New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1874-03-19
Charles Summer.

The ERA comes before its readers under
the shadow of a mournful event-depressed
and smitten by a great bereavement. Our
ablest friend is no more ; our bravcst de-
fender has fallen. Charles Sumner is dead.
His majestic presence has vanished from the
Senate, and his voice will no more be heard
in the councils of the nation. His death
makes an unreasonable chasm, and smites
us with awe. Humanity, through its tears,
must now look for another friend; freedom
another champion, and justice another advo-
cate. Who will now stand up for equal
rights in the Senate? Who will plead the
cause of the lowly, and lead the country to
higher plains of civilization; for the heart of
Sumner has ceased to throb, and his match
less voice is hushed in death? But yester-
day he lowered grandly among his brother
Senators-''in form, and moving express and
dmirable''-earnestly pursuing his Senato-
rial duties, with no sign of weakness upon
him-at least as we saw him from the gallery
of the Senate; to-day he lies in state in the
great rotunda Of the Capitol, where sorrow
stricken thousands march round in sad and
mournful procession to take a last look at
his lifeless form; and tomorrow he is COM
mitted to the dust of his native State. The
whole matter, though passing under our very
eyes, and impressinS itself upon our mind
and heart, still has something unreal and
dreamlike about it. The transition was so
sudden, and at the moment so unlocked for,
that it is yet difficult to realize what has
happened. 1t will require many days for the
colored people to feel that Sumner is no
longer in the Senate, and that he no longer
champions our cause before the nation.
Rarely has any death produced grief SO
spontaneous, universal, and sincere. Men
were attached to Mr.. Sumner by purer
considerations than those which ordinarily
surround a statesman. He was not known
in the theater OF partial interests. He did
not cultivate in the aspiring hopes of office
or honors through his instrumentality. Men
were attached to him by the ties of country
and of universal justice. His mission in the
Senate was identical with the function of
conscience in the world; it was to bring the
nation up to the highest standard of right.
Wonderfully able he was in the discussion
Of our postal relations, our foreign affairs,
our financial problems, our tariffs, and inter-
nal affairs. Now that he is gone, we shall
perhaps find him greater in these than his
contemporaries gave him credit for; but his
very greatness in all discussion looking to
the moral advancement of humanity, helped
TO make his efforts in other directions appear
less brilliant than they really were.
A life more worthy, power more benefi-
cent, a career more exalted than were his
has seldom been arrested by death. Mr..
Sumner was our model statesman. He stood
conspicuously apart from all his surround
ings, and was never COMPOUNDED with them.
In the effort to make this Republic accord
with the principles Of the Declaration of In
dependence, the Senate marched not with
him, but followed him, and followed ever
more, protesting that its leader was leading
too fast and too far. But no formal eulogy
of Charles Sumner is needed in these edito-
rial columns. His life and labors are dwelt
upon elsewhere and at length. We merely
mingle in the sad procession to his grave,
and utter our tremulous word Of grief with
those of the millions of our race with whom
his memory will forever remain precious.
We again ask, who shall ill up the chasm
made by his death? Massachusetts, has
many eminent citizens, but she had only one
Sumner: In some respects he lowered high
above all his compeers. In looking over the
field Of her eminent citizens we see no one
in Massachusetts better fitted by culture, by
his relation TO the age and body Of our times
to fill the chair made vacant by the death of
Charles Sumner-no one who better deserves
the honor than Wendell Phillips. Massa-
chusetts could do few things better COMFORTING |
with her traditional splendor and her moral |
reputation, than by placing this pure and
brilliant man in the chair occupied by his |
illustrious friend who was in some sense his
follower.