The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1874-05-15
SUMNER AND THE SOUTH.

SUMNER AND THE SOUTH.
The Hon. L.Q. q. Lamar, M. G. from
Mississippi, for having said in a speech
in Congress, that "Mississippi regrets
the death of Charles Sumner and unites
in paying honor to his memory" has
incensed some of the conservative pa
pers of his State, among them the Me-
ridian Mercury, which declares that
the historian will write Mr.. Lamar
down as ga truculent statesman of the
South who basely fawned upon the
victors in passing ill-timcd eulogies
upon the dead enemies of his section"
We rather think that the fiery seceder
of Oxford would have shown more dis
erection and consistency in Withholding
his eulogium Of Mr.. Sumner. When
it is said that Charles Sumner was true
in his devotion to what he believed to
be right, all is said that any Southron
can say. What he believed to be right,
has been realized-and tho South is
ruined. Centuries will not repair the
damage, not alone as to material wealth,
but in nearly every other essential
quality of great, happy and prospe-
rous people. If Mr.. Sumner was any
man of industry. He was not, in any
sense, peoples man; on the contrary,
he was distant, stiff, self-wilied and
aristocratic. Nothing, SO far as we
have seen, is left ON record Of Mr.. Sum
ner to show that he was even human
In his feelings, unless 1t be that he was
the champion Of negro quality. Even
In this, he might be sad to have been
fanatic; for, while he was professedly
working to bring enc race up, he was
really dragging the other down. Sur
vey the life of Mr.. Sumner, and one
will find no restingplaces. 1t would
be impossible to find in the humorous
literature of his day, a single anecdote,
an impulse, frailty, or extravaganza OF
any kind to relieve the dull monotony
of his plodding, embittcred life. The
only Don mot of Sumner we can recall,
is, his saying that President Grant was
not believer in the Bible, because it
was not written by Grant.
Mr.. Summer was not friend to the
Southern people. We believe he hated
them cordially. Even when, writing
under tho disgrace the Administration
Of Grant put upon him, and when he
had allied himself with Trumbull,
Schurz and others to organize tho Lib
era1 Republican party, and had virtu-
ally cut loose from the party proper, he
was yet too obstinate and prejudicetf to
follow his allies, equally with himself
the objects of Grants scorn, into
open and avowed hostility to the Re-
publican party, but quietly withdrew
from the contest he had courted and
remained n looker-on, until an oppor-
tunity offered to show his lifelong hos
tiiity to Democratic principles, when
he vaulteG into the arena with as much
zeal and show of partizan feeling rs If
he had never encouraged the formation
of the Liberal Republican party.
We can find no paragraphs in Mr..
Summers long crusade against the
South, except the very short one com
prised in his celebrated battle flag
resolution, when he moved to erase
from Federal flags the names of buttle-
fields whereon the arms of tho Federals,
in the late war, were victorious. In
everything else he did, rs Il public man,
tho sphere in which he moved was
small compared to the extent OF his in
fefieettial acuuirerfpnts md tho hro,,,
eNpansc of territory for which he was
called upon to legislate, think and act.
How different from Webster, whose
seat he occupied!
THE DENIAL OF COMPLETE AMNESTY