The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1874-03-27
SUMNER AND FILLMORE.


An Analysis of their Characters and
stntesmanship-An Eloquent Tribute
10 the Dead senator by George william
Curtis-Seward, Chase and sumner
Clay, Calhoun and Webster-The Two
Great Triumvirates Compared.
From Harpers Weekly.l
CHARLES SUMNER.
Mr.. Sumner leaves no public man be-
hind him with so close hold upon the
heart of the country. He was the last
of the great triumvirate of anti-slavery
Senators who succeeded that other trio
of the earlier and darker epoch of which
we speak IN another column of this
paper Clay, Calhoun and Webster |.
The work of the later three, Seward,
Chase and Sumner, was incomparably
greater and more beneficent than that
of Webster, Clay and Calhoun. 1t is a
curious fact that Mr.. Sumner took his
seat in the Senate on the day that Mr..
Clay, the last of the elder three, left it
forever. The two men typitied the two
eras of our politics. Henry Clay was
the great compromiser. Charles Sum-
ner was one of the most uncompromis-
ing men that ever lived. The courtly,
gay, plausible, fascinating cavalier,
Harry of the West" broken, sad
dened and disappointed, faltered out of
the chamber, and Charles Sumner,
young, towering In form, dauntless Ill
mien, the indomitable Puritan, con-
science incarnate in politics, entered,
and the new and better Union entered
with him. The very qualities in him
that so often offended were indispensa-
BILE to the time and the work. Icon
oclasm like his was as much needed
among the long worshipped idols of the
old temples of slavery as ever it was
among the images upon which Crom-
wells Ironsides fell.
That stern refusal to vince or bend,
which opposed itself to the slave power
as a cliff OF granite fronts the widest
sea and dashes it into futile froth, was
the great and memorable service of
Charles Sumner to his country. When
slavery Ill Congress encountered him, 1t
met for the first time that North, that
American conscience, that American
will, which was at last to overthrow it
utterly, and redeem and regenerate the
country. For the first time in the ma
tional arena slavery found itself opposed
10y spirit as resolute and naughty as
its own. 1t tried every means to sub
due it, and tried in vain. BY culture
and taste and temperament Mr.. Sumner
was peculiarly sensible to that social
Establishment in which Southern society
excelled, and which made Washington
Capua to many hardy Northern war
riors. They came, perhaps, from sc me
secluded rural home, unused to ihe
charms and forces of society. Bashful
in the new scene, and i'll at ease, they
found the most welcome relief amidst
the graceful delight of drawing-rooms
and in the frank hospitality of dining
rooms in which their pleasure and com
fort seemed to be the chief study. In
those magic circles the lines of politi-
cal duty, the sense of right and wrong,
which in the quiet home or among COO
New England hills were so clear and
positive, wavered and shifted, and often
glimmered quite out of sight. The
lotus was eaten at those feasts, Samson
was shorn, and honest folks at home
wondered what nepenthe in the air OF
Washington drugged the Northern
brain and dulled its conscience. NJ
man was more thoroughly equipped tC
enjoy all this to the utmost than Sum
ner, and no influence in public affairs
is more subtle and effective with mel
of his temperament. But he knew TIL,
LAMA. and he did not yield.
And as it could not seduce, neithe
could it terrify him. He stood for year
in the capital of the country-to on
bitter shame n slave city-and he thun
dered against slavery words which
were blows. His speeches were no
bursts of rhetoric; they were, like thos
OF Demosthenes, orations. The trained
advocates of slavery and its mere attor
neys were amazed at the comprehensive
ness of discourses that left them no es
cape, left them, indeed, only rage ant
denunciation. And long afterward
when the ablest lawyer in the Senate
Reverdy Johnson, was preparing tn
speech in which he justified his vot
upon emancipation, he carefully studiet
all of Summers orations as the com
pletest body of history and argumen
upon the whole subject. The hostilit
of slavery took its natural form. Oftel
for months it was known, aud Mr.. Sum
ner knew, that his life was in constan
danger and during the heat of tn
Kansas debate few friends from Kan
sas then in Washington, who were awar
of his personal peril, unknown to him
udllN lOllONtNi lllul MDCh llC iClb LII
house, armed-as he never was orwoul
be-for his protection. AT last slavery
by the hand of Preston Brooks, struc
him the blow that it hoped would
fatal. But after long and weary strue
gle his sturdy constitution seemed t
have thrown off all serious effects of il
and after resuming his seat in the Ser
ate with a speecA that showed all tn
old vigor, he bore his part i'll the grea
and final conflict. But although h
lived eighteen years after Brooks as
sault, it was clear to him toward tn
end, and to his friends, that he ha
never wholly rallied from the blow.
The hostility of foes was not all thf
he withstood. His political and eve
many of his personal friends were impi
tient with him for the injury to th
common cause which they feared froi
what they thought his want of moderi
ton and tact. But those were his ines
Unable qualities, for they not onl
showed to slavery, as we said, the fac
of its real foe and future victor BIT