American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1874-05-09
LANAR's EULOGY 0y SUMNER.
An Eloquent PLEA For Perfect ReeonelliaN
ton Between North and South.
[From the Vicksburg TIMES.

ton Between North ana scum.
[From the Vicksburg Times.
In the House of Representatives
OH the 27th ultimo, business was
suspended, in order to afford ODpor-
tun,ty for the friends and associates
of Charles Sumner to pay fitting
tributes to the public and private
virtues of the deceased statesman.
| Speeches were made by Messrs.
e. r. and G. +. HOar, and also by
Messrs. Orth, Rainey, Dawes, Pot
ter, Kellogg, Nesmith, COnger and
Phillips, but among them all the
Eulogy pronounced by MIR. Lamar,
of Mississippi, was by far the most
eloquent and impressive. His ear
nest, patriotic appeal to the people
of both sections of the country,
North and South, that strife and
distrust he forever banished, cannot
but carry with it, to every American
heart, a salutary influence, and has
ten the time when q complete recon-
ciliatiOn shall be established. We
regret our inability to print his
speech in full.
Mr.. Lamar, after stating that
Mississippi regrets the death OF
Charles Sumner and sincerely unites
in paying honors to his memory,
and pronOuncing glowing tribute
to his high moral qualities, spoke as
follows:
Summer was born with an instinc-
a: 80 and aHn.
Gated from his earliest infancy TO
the belief that freedom is the natu-
raj right of all having the outward
form of man. To behold Il human
being, or a race of human beings,
deprived of what he deemed their
natural rights to liberty for no crime
they had committed, was to feel all
the belligerent instincts of his nature
reused to combat. The fact was to
him a wrong which no logic could
Justify. 1t mattered not to him
how humble in the scale of rational
being the subject of this restraint
might be; how dark his skin, Or
how dense his ignorance. Behind
all that lay for him the great princi-
pie that liberty is the birthright of
all humanity. and that every indi-
vidual of every race who has a soul
to save is entitled to the freedom
which may enable him to work out
his salvation.
"But here let me do this great man
Justice, which, amid the excitement
of the struggle between the two
sections now past, may have been
disposed to deny him. In his fiery
zeal and his earnest warfare against
wrong, as he viewed it, there enter
ed no enduring personal aDimOsity
towards the men whose lot 1t was
to be born to the system which he
denOunced.'
Referring to Mr.. Summers re.olu-
ton to erase from the banners of
the Union army, every melnentO OF
the late civil war, which the speaker
characterized as gracious act to-
ward the South, a proposal which
will never be forgotten by her peo-
pie so long AS the name of Charles
Sumner lives in the memory OF man,
he proceeded:
"But while it touclred her heart and
elected her profound gratitude, her
people would not have asked of the
North such an act OF self-renuncia-
ton. Conscious that they them
selves were animated by devotion
to constitutional liberty, and that
the brightest pages of history are
replete with evidence of the depth
aud sincerity of that devotion, they
can but cherish recOliectIOrss of the
battles fought and victories won in
defence of their hopeless cause, and,
respecting as all true and brave men
must respect, the martial spirit with
which the men Of the North vindi-
Gated the integrity Of the Union,
and their devotion to the principles
of human freedom, they do not ask,
they do not wish the North to strike
the mementOes of victory and hero
ism from either records, or mOnu-
ments. or battle-fags. They would
rather that both sections should
gather up gleries won by each, not
enviOus, but proud Of each other,
and regard them as common heri-
UdsO VI b1ulCI NdIO1 4ICO uo
hope that future generations, when
they remember the deeds of devo-
ton and heroism on both sides, will
speak, not of Northern prOwcss nor
of Southern courage, but of the
heroism, courage and fortitude Of
Americans in a war of ideas-a war
in which each section signalized it's
conservation to principles, as each
understood them, of American liber-
ty, aud Of the constitution received
from their fathers. 1t was my mis-
fortune, perhaps my fault, never to
have known personally this eminent
philanthrOpist and statesman. The
impulse was often strong upon me
to go to him and offer him my
hand, and my heart with it, and to
express to him my thanks for his
kind aud considerable course toward
the people with whom l am identi-
fed. If l did not yield to that i'm
pulse it was because the thought
occurred to me that other days were
coming, in which such demOnStra-
ton might be more OppOrtune and
less liable to miscOnstrnctiOn. Sud
denly, and without premOnition, a
day has come at last to which, for
such purpose, there is no tomorrow.