National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-05-01
TIE CLoSIra EnnnnY

| In the House on Senator Sumner was by the
Hon. William A. Phillips, of Kansas:
Mr.. Phillips. Mr.. Speaker, shall saw hut
/ little, since no words could utter would add
10 the fame of the illustrious statesman And
yet come to offer humble tribute To hIs
memory from old free Kansas. The State
have In part the honor to represent, In its early
the warmest sympathy Of Charles Sumner
and called forth from him some OF the grandest
parliamentary efforts that dignity the history
of the Government.
His great speech on the crime against Kan
sas was not only animated by that spirit Of
Lofty philanthropy which ever came naturally
from his great, magnanimous heart, but was
thrilled through and through with the highest
conception OF popular liberty In America. That
speech, too, entailed on him long years Of
suffering, and was doubtless the means of pre-
maturely depriying his country of services she
III could spare, and the world Of LIE Is emil
nent as It was pure.
In the history Of the past twelve years,amone
the great men who may be styled the fathers
Of our second reYolution-the men who when
the storms beat and the winds blew, when the
timid were timid and the faithless faithless,
seized the very misfortunes and weaknesses
which threatened the Government, and heWed
them into the foundation-stones of q recon-
structed Republic-among these men six
Lincoln, Stevens, Seward, Stanton, and they
are all gone. They did their share of tho
work ably aud fearlessly, and God Almighty
blessed them in this, that ere they died they
bad the privilege of seeing peace and liberty
clasp hands across regenerated continent.
sumner was one OF the best types Of our
public men. A scholar so ripe, an orator so
eloquent, that as orator or scholar we may
justly feel proud Of him as the peer of any
orator or scholar Of any country or any time;
statesman who squared his principles by the
fundamental maxims Of right and wrong; q
politician whose sympathies were with the
downtrodden and the weak, and who gave to
humanity rather than TO party; gentleman,
withal, whose life was so dignIfed and pure
that even his enemies never dared with the
breath Of Islander to sully his fame.
Some men are great actors, others eminent
for executive ability; others are great thinkers
Among the latter no one was moro eminent
than Charles Sumner. He seized the fresh but
crude ideas as they hoated up from the public
mind, and nodded them into symmetry.
Always clinging to the fundamental maxims OF
equality and right, when dangers threatened
the edifce that is the safeguard for the security
and liberty Of forty millions Of people, he seized
the very necessities and dangers that threat
ened the country and planted them as the
pillars of 3 reconstructed empire.
Ours Is q government of the people. We all
feel most acutely the necessity that the public
pulse shall beat In unison with the outer and
inner life Of all our politics. He who aspires TO
this duty has double task; to appreciate and
mold public sentiment, and then to lead It.
In both Charles Sumner was eminent. He
stood like another Moses before the people.
The public mind was oppressed with danger,
and part of it befogged with prejudice. Old
Constitution theorists had peddled their doc
trines at every cross-road In the country.
Many true men wsvered, when Sumner,
standing with his compatriots, and, Ike tina
ancient prophets, seizing the rod directly from
the hands Of God Almighty, the rod Of eternal
justice, smote it upon the troubled waters and
babe the murmuring people ''Go forward P'
Step by step they led them higher, higher,
step BY step, until, on the top of another
Mount Pisgah they, amid the uncertainties,
the storm and the darkness, saw the promised
land OF future American politics stretched out
for the feet of progressive people. When Mr..
Sumner spoke he spoke not only to the Senate
Chamber-the republic was his, auditorium.
His speeches went forth freighted with the
best life and thoughts of the time; went forth
to the whole country, to arouse q universal
interest and provoke universal utterance.
His sudden death was not the extinction Of
life, but It's apotheosls. His monument IL
built in the history of bis country. To-day we
stand reVerently before the great dead, while
all the shadows Of conflicting opinion and the
bitterness Of partisanship have melted away.