Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1874-05-02
s-cHIRLES SIMMER.

q historical character. Let US look at MIN
once more. His life lies before us ike an
open book which contains no double mean
ings, no crooked passages, no mysteries, no
concealments 1t is clear as crystal. Even
his warmest friend will not see in II the model
of perfect craftsmanship; nor that eagle glance
which, from lofty eminence, at one sweep
| surveys the whole field on which by labor,
thought strife, accommodation, impulse, re-
straint, slow and rapid movement, the destl-
MES of a nation are worked Out-and which,
while surveying the whole, yet observes and
penetrates the fitness and working Of every
detail of the great machinery; not that ever
calm and steady and self-con,roiling good
sense, which judges existing things just as
they are, and existing forces just as to what
they can accomplish, and while lnstructing,
conciiating, persuading and moulding those
forces, and guiding them on towards an ideal
end correctly estimates comparative good and
comparative evil, and impels or Restraints, as
that estimate may command This is the true
genius of craftsmanship. fitting all times, all
circumstances and all great objects to be
reached by political action. MIR. Summers
natural abilities were not of the first order;
but they were supplemented by acquired abil-
tiles of remarkable power. His mind did not
invent and create by inspiration; 1t produced
bv study and work. Neither had his mind
superior constructive capacity. When he de-
sired to originate a measure of legislation. he
scarcely ever elaborated its practical details;
he usually threw his ioea into the form of a
resolution, or bill giving in the main his
purpose only and then he advanced TO the
discussion of the principles involved. 1t was
difficult for him to look at question or prob
lem from more than one point of view, and to
comprehend its different bearings, its COM
pick relations with other questions or prob
lens aud to that one point of view he was
apt to subject all other considerations. He
not only thought but he did not hesitate to
say, that all construction of the Constitution
must be subseryient to the supreme duty OF
giving the amplest protection to the natural
rights of man by direct national legislation.
He was not free from that dangerous tendency
to forget the limits which bound the legitimate
range..of legislative and governmental action.
On economical questions his views were en-
lightened and thoroughly consistent. He had
studied such subjects more than is commonly
supposed 1t was one of his last regrets that
his health did not permit him to make speech
in favor Of an early resumption of specie pay
ments. On matters of international law and
foreign affairs lie was the recognized autlori-
ty of the senate. But some of his very short
comings served to increase that peculiar pow
er which he exerted in his time. His public
life was thrown into a period of a revolution
airy character, when one great end was the
self-imposed subject of a universal struggle,
a struggle which was not made, not manufac
tured by the design of men, but had grown
from the natural conflict of existing things,
and grew irresistibly on and on, until it en-
veloped all the thought of the nation; and that
one great end appealing more than to the
practical sense, to the moral impulses of men,
making of them the fighting force. There
Mr.. Sumner found his place and there he
grew great, for that moral impulse was strong
er in him than in most Of the world around
him ; and it was in him not a mere crude, I'M
tutored force of nature but educated and ele
waited by thought and study; and it found in
his brain and heart an armory of strong wea-
pons given to but few; vast information,
legal learning, industry, eloquence, undaunt-
ed courage, an independent and iron will,
profound convictions, unbounded devotion
and sublime faith. 1t found there also a keen
and Just instinct as to the objects which must
be reached and the forces which must be set
in motion and driven on to reach them. Thus
keeping the end steadily, obstinately intensely
in view. he marched ahead of his followers,
never disturbed by their anxietes and fears.
showing them what was necessary, was pos
sible, and forcing them to follow him, a great
moving power-such as the struggle required.
Nor can it be said that this impatient, ire.
preside propulsion was against all prudence
and sound judgment, for it must not be for
gotten that, when Mr.. Sumner stepped into
the 'front.' the policy of compromise was ex-
hausted; the time of composition and expe.
dent was past. Things had gone so far that
the idea Of reaching the end, which ultimate
ly must be reached, by natural concession and
gradual and peaceable process, was utterly
hon ho fnr nj H.,
reconciled; the final struggle was indeed ir.
repressible and inevitable, and all that could
then be done was to take care that the final
struggle should bring forth the necessary re-
suits. Thus the instinct and the obstinate,
concentrated, irresistible moving power which
Mr.. Sumner possessed, was an essential part
of the craftsmanship of the Revolutionary pc
Rod Had he lived before or after this great
period, in quiet, ordinary times, he would
perhaps never have risen in public life to con-
spicuous significance. But all he was by ma
ture, by requirement, by ability, by moral
impulse, made him one of the heroes of that
great struggle against slavery, and in some
respects the first And then when the victory
was won the same moral nature, the same
sense of justice, the same enlightened man,
| impelled him to plead the cause of peace, re-
Cancellation and brotherhood, through equal
rights and even justice, thus completing the
| fulness of his ideal. What peculiar power
of fascination there was in him AS public
man, 1t acted much through his eloquence
alone. His speech was not graceful flow of
melodous periods. now drawing on the listen
er with the persuasive tone Of confidential
conversation, then carrying him along with a
more rapid rush of thought and language,
and at last lifting him up with the peals of
reason in passion. His arguments marched
forth at once in grave and stately array; his
sentences like rows of massive Doric col
umns, unrelieved by pleasing variety severe
and imposing. His erations, especially those
pronounced in the senate before the war, con-
tain many passages of grand beauty. There
was nothing kindly persuasive in his speech
his reasoning appeared in the form of conse
cutive assertion, not seldom strictly logical
and irresistibly strong. His appeals were al
ways addressed to the noblest instincts of hu.
man nature. His speech was never enivened
by anything like wit or humor. They were
foreign to his nature. lie has never been
guilty OF a flash of irony or sarcasm. His
weapon was not the foil, but the battle axe
He has often been accused Of being unchari-
table to opponents in debate, and of wound
ing their feelings with uncaled for harshntss
of language. He was guilty of that, hui no
man was less conscious Of the singing force
of his language than he. He was often sorry
/ e. IL Iaath