New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-06-21
CHARLES SUMNER.

Iivered in the Central Church, New Or
leans, June I2, 1874, ON Invitation Of
the Sumner Literary Debating Society
of the Straight University.
Mr.. President, Ladies and Gentlemen
History has been described by the most
brilliant of modern historians to be phil
osopby teaching by example, This is
especially true OF biography. For IN the
life of an individual there is an attractive
ness and a warmth which do not belong TO
events scattered over empires and running
through eras. 1t is part Of Gods economy
that men truly great should be sources OF
influence for all time, inspiring IN the mlnGs
Of youth impulses for great exploits and
uuickening manhood and even age with ad-
miration when emulation has ceased TO be
possible. He who studies the steps by
which great power over self and over others
was attained, learns quickest the secret OF
attaining great power for himself. he who
turns his attention to the career OF those
who have put into their lives least OF self
and N uch of philanthropy, will be readily
drawn into a life of self ahnegat,on and
resolute bravery in adherence to the right.
Thus examples of goodness come 10 have
not only the torn and force of precepts but
they have the cadence and rythm and har-
mony of poems. They proclaim virtue and
ILLUSTRATE It's POSSIBILITY, us ucoAty @AA 40
sure and great reward.
Your wish, therefore, that the life and
achievements of Charles Sumner should be
put before you was not only a most mer-
tied tribute to his memory, bu. was most
wise, since in your types and models and
ideals of manhood his overshadcwing ex-
cellence should have prominent place
For who more than he sympathized with
the aspirations Of youth, the kindly Incen-
tives of learning-above all, who sympa-
thized more ardently than he with those OF
you who are struggling with the peculiar
embacrasements springing from the pre-
iudices against race! Who more loyal than
he to all the rights of man, as man, indie
pendent of all distinctions arising from the
accidents of birthl Who more responsive
than he to the protests of all whose rights
were denied or fettered! There is, then, a
peculiar fitness in our considering bis great
Qualities and noble deeds, here, in the midst
of community, large portion OF which
it was the labor of his life to eManclpate
and diserthrall, and in an institution where
in accordance with the sympathies OF his
whole nature and the efforts of his whole
eoul, knowledge is at last unveiled to those
from whom it had been SO long hidden, and
like Gods sunlight and rain. made open
and accessible to all.
Charles Sumner was born in the year
1871. His preparatory studies were pur-
sued in the Boston Latin School. He
graduated at the Harvard University IN
the year 1880. He entered upon the study
of the law, and at the age Of twenty-three
commenced its practice in his native city Of
Boston. He was instinctively and under all
circumstances scholar. Learning chung
to him as naturally as garment. He was
well grounded in the law, for his legal
studies had been very broad and very deep.
Clients and cases poured in upon him. OPP
portunities for large and lucrative prac-
tice opened to him, for his reputation and
promise had preceded and heralded his en-
trance upon the profession. But he seemed
to share thesopinion Of Burke that 1.-The
mind tor he voluntarily declined this
profered clientelage. There is but one
cause of public interest in the courts with
which have seen that he, az an advocate,
was connected. and that was cause in
which his love for humanity enlisted him.
He argued with great power before the
Supreme Court OF Massachusetts against
the coEs:itutiOnality OF separate cOlored
schools.
1t was in these days of his early man.
hood. tina: be reported and published the
Circuit Court decisions of Justice Story.
To this labor he was led somewhat bv lis
scholarly ard legal tastes, but chiefly by
the devoted friendship which he entertain
ed for Justice Story, whose pupil. and, so
to speak, younger brother, he had been at
the Dane Law School. This friendship,
which was terminated and nourished not
alone from the affinity between two schol-
airs, but also from the mutual appreciation
existing between two gifted and pure men,
was imperlshably embalmed in a most dis
eliminating and atfectionate eulogy pro-
nounced by the pupil upon the teacher, as
jurist, after his death, in connection with
Pickering as scholar. Allston as an artist,
and Claiming as phi,anthropist. In his
friendship for Story, as in all things else.
was seen the love for the worthy, which
animated and guided all his preferences.
Then came a residence OF three years
abroad. sedulously devoted to study in
England ard Europe. which still more en-
riched an already rich scholarship and
deepened love for humanity already ab-
sorbing.
Upon his return this man, who had
developed into scholar, a statesman and
a philanthropist, spoke, and spoke with
tremendous power, in series OF orations
delivered chiefly at the various seats of
learning throughout the country, the most
marked Of which were, one on the True
Grandeur OF Nations which advocated
with all the force of argument, illustrated
from all the wealth of history, that the true
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT of nations was to be found
in the walks of peace; one on Fame and
Glory wherein was enforced the great
truth that mo true and permanent tame
can be founded except. in labors which pro-
mote the happiness OF mankind one on the
Law of Hum an Progress wherein was set
forth in clsarest light the doctrine that hui
man institutions gravitate towards the
right, and that the successive civilizations
have advanced the ideas of men near and
still nearer 10 an accord with that right;
and one upon Granville Sharp, wherein
were swept together and presented by lips
that seemed to have been touched with a
live coal from off freedoms own altar, the
heroic acts OF an English merchant, who,
without any special fitness for such a mis-
sion, except heart warmed with a
generous and unconquerable love of free.
dom, by dint of individual will and in
dividuaI effort, and in spite of tremen-
dous opposition continued through long
years. succeeded in having the principle
established never to be shaken that when a
slave touched the soil of England he was
from that moment forever free. 1t is in
this GRAFTON, more than in any other emana-
ton, that the deep and thrilling sympathy
Of Charles Sumner appears for the slave
and for one struggling for right against le-
Called wrong; and as he follows Granville
Sharp through his simple but great life,
from his position as an apprentice of linen
draper, down to the time when, without
having had the patronage of the so-called |
great. but by virtue of the good he had &C.
complished and the wrong he had de- |
stroyed: his remains were inferred in West |
minister Abbey. that shrine Of England's |
untitled nobility, he indicates and fore |
shadows his own capability for a great |
career. his own capability to fight giant |
wrong, without any prospective reward |
hostility through long wears |
ill at last victory for the right should
come.