Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-03-22
HENRY WARD BEECHER ON THE
REMOVAL OF MR.. SUMNER.
lFrom the New York Christian Union.


The Senate of the United States have de-
cided that the public good required that an
other man should take Mr.. Summers place as
chairman Of the committee on foreign rela-
tions. We presume this step was taken on
purely administrative grounds. 1t was be-
lieved that at a critical period in the negotia-
tons of affairs important to a degree seldom
surpassed in the lifetime of nation, the ad-
ministration and the country could be better
served by another man, who, though he
would not surpass Mr.. Sumner in noble in
tegrity, nor approach him in learning, might
have the capacity of being better counsellor,
and temper which should not offend the self
respect of those who were obliged to main
tain confidential relations with him. 1T Mr..
Sumner had been turned out of his position
on account of his life long advocacy of liber-
ty, or on account of his fidelity to great ma
tional interests or because he honestly held
views Of policy differing from those of the
President, or because he boldly stood up for
the independence and dignity of the Senate
against the Vaccinations of seductive and
scheming executive, every impartial man in
the nation would have cried shame, and
would have crowned him martyr. But no
such supposition is true. The whole truth,
we suppose, lies in this, that, with all his en-
inent excellencies, Mr.. Sumner does not
know how to yield anything to others. He
does not know how to have a conscience SUI
preme over himself without making it supreme
over others. 1t is no news that the eminent
Senator is man of singular purity of life, of
great disinterestedness, of irreproachable
fidelity, of great kindness of heart of unbound-
ed industry and of great learning. But it is
less widely known that he makes his own con-
victions the imperious law of other mems,
that he is apt to regard as personal foes all
who do not accept his judgments, that he is a
poor leader and a worse follower.
1t was stated in debate in the Senate that
Mr.. Sumner was not in social relations 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 General 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 AFRO
giant of6ce-holder, but in matters of counsel,
requiring confidential consultations, it is pre-
posterous to suppose that the President can
be benefited by one who looks down on Gen
eral Grant with enduring anger and imperi-
ously refuses him social recognition. TO
put personal enemy of the President at the
head of the committee through which the
is as if gentleman should attach galvanic
battery to the .bell-pull of his door, and then
marvel that people preferred to transact their
business with somebody else 1t is to be re-
GREETED that this action of the Senate took
place, and IT'LL more that it was necessary to
have it take place. But the country will hold
the President responsible for the settlement
of the difficulties which have long threatened
to embroil two great nations that ought to be
t,1yr. H.,I - .oIo ell
would be hailed with delight by every despotc
throne in Christendom. The Anglo Saxon
race should stand together over the whole
world. In negotiating an honorable and lasting
settlement of threatening difficulties, the
President has right to demand that he shall
have the friendly help of the best men in the
government, and no man whose temper 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 Pres-
dent as gentleman.
1t is not wise to become alarmed at the ex-
element and clamor raised by this action of
the Senate. The immediate topic for con-
sideration is, What will be its effect upon the
settlement OF our difficulties with Great Brit
am! That is just now the business in hand.
II Is our opinion that Mr.. Sumner in his for
mer position was constantly liable to endanger
the pac cot the two countries and that his
subsidence 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 repub- |
lican party. If that party has so slender
hold upon the country that the change OF
chairman in Senate committee 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 ex-
aggeration of excited feeling when he declar
ed that ninety in hundred in the party would
be offended by this action. In fact Mr..
Sumner IL not a man to win personal influence
among the common people, or to create popu-
lar enthusiasm toward himself. The men who
will regret this history are the moral and
thoughtful men of the party, and such men
will revise their first impressions. They will
not 1t any rate, abandon the party on such
slender reasons the dispossession of a
trusted and honored man from a place of in
fuence. This is one of those political whirl-
winds to which our politics are subject, whose
very violence will make it Of short duration.