CHARLES SUMNER
ROBERT C. WINTHROP
Copyright, 1900,
BY
LEE AND SHEPARD.
Statesman Edition.
Limited to One Thousand Copies.
Of which this is
Norwood Press:
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
[CONTENTS OF VOLUME III.]
[BE TRUE TO THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.]
Letter to a Public Meeting in Ohio, on the Anniversary Of the Ordinance of Freedom, July 6, 1849.
Boston, July 6, 1849.
Gentlemen,—I wish I could join the freemen of the Reserve in celebrating the anniversary of the great Ordinance of Freedom; but engagements detain me at home.
The occasion, the place of meeting, the assembly, will all speak with animating voices. May God speed the work!
Let us all strive, with united power, to extend the beneficent Ordinance over the territories of our country. So doing, we must take from its original authors something of their devotion to its great conservative truth.
The National Government has been for a long time controlled by Slavery. It must be emancipated immediately. Ours be the duty, worthy of freemen, to place the Government under the auspices of Freedom, that it may be true to the Declaration of Independence and to the spirit of the Fathers!
In this work, welcome to honest, earnest men, of all parties and all places! Welcome to the efforts of Benton in Missouri, and of Clay in Kentucky! Above all, welcome to the united regenerated Democracy of the North, which spurns the mockery of a Republic, with professions of Freedom on the lips, while the chains of Slavery clank in the Capitol!
Faithfully yours,
Charles Sumner.
Messrs. John C. Vaughan, } Committee.
Thomas Brown, }
[WHERE LIBERTY IS, THERE IS MY PARTY.]
Speech on Calling the Free-Soil State Convention to Order, at Worcester, September 12, 1849.
The Annual State Convention of the Free-Soil Party, called at the time the Free Democracy, met at Worcester, September 12, 1849. It became the duty of Mr. Sumner, as Chairman of the State Central Committee, to call the Convention to order. In doing this he made the following remarks.
Fellow-Citizens of the Convention:—
In behalf of the State Central Committee of the Free Democracy of Massachusetts, it is my duty to call this body to order.
I do not know that it is my privilege, at this stage of your proceedings, to add one other word to the words of form I have already pronounced; but I cannot look at this large and generous assembly without uttering from my heart one salutation of welcome and encouragement. From widely scattered homes you have come to bear testimony once more in that great cause containing country with all its truest welfare and honor, and also the highest aspirations of our souls. Others may prefer the old combinations of party, stitched together by devices of expediency only. You have chosen the better part, in coming to this alliance of principle.
In the labors before you there will be, I doubt not, that concord which becomes earnest men, devoted to a good work. We all have but one object in view,—the success of our cause. Turning neither to the right nor to the left, moving ever onward, we adopt into our ranks all who adopt our principles. These we offer freely to all who will come and take them. These we can communicate to others without losing them ourselves. These are gifts which, without parting with, we can yet bestow, as from the burning candle other candles may be lighted without diminishing the original flame.
It was the sentiment of Benjamin Franklin, that apostle of Freedom, uttered during the trials of the Revolution, "Where Liberty is, there is my country." I doubt not that each of you will be ready to respond, in similar strain, "Where Liberty is, there is my party."
It now remains, Gentlemen of the Convention, that I should call upon you to proceed with the business of the day.
[THE FREE-SOIL PARTY EXPLAINED AND VINDICATED.]
Address to the People of Massachusetts, reported to and adopted by the Free-Soil State Convention at Worcester, September 12, 1849.
The State Convention of the Free-Soil party at Worcester, 12th September, was organized with the following officers: Hon. William Jackson, of Newton, President; Bradford Sumner, of Boston, Daniel E. Potter, of Salem, C.L. Knapp, of Lowell, J.T. Buckingham, of Cambridge, John Milton Earle, of Worcester, D.S. Jones, of Greenfield, Edward F. Ensign, of Sheffield, Benjamin V. French, of Braintree, Gershom B. Weston, of Duxbury, and Job Coleman, of Nantucket, Vice-Presidents; William F. Channing, of Boston, Samuel Fowler, of Westfield, Noah Kimball, of Grafton, A.A. Leach, of Taunton, Secretaries.
On motion of Mr. Sumner, a committee of one from each county was appointed to report an Address and Resolutions, consisting of Charles Sumner, of Boston, John A. Bolles, of Woburn, J.G. Whittier, of Amesbury, John M. Earle, of Worcester, Melvin Copeland, of Chester, Erastus Hopkins, of Northampton, D.W. Alvord, of Greenfield, F.M. Lowrey, of Lee, F.W. Bird, of Walpole, Jesse Perkins, of Bridgewater, Joseph Brownell, of New Bedford, Nathaniel Hinckley, of Barnstable, and E. W. Gardner, of Nantucket.
In the course of the proceedings, speeches were made by Anson Burlingame, Esq., Hon. Charles F. Adams, Hon. Charles Allen, Hon. Edward L. Keyes, and James A. Briggs, Esq., of Ohio. From the committee of which he was chairman Mr. Sumner reported an Address to the People of Massachusetts, explaining and vindicating the Free-Soil movement, with a series of Resolutions, all of which were unanimously adopted by the Convention. Of this Address, which became the authorized declaration of the party, the Daily Republican remarked: "The Address, prepared by that gifted scholar and writer, Charles Sumner, is an elaborate, complete, and unanswerable vindication of the principles embodied in the Resolutions. Clear, logical, and triumphant in argument, it glows with the warm and genial spirit of love for humanity which distinguishes all the productions of its author."
Among the Resolutions was the following, which seems the prelude to the debates of twenty years later.
"Resolved, That we adopt, as the only safe and stable basis of our State, as well as our National policy, the great principles of Equal Rights for All, guarantied and secured by Equal Laws."