The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1874-03-17
Mliooltbutp Aeglster.
TUESDAY, MARCH II, 1874.
ChNIlcs summer.

colors ard conditions, the greatest of
the great men whose lives and services
have illumlned the pages of our his
tory, died AT his residence in Washing
ington, on, Wednesday afternoon last,
ut the age Of G3 years, and in the oath |
year Of continuous service as Senator
from Massachusetts. His health (which |
has long been precarous, did not prove
equal to the task he imposed on him
self, this winter, of taking daily part in
the business of the Senate, and the vio-
lent attack of angina pectoris, from
which he never recovered, is traced d.
rectly TO over-exertion in the recent
sessions of the Senate.
When it became known in Washing
ton that Mr.. Sumrer was dying, the
manifestations of deep and widespread
sorrow exceeded anything which had
been witnessed since the death of Lin
coin. And as the news flashed over
the wires, every city and hamlet in the
country were in deep mourning.
Born in Boston, January G, 1911, the
son of Charles Pinckney Sumner, well
known and remembered as sheriff of
Suffolk county, Charles Sumner went
punctually through the course of edu-
cation which Boston then prescribed
for young men Of his class He fitted
for college at the old Boston Latin
school, entered Harvard at the age of
10, and graduated in 1880, at 10; then
studied law under the caves of his col
lege, in the law school, and was admit
led to the Suffolk bar in 1854. He soon
afterwards became law professor at
Cambridge, remaining in that relation
from 1885 to 1857 where he gained con
siderable reputation, and when he
went abroad in 1910, he at once be
came as distinguished in England as
our elder brothers in that country will
permit n young American to become.
After this time spent in Europe he
returned to Massachusetts to be for
thirty years, one of the leaders of his
native state. His legal writings in the
first ten years of his life as lawyer at
test the fidelity with which he studied
and taught jurisprudence, land prepared
him, in lSil-j, for the second stage of
his career, that of political and moral
reformer.
He first startled the echoes of Boston
and made himself name throughout
The land by his 4th of July Grafton in
ls45 in favor of peace, in which he laid
down many Of the principles that have
since governed his course in the great
contest, then just beginning.
From that time forward lie became
conspicuous as Il bold reformer, and in
literary pursuits rs well as in the ora
torical field. In April 1851 he was
elected TO the United States Senate
where, by repeated reelection, he
served until his death.
From April u, 1851, to April 10, 1861,
the fight ragged over slavery in Congress
and throughout the lane, ten years of
bitter controversy, in which Sumner
bore his part so well that when the
South marched to arms, he was the
most prominent senator on the side of
the north and the constitution against
the South and slavery.
1t was in May 1856 that after his long
and mastery speech upon the ursupa-
tions Of slavery in Kansas, he was as
tnd la
in the Senate, 10y Brooks of South Car
olina.
This circumstance raised his popular
ity through the north, and he, instead
of being cowed by the spirit of aggres-
sive and tyrannical assumption on the
part of slavery, was confirmed and
strengthened in his determination to
fight on until the 'sum of all villain
les" was destroyed from Off the land.
At the birth of the republican party
in 1856 he was recognized as its leader
in New England, just as Seward was
in New York, and Chase in the West.
With these two men he long served in
the Senate, and toeether they formed
group not inferior in talents in power
or in patriotism TO that famous three of
whom we hear so much Clay, Cal
houn and Webster.
With the exception Of Henry Clay,
probably no American statesman since
the founders Of the republic has so
shaped and influenced the national
policy at home and abroad, as Charles
Sumner did from 1859 to 1871. He held
the craftsmanship of the committee on
foreign relations from 1861 to 1870 when
he was deposcd by the influence of
President Grant.
Since the close of the war, the new
amendments to the constitution, the
enfranchisement Of the negroes and
their elevation to civil equality were
the great purposes of Summers life, and
how well he performed his part i.
known toall.
Often finding himseifin the minori
ty, lie never vaccllated or fiinched
from the consequences, until time vim
dictated the wisdom and farsightednes,
of his course. Then he stopped not Il
glory over his victory, but quietly ant
firmly pressed forward to new issue:
far in advance Of the average public
sentiment of the times.
And so his public life was contin
ued struggle, always for the higher an,
nobler public policy and aim, neve
laying his armor of until, as in tn,
political contest over the extension ant
abolition of slavery, he felt the thrill o
victory, in the national recognition o
the principles for which he had so lonl
eontended.