The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1874-03-17
OBITUARY..
CHARLES SUMNER.

catastrophe. The death of Senator Sumner
will create an impression not less profound
than that of Abraham Lincoln and Hor-
ace Greeley. He was not so well known
to the masses as either of his great co-workers,
but his name is destined to linger as long,
and be as deeply cherished. The life of Mr..
Sumner is altogether as unlike that of his
two great contemporaries as his works. He
was born in Boston January 9th, 1911. He
came of a family distinguished in politics
and letters. One member of it was Increase
Sumner, one of the most distinguished
judges and governors of the commonwealth
of Massachusetts,. Job Sumner, the grand
father of Charles, was major in the reyolu-
tionary war. Charles Pinckney, the father
of the senator, was a distinguished lawyer
and poet of some note. He was the last
high sheriff of Suffolk county who wore the
ancient English dress of that office. All the
OF the family have been remarka-
BILE for magnificent physical development
which they derived from their stalwart
Kentish ancestry and which harmonized
well with the elegance of their manners, the
elevation of their minds and the spotlessness
of their characters. Charles Sumner
was educated at the Boston Latin School,
at Phillips Academy and at Harvard College
Il
the study of the law under Judge Stery at the
Harvard law school, he was admitted to the
bar in 1884, soon obtained a large practice
and was appointed reporter of the United |
States circuit court. At this time he publish |
sd three volumes of reports, which are known |
rs Summers Reports and which contained |
the decisions of Judge Story. He edited the |
American Jurist, and lectured before the |
law school during The absence of Judge |
Story. A professors chair in that institu- |
ion was twice offered him but was declined. |
Three years were then spent in foreign |
,ravel and upon bis return in 1S40,he begun,
20 the speechless horror of the eminently |
to show symptoms of
'ympathy towards the prosecuted |
'ect of the abolitionists. These were the
lays when price was upon the head of Mr..
when Massachusetts, crouched un-
Ter the domination of the slave power, and
when only the bravest men lifted up their |
yoices against the crying evil. 1t was upon |
July 4th, 1874, under near prospect OF the
Mexican war, that Mr.. Sumner delivered his |
nasterly Grafton upon the ''True Grandeur |
If Nations" In November, 1915, the walls |
If Faneuil Hall rang with the echoes of
Inother denunciation from his lips of this |
var, undertaken as it was, for the propa- |
cation of slavery, and in the wing conven- |
ION of 1916 ke made an address upon the |
Anti Slavery Duties of the Wing Party, Pin |
which he squarely put himself upon the plat
form OF the abolitionists. By the year 1913
he had satisfied himself that the wings were
ioined to their idols. He left them to be-
come a member OF the new Free
Soil party and supported Martin Van Buren, |
for thepresidency.
HIS LIFE WORK BEGUN.
1t was 10 the Senate that the great work
of Summers life was begun, work which
the freeing of three millions of
bondmen. Ee had reached the Senate by |
coalition of Free Sellers and Dem Ocrats. |
Webster had gNne down to his grave broken
hearted and disappointed, and Massachu-
sets sent Sumner to fill his seat. Two men |
Of nearly equal callibre could not differ
more widely in their views of public
and personal duty. Summer believed
that the same principle which guides mans
private morals should govern a community |
"a nation. Hence he could not bring him
,elf to temporize with an apparent evil.
Slavery he knew to be an atroeity, and he
set to battle it with all the energy Of his great
mind. The battle began to tell. The vehe-
nent bnllies of the south, unable 70 answer \
he great orator. resorted to the argument of
,o-called chivalry, tne .uJgel. Sumner |
He presented the odiOus business in ey|fy
aspect, and mis- reasons were so convjacing,
MS Arguments so clear, that the slsse power
lsd no voice to raise in extenuatlon.
Kansas Nebraska monstrosity brought
he contest to the white heat at last.
n the speech entitled, Freedom National,
slavery Sectional" he insisted that the con-
titutien was framed by anti-slavery men
Who never expected that slavery was to ex-
st long in this country, and who carefully,
vhen abiding to slaves, called them persons
nd not chattels. Indeed, Mr.. Sumner was so {
Irmly convinced of the unconstitutionalityI {
f the Fugitive Slave law, that he WOULD
ever acknowledge that it was law, but
yer spoke of it as an enactment or an at
empt at law. Then the repeal of the Mis- {
ouri compromise came up, and On the 10Th
nd 10th OF May, 1856, came the magnificent ]
fort entitled the "Crime Against Kansas ;
having no response to this masterpiece,
he slave power delegated South Carolina {
ully to respond in the real medieval ST we.
1r: Sumner was known TO be gentleman,
nd of course incapable of resorting to arms.
{ was resolved therefore to silence him by
murder. Brooks sneaked upon the great
hampton as he sat in his seat in
be Senate chamber, and without
word of warning beat him on the head
nth the heavy bludgeon southern gentle !
zen in those days carried as canes The
L..
he Senate seats were close together, and
Then a mans knees were under them it was
work OF time to get extricated. The bully
new the position, and made the best OF his
nance. The result, thanks to Mr.. Sum- .
igor was not death, but all pub
C service was ended for years. For
his unspeakable outrage, Brooks was 9
cited and feted all through the south, not ,
" bar-room ruffians or bawds, but by SO.
allied decent women and leading men.
While Brooks was caressed by the people of ;
be south, the victim of his murderous as
ault was compelled to betake himself to ,
europe for medical treatment. During his
bsence he was reelected almost unani-
nously to the Senate, and returned in the au- :
umn of 1857, but was compelled to go back !
D Paris the next spring, and to remain
here until the end of 1859, when he once :
more took his seat in the Senate chamber ,
nd signalized that event with his .
amous address upon the "Barbarism !
{ Slavery" Thenceforth the battle with :
lox