Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1872-09-20
MR.. SUMMERS CHARACTERzS-
TICS.
A singular1T Accurate Sketch.


him the greatest Of causes, march
ing toward the loftiest Of heights,
he has neither swerved nor bent,
but has walked with head erect, not
picking his path, not calculating his
course. His eyes are ever fixed up
on the goal, and the straight line is
the only one he knows. The end
being always clear to his percep-
tions, which are always undimmed,
he will not recognize any diversity
of means. He has never sought
assistance; welcomed counsel, or
endcavored to. disarm opposition.
''Doubts and scruples'' have never
shaken him.-"I never asked" he
tells us, "who were my associates or
how many they would number In
the consciousness of right 1 was
willing to be alone The sincerity
Of this declaration is attested by
the fact that, with all his familiarity
with the arts Of oratory, persuasion,
the most effective and the chief, is
one which he has seldom or never
employed. Invective and denuncia-
ton, on the other hand, he has cul-
tivated to their EXTREMIST point.
But for the innumerable quotations
by which he allows us to perceive
the variety Of his knowledge, we
might suppose that his classical
readings had been confined to the
Pai7ippics They have at least been
the models on which his oratory has
been formed. Virulence holds the
same place in his method as l'audace
did in that of Danton. Never has
he sought to allay an excitement, to
smooth away a difficulty, or heal
division. One might almost say,
indeed, that in his long career there
has been no breach into which he
has not thrust a wedge, no wound
into which he has not dropped
poison. At the outset of the great
struggle for the overthrow of. sla-
very he embittered it by his fierce
ness and acrimony, and great
as were the direct services he rem
dered, his indirect services, if such
they can be called, in provoking
violence and outrage that drew forth
the indignation of the country, were
immeasurably greater. In the rup-
ture that took place between Andrew
johnson and the party that elected
him, Mr.. Sumner was among the
most active in tanning the quarrel
and driving it to extremities; and
if any one wishes to find an excuse
for the poor irritable occupant of
the Presidential chair, he has only
to turn to the Senator's own account
Of the lectures with which, he had
been wont to goad him. In our dis
pute with England, arising out of
her conduct during the war, the re-
collection of that absurd and inham-
matory Grafton which, but for the
calm good sense ofthe nation, would
have plunged us into another con-
flict, has been revived by it's disas-
trous ''indirect consequences" and
while we willingly admit that if the
negotiations had been conducted by
Mr.. Sumner, they would have been
differently managed, and would
have been quickly broken off, yet he
cannot escape a large share of the
responsibility for our having been
plunged into the slime through
which we have had to wriggle with
an eel-like sinuosity. Finally, in
the discords that have arisen with
in the Republican party, Mr.. Sum-
ner has concentrated all his ener-
gies to heighten them, pouring into
the speech in which he summoned
the President before the bar of the
nation all the venom that could be
distilled by passion or rhetoric.
The sense Of injury which SO inten-
sites its tone, may form some ex-
cuse for the animosity displayed in
it, but must throw correspon ding
suspicion over its statements and
arguments. Nor with all the SYM
pathy that was felt for Mr.. Sumner
when he lost his position on the
Committee on Foreign Relations,
was there any certainty that
wrong had been done to him. He
himself cannot have forgotten that
when Lord Brougham, man of far
greater capacity and a far. wider
range of knowledge-one, too, who
had rendered incompatible greater
service to his party and his country
was dropped from the Wing Min
istry as reconstructed by Lord Mel
bourne, it was readily understood
that his domineering temper, impa-
tient spirit and want Of tact made
the change inevitable. If Mr.. Sum
ner is superior to the weaknesses
that make companionship and CO.
operation possible, he can have no
right to complain of his isolation,
or to characterize as quarrelsome-
ness "the powerful letting alone
which he receives. No one, so far
as we know, has quarreled with him;
but our Presidents, from Mr.. Fill
more downward, have been shy of
him. Perhaps it may be otherwise
with his new associates. Froude
has remark about Henry VIII, to
the effect that he succeeded well
enough in his dealings with persons
Of his own sex, and was unfortunate
only in his relations with the other
If we may infer that there is gen
eral rule Of this kind, and that til.
converse holds equally true, we arc
bound to assume that Mr.. Suumel
has never been otherwise than hap
Ply in his relations with ladies.
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| 4 positive specific. Sold 70 Nader
Il Lane, N. Y. Price, 25 cents PEI
pot or box. Ask for new style; thu
, old is counterfeited, 90