Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1874-05-06
Charles sumner.
EUL0GY BY SENATOR MORRILL,.

EULOGY RI SENATOR MORRILL,.
Mr.. PRESIDENT: Here our numbers are
not so large, nor our differences of any
sort so great, that we do not feel, when
death enters this Chamber, something
of the bereavement of n broken family
circle. Associated here for Il long term
of wears, often including the prime and
riprst portion of our lives, statedly meet
inc in the workshop of committees and
in daily debate, hearing our names re-
peated in the frequent roll-calls, it is not
strange that it should give our hearts a
pan.y to part with the humblest name when
il d sscs away forever to the " starry court
of It .rnitv." But now when we part with
Il conspicuous member of the Senate. on
spcuous by length of service. by eminent
ability and established renown. each one of
us must confess to more or less personal
loss us we'll us to the greater loss of the
Senate itself Charles Sumner under the
higher law has responded to the last roll
call. and here the familiar sound of his
voice is forever silenced His imposing
presence on the crowning outer circle of
the Senate will no longer attract attention.
Only the memory remains to us of one
whose words and bearing-with minor
qualifcations-So well comported with the
dignity of his office as to have fairly earned
the title of the model Senator.
Mr. Sumner for four years had been \
member of the Senate when it was my
fortune, in 1855, first to hold Il seat in the
House Of Representatives. For words
spoken in debate, in 1856, he was brutally
assaulted by Preston S. Brooks, 4 member
of the House, and it was not until after
this that my personal acquaintance with
him began. For some years was more
familiar with what was then known as his
vacant chair than with the Senator to
whom it belonged, who was abroad ready
to invoke heroic remedies, if only they led
to health During these years he returned
for u short period, but bore little or no part
in the Senate. Mr.. Brooks meanwhile
suddenly died, Us ut last, and after inter
walls of painful suffering, has, also sudden
", the victim of his violence. 1t was no.
ticeable in his social intercourse, while
others let slip an occasional outburst of
feeling as to his assailant, Mr. Sumner
never disclosed the least lingering person.
al animosity. History was silently left to
avenge itself. His misfortune appeared to
be accepted as one of the many insepa-
rable wrongs resulting from the cruel sys-
TEN of slavery, with which only he waged
enduring DdlIlC stilt not It's Tue CrlIllc Oh AL
individual with whom, living or dead, he
sought only peace.
The Senate of the United States is no
ordinary theatre in which men sustain
their parts 1t is the forum of states. II
the seat which in 1851 Mr.. Sumner was
called to fill had been previously occupied
by IN undistinguished person, his task
would have been comparatively easy; but
that seat had been long held by one the
world pronounced the foremost American
Senator, made classic by one the breadth
and grandeur of whose services, whose ell
oquence and craftsmanship, with that of his
compeers, had placed the American Senate
on Il level of thot of the Roman Republic
in the days of its greatest virtue and high
est splendor. He succeeded, after brieI
interlude, the veteran Defender OF the
Constitution, who had stamped upon our
banner the ineffaceable words, '' Union and
Liberty, now and forever, one and insepar.
able" To say that he. proved not an un
worthy successor of Webster, however un
like, is to say much. considering he wa:
but u tyro in the politics of even the Com
mon wealth from whence he came. 1t wa.
the fortune of Charles Sumner to be placed
in his high station at period of grand and
: rapidly eliminating events Blessed with
exalted natural gifts, he also had been fur
! nished with large share of the eruditiol
of the age, completed by such graces ~