Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1874-03-20
the er-Ocean.
OBITUARY.
Charles Sumner.

OAbXAOB 0W"00V.
The name Of this great scholar
and statesman has been household
word throughout the length and
breadth of the United States for sc
many years that the news of hi.
death, even to those who have diff
fered with him upon political prin
ciples, will come like the shock
which succeeds the falling of some
mighty column. For fifty years the
name Of Charles Sumner has been
associated with all that is great
and dignified, and learned. For
eigners have singled him ont among
men as the representative OF cultur-
ed craftsmanship and manhood
His commanding presence in the
Senate ofthe United States has been
pointed at by his countrymen with a
national pride; and despite his in
firmities Of judgment-aDd what
great man is without them?-desp1te
the accusation OF aristocratic and
exclusive hauteur with which his
name has occasionally been associa'
ted, his compeers OF the present,
and the silent memories of the past,
have invariably listened to his pol
ished eloquencc with respect, and
with an almost universal assent &C.
corded to him homage only given
to the great. For the past few years
the unmistakable symptoms of a
worn-out nervous system have indi.
Gated that the powerful intellect had
almost run its course. All his life
a close and earnest student, man
Of indomitable pride and determine
tion, Charles Sumner has tasked to
the utmost his powerful frame. His
end has been that of many Of those
great brain-workers who have dis.
regarded the warning voice of ma
ture. Not that his intellectual pow
ers had lost their wonted strength,
or that his mind was less vigorous,
or his memory less retentive than of
yore. The machine was simply
worn out, and it snapped in twain.
like Thackeray, Dickens, Horace
Greeley, and many other instances
we could name, he fell in the full
fruition Of his powers, at that grand
climateric of life, when the body
either passes to hale old age, or
wraps its mantle around it and falls
beside the pillar it has worshipped.
With the last summons, which re-
moved great spirit from earth,
will have passed all bitterness, ran
cor, and personal animosity. All
classes Of persons in the United
States will unite in doing honor to
a name which did them honor and
added one more illustrious star to
the glorious escutcEon of liberty.
Charles Sumner was born in Bos-
ton, Mass, on the 9th of January,
1911, so that at his death he had
but recently completed his sixty
third year. He was the son OF
Charles Pinckney Sumner, High
Sheriff of the county of Suffolk, a
soldier, lawyer, and man of no
mean literary attainments. In 1880
Charlns Simmer graduaed at tIar'
ward College, after which he be-
came pupil of Judge Story in the
law school at Cambridge. In 1894
he was admitted to the bar in Mas
sachusctts; practiced law in Boston,
and was appointed reporter in the
Circuit Court OF the United States.
During that year he paid his first
visit to Washington, and there is
now living there gentleman-Dr.
Blake-who remembers the tall
Massachusetts youth as he came to
live in the boarding house Of Mrs.
Peyton, at the corner of the avenue
and Four-and u. Half street. Young
Sumner had come to attend the Su'
preme Court, and it was then for the
first time, upon the stage road be-
tween Baltimore and the Capital,
that he beheld aslavc. The curios'
ity Of DR.. Blake and the other
boarders was great when the Mar
shall of the Supreme Court stopped
with his carriage and left the cards
OF the justices for the young lawyer
These were the days Of "otficial
Madeira" when the court used the
dining-table for consultation, and
settled the laws Of the Republic
over a magnum of good old wine
In the course Of the three following
years Mr.. Sumner published three
volumes of freports, edited the Inner
icau Jurist, and, in the absence Of
Judge Story, lectured to the students
of the law schools at Cambridge
Between the years 1887 and 1910 he
visited Europe, making the grand
tour, and laying the foundation Of
that intimate acquaintance with for
eign courts and customs which, ir
the brilliant years OF his after ca
reer, gained for him the position o.
Chairman Of the Committee Of For
cign Relations, and made him tht
acknowledged authority upon all
matters of foreign import. On the
4th of July, ls45, he pronounced IL
Boston his celebrated Grafton or
"The True Grandeur of Nations,
which attracted great attention
both at home and abroad. Abon'
this period he separated hlmsel1
from the Wing party and Joined the
Free Sellers. In lS4s he supported
Martin Van Buren for the Presiden
cy, and in 1850 published volume
of orations and lectures. In 1851
he succeeded Daniel Webster as
United States Senator, and from
that date commenced that brilliant
career which, has associated his
name with every great movement
connected with the welfare Of the
nation. One Of his first efforts ir
the Senate was his opposition to the
fugitive slave bill, and he tool
an active part in the debate on the
Ncbraska-Kansas bill in 1854. Up
on the 10th and Goth Of May, 1856
he made that celebrated appeal on
the contest in Kansas, and on the
aggressions of the slave.power. Il
was this speech which raised tho
ire OF Preston S. Brooks, Southern
member of Congress, and brought
ON that disgraceful scene which is