The Irish standard., 1905-01-21

: remembered, at all events. that the
business of the sitting had come to !,
close before the assault on Charles
Sumner was committed. whereas the
house of commons, Oh the occasion to
which l refer, was in the midst of its
parliamentary work wien the free
| fight broke out"
| Charles Sumner WAS one of the great
! orators whom it has been our authors
good fortune to hear. hut Mir. McCar-
f, thy does not reckon him among the
| very greatest of these. for he does not
majestic simplicity. the poetic feeling
and the eNuuiSitely mrlodiouS voice of
| John Bright, or that he sounded the
! various notes of human emotion with
the swift and unfailing touch which
was characteristic of Gladstone. New
crthcieSS. in our authors Judgment,
Sumner unquestionably should take
rank among great orators us distin-
guiShcd from great dcclaimcrs or great
dlhatcrs.
1t is we'll known that during all the
earlier purt of his career Sumner had
an intense love for everything in Eng
land, the scenery Of the land, it's his
toric memories, its poetry and its
prose. The abolition of slavery in Eng
land and the English colonies through
the efforts of British phianthropists
had established Il claim on his sylnpa-
thes and his admiration, and he might
be said to have taken for his creed
Oh that subject the doctrines cXpound-
ed and brought into legislation by such
EngliShmen as WilberfOrce. AT the
time. however-near the close of the
seventh decade of the last century
when our author came to know Charles
Sumner, the latterS feelings toward
England had undergone Il severe
change. HE could not but see that
throughout the whole of the struggle
in the United States between North
and South the sympathies of the great
majority belonging to society in Eng
land had gone with the Southerners,
who broke into rebellion in the hope of
maintaining slavery. His old love for
England was profoundly shaken by
the disappointment thus brought upon
him, and changed at last into some
thing like Il feeling of hatred" Mr.
Mccarthy goes on to say that he had
many conversations with Sumner on
the subject, and, while he thoroughly
agreed with the senator in condcmning
the sentiment and the policy of the
ruling classes in England with regard
to the American civil war, lie did his
best to explain that on slavery, as on
many another question, the ruling
classes did not represent the feelings
of the majority of Englisllmen. Our
author proceeds to tell us that Sumner
''listencd to all my arguments with
mvarying patience and good temper,
and fully admitted the force of the
facts l brought to his notice; but he
still insisted that those whom the
English people had made their official
representatives were, for the most
part, sympathiZcrs, and nvowed
sympHthizers, with the Southern
states, and were willing that slavery
should abide forever in America, "a
tier than see the defeat of the South
ern gentlemen by the Northern trad
ers." 1t seemed to Mr.. Mccarthy as if
the very intensity of Summers former
love for England only served to MAXI
the bitterness of his disappointment
turn into something like deceived
lovers hatred for the former object Of
his alteration. Il thought him unreal
Sonablc. but could not fail to under
stand the inner meaning Of his senti.
mcnts, and l felt that every allowance
must be made for the sudden change
which had come over his feelings to-
! ward the old country"
Another great anti-slavery advocate
whom our author met for the first
time in New York was Wendell Phil
lips. Everybody knows that Wendell
Phillips was for many years the most
distinguished and effective among abo-
litionst orators. and it is known to
all Harvard men that he was Il man
of aristocratic birth, who had enjoyed
the amplest educational advantages
that in his youth America could fur
nish Our Irish visitor recognized that
Wendell Phillips was a man of high
culture and refined TASTE and the sim
certify of his devotion to every great
cause he advocated became with him
Il positive passion. He would hear Of
no compromise, he could make no al
lowancc for anOther's early training,
for the prcjudiccs and the sincere al
though pcrverSe convictions OF an OPP
punent. He was as unconditional Il
champion of total abstinence from alco-
holic drink as he was Of negro enamel
patton, and he could hold no parley
with any proposal for lowering his
standard in either cause. Unlike Hor-
ace Greeley, who was also a convinced
tectotaller. Wendell Phillips would not
consent to make one of any social
gathering where wine, or spirits, or
hnop anIno m thn to1,1n -