Year: 1874

I
titude have almost forgotten the saw
age spirit which it infused into society
and politics, and the insolence with
it excluded from places in the ma
tional government every man who
did not bow the knee to slavery; how
it violated the public mails and ex-
cluded from them the newspapers not
known to be favorable to slavery
how, upon mere suspicion of opinions
against the rightfulness of slavery, it
made the South more dangerous to
Northern men than the regions in
habited by the most savage tribes in
Africa how it so dominated, even
the Northern States, as to raise fierce
mobs there against men of anti-slav-
cry opinions and against anti-slavery
papers.


1t has passed from the minds of the
multitude how this arrogant slave
power so dominated society at the
capital of the nation that the repre-
sentatives of anti-slavery opinions
were deprived ofthe protection of law,
and how it established in the national
Congress the code of the bully and as
sassin against anti-slavery members.
There are those even who presume so
much upon the shortness OF the public
memory as to call this the good old
time of peace and union, and of ''the
Constitution as it was.n The slave
power had conquered the nation that


liberty fS6 talk ak 81 Sp SPIRIT SP 9ven S
of the equal political rights of citizens
who did not believe in slavery, was
held to be reasonable, and In the
greater part of the nation was dan
gerous to life and property.


Mr.. Summer, after having achieved
distinction by learning in the law,
and by his accomplishments as an
orator, enlisted in the contest against
this despotic power, and thereby came
into public life. His first public
speech in this cause was in Fanenil
Hall, November, 1915, against the an
nexation of Texas-that Pandora's
box of evils TO the United States,
whose end is not yet reaehed-becanse
of its extension of the slave power.
From this time his anti-slavery labOrs
were constant. In September, 1S46,
he addressed the Whig State COnven-
ton on the "AntI-Slavery duties of
Whig Party" In 1S47 he delivered,
before the Boston Mercantile Library
Association, a brilliant lecture on
"White Slavery in the Barbsry
States"


In IS47 he addressed the Whig State
Convention on "Politieal Action
Against the Slave Power and the EX-
tension of Slavery" In 1S48 he ad-
dressed q mass convention at Worces-
ter. "For Union Among Men of All
Parties Against the Slave Power and
the Extension of Slavery" DE had
withdrawn from the Wing and joined
the Free Soil party, who supported
Van Buren, for the presidency. In
1880 he delivered before the Free Soil
State Convention an oration on "Our
Recent Anti-Slavery Duties" This
was after the passage Of the infamous
fugitive slave bill. Thus Mr.. Sumner
had become q champion of the anti
slavery cause before he was chosen
for the United States Senate, in 1851
by a coalition of Democrats and Free
Sellers, to succeed Daniel Webster,
who had taken a position in Mr.. Fill
more's Cabinet.


The public man who went to the
eapital at that time, so bold and un-
compromising an opponent OF the
slave mower as Mr.. Sumner was, took
his life in his hand. 1t was Mr.. Sum-
neris fate to seal his apOstleship
i'm the anti-slavery cause by martyr
dom. We use this term in its
fnII meaning; for, besides all the phys
ieal and mental suffering in conse-
duenee of the assassin, Preston 3:
brooks, it will be shown by the most
competent medical authority that Mr..
Sumner never recovered from the ef.
fects of it, and that it caused his
death at an age when man of his
splendid constitution might expect to
have many years more OF mental
force.


Mr., Sumner was q man of court
eous manners and ofirenne ment.tn MS
public addresses. They contained
nothing which any rational man
could allege as q cause for personal
resentment. 1t was because OF their
anti.slavery force that the assassins
of the slave power tried to silence
him. Sitting at his desk in the Sen
ate chamber, he was struck on the
head with q heavy cane by Brooks,
who had made all calculations to take
him unawares, and besides was arm
ed to shoot him down IL his blow
failed to stun him, and who had an
other assassin, Rhett, armed to aid
him if needed.


The cowardIy deed was well plan
ned. The first blow stunned Mr..
Summer, and from that time Brooks
continued to repeat his blows upon
his defenseless head. So deep was
the degradation Of the spirit Of the
country under its conquest by the
slave power that this brutal and cow
ardly act was applauded by the
South with no audible dissent and


by nearly all the Democratic press
and politicians of the North. This
ia another measure of the dishonor OF
that time, and of the magnitude OF
the mission which Mr.. Sumner as
sumed when he entered public life to
redeem the country from the slave


power.


Sumner was 3 constant sufferer. In


1860 he took part in the canvass


which resulted in the election Of Lin


coin. The same year he delivered IN
the Senate his Grafton entitled Tne


Barbarism of Slavery" He was re-


elected to the Senate in 1868, and


again reelected. The complete down
fall and humiliation Of the slave pow


er, and the total abolition OF slavery
crowned the life which Mr.. Sumner
had devoted to this cause.


That character which in Mr.. sum
ner made the anti-slavery cause para


mount to party attachments, mad'


him also peculiarly independent il
every matter in which the action o
the Republican party, or Of the ad


ministration, was contrary to his ide'
of right.


This quality was distinguished Il
lseveral instances in his course az chair