Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-07-14
Senator summers speech on the Repnb.
. Vcnn PARTY

Permanence,p before the Young Mems Re-
publican Association, in New York, on
Wednesday evening to a great crowd.
Thursdays Tribune says
Long before eight o'clock last evening, an
immense gathering of both sexes thronged
the great hall Of the Cooper Institute. De-
spite the entrance-fee, very properly charged
TO cover the expenses of the occasion, such an
assemblage was present as has rarely been
equaled, for numbers, intelligence and enthu-
siasm at a political meeting in the city Of
New York. The platform was filed; the
seats were filed; the lobbies were packed to
overAowing When Mr.. Sumner made his
entrance, the applause was deafening, All
present rose to their feet giving cheer after
cheer; ladies waved their handkerchiefs, and
seemed as excited as the rest.
From his speech, over FIVE columns long,
we make the following extracts:
Aud now, fellow-citizens, what is Slavery
This is no question merely of curiosity or
philanthropy; for when the National
the North help to constitute, is de-
graded to be its instrument and all
the National Territories are proclaimed open
10 its barbarism, and the Constitution itself
| is perverted to sanction its pretensious, the
whole subject logically and necessarily enters
| into our discussion. II can not be avoided;
it can not be blinked out of sight. Nay, you
must pass upon il by your votes at the
| coming election. Futile is the plea that we
Mt the North have nothing to do with slavery.
Granted that we have nothing to do with It
in the States we have much to do with all
| Its irrational pretensions under the Consti
tuition, and Just so long as these irrational
pretensons are urged, slavery must be dis
cussed. 1t must be laid bare in its enormity,
precisely as though it were proposed to
to plant it here in New York. Nor can such
a wrong-foul in itself, and fouler still in its
| pretensions-be dealt with tamely. Tame
ness is surrender; and charity, too, may be
misapplied.
Forgiving those who trespasS against us,
| know not If we are called to forgive those
who trespass against others; to forgive those
| who trespass against a race; TO forgive those
who trespass against the Republic; to forgive
| those who trespass against civilizations to
| forgive those Who trespass against a whole
| race; to forgive those who trespass against
the universal human family; finally TO for
give those who trespass against God. Such
trespassers now exist among us-possessing
the organization of party-possessng the
control of the national Government-con-
stituting at this moment colossal power
and what seems its head the likeness of
President has on" Surely if ever there was
u
into the service, and all should be invgorated
by an inspiring zeal falsely rejected by the
heartless diplomatist, it is now, while the
battle between civilization and barbarism is
still undecided, and you are summoned to
resist the last desperate shock. To this work
| am not equal; but do not shrink from the
duties of my post. Alasl Human language
is gentle, and the human voice is weak.
Words only are mine, when | ought to COM
tbnn lfo su
when, like the ancient Athenian, ought
to carry the weapons of Zeus on the tongue
What then, repeat, is slavery The occa-
sion forbids details; but enough must be pre-
sented to place this outrage in its true light
as some thing worse even than a constant
state of war where the master is the constant
aggressor And here put aside for the mo-
| ment all the tales which reach us from the
house of bondage; all the cumulative, crush
| ing testimony, alike from slaves and from
their masters; all the barbarous incidents
| which have helped to arouse a yet too feeble
indignation in short, all the glimpses which
| have come to US from this mighty Blue
Boards chamber. All these / put aside, not
| because they are Of little moment in exhibit
ing the true character of slavery, but because
| desire to arraign slavery on grounds above
all controversy, impeachment or suspicion,
| even from slave masters themselves. Not on
II
woman; not even on indisputable facts do
now accuse slavery; but on its character as
revealed in its own simple definition of itself
| Out of its own mouth do 1 condemn it,
By the law of slavery, man created in the
image of God, fearfully and wonderfully
made, with sensibilities of pleasure and pain,
with sentiments of love, with aspirations for
Improvement, with a sense of property, and
| with soul like ourselves, is divested of his
| In ba
chattel "to all intents and purposes whatso-
| ever" | do not stop to give at length all its
| odious words; you are doubtless familiar
| with them. But in this simple definition is
contained the whole incalculable wrong of
slavery; for out of it, as from an inexhausti.
BILE fountain, are derived all the unrighteous
prerogatives of the master. These are FIVE in
number; and I know not which is most re-
| voting.
| First: There is the pretension that man
can hold property in man, forgetful that by
| law older than all human law, foremost
stands the indefeasible right of every man to
| himself
Secondly: The absolute notification of the
| relation of husband and wife, so that all who
are called slaves are delivered over to con-
cubinage or prostitution, it may be with each
other, or it may be with their masters; but
| with whomsoever it may be, it is the same
| for with slaves marriage is impossible, az
they are always coupled, never married.
Thirdly: The absolute notification of the
relation of parent and child; for the infant
| legally belongs, not to the mother who bore
it but to the master who bought it.
Fourthly: The absolute denial of instruc
| ton; for the master may always, az his owl
| rude discretion, prevent his victim from
| learning to read, and thus shut upon hin
| those gates of knowledge which open sucl
yistas on earth and in Heaven. And,
Filthy: The absolute robbery of the la
Dor of another and of all its fruits; forgetfu
that by the same original law under whicl
every man has title to himself, he has also
a title to the fruits of bis own labor, amount
ing in itself to sacred property, which NJ
person, however called, whether despot o.
master, can righteously appropriate.
Such are the five essential elements o
slavery. Look at them, and you will contes
that this institution stands forth as Eatefu
assemblage of unquestionable wrongs unde
the sanction Of existing law Take away
any one of these, and just to that exten
slavery will cease TO exist. Take away all
and the slavery question will be settled.
But this assemblage becomes more hatefu
still when its unmistakable single motive j
detected, which is simply this--to compe
labor without wages. Incredible as it ma
seem, ii can not be denied that the eight of
man TO himself-the right of a husband TO hi
wife--the right of parent to his child-th
right of man to instruction-the right of
man to the fruits of his own labor--all thes
supreme rights, by the side of which othe
rights are petty, are trampled down, in orde
to organize that five-headed selfishness, praC
tically maintained by the lash, which, loo