Year: 1871




Henry Ward Beecher ON the Removal


of Sumner.


We commend the following sensible re-
marks of Henry Ward Beecher. We are
glad to see that we are sustained in
our own view of this case by large share
of the thoughtful men of the party. We
are sure the sober second thought of our
best men will agree with us:


60 1t is not enough that the
chairman Of the committee on foreign re-
lations be honest, learned and patriotic.
He must have the gift of working harmo-
niously with other men. By his know
ledge he is to guide his Senators,
and by his advice he is to aid the Presi-
dent. But if his disposition be of cast
so severe and inelastic that he can conform
to neither, but breaches to one and dictates
to the other, all his good qualities will fail
at just the point on which everything
turns. A man whose conscience is in SUI
preme sympathy with itself, may be an
admirable expounder of morals; but to be
a manager of affairs one must be in SYM
pathy with men as well as with ideas.


The Senate Of the United States has de-
cided the public good required another
man should take Mr.. Summers place as
chairman of the Committee on Foreign
Relations We presume this step was
taken on purely administrative grounds
1t was believed that at critical period in
the negotiation of affairs important to q
degree seldom surpassed in the lifetime
of nation, the administration and the
country could be better served by another
man, who, though he would not surpass
Mr.. Sumner in noble integrity. nor ap-
proach him In learning, might have the
capacity of being better counsellor, aud
a temper which should not offend the self
respect of those who were obliged to main
tain confidential relations with bin.


The whole truth, we suppose, lies in
this, that, with all bis eminent excellences,
Mr.. Sumner does not know how to yield
anything to Others. He does not know
how to have conscience supreme over
himself without making it supreme over
others. 1t is no news that the eminent
Senator is a man Of singular purity of life,
Of eminent disinterestedness, of irreproach-
able fidelity, of great Kindness of heart, of
unbounded industry, and great learning.
But it is less widely known that he makes
his own convictions the imperious law of
other mems, that he is apt to regard as
personal foes all who do not accept his
Judgments, that be is a poor leader and a
worse follower.


1t is to be regretted that this action of
the Senate took place, and still more that
it was necessary to have it take place. But
the country will hold the President respon-
sible for the settlement of the difficulties
which have long threatened to embroiI two
great nations that ought to be helpful to
each other, and whose falling out would
be hailed with delight by every despotic
throne in Christendom. The Anglo-Saxon
race should stand together, over the whole
world. In negotiating an honorable and
lasting settlement of the threatening diff
cultes, the President has the right to de-
mand that he shall have the friendly help
Of the best men in the government, and no
man whose temper will not permit him to
speak to the President should consider
it strange that another is put in his place
who knows how to treat the President as
a gentleman.


1t is our opinion that Mr.. Sumner in his
former position was constantly liable to
endanger the peace of the two countries,
and that his subsdeuce into the body Of
the Senate will be favorable to just and
amicable settlement. 1t is feared by
some, and hoped by others, that deadly
wound has been given to the Republican,
party. If that party has SO slender hold
upon the country that the change of a
chairman of Senate committee can de-
stroy it, it is time that it be destroyed
But we have no such belief and have no
fears as to its danger Mr.. Wilson spoke
with the exaggeration Of excited feeling
when he declared that ninety in hum
dred in the party will be offended by this
action.


In fact Mr. Sumner is not man to win
personal influence among the common peo-
pile, or to create popular enthusiasm to-
ward himself. The men who will regret
this history are the moral and thoughtful
men of the party, and such men will revise
their first impressions. They will not, at
any rate, abandon the party on such slen-
der reasons as the dispossesson of a trusted
and honored man from place of influence
This is one Of those political whirlwinds to
which our politics are subject, whose very
violence will make it of short duration.