Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1858-12-22
CHARLES SKINNER.

N@A~AANA@sS hONANG4hs
The recent letters concerning the health of
Charles Sumner show how deep an interest
IS still felt in his welfare The occasion has
been seized by those who are most sensitive
shout his relations to the people of Massachu-
sets, to suggest the possibility, or rather the
propriety, under certain circumstances, of his
withdrawal from the public service, Judg-
ing from observation, not very limited, we are
compelled to regard all such suggestions as
mconsiderate and premature. Regarding the
circumstances under which Mr., Summers cleo
zion was secured, the painful necessities which
have for little while separated him from the
immediate sphere of his duties, and, more than
all, the present encouraging testimony of his
physicians in his favor, this is hardly the time
to be contemplating the possibilities of his res
ignation, or for suggesting unfavorable circum-
stances, which time is swift enough to devel-
ope without assistance.
1t is but little more than two years and
half since he was removed, by violence, from
his post of usefulness and honor 1t was not
a post of his own seeking nor was it held for
his own advantage. Every one remembers
the mingled feelings of indignation and sor-
row, which that unparalleled outrage excited
indignation because the sacred right of free
speech had been violated with impunity and
sorrow, because the purest statesman in the
whole land had been chosen for the first mar
tyr. There was but one voice uttered by con-
siderate and humane men of all parties, and of
all States and that was in denunciation of the
act. Conservative men, whom no insults had
ever awakened before, were not ashamed to
polish a few classical phrases for the encour-
agement of that just indignation which thrilled
all manly hearts. State Legislatures took up
the theme, and their records, for that year,
bear official testimony to their adherence of
the act and the spirit that prompted it.
Nearly year having elapsed, new legisla-
ture was elected in Massachusetts,. When it re-
elected Charles Sumner, on the first working
day Of the session, without dissenting voice
in the Senate, and scarcely dozen in the
House of Representatives, while his own con-
dition was extremely critical, and his recovery
remote and almost hopeless, it only reflected
the sentiment of the whole Commonwealth,
whose dignity had been violated, and whose
set-respect had been outraged. Was that act
the result of mere spasm of indignaton-com-
mitted in haste, to be repented at leisure, or was
it the expression of sincere and vital determin-
alton, on the part of the State to sustain, by
whateverhOnorable sacrifice, the man who had
suffered in her behalf, and fell in her cause If
the former, then it is highly proper to begin to
calculate the chances of life and death, and to
insinuate dislike by halfsuppressed sugges-
tons of calamities, not now likely to occur
But, if we acted from the latter and the better
motive, when, with the deliberation of many
months, we took upon our own shoulders the
risk and the responsibility of his case, then it
is unreasonable and ungrateful to complain, as
ii it were something like burden, even before
the expiration of sixth part of the time for
which it was assumed.
This is not the course of conduct which will
most injure Mr.. Sumner No man can be in
jured by the consciousness that the State which
he represents, reposes in him its most generous
and unreserved confidence But, what can be
said for that spirit of impotence, which so
often breaks out, on account of the slow pro-
cess Of his recovery, manifesting itself when
there is no great necessity for a change, and
when there appears to be the brightest prom
Use that the chains of his disease are soon to be
sundered! We are conscious that our view
of the case may be called sentimental; while
the other is eminently practical. But there
are sentimental things which may be APPROX
ed, and practical things which may be con-
demned. There is a sentiment that must be
respected, as well as work that must be done.
That which might be practical when it has the
approval of the best sentiments, would be i'm
polite and ruinous if it set them at defiance
We are not governed by any feelings of per-
scnal idolatry. There are many statesmen
every district in Massachusetts, could furnish
them-fit to adOrn the place to which he has
been delegated But the peculiar claim to be
urged in his behalf-and it ie one which, with
his delicate and sensitive perception of duties,
he would never urge for himself-is, that while
he was called, by great public demand, from
the scholarly retirement he had chosen, to this
post, for which he had no experience and little
taste, he yet filled it with such consummate
grace and ability as to excite the admiration of
the friends of freedom everywhere, and the
undisguised hostility of its foes and, finally,
that while he was fighting CALAMITY in the
thickest Of our battle, he was the victim of that
blow Of an assassin by which he has since suf-
fered, and is suffering to-day. But, thanks be
to God, and the skill of his physicians, there is
ample room for hope that he will soon return,
hhis friends do not disturb him with too much
advice, to finish that fight, in the midst of which
he was cut down.