The Wichita city eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1872-1883, 1874-05-14
A Kansas Tribute to the Memory OF
Chas. Sumner.


The following glowing tribute was
paid to the memory of Chas. Sumner,
by Hon. W. A. Phillips, member Of
congress from Kansas, during the
hours set apart for that purpose. We
clip from the Congressional Record:
Mr.. Speaker, shall say but little,
since no words | could utter would
add TO the fame of the illustrious states
man. And yet j come to ofier a hum
bic tribute TO his memory from old Tree
Kansas. The state have in part the
honor to represent, in its early strug-
giles for existence aud freedom, elected
the warmest sympathy of Charles
Sumner, and called forth from him
some of the srandest parliamentary
efforts that dignity the history OF the
government.
His great speech Oh the crime against
Kansas was not only animated by that
spirit of lofty philanthropy which ever
came naturally from his great, mag
unanimous heart, but was thrilled
through and through with the highest
conception of popular liberty in Amer
lea. That speech, too, entalied on HIM
long wears of suffering. and was doubt
less the means of perinaturely depriv-
ing his country of services she i'll could
spare. and the world of a life as emf
nent as it was pure.
In the history of the past twelve
wears, among the galaxy of grea! men
who may be styled the fathers OF our
second revolution the men who when
4 1,.. a.. hInv
when the timid were timid and the
faithless faithless, seized the very mis-
fortunes and weaknesses which threat
ened the government, and hewcd them
into the fOundatiOn-stOnes OF recon-
structed republic-among these men
six names stand in bold relief: Sumner,
Chase, Lincoln, Stevens, Seward, Stan
ton. and they are all gone. They did
their share of the work ably and fear
lesslv, and God Almighty blessed them
in this, that ere they died they had the
privilege of seeing peace and liberty
clasp hands across regencrated con-
tinent.
Sumner was one of the best types Of
our public men. n scholar SO ripe, an
orator so eloquent that as orator or
scholar we may justly feel proud OF
him as the peer of any orator or scholar
of any country or time: a statesman
who squared his political principals by
the fundamental maxim of right and
wrong: a politician whose sympathies
were with the downtroaden and weak,
and who gave to humanity rather than
to party: gentleman, withal, whose
life was SO digniiied and pure that even
his enemies never dared with the
breath of SANDER to sully his fame.
Some men are great actors, others
are eminent for executive ability; 9TH
ers are great thinkers. Among the
latter no one was more eminent than
Charles Sumner. He seized the fresh
but crude ideas as they fioated up from
the public mind, and moulded them
into symmetry Always clinging to
the fundamental maXims of equality
and right, when dangers threatened
the editice that is the safeguard for the
security and liberty of forty millions
of people, he seized the very necessi-
ties and dangers that threatened the
country and planted them as the pill
lars of q reconstructed empire.
Ours is government of the people.
We all feel most acutely the necessity
that the public pulse shall beat in uni
son with the outer and inner life of all
our politics. He who aspircs to this
duty has double task; to appreciate
and mould public sentiment and then
to lead it. In both cases Charles Sum-
ner was eminent. He stood like an
other Moses before the people. The
public mind was oppressed with dan
ger. and part of it befogged with pref
udice. Old constitution theorists had
pcddled their doctrines at every cross
road in the country. Many true men
wavered. when Sumner, standing with
his compatriots and, like the ancient
prophets, seizing the rod directly from
the hands of God Almighty, the red of
eternal justice, smote ii on the waters
and babe the murmuring people go
forward -
Step by step they led them higher,
higher, step by step. until, on the top
of another Mount Pisgah, they, amid
the uncertainties, the storm. and the
darkness, saw the promised land OF
future American politics stretched out
for the feet of a progressive people.
When Mr.. Sumner spoke he spoke not
ONLY to the senate chamber-the repub-
lie was his auditorium. His speeches
went forth freighted with the best life
and thoughts Of the time; went forth
to The whole country, to arouse uni
versal utterance.
His sudden death was not the cX-
tinction of a life, but its apothesis. His
monument is built in the history of
his country. To-day we stand rever-
emily before the great dead, while all
the shadows of conflicting opinion and
the bitterness of partizanship have
,,n,toj ,a,