National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-03-18
MR. SUMNER - PRACTICAL
aTESNAN SHIP.

Now that Mr.. Sumner has been laid away
in his last resting place and the public COM
ment regarding his life and character all
but ceased, it seems strange indeed to look
back upon the sombre ceremonies attending
his obsequies, and it seems difficult to real
ize that he has gone to return no more. His
friends admit with pride, and his enemies,
If the dead have enemies, are forced TO con-
sent that no figure among the leaders of the
people, the President alone excepted, could
have been stricken down as he was with as
much consequent mourning for the loss of e
single man as that which has followed his
death. Alive and in the performance of
public duty one day, he was down and in
the cold embrace of death the next, leaving
q void in the ranks of his cotemporaries
which could only be created by his depar-
ture. Others, of the Senate and among the
leaders Of both parties in the country, would
have been missed and mourned, but not as
he has been. He had served the public
80 long and had become SO thoroughly
and clearly identified with public affairs,
that his prominence above his peers
was remarkable. Yet he has left behind
him not a single completed law of his own
direct authorship which will serve as an
exponent of, his steadfastness to principle
great or small. His speeches and his let
tiers, pregnant as they are with the true
emotion of free republicanism, form the
only record by which future generations
will Judge him. While he led the way,
often SO far in advance of public opinion as
to seem regardless of it, less adventurous
and perhaps less honest men followed in
his path cleaning the ripe fruit of his SOW
ing No one will dispute that his mind
conceived the possibility of the constitu-
tional amendments long before they became
practical; but when they became SO. he
was cropping far ahead among the theories
and clouds of an obscure future. He thun-
dered with the eloquence of seer, and
minds which compared with his were
pigmy indeed, forged the bolts of his
rhetoric into enduring law. It is truly
said that he was the friend of the COL
ored race but aside from some matters
of minor import, he never actually accom-
plished any definite benefit for his colored
friends. 1t was Characteristic of him, and
it was the kind of chivalry of which he was
capable, in defence of the defenceless, SO to
speak, that he should espouse the cause of
colored woman, an employee of the Senate,
who had been rudely and illegally thrust
from train of cars to her physical injury.
He did it because he saw that great prin-
ciple, for which he had made a life long
battle, was involved; but no practical bene-
fit to the race at large followed from this
friendly act to a single member of It. He
was capable of the refinement of generous
attention to the single wants of a lowly indi-
vidual, as this act clearly proved; but in the
towering. force OF his comprehensive justice
he was incapable of reducing his theories
to definite application. He generalized in
the most convincing and acceptable sense of
the term; but he failed to particularize, ex-
cept in desultory and useless way. He
msde enemies for himself and his prin-
ciples by his especial recognition of
the practical workings of his theory
Of equal rights; but at the same time
commanded the admiration of his enc
mics by the honest purity of his motives.
Fanatic as he seemed to be to many, his was
not the fanaticism Of q scheming and selfish
politician, but rather of devotee who was
not afraid to practice what he preached.
Yet he failed to reduce the precepts Of his
preaching to that kind of practicability
which would make them beneficial to the
objects Of his solcitude. In brief Mr..
Sumner was entirely theoretical. His
''negrophalism, as his enemies loved to
call it, did not prove this any more than his
failure to reduce other theories which he
entertained; including that Of the graceful
arbitration Of international differences To
practical conclusions We regret. then.
that he groped far ahead Of his day. and
was habitually lost among the possibilities
Of the future. His example may serve to
ipur the ambitious youth Of to-day with
spirit OF emulation but, two generations
hence, be win be rsuembered A AN
orator Of mark in his time, md a, the
practical historian searches the ree.
ords OF American law to And the
names Of men who originated and were