Omaha daily bee., 1874-04-27
A Negro's Tribute to Sumner.

Extract from the Eulogy pronounced in Fam
euil dali. Boston, on Charles Sumner, by
Congressman Robe Z. Elliott, (colored), of
Sou b Ca olinal
Charles Sumner, in his moral linn
itations, was an American; more
narrowly, he was a Massachusetts
man; more narrowly still, he was a
white man; but to-day what nation
shall claim him, what State shall
claim him, what race boast him ?
He was the fair consummate flower
of humanity. He was the fruit of
the ages. He was the child of the
Past and the promise of the Future.
The whole world, could it but know
its relations, would mourn his de-
parture, and mankind everywhere
would Join in his honors. But, fell
low-citizens, if any fraction of hui
mainly may claim a peculiar right to
do honor to the memory of this great
common benefactor of the world,
surely it is the colored race in these
United States. To other men his
services may seem only a vast ac-
cession Of strength to a cause al
ready moving with steady and
assured advance; " US, to the col
ored race, he is and ever will be the
great leader in political life, whose
ponderous and incessant blows
battered down the wall of our prison
house, and whose strong hand led
us forth to the sunlight of freedom.
/ do not seek to appropriate him to
my race; but | do feel, to-day, that
my race might almost bid the race
to which o. blood he belonged, to
stand aside while We, to whose well
fare his life was so completely given,
advance to do grateful honor TO him
who was our great benefactor and
friend.
Once only In all this splendid and
faithful career did Charles Sumner
part company with the great mass
of friends of freedom, and on this
he needs no silence. Differing, as I
could but differ, from his judgment
in the late national campaign, I
point to Ii, to-day, as one of the
highest proofs of his utter devotion
TO the call of duty. Still was he
true, utterly true, to his convictions,
to the commanding voice of con-
science. He had been faithful in
defeat: could be faithful in success.
Draw 20 veil of silence over this
massage. but write it high on his
monument that, in old age, when
the weary frame longed for repose,
he could again brace himself for the
conflict in which nearly all the
friends of a lifetime stood arrayed
against him.
..Nothing is here for tears, nothing
to wall
Or knock the breast, no weakness,
no contempt,S
Dispraise or blame; nothing but
well and fair"
To have lived such a life were glo-
nv enough. Success was not needed
to perfect its star-bright, immortal'
beauty, But Gee came. What
amazing contrasts did his life wit
ness. He heard the hundred guns
which Boston fired f6rthe passage OF
the Fugitive Slave Act, and he saw
Boston sending forth with honors
and blessings a regiment of fugitive
slaves to save the Union, which the
crime of her Webster had imperiled.
He saw Franklin Pierce employing
the power of the nation to force back
one helpless fugitive to the hell OF
slavery, and he saw Abraham Lin
colin write the edict of emancipa-
tion. He heard fancy declare that
s.the black man had no rights which
the white man was bouGt to re-
spect;" and he welcomed W
HE seat as "A Senator of the
United States. But as defeat could
not damp his ardor, so uccess cou,u
not sbate his zeal. He fen WINE
bearing aloft the same oanner OF
human rights, which, twenty-eisht