New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-03-18
Senator Blackburn's Speech at the Sum.
ner Mass Meeting, March 16. 1874.
Mr.. Blackburn said:

AoH AAs~SS ~'ASSsAAA9s A'Af- Nv Aos
Mr.. Blackburn said:
1t is sad but none the less sacred duty
to pay due homage to the dead. say due
homage, because it is a duty we owe TO the
living not to do violence to strict justice
and right in this respect. But it is hard to
avoid this. 1t is hard not to let the sympa-
thies overleap due bounds in speaking OF
the departed-to withhold the tongue from
giving too prolific expression to the i'm
pulses of the heart on such occasions. And
vet, on an occasion like the one now before
u.s. where the character to be contemplated
and COMMUNICATED is so exalted and so
spotless, the danger is rather N saying too
little than too much, or rather, in saying
what we do say not well enough. For what
tongue or pen among US can speak or write
in fitting words what should be said or
written of Charles Sumner! None-no, not
one But why is it that we meet tonight
to commemorate and publicly mourn the
death of Charles Sumner while the death
of the pure and kind-hearteo Willard Fill
more. which occurred almost on the same
day, has ELECTED no such demonstration
Was not Mr.. Fillmore a great and good
man, and was he not once President Of the
United States!
But would not reprOve for this seeming
discrepancy, for the excuse is at hand, and
it is a good one-One which at once opens
the page to the special beauty of the human
character now under special consideration.
Mr.. Fillmore was, with all lis goodness
and purity of character. mere politician
in his career as a pu6iIc man, WINE MI.
Sumner was purely and simply an Ameri-
can statesman of the highest and most I'M
sullied type, in all his public life. Rather
than have ever signed fugitive slave law
| imagine Charles Sumner would have al
lowed his right arm to wlther and his
tongue to cleave forever to the roof OF his
mouth
This was difference with a distinction,
and it alone quite justifes the seeming dis
crepancy alluded to.
If it be true-and it doubtless is invarla-
bly, so-that the people mourn when the
wicked and vicious reign, it is certainly no
less true that when the pure and spotless
statesman dies the people also have cause to
mourn for the loss is theirs. and does not
belong to the dead.
Hence it requires no stretch of the i'm
agination to see why the people OF the
United States, throughout the broad ex-
panse of our far-reaching borders, should
mourn the death of Charles Sumner; and
| more especially does this grief belong to
| and will become the people of the Southern
States-a large portion of whom have until
| recently been chattel slaves; and would be
| vet but tor the fearless, far-reachilg and
| God given sentiments OF the glorious and
| immaculate American statesman, whose
! death we to night mourn, almost as those
| who have no hope.
For mind you, the work of this great and
| good man is not yet finished; at least he
| thought not, and he was wiser than any or
| all of us, and more unseltish than half the
nation beside He died believing the great
| and paramount work of freedom in Amer
| lea was not yet complete; and l say he was
wiser and far less selfish than those who
think it is. His last words were to request
| one of his most intimate personal and pollt
| ical friends to take care of his civil rights
| bill. President Grant and Senator Brown
| low think this bill useless-and it may be
| but Grant and Brownlow once thought hui
nun slavery right, but Charles Sumner
| never did.
1t might, therefore. be we'll for those
| most directly interested to watch over the
| current of events, and remember the dying
request of the great and good Summer
| the man who has left upon the records Of
his country no stain to his character, either
personal or political. and no just ground
for any charge OF an unworthy or selfish
| motive
Mr.. Summers craftsmanship was called
ideal and impracticable by some, and IL
some sense it was; but it was so only be
cause his deep and pure. and high-toned
and purely unselhsh ideas and thoughts
were in many respects far ahead OF the age
in which he lived. The same thing might
| be said of Jetferson-wlth the difference IL
Summers favor, that he never gave way MOI
! changed his honest convictions to catch the
popular breeze of public favor. And herein
consisted the manifestations OF his great
soul-his great redeeming power and In
t1uence, both in a political and moral sense
He would emphatlcally always rather bt
| right than anything else. He lived VI
| to this, and never in one single instance Of
his life varied.
Therefore, we must not be looked upon
too searchingiy with the artists eye, II we
make somewhat of a speciality OF our grie
and mourning over the dead body O
Charles Sumner, for Antony never hat
more Just cause to mourn over the dead
| body of his beloved Caesar than have we to
night to lament the loss of our beloved
Sumner. l mean We of the South wht
have fought with him against human
slavery, and many of whom have tasted Of
it's accursed fruits And | feel that have
special cause and special right to speal
feelingly on this point, for while | have
myself never been slave in an individual
chattel sense, vet have long fingered il
peril and sorrow in my native land in the
advocacy of the glorious and immorta
truths sent forth so defiantly. and clothed
in such beautiful classic garments, by the
accomplished and God-like Sumner, from
his plaza in the Senate of the United States
and from the forum throughout his fal
native North.
1t was my good fortune to know Mr.
Sumner intimately, and it is among the
proven acts of my achievements that
have from him the written proof that | not
only enjoyed his confidence but had his
| love and it shall be the aim of nv future