familiar use of men in places
high and low, that none, from the President
to the lowest border postmaster, should decline
to be its tool; all these things and more were
needed: and they were found in the Slave Power
of our Republic. There, Sir, stands the criminal
all unmasked before you-heartless, grasping.