The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1874-04-03
CHARLES SUMNER.
An Elegant WOrd-ricture or the De-
parted Statesman, by Henry Ward
Beecher.

Massachusetts, has taken back from
the nation, to which she gave him.
all that was mortal of her best be-
loved son, recommitting to its keep
ing the immortal part of him, his men,
ory. AS is the way of tender mothers,
her grief has made her eloquent, and
she is not yet weary of recalling and
repeating instances of his early promise
and ripe fulfllment which she had long
forgotten SO that, partly through her
revelations, and partly through those
of that great revealer, death, we come
to know Charles Sumner, dead, as he
could not be known, living.
For it was the irony of fortune, who
lavished all her good gifts on him, to
give him also a manner of carrying them
which provoked uncharitableness. A
certain arrogance of behavior misrepre-
scented the man and set him apart from
his fellows. He reused antagonisms
where he wished to awaken sympathy
Cancellation. He owned no soft arts of
spirit which these limitations prescribed
to him reacted on his manner, making
him seem more and more self-centered
and indifferent to the goodwill of his
neighbors, as time went on. OF his
methods many men of equal honesty
and equal zeal wholly dsapproved.
From his conclusions multitudes not
less single of eye and clear of purpose
widely dissented. For many years of
his life he was in the narrowest minority
as to his attitude toward popular men
and measures. Only last winter, in
deed, one would have said that he had
almost no following, either i'll the Sen
ate, in his own State, or among the
public.
Now comes friendly Death, setting
him little farther off, and breathing on
our dull eyes in passing. All the acct
dents of the man, those small infirmi-
ties that irritated his friends and exas-
perated his enemies, are seen to be no
part of his high nature. They are gone,
and we behold an upright soul wholly
dedicated to God. The world seems to
, rest on fidelity such as his. Remem-
} boring it, men are touched to sincerity
, and earnestness. And if they still dis
sent from his convictions, they bear
swift witness to the heroism and the
sublimity of his faith in them. AS &c
his self-absorption, they see and say
that so high spirit could not care fol
3 the petty and mean details that made
mp life to most of his fellows. AS fol
-, his pedantry and obstinacy, these seen
9 now to be that large understanding
that certainty of Judgment, that sagac
ity, and pride of character which could
not abate anything of the truth tina
conscience discerned and rectitude in
l sisted on. And for his vanity, mucl
I that went by that ugly name shows al
/, the frank and harmless expression o
the delight in its own successes of ma
D ture too simple and direct to concea
: anything. q mind too innocent to cloth
a itself in the fig-leaves of conventions
? reticence. What other man in public
life, neglecting no duty, however trivial
3 which his constituents laid upon him
o yet dwelt among the poets, and philoso
e pliers, and philanthropists of all ages
) What other man, in this material age
: so scorned delights and lived laborou
e days, that he might lay on the altar o
his cause the finest fruits of culture an
e thought ? If he were vain, it was no
/ of any accidental gift, but of his powe
u of earnest, honest, conscientious work
e For he did not overrate himself. II
VI knew that power was his only genius
" He said of himself, People should re
u member that l am not n fountain.
5 am only a cistern, and they must wal
y for me to fill up.
Though, living, it was said of hii
that he did not care for his kind, me
10 now crowd to declare that his care 70
a them was wonderful, passing the love {
- women. But it is eight millions c
:. poor, and ignorant, and degraded cres
: lures that never saw his face, who ca
If best testify to the frendliness of hi
II spirit No knight of Arthur's Table
% no hero of romance, not Bayard, nc
"a Sidney, took up in his fiery youth s
n through SO deadly peril, or died in hi
N sad age so blameless, 80 successful, {
a 80 alone.
d For, in Judging him, it must not b
10 forgotten that this greatest democrat tn
la land has bred this man who so believe
ii in the dignity and the rights of huma
/. nature that he seized the opportunity
a the war to urge the making of the Mi
10 sissippi slave his own political equal !;
ID test of the democratic idea from whic
Id Jefferson himself might have shrunk
90 this man who gave his life for peopl
who could give him nothing in return
this man who died with his hand in ii
hand of negro, was an aristocrat b
lg virtue of his name, his descent, his ass
Mt Citations, his instincts, his loves. q
s. was born into the best society of IL
re land. He was its pet and prodigy.
s. laid all its honors and pleasures at h
er feet, asking only that he should accef
s. life as he found it with well-bread cas-
I'd eschewing the ranks of those low fe
ir lows, who even then, were seeking
u turn the world upside down. III
TX terms did not seem hard. He was e
~ pected to do only what the most cult
I'd waited, the most refined, the most est
ID mable, the most eloquent, the richie
g. circles were doing the land over. +
s, was desired to hold his peace as to vext
no questions, and maintain the prospect
nt of his country, after the example whit
On great orators, poets, patriots, senator
AZ lawyers, clergymen, thought it no shan
OF but rather glory to set.
Ae He chose God, and not mammon, al
IL e.. Ill, u.