Los Angeles daily herald., 1874-03-12
Senator Sumner Dead.


The startling news of the sudden.
death of the distinguished Senator
from Massachusetts, though momen-
tarily looked for for years, will take
the nation by surprise. But yesterday
he was in his place in the Senate,
where for more than twenty years he
was the central figure among Ameri-
can statesmen, and though it was
known to himself and all the world
that grim death was ever at his side,
ready without moments warning to
put an end to his eventful career, yet
his unceasing labors, and the stead
fastness with which he stood to his
post, had cheated us into the belief
that years of life were yet left to him
i'm which to add to his already over
flowing measure of fame. But the
cruel blow that struck him down on
the Senate floor. and has since made
his life burden, has at last done its
work, and the great man is no more.
Charles Sumner was born in Boston in
1911, and was elected to the Senate to
succeed Daniel Webster in 1851. Since
then his career has been so prominent
as to makeit almost superfiuOus to give
record of his life. From the time he
made his first great speech on the Flu
gitive Slave Law, in which he laid
down the principle that Freedom is
National, but slavery is SECTIONAL" up
to the present moment, he has been
recognized throughout the world as
the devoted champion of the liberties
of the people. The idol of the Anti
Slavery party and the father of Re-
publicanism, no considerations of
party policy could influence his action,
and when in his opinion the Admins
tration and its followers had departed
from the principles that had guided
the Nation in its struggle for exist
ence, he did not hesitate to denounce
their recreancy in the most emphatic
manner. The bold and terrific
arraignment of the San Domingo
annexation scheme, followed by
his leadership of the Senatorial de-
mand for an investigation of the con-
duct of the Administration, cost him
his place as Chairman ofthe Committee
on Foreign Affairs, and even Massa-
chusetts, crazed by the partisan rancor
of the hour, did herself the lasting dis
grace of publicly censuring him for
one of the most magnanimOus acts of
his life. But the passions of a bitter
political contest were rapidly giving
away, and among the honest, the sim
cere, and the liberty-loving people of
Massachusetts and the United States,
the lustre of his name shines brighter
than before. Less than a week has
elapsed since the announcement was
made in Congress that the Legislative
censure of his native State had been
rescinded, and the great Senator had
the satisfaction of knowing in his
dying moments that the people he
had represented so long and loved so
we'll, were magnanimous enough to
acknowledge their mistake and wipe
out the censure that, in moment of
passion, they had cast upon him. With
the sole exception of Lincoln, the
death of no statesman has created
such profound sensation as that
of Sumner. Though not like Lincoln,
the idol of the masses, no nobler or
more glorious name has ever been
written on the pages of our country's
history, and the record of his
grand services in the cause of
human liberty, sinking deep into the
hearts of the friends of humanity
throughout the world, will call forth a
response such rs has never followed to
the grave the proudest of our dead.