The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-08-08
THE PR ESS.
THURSDAY MORNING, AUG. s, 1879.
: Garrison vs.. Sumner.
VIM. LLOYD GARRISON TO CHAs. SUMNER.

VIM. LLOYD GARRISON TO CHAs. SUMNER.
BosToN, August 3, 1872
Dear Mr.. Sumner Though | should be
strongly induced, by the friendship subsisting
between us, to avoid taking position antag-
onlstlcal to your own, under ordinary circum-
stances, even if l deemed it erroneous, vet all
personal considerations mast be subordinated
to the public welfare when seriously imper-
iled. You do not believe in silence in a
crisis like the present, nor do l. In your re-
cent letter to certain colored citizens of
Washington, you have spoken plainly, vehe-
mently and with rhetorical amplification (not
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 concentrate their suffrages upon a
rival candidate in the person of Horace Gree
ley. -aa Ha
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 President
Grant, for every consideration pertaining to
their safety and happiness, to the cause of
| equal rights, and to the furtherance of ma
tional peace and unity.
In apologiZing for your delay in answering
the letter of inquiry referred to, you state
that you "wished to be aided by the informa-
tiOn 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; but, in view of your long avowed
estrangement from the present Chief Magis-
trate, it could not have been needed to in
tensify your hostility TO his administration.
Your reply is dated July 20, and it appears to
have been as carefully timed to influence the
election in North Carolina ON the first of
AnpnSt hafnra apytbinn noI1 ho 10
neutralize its effect, as was your Grant indict-
mcnt speech in the Senate to determine the
action of the Philadelphia Convention. These
condolences may have been accidental, but
you must not be surprised, if owing to the
well-known inflammable state of your mind,
general belief obtains that you have fairly
availed yourself of opportunities to work a
fatal division in the Republican ranks.
1t affords you much qualification to be sin
gled out by your colored interrogators as
''the special advocate of their rights But
this is an assumption which justice, as well
as becoming modesty, should have led you to
| disclain even if it was meant only to des-
cribe your Congressional career. Similar ad-
vocates have, from time to time, stood brave
| ly up, both in the Senate and in the House
of Representatives-Wi Wilson, Hale, Wade,
Chase, Giddings, Mann, Lovejoy, Julian,
Palfrey, Thaddeus Stevens, Gerrit Smith and
| OtuClo-WAO, IL IOb % COplOuS duu OIuAJC
speech as yourself have been as unfinching,
and, in their turn, most bitterly denounced,
to say nothing of the thousands of men and
women whose lot it was to pass through the
| heat and burden of the conflict, pleading, in
season and out of season, nearly score of
years before your voice was heard in support
| of their holy canse. You have since rendered
| eminent service to that cause; your advoca-
| cy of it has been great and meritorious; but
| to claim it as peculiar at this late day, as
though you stood alone, and almost single
handed, is personal appropriation very tar
removed from selfabnegation, and quite un-
| warranted.
The Republican party (the product of
thirty years moral and religious agitation for
the overthrow of slavery has crushed a vast
sectional rebellion for the erection OF an indie
pendent slave empire; has emancipated four
millions of bondmen, and elevated them to
the plane of American citizenship; has recon-
| structed the rebellious States on common
constitutional basis, with universal liberty
has brought order out of chaos, general
| tranquility out of widespread disaffection,
anexampled prosperity out of frightfal devas-
| tation; and has advanced the banner of liberty
far beyond the expectation or hope of any
man living ten years ago. The day has gone
| by, therefore, for any one to exhibit remark
able courage or conspicuity in the advocacy of
| duy Il6cSuT6 Ill DcIldlI Vi tuc TlSIIS anu
| interests of our colored population, except,
indeed, where the old slave-holding spirit still
exercises mastery at the South. Nor is it
| pertinent to the occasion to talk of their Sin
| finite wrongs" now that they are emanci pat
| ed and enfranchised, supplied with multitude
! nous schools and teachers, free to make their
own contracts as independent laborers, pro-
tected as husbands and wives, bound together
as parents and children, voting and being
voted for, pursuing successfully all professional
employments, steadily augmenting their
home comforts and laying up wealth, having
their representatives in every Southern Legis-
lature and on the floor of Congress. True,
in certain localities they are still subjected to
| many indignities, and sometimes to horrible
| outrages; but these are inflicted by that class
of incorrigible miscreants at the South who
are just now in happy affiiation with yourself
to place Horace Greeley in the Presidential
chair! True there is still throughout the
country, a strong prejudice against social
equality irrespective of color; but this is
steadily yielding, and in many cases has
ceased to operate. The special time to ex-
press sympathy for the ''infinite wrongs" of
the colored race was when they had few to
interfere for their deliverance from the slave
drivers CORY lash, from calling yokes and
| torturing thumb-screws, from the tangs OF
pursuing bloodhounds, from the clutches of
prowling kidnappers, from inconceivable ago
nes at the burning stake; and when to
remember those in bonds as bound with
them" led anywhere else than to the high
places of the country. And l always regret,
| too las am quite sure you do nOw), that for
| so many years after the commencement of
| the struggle to effect that deliverance, when
| the elements were melting with fervent heat,
and mobocratic violence for the suppression
| of anti-slavery was everywhere prevalent, not
| excepting in your own native city, you took
no active part in that conflict, attending no
| anti-savery gatherings, gave no visible sign of
| lively interest in its success; for the first
time bearing your public testimony against
slavery in opposing the annexation of Texas.
| When elected to the United States Senate, in
| 1851, you sat nearly eight months in that
body speechless in respect to the Fugitive
| Slave bill, eliciting strong remonstrances
| against your protracted silence, seeing that,
as the successor of Mr.. Webster, your election
was regarded as an important gain to the
cause of impartial freedom. Your silence
was the more inexplicable, and furnished just
cause for uneasiness, because, in a speech
made by you before going to Washington, you
said: "The subject will not admit of post
| ponement or hesitation. 1t is the subject of
subjects. From this time forward it will be
entertained by Congress; it will be, as it were,
one Of the orders Of the day; it cannot be
| passed over or forgotten. we demand,
first and foremost, the instant repeal of the
Fugitive Slave bill.'' You took your seat in
the Senate, December 1, 1851; it was not
until the 9th of July 1852, that you rose TO
advocate that repeal, apologetically prefacing
your remarks by saying: 'Had L attempted
this duty at an earlier day, it might have
been said that as a newcomer and inexperi-
enced in this scene, without deliberation,
hastily, rashly, recklessly, pushed this ques-
ton before the country" Surely, no true
friend of humanity would have made such a
fling, and the possible sneers of its enemies
were not deserving moments consideration.
Besides, the discussion has been going on
throughout the land ever since the passage of
the Fugitive Slave bill, so that to talk of
pushing the question" upon the public
attention was misapplication of language.
Nevertheless, once putting your hand to
the plow, you did not look back; once break
ing the painful silence, you have not ceased
to speak, with great boldness and rare elo-
quence, ,or the complete enfranchisement OF
the colored race. Nor have failed to stand
by you through evil report and through good
report, cheering you on, and both in public
and in private indicating you from the un-
just attacks of your pro-slavery traducers.
My reference to the early days of anti-slavery
trial is not to tear from your brow one of the