Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1871-04-06
Henry Ward Beecher on the Re-
mOval of NIr. Summer. .-
From the New York Christian Union.


mOval of MIR. Summer.
/ From the New York Christian Union.]
The Senate of the United States hav
decided that the public good required tha
another man should take Mr.. Sumner
place as chairman of the committee OF
foreign relations. We presume this ste
was taken on purely Administrative
grounds 1t was believed that at a criti
cal period in the negotiations of affair
important to a degree seldom surpassed
in the lifetime of a nation, the admins
tration and the country could be better
served by another man, who, though b,
would not surpass Mr.. Summer in nobl,
integrity, nor approach him in learning
might have the capacity of being better
| counsellor, and a temper which should
DOT offend the selfrespect of those wht
were obliged to maintain confidential re
lations with him. If Mr.. Sumner haG
been turned out of his position or
account of his lifelong advocacy Of
liberty, or on account of bis fidelity
to great national interests, or because
be honestly held views of policy diff
fering from those of the President, or
because he boldly stood up for the indie.
pendence and dignity Of the Senate
against the Vaccinations of q seductive
and scheming executive, every impartial
man in the nation world have cried
shame, and would have crowned him q
martyr. But no such supposition is true.
The whole truth, we suppose, lies in this,
that, with all his eminent sxcellencies,
Mr.. Sumner does not know how to yield
anything to others. He does not know
how to have conscience supreme over
himself without making it supreme over
others. 1t is no news that the eminent
Senator is a man of singular purity of
life, of great disinterestedness, of ire
proachable fidelity, of great kindness OF
heart, Of unbounded industry and of great
learning. But it is less widely known
that he makes his own convictions the inn
perious law of other men's. that he is apt
to regard as personal foes all who do not
accept his Judgments, that he il II poor
leader and worse follower?
1t was stated in debate in the Senate
that Mr.. Sumner was not in social rela-
tions either with the President or with
the Secretary of State. The charge was
not denied; it was only met by saying
that Mr.. Sumner was at all times ready
to confer with Gen. Grant or Mr.. Fish on
public affairs Are these gentlemen
likely to profit by the counsels of a man
who refuses to recognize them on one
side of the council-room door and only
knows them officially on the other side ?
One may transact mere routine business
with an arrogant ofhce-holder, but in
matters of counsel, requiring confidential
=. 90
pose that the President can be benefited
by one who looks down on General Grant
with enduring anger and imperionsiy re-
fuses him social recognition. 10 put
personal enemy at the head of the COM
mittee through which the President is to
be in sympathy with the Senate. is AS If a
gentleman shoult attach a galvanie bat
terry to the bell pull of his door, and then
marvel that people preferred to transact
their business with somebody else 1t is
to be regretted that this action of the
Senate took place, and still more that 1t
was necessary TO have it take place
Bnt the country will hold the Presi-
dent responsible for the -sAttlanaan. of tue
difficulties which have long threatened
to embroil two great nations that ought
to be helpful to each other, and whose
falling out would be hailed with delight
by every despotic throne in Christendom.
The Anglo-Saxon race should stand to-
gether over the whole world. In nego.
tiating an honorable and lasting settle
ment of threatening difficulties, the Presi-
dent has a right to demand that he shall
have the friendly help of the best men in
the government, and no man whose tenn
per will not permit him to speak to the
President should consider it strange that
another is put in his place who knows
how TO treat the President as a gentle
man.
1t is not wise to become alarmed at the
excitement and clamor raised by this
action of the Senate. The immediate
logic for consideration is, What will be
its effect upon the settlement of our diff
culties with Great Britain That is Just
now the business in hand. It is our opin-
ion that Mr.. Sumner in his former posi-
ton was constantly liable to endanger the
peace of the two countries, and that his
subsistence into the body of the Senate
will be favorable to just and amicable
settlement. 1t is feared by some and
hoped by others that deadly wound has
been given to the Republican
party tndt party uds 81 eieh-
der a hold upon the country that
the change of a chairman in Senate COM
mittee can destroy it, it is time that it be
destroyed. But we have no such belief,
and have no fears as to its danger. Mr..
Wilson spoke with the exaggeration of
excited feeling when he declared that
ninety in hundred in the party would
he offended by this action. In fact, Mr.
Sumner is not a man to win personal in
fiuence among the common people, or to
create popular enthusiasm toward himself
The men who will regret this history are
the moral and thoughtful men of the par
ty, and such men will revise their first
impressions. They will not, at any rate,
abandon the party on such slender reasons
as the dispossession of trusted and hon.
ored man from place of influence. This
is one of those political whirlwinds to
which our politics are subject, whose very
violence will make it of short duration.