The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1874-12-03
THE MIRACLE OF ST. MARK. /"

Over the dining room mantel hung
Tintoretto's Miracle Of St. Mark" or
''The Miracle of the Slave,'' as it is
more usually called, painted somewhere
about the middle of the sixteenth GEN.
fury. 1t was bought in Paris bv Mr..
Sumner, of W. H. Kellogg, the artist,
and is said by experts to be the study
from which Tintoretto painted his great
picture, still at Venice. This was given
in the Senator's will made in the sum-
mer of 1872, to Mr.. Joshua B. Smith,
the colored member of the Massachu-
sets Legislature. who was so active in
procuring the resembling of the resolu-
ton Of censure passed by the Legisla-
ture against Mr.. Sumner, and who was
the messenger from Massachusetts, to
the Senate to inform them that this
stain had been removed from the es
cutcheon of the old Bay State. TIL
friendship between Mr.. Sumner and
Mr.. Smith had been long and warm, and
had been founded on the appreciation Of
the one for the work of the other. And
this work is so illustrated by the great
master that it is we'll this picture, which
depicts the removal of the letters from
the limbs of a slave, should 60 from
one Of the chief liberators to one of
the chief liberated. The picture is des-
cribed by Taine,s in "Italy-Florence
and Venice" PIP. 814-316. Whittier
tells the story in his "Legcnd of Saint
Mark
Standing before this picture the wife
of one of the leading Massachusetts,
delegation said to me. "That painting
made Charles Sumner Senator' The
statement tell the story as it was
told to me-shows the manner Of Mr.
Summers entrance into the ranks Of
anti-slavery.
He had returned from Europe in
1910, and resumed the practice of law.
He had made his great Fourth of July
Grafton on the '"rrue Grandeur of Ma
tions,' in l845. He had taken his
place as juridical writer, and Judge
Story had said: 81 shall die content, so
far as my professorship is concerned, if
Charles Sumner is to succeed me-"
He had achieved social distinction
abroad, as well as at home. He had
made himself felt in politics; he had
protested against the Mexican war, and
he had assailed with powerful strokes
the fugitive slave law. Still he was not
an abolitionist, for at that time-and
here quote from Schurz's Grafton
''abolitionism was by no means fash
ionable thing. An anti-slavery man
was then, even in Boston, positively the
horror Of a large portion of polite so.
clety. To make anti-slavery speeches
was looked upon, not only as an incen-
diary, but vulgar occupation; and
that the highly refined Sumner, who
was so learned and able, who had seen
the world, and mixed with the highest
social circles in Europe, who knew the
classics by heart. and could deliver
judgment on picture or statue like
veteran cennoisseur, who was favor.
lite with the wealthy and powerful, and
could, in his aspirations for an easy and
fitting position in life, count upon their
whole influence if he only would not do
anything foolish-that such man
should 90 among the abolitionists, and
not only sympathize with them, but
work with them, and expose himself to
the chance of being dragged through
the streets with a rope round his neck,
like William Lloy d Garrison-that was
thing at which polite society of that
day would revolt, and which no man
could undertake without danger of be-
ing severely dropped. But that was
one thing which the refined Sumner
actually did and he was forced to
it by the feelings which swelled his
heart when. having returned to his
office, No. Court street, in full dress,
from some festive occasion, he saw the
mob dragging Garrison through the
streets with rope around his neck.
billiard, to whom he spoke, can tell
what he said at the moment History
has told US what he did. From the
pinnacle Of social fame he plunged into
the sea Of the ostracised below, and
became to the blue bloods of Beacon
street as no better than one of the
wicked; and it was that speech in Fan
euil Hall, entitled "Our Immediate
Anti-slavery duties on Nov. 6, 1850,
in which he threw himself into the
anti-slavery cause with his whole heart
and soul, which conferred on him the
eyes of the State, and in which he
made himself the coming man. 1t was
in this speech, which Judge Jay pro-
nounced ''the greatest effort of the
kind IN the English language" that he
struck the key note to the impressible
conflict about to follow, in these words:
"There is a legend of the church, still
living on the admired canvass of q
Venetian artist, that st. Mark descend
ing from the skies with headlong fury
into the public square. broke the mana
cles of slave in the presence Of the
very judge who had decreed his fate.
This is known rs the Miracle of the
Slave, and grandly has art illumined
the scene! Should Massachusetts,,
hereafter, in an evil hour, be desecrated
by.any such decree, may the good
Evangelist once more descend with val
liant arm to break the manacle of the
slave
The point in the speech was the des-
cription Of the picture. and the lesson
he drew from It. The next day some
one sent him an engraving Of the scene
he had depicted. When in Europe, in
1857. he purchased the study from
which the great picture was made.
Both are now in Boston, and photo
graphs of them are being largely dis
tributed throughout the land and this
seems to be the origin Of the statement
that Tintorrentto made Charles Sumner