The Leavenworth weekly times. [volume] (Leavenworth, Kan.) 1870-1880, 1874-05-07
eel. rlats.sIPS' TEIBUIETO CalAs.
SKINNER.


Among tie many able tributes paid to the
memory Of tie late Senator Sumner, in the
Nationsl House OF Representatives, the fol-
Loving, by Col. ". A Phillips. OF this State,
has been pronounced one Of the most elo-
auent and beautiful. The Massachusetts,
delegation. acting as Commute Of Arrange
ments, invited Mr.. Phillips to speak on this
occasion. Himself one Of TIE pioneers IN the
anti-slav-ry oause-who baiiled brsvely for
principle. eide by side with the lamented
Sumner in he days when it was popular to
be on the OF or side. it was eminently fitting
and proper Tat he should bring a garland
woven from :, own recollections, to drop
uron the srsv, Of the great s'stesman-h hero.
Mr.. Phillip, address was brief, and We
give it here in full:
Mr.. Speaker. shall say bat little, since
no words could utter would add to the
fame of the iIlustrious statesman. And yet
| come TO offer humble tribute to his men,
ory from old free Kansas. The state have
10 part the honor to represent, in Its early
struggles for existence and freedom, elected
the warmest sympathy of Charles Sumner,
and called forth from him some Of the grand
est parliamentary efforts that dignity the his
tory of the Government.
His great speech on the crime against
Kansas 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 lib
erty in America. The speech, too, entailed
on him long years OF suffering,
and was doubtless the means Of premature
" depriving his country Of services
she i'll could spare, and the world o! life az
eminent as it was pure.
In the history of the last twelve years,
amons the galaxy Of great men who may
be sly led the fathers Of our second revolu-
ton; the men who, when the storms beat
and the winds blew, when the timid were
iimid and tie fai.hless faithless, seized the
very misitTtunes and weaknesses which
threatenediile government, and hewed them
into the observation-disclosures Of n reconstructed
republic-snong these len ii, o.. . and
in bold relief Sumner, Chsse L.Gcoln, Ste
yens Seward, Stanton, and they are all gone.
They did their share of the work ably and
fsarlessly, and God Almighty blessed them
in this, that ere they died they had the priv.
iIege of seeing peare and liberty clasp hands
across a regenera.ed continent.
Sumner was one of the best types of our
public men, A scholar 60 ripe, IN orator 90
Justly feel proud of him as the peer of any
orator or scholar of any country or any
time; Statesman who squared his political
l.. Il r.
right and wrong; politician whose |
sympaihies were with the downtrodden
and the weak, and who gave to
humanity rather than to party; gentlemen,
wilhal, whose life was so digni6ed and pure |
that even his enemies never dared with the |
breadth of slander to sully his fame.
Some men are great actors, others eminent |
for executive ability; Others are great think
ers. Among the latter no one vas more EN-
inent thar Charles Sumner. He eeized the
fresh but crude ideas as they floated up from
the public minds snd moulded them into
symmetry. Always c!inging to the frnda-
mental mixim. ofe9uality and right. when
dangers threatened the edifioe that is the
safeguard for the security and liberty Of forty
millions of people, he seized the very neces.
sites and dangers that threatened the coun-
try and planted them a. the pillars Of re-
constructed empire.
Ours is government of the people. We
Ill feel almost acuiely the necessity that the
public pulse shall beat in unison With the
,uter and inner life Of all our politics. He
Who aspires I, this duty has double task
o appreciate and mould public sentiment,
md then to leadit In both, Charles SAM
Ter was eminent He stood like another
Moses before the people. The public mind
vas oppressed with danger, and part of it be-
ogeed with prejudice. Old Constitu-
ion theorists had peddled theis doctrines At
very crcss-rosd in the country. Many true
men wavered when Sumner, standing with
lis compafriots and, like the ancient proph-
.s, Selling the rod directly from the hands
4 God Almighty, the rod of eternal justice,
mote il upon the troubled waters and babe
be murmuring people go forward"
Step BY step they led them higher, higher,
tep BY step, until on the top of another
Mount Pieeah, they, amid the uncertainties,
he storm, and tie darkness, saw the prom
ed land of future American politics stretch.
d out for the feet of . progressive people. :
When Mr.. Sumner spoke he smoke not only
D the Senate Chamber-the Republic was Z
liz auditorium. His speeches went forth {
reigh,ed with the best life and thoughts of
be time; went forth to the whole country, to I
rouse universal interest, and provoke q
Universal utterance.
His eudden death vas not the extinction i
{ life, but its apotheosis. His monument {
} built in the history Of the country. To- Q
~ We st,nd reverently before the great ?
ed, while all the shsdovs of corAictinr .
pinioa and the bitterness of partiz,pship
ave melted away.
AT the close Of his remarks, Mr.. Phillips o
~ congratulated BY hi, fellow member
poa his able and eloouent efFovt