The true northerner., 1872-09-06
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON.
His Letter to Senator Sumner
The Massachusetts Senator'S Career
Northumberland Of tho
Present Campaign.

sachusetts
DEAR Mr.. SUMNER; Though should be
strongly induced, by the friendship subsist-
ing between us, to avoid taking a position
antagonistic 10 you own, under ordinary
circumstances, even if deemed il errone-
Gus, yet all personal considerations must be
subordnated to the public welfare when Sc
riously imperiled. You do not believe in
silence in crisis like the present nor do l.
In your recent letter TO certain coored cit-
zens of Washington you have spoken plain
ly, vehemently, and with rhetorical ampli-
fcaton mot for the first time) in utter con
demnation 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 per-
son of Horace Greeley.
In reviewing your letter propose to speak
with equal plainness, and as earnestly to
counsel my fellow 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 pertain
ing to their safety and happiness, to the
cause of equal rights, and to the turtheranee
OF national peace and unity.
IL apologizing tor your delay in answering
the letter of inquiry referred to, you state
you "wished to be aided by the information
which time might supply" The kind of ip-
formation you desired or expected to gain III
the brief space of seventeen days is left to
conjecture; but, in view of your long -avowed
arrangement from the present Chief Mag
strate, it could not have been needed to in
tensify your hostility to his Administration.
Your reply is dated July 80, and it appears
to have been as carefully timed to influence
the election in North Carolina on the lst of
August, before anything could be done to
neutralize its effect, as was your Grant in
dictment speech in the Senate to determine
the action of the Philadel phia Convention.
dental, but you must not be surprised If,
owing to the well-known inhsmmabe state
of your mind, a general belief obtains that
you have unfairly availed yourself of oppor-
tunites to work fatal division in the Re-
publican ranks.
1t affords you much qualification to be
singled out by your 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
disclaim, even lift was meant only to describe
your Congressional career. Similar advo-
Gates have, from time to time, stood bravely
up, both in the Senate and House of Repre-
sentatives-Wllson, Hale, Wade, Chase, Gid
dings, Mann, Lovejoy, Julian, Palfrey.
Thaddeus Stevens, Gerrit Smith and others
who, if not as copious and ornate in
speech are yourself, have been as untiinch-
ing and in their turn most bitterly de-
nounced, to say nothing OF the thousands of
anti-slavery men and women whose lot 1t
was to pass through the heat and burden of
the conflict, pleading, in season and out of
season, nearly score of years before your
veice was heard in support Of their holy
cause. You have since rendered eminent
service TO the cause; your advocacy of 1t b as
been great and meritorious; but to claim it
as peculiar at this late day, as though you
stood alone and almost single-handed, is a
personal appropriation very far removed
alf hna nd r
ranted.
The Republican party (the product OF
thirty years moral and religious agitation
for the overthrow of slavery has crushed
vast sectional rebellion for the erection OF
an independent slave empire; has emanci-
pated four millions of bondmen, and elevated
them to the plane of American citizenship;
has reconstructed the rebellious States on O
common constitutional basis with universal
liberty; has brought order out Of chaos, gen.
eral tranquility out of widespread disatfec-
tion, unexampled prosperity out of frightful
devastation; and has advanced the banner
of liberty and equality far beyond the ex-
pectation or hope of any man living ten
wears ago. The day has gone by, therefore
for any one to exhibit remarkable courage
or conspicuity in the advocacy of any meas
ure in behalf of the rights and interests OF
our colored population, except, indeed
where the old slaveholding spirit still exer-
cses mastery at the South. Nor is it peril
nent to the occasion to talk of their "nfnte
wrongs" now that they are emanci pate q
and enfranchised, supplied with multitude
nous schools and teachers, free to make theii
own contracts as independent laborers, pro
tected as husbands and wives, bound TO-
gether as husbands and children, voting ana
being voted for, pursuing successfully al
professional employments, stes dlly aug
menting their home comforts and laying W
~ trna "a
emolument, and having their representa-
tives in every Southern Legislature and or
the floor of Congress. True, in certain local
tiles they are still subjected to many lndlg
mites, and sometimes to horrible outrages
but these ere inflicted by that class of incor
rgible mscreants Of the South who are jus
now in happy afhliation with yourself Z
place Horace Greeley in the Presidential
chair! True, there is still, throughout th'
country, strong prejudice against socia
equality irrespective of color; but this j
steadily yielding, and in many cases ha
ceased to operate. The special time to ex
press sympathy for the "infinite wrongs o
the colored race was when they had few l.
interfere for their deliverance from the auc
tionblock and slave-cofile, from the slave
drivers CORY lash, from calling yokes AM
torturng thumb-screws, from the iangs o
the bloodhounds, from the clutches o
prowling kidnappers, from inconceivabl
agonlcs at the burning stake; and when Z
remember those in bonds as bound wit
them" led anywhere else than TO the hig
places Of the country. And ! always deepl
regret, too Gas ! am quite sure you now do
that for so many years after the commence
ment of the struggle TO effect that deliver
ance, when the elements were melting wit
fervent heat, and mooocratc violence fo
the suppression Of anti-slavery discussion
was everywhere prevalent, not excepting i
your own native city, you took no activ
part in that conflict, attended no anti-slav,
ry gatherings, gave no visible sign of liv,
ly interest In its success; for the first tim
bearing your public testimony against slav,
ry in opposing the annexation of Texa
When elected to the United States Senat
in 1851, you sat nearly eight months in thi
body, speeches in respect to the FugitiN
Slave bill, eliciting strong remonstranc,
against your protracted silence, seeing tina
as the successor of Mr.. Webster, your ele
ton was regarded as an important gain
the cause of impartial freedom. Your 6
lence was the more inexplicable, and fu
nished Just cause for uneasness, because,
aspeech made by yeu before going TO Was
ipgton, you said "The subject will n
admit of postponement or hesitation. 1t