Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1871-03-31
Opinions Of the Press on Senator Summers
Speech.

The speech is devoted to making noun
tain out Of rather insignificant mole-hills.
The Senator tries to terrify the country by
proving to US that we have actually, by the
ct Of the President, been at war without
knowing it. After our recent experience
in more serious warfare, it viii hardly be
possible to arouse enough indignation
against the President on that account to
induce much of disposition to impeach
him. Aside from the effort to direct popu-
lar anger toward the President the speech
is a re-statement Of former positions. 1t is
neither in manner nor matter calculated
to increase tho reputation OF its author,
and will rather disappoint the expectation
caused by the general announcement that
it was coming. Commercial.
Hon. Charles Sumner delivered yester-
day, in the Senate, his promised and ex-
pected speech. Both the subject and the
occasion are sufficient apology for the
space which the very full abstract, begin
ming on the first page, absorbs. In WASH
ington the anxiety to hear the distinguish
ed Senator on a subject on which he feels
deeply and strongly was intense, and we
doubt not that a similar interest exists
throughout the country to read the speech.
Philadelphia Press.
In the main Mr.. Sumner avoided the
merits of the annexation scheme, and the
reply to be made by the friends of the
President will, it is to be presumed, turn
upon questions of fact. Mr.. Sumner charges
the President with having violated the
law of nations and the Constitution of the
United States in guaranteeing protection
to Baez from interference on the part of
Hayti, and in support of his position quotes
freely from the records of the State and
Navy Department.. The charge thus
brought against the President is a grave
one, and it will, no doubt, be answered,
but with what success remains to be
SEEM Cincinnati Gazette.
Nothing could be more opportune than
his selection Of the time for the delivery of
this crushing speech. The Santo Domingo
Commission will return to Washington
just when Mr.. Summers scathing exposure
is the reigning sensation, and their report
will sail in the wake of speech which
must break and nullify its influence. Their
glowing account of the fertility and re-
sources of the island will be regarded as an
by public which is palpi-
tating with indignation at the machinery
Of menace and intimidation set it motion
by General Grant.-N Y. World.
Mr.. Summers denunciation of the Presi-
dent as the head of San Domingo Ku-
klux Khan, and his singing assertion that
the same attention to the South
was bitterly unjust. Everybody who
knows intimately the events and the men
of the South, and the attitude of President
Grant, knows the deep and abiding ear
nestness of his desire for peace and entire
protection. He has done everything with
in his authority and his means to protect
and defend loyal men. In this regard the
President has, beyond dispute, done the
best he could.
Therefore the vast audience felt the
grievous wrong of that portion of the
harsh comparison. There was q sort of
startled hush, and then recoil Of SYM |
pathy from the speaker. Nor did he again |
.egain that sympathy. These passages, as |
. fragment Of philippe, were superb as
criticism, they were totally unfair, and |
damaged the subject far less than the |
luthor.
The speech Of Senator Sumner, as also |
perhaps the events which called it forth, |
will be regarded with general regret |
the country. The speech itself |
will have far less weight and influence |
han any recent great effort of the justly
eminent and honored Senator Wash |
Chronicle.