Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1872-08-28
William Lloyd Garrison
TO
cH ARLES s So M N & R.
Review Of the senatOr,s Career.


DEAR Mr.. SUMNER Though ]
should be strongly induced, by the
friendship subsisting between us, 70
avoid taking a position antagonist
cal to your own, under ordinary cir
cumstanees, even if I deemed it errO-
neous, yet all personal considerations
must be subordinated to the public
welfare when seriously imperilled.-
You do not believe in silence in cri-
sis like the present, nor do !. In
your recent letter to certain cOlored
citizens of Washington, you have
spoken plainly. vehemently. and
with rhetorical amplification mot for
the first time), in utter condemnation
OF the President of the United States;
and your advice to the whole body OF
colored voters is, that they coneen-
trate their suffrages upon rival can
didate in the person of Horace Gree
ley.
In reviewing your letter 1 propose
to speak with equal plainness, and as
earnestly to counsel my colored
countrymen not to follow your lead
in this matter, but, as voters, to move
unitedly for the reelection of Presi-
dent Grant, for every consideration
pertaining to their safety and happi-
ness, to the cause of equal rights and
to the furtherance of national peace
and unity.
In apOIogizing for your delay in
answering the letter of inquiry re.
ferred to, you stste thar you "wished
to be aided by the Information which
time might supply" The kind Of
information you desired or expected
to gain in the brief space of seventeen
DAYS is left to conjecture; in view
of your long avowed estrangGment
from the present Chief Magistrate, it
could not have been needed to inten-
sify your hostility to his administra-
ton. Your reply is dated July 29,
and it appears to have been as care
fully timed to influence the election
in North Carolina on the lst of Au-
gust, before anything could be done
to neutralize its effect, as was your
Grant indictment speech in the SEN
ate to determine the action OF the
Philadelphia Convention. These CO.
medicines may have been accidental,
but YOU must not be surprised If,
owing to the well-known infiamma-
ble state of your mind, a general be-
lief obtains that you have unfairly
availed yourself of opportunities TO
work a fatal division in the Republic
can ranks.
It affords you much qualification to
be singled out by your colored inter.
rOgators as 1.-THE special advocate of
their rights" But this is an as
sumption which justice, as well as
becoming modesty, should have led
you to disclaim, even if it was meant
only to describe your Congressional
career. Similar advocates have from
time to time stood bravely up, both
in the Senate and the House of Rep
resentatives-Wilson, Hale, Wade,
Chase, Giddings, Mann, LOvejoy,
Julian. Palfrey, Thaders Stevens,
Gerritt Smith and Others-whO, if
not as copious and ornate in speech as
have been as unfiinching
and in their turn most bitterly de-
to say nothing of the thous-
ands of anti-slavery men and women
whose lot it was to pass through the
heat and burden of the conflict,
in season and out of season,
nearly a score OF years before your
voice was heard in support of their
holy cause. You have since rendered
eminent service to that cause your
of it has been great and !
but to claim it as pecu- |
liar at this late day, as though you |
stood alone and almost single-handed |
is a personal appropriation very tar
removed from self-abnegatiOn, and
quite unwarranted.
Al
Of thirty years moral and religious |
agitation for the overthrow of slavery |
has crushed a vsst sectional rebellion |
for the erection of an independent /
slave empire; has emaGcipated four
millions of bOndmen, and elevated
them to the plane Of American citi-
Zenship; has reconstructed the re-
bellious States on a common eonsti-
basis, with universal liberty;
has brought order out of chaos, gener-
Al tranquility out of widespread dis
affection, unexampled prosperity out
Of frightful devastation and has ad-
ganced the banner of liberty and
equality far beyond the expectation
Dr. hope of any man living ten years
ago. The day has gone by, therefore,
or any one to exhibit remarkable
or eonspicuity in the advoea-
" of any measure in behalf OF the
rights and interests of our colored
except, indeed, where the
Did slavehOlding spirit still exercises
at the South. Nor is it per
,inent to the occasion to talk of their
infinite rongs," now that they are
and enfranchised, sup
1lied with multitudinous schools and
eachers, free to make their own con-
racts as Independent laborers, pro-
ected as husbands and wives, bound
Ogether as parents and children,
TOting and being voted for, pursuing
all proft ssiOnal employ.
nents, steadily augmenting their !
lome comforts and laying up wealth,
stations of trust and emol-
lment, and having their representa-
ives in every Southern Legislature
nd on the floor of Congress. True,
n certain localities thew are still