The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1874-05-07

NIX toPEAhERs L rise TO second thu
resolutions presented by the memberfron
Massachusetts. | believe that they ex
press sentiment which peryades IT,,
hearts OF ali the people whose representa-
tives are here assembled. Strange, as il
looking back upon the past, the assertion
may seem impossible as it would have
been ten years ago to make il, it is not les,
true, that to-day Mississippi regrets the
death Of Charles Sumner and as sincerely
unItes III paying honors 10 his memory.
Not because oi the splender Of his intel
iect; Tot because OF the high culture, ele
CANT scholarship, and varied learnngs
which revealed themselves 50 clearly il
ali hiS pubic efforts rs t. justify the ap
pHcatIou 10 ham Of Johnston's frlicitou.
expression: He touched nothing which
he did not ad1rn;" not this, but because
OF those peculiar and strongly marked
moral traits Of his character which gave a
coloripg to the whole tenor Of his singu-
larry dramatic public career, making him
for Il long period toa large portion Of his
cOuutrymen the object Of as deep and
passionate hostility as to another he was
one Of enthusiastic admiration, and
which are not the less the causes that now
I
/ In a common sorrow to-day over his IifeIess
remains.
/ Mr.. Lamar went on to speak Of the
| high moral qualities Of Mr.. umner, and
/ of the characteristics which brought the
/ illustrious Senator, just passed away, into
| direct and bitter antagOnism for wears
/ with his own State and her sister States
Of the South Charles Sumner YVES born
/ with an instructive love of freedom. and
was educated from his earliest infancy to
| the belief that freedom is the natura
| right Of all having the outward form of
man. To behold a human being, or a
race Of human beings, restrained of what
/ he deemed their natural rights to liberty
/ tor no crime they had committed, was to
/ feel all the belHgerent instincts Of his
| nature reused to combat. The fact was
| TO him . wrong which 10 logic could
| justify. 1t maltcTed not to him how
/ humble in the scale OF rational beings the
| subject OF this restraint might be, bow
| dark his skin, or how dense his ignorance;
| behind all that lay for him the great
| principle that liberty Is the birthright of
all humanity, and that every individual,
| of every race, who has a soul to save, is
entitled to freedom which may enable him
! to work ouJ his >uIyat on II mattered not
| to him that the slave might be contented
| with hislot; that his actual condition might
| be mmeasurabiy more desired than that
| from which It had transplanted him; that
/ it gave him the physical comfort, mental
/ elevation, and religious truth possessed
| by his race in no other condition; that his
bonds had NOT been placed upon his hands
nv 40 81
social system OF which he formed an
element mad been regarded by the fathers
Of the Republic, and by the ablest states
men who had risen up after them, as not
calculated to be thrown up without danger
to society itself, or even to civilization, or,
finally, that the actual state Of things had
been recognized and explicitly sanctioned
by the very organic law OF the Republic.
Weighty as these considerations might be,
formidable us the d.tfitui,iss in the way
OF the practical enforcement Of his great
principle. he held not the less that it
must, sooner or later, be enforced,
though Institutions and constitutions
shall have TO give way alike before it.
But here let me 10 this great man the
justice which, amid the cxcitements of
the struggle between the sections now
past, may have been disposed to deny
him. In his fiery zeal and his earnest
warfare against wrong, as he viewed it.
there entered no enduring personal ami |
mostly toward the men whose lot it was
to be born to the system which he de- |
nOunced. 1t has been kindness of SYM
pathy which in these later years he has |
displayed toward the impr0vident and |
suffering people Of the Southern States |
that has unveiled to me the tender and |
generous heart which beat beneath the |
bosom Of the zealot, and has forced me to t
yield him the tribute Of my respect, |
l might even say Of my admiration.
Nor in the manifestation of this has |
there been anything which a proud and |
sensitive people, smarting under sense
Of recent discontinue and present suffer |
ing, might not frankly accept, or which
would give them just cause to suspect its |
sincerity; for, though he raised his voice
as soon as he believed the momentous |
issues of this great military conflict were
decided, one half Of amnesty to the van
pushed. and though he stood forward |
ready to welcome back as brothers, and to
re-establish in their rights as citizens those
whose valor had so nearly riven asunder
the Union which he loved, he always |
insisted that the most ample protection |
and largest safeguards should be thrown
around the liberties Of the newly-enfran-
chised African race. Though he knew |
very well that of his conquered fellow
citizens of the South by far the larger |
portion, even those VINO most heartily |
acquiesced in and desired the abolition of /
seriously questioned the expedi-
ency of investigating in a single day, and
without any preliminary tutelage, so vast
a body of inexperienced and uninstructed
men with the full rights of citizenship and
suffrage, he would tolerate no halfway
measures upon a point to him so vi
tai
It was certainly a gracious act toward
the South. though unhappiy it Jared
upon the sensibilities OF the people at the
other extreme Of the Union, to propose to
erase from the banners of the national
army the mementOe~ Of the bloody inter-
nal struggle which might be regarded as
assailing the pride or wounding the sensi-
bilities Of the Southern people. That
proposal will never be forgotten by that
people so long as the name of Charles
Sumner lives in the memory OF man. But
while it touched the heart and elected
profound gratitude. her people would not
have asked of the North such an act of
Conscious that they
themselves were animated by devotion to
liberty, and that the bright
est pages of history are repete with
evidence of the depth and sincerity Of that
devotion, they can but cherish recolIec-
tons o. the battles fought and victories
won in defense Of their hopeless cause, |
and respecting, as all true and brave men /