New-York tribune., 1874-03-18
MIR. SUMNEFS LAST THREE YEARS

atOr of Massachusetts,, there Is nothing
from his first effort in behalf of free
dom to his last thought for the oppressed race
for which he laborcd so long and accom-
pished 80 much that is more worthy
of admiration than his heroic atti-
tude during the last three years. Other
men made the fight and rested others fought
against Odds overcame them and sat down in
the shade of their victory others set to them
selves one great effort for liberty, for country,
and for humanity; and having won that,
made themselves comfortable, and, amid
the Establishments of power and office,
contented themselves with the laurels of one
great struggle. Charles Sumner was greater
than any of these. To him Eternal yigi-
"lanco is the price Of liberty" was something
more than worn-out phrase. More than
any of his contemporaries, he rose with the
triumph of his thought to the hight
of the great occasion and the wondrous
future it overlooked. For him there was
no time for marches and professions, for lau-
rel wreaths and spoils for rest and rust, ana
the trophies and rewards for men who at the
best had only done their duty. lie looked
over and above it all, and while baser men
quarreled over or divided the spoils, he was
contemplating, with large and philosophc
view, the future of the Republic.
ale died. says the pastor of Plymouth
Church, at the right place, but somewhat
later than the right time" Later than the
"right time Z" Not at all. Shall we name the
men who entered early into the fight and saw
it won, and died with their limp arms beside
4 ftatrx VIM
and freshness gone, and with no nerve or
courage for the larger struggle lmpend-
ing7 We need not. The memory of
their brave early fight covers with
its glory the weakness of their later days.
But they, if any, in this passing period, de-
serve to have it said of them that they died
"later than the right time" For Mr. Beecher
to say of Charles Sumner that had he died
three years earlier it would have been hap
pier, is to cast reproach upon the very crown
of the great Senator's life; and, what is more
to Mr. Beocher, is to set at nought all the
lessons of the Plymouth Pulpit.
For let it be remembered that in these last
three years Charles Sumner has been more
hero than in all his championship of freedom
and his war against slavery. In that long
fight, bitterly personal and in all respects
brutal as it was, social as well az politi-
cal in its aspects he had behind him
great and growing public sentiment,
the moral support of Massachusetts, and
the sympathes of philanthropists the world
over 1t was courageous and manly fight
and he made it to the end. But his fight of
the last three years-ah it was no fight-it
protest. uttered as much from bis silent seat
as in his spoken words, against the blind
idolatry of party and the fatal sub
serviency to personal government into
which the country Of his hope and his service
was falling. 1t was against worse odds than
ever before, and against those with whom he
had stood touching elbows in the great battle
for human rights. He saw the venom and the
rancOr of the war turned from the enemies OF
the Republic against himself because he
stood up in his place and rebuked the
shameful excesses with which the victory
was celebrated. He saw his party run office
mad and turned to -worshipeIs. and him.
self insulted and degraded so far as q trucking
Senate could degrade him, his place usurped
by the very figure head of incompetency and
incarnation of corruption; and he kept
on in the way of his duty, uncemplaln-
ing and unmoved. He sat in silence while
a drunken boor in the Legislature of his own
State, in the mad frenzy of the camp-plundering
of 1928, procured the passage of a resolution
of censure upon him, and in the same great
dignity he sat twenty.fOur hours before he
died, and heard read in the Senate the re-
scinding resolution, which added nothing to
his fame. but cleared the escutcheon of his
State. ...
"Had he died three years ago." All Mr..
Beecher! 1t isn't the contentment and rest of
a great triumph the rusted arms of one great
victory. that furnish the world its highest en-
thusiasms or spread the contagon of noble
examples. Mr.. Sumner began in a minority !;
be saw his following grow to a majority and
to power; he never lost sight of his ideal,
never was carried away by the crowd into
calf-worship or complaining; he did his
work like great single-hearted man, and the
end OF it was more lonely and unpromsing
than the beginning. And, Mr.. Beecher, the
last three years Of Mr.. Summers life are bet
ter for an example to the young men
of Plymouth Church than all the rest of
it. for they illustrate better than all
his fidelity TO his own conscience
With that he crowned all. and for that more
than all elSe Massachusstts mOurna him No