The True Grandeur of Nations. July 4, 1845.
The Wrong of Slavery. Nov. 4, 1845.
Equal Rights in the Lecture Room. (Letter.) Nov. 29, 1845.
Prison Discipline. (Separate System.) January, 1846.
Scholar, Jurist, etc. Ph. B.R. Aug. 27, 1846.
Antislavery Duties of the Whig Party. Sept. 23, 1846.
Withdrawal of Troops from Mexico. Feb. 4, 1847.
Vol. II.
White Slavery in the Barbary States. Feb. 17, 1847.
Fame and Glory. Aug. 11, 1847.
Sundry Speeches in behalf of New Party to oppose Slavery. (1847-1851.)
War System of Nations. May 28, 1849.
Vol. III.
Equality before the Law. Dec. 4, 1849.
Welcome to Kossuth. Dec. 10, 1851.
Justice to the Land States. Jan. 27, Feb. 17, March 16, 1852.
Cheap Ocean Postage. March 8, 1852.
Pardoning Power of the President. May 14, 1852.
Freedom National, Slavery Sectional. Aug. 26, 1852.
Vol. IV.
The Basis of the Representative System. July 7, 1853.
Bills of Rights. July 25, 1853.
Repeal of the Missouri Compromise. Feb. 21, 1854.
Final Protest against Slavery in Nebraska and Kansas. May 25, 1854.
Union of all Parties against the Slave Power. May 29, 1854.
Vol. V.
Origin of Appropriation Bills. Feb. 7, 1856.
Abrogation of Treaties. May 8, 1856.
The Crime against Kansas. May 19, 20, 1856.
Vol. VI.
The Electric Telegraph. Aug. 17, 1858.
The Barbarism of Slavery. June 4, 1860.
Vol. VII.
Lafayette. Nov. 30, 1860.
No Surrender of the Northern Forts, against the Crittenden Compromise. Feb. 15, 1861.
Object of the War. July 24, 1861.
Sympathies of the Civilized World not to be repelled. Speech against Increase of 10 per cent on all Duties. July 29, 1861.
Emancipation our Best Weapon. Oct. 1, 1861.
Slavery the Origin and Mainspring of the Rebellion. Nov. 27, 1861.
Vol. VIII.
Revision and Consolidation of the National Statutes. Dec. 12, 1861.
Trent Case and Maritime Rights. Jan. 9, 1862.
Treasury Notes a Legal Tender. Feb. 13, 1862.
Help for Mexico against Foreign Intervention. Feb. 19, 1862.
State Suicide and Emancipation. March 6, 1862.
Final Independence of Haiti and Liberia. April 23, 1862.
Final Suppression of the Slave Trade. April 24, 1862.
Emancipation in the District. April 28, 1862.
No Names of Victories over Fellow-citizens on Regimental Colors. May 8, 1862.
Testimony of Colored Persons. May 12, 1862.
Vol. IX.
Rights of Sovereignty and Rights of War. May 19, 1862.
Help from Slaves. May 26, 1862.
Tax on Cotton. May 27, 1862.
War Powers of Congress. June 27, 1862.
The Proclamation of Emancipation. Oct. 6, 1862.
Emancipation Proclamation our Corner-stone. Oct. 10, 1862.
Prudence in our Foreign Relations. Feb. 3, 1863.
Employment of Colored Troops. Feb. 9, 1863.
Pacific Railroad. May 23, 1863.
Vol. X.
Our Foreign Relations. Sept. 10, 1863.
Power of Congress over the Rebel States. Atlantic Monthly. October, 1863.
Equal Pay of Colored Soldiers. Feb. 10, 1864.
Vol. XI.
French Spoliation Claims reported. April 4, 1864.
National Banks and the Currency. April 27, 1864.
Reform in the Civil Service. April 30, 1864.
Slavery and the Rebellion One and Inseparable. Nov. 5, 1864.
Vol. XII.
Motion to admit a Colored Lawyer to the Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States. Feb. 1, 1865.
Participation of Rebel States not necessary in Ratification of Constitutional Amendments. Feb. 4, 1865.
Opinion on the Case of the Smith Brothers. March 17, 1865.
Guaranties for the National Freedmen and the National Creditor. Sept. 14, 1865.
Vol. XIII.
Republican Form of Government the Essential Condition of Peace. Dec. 4, 1865.
Equal Rights of Colored Persons to be protected in the National Courts. Dec. 4, 1865.
Whitewashing by the President. Dec. 19, 1865.
Protection of the National Debt. Jan. 5, 1866.
Protection of Civil Rights. Feb. 9, 1866.
Vol. XIV.
Ship Canal through the Isthmus of Darien. July 25, 1866.
Metric System. July 27, 1866.
The One Man Power versus Congress. Oct. 2, 1866.
Cheap Books and Public Libraries. Jan. 24, 1867.
Vol. XV.
Cession of Russian America to the United States. April 9, 1867.
Vol. XVI.
Are We a Nation? Nov. 19, 1867.
Expulsion of the President. Impeachment of Andrew Johnson. May 26, 1868.
Specie Payments. July 11, 1868.
Vol. XVII.
Powers of Congress to prohibit Inequality, Caste, etc. Feb. 5, 1869.
Claims on England. April 13; Sept. 22, 1869.
Return to Specie Payments. Dec. 7, 1869.
Cuban Belligerency. Dec. 15, 1869.
Specie Payments. Jan. 12, 26; Feb. 1; March 2, 10, 11, 1870.
Vol. XVIII.
One Cent Postage with Abolition of Franking. June 10, 1870.
Duel between France and Germany. Oct. 26, 1870.
Naboth's Vineyard Speech on Proposed Annexation of San Domingo. Dec. 21, 1870.
Italian Unity. Jan. 10, 1871.
Vol. XIX.
Violations of International Law and Usurpations of War Powers. March 27, 1871.
One Term for President. Dec. 21, 1871.
Vol. XX.
Arbitration a Substitute for War. May 31, 1872.
Republicanism versus Grantism. May 31, 1872.
No Names of Battles with Fellow-citizens on the Regimental Colors of the United States. Dec. 2, 1872.
International Arbitration. July 10, 1873.
Civil Rights Bill. Jan. 27, 1874.
If any one doubt the practical sagacity and consummate statesmanship of Charles Sumner let him read the speech in the Trent case. He had a most difficult task. He had to reconcile a people smarting under the sting of English disdain and dislike to meet an insolent demand to give up men we had taken from an English ship, when every man in the United States believed England would have taken them from us in a like case; and to do this not only without dishonor, but so as to turn an apparent defeat into victory. The English cabinet, as is often the case with men who act arrogantly, acted hastily. They put their demand and their menace of war on grounds which justified us and put them in the wrong on the great contention which had existed from the beginning of our government. The United States had been, till the outbreak of the civil war, and hoped to be forever after that war was over, a great neutral power. She was concerned to establish the immunity of the decks of her ships. Sumner saw and seized our opportunity. Great as was the influence of President Lincoln, it seems unlikely that even his authority would have reconciled the American people to the surrender of Mason and Slidell without the support of Sumner. It would certainly have been a terrible strain upon his administration.
None of these speeches bears the marks of haste. In general no important consideration is overlooked and no important authority fails to be cited. Several of them were addressed to the Senate at a time when in the beginning he was able to convince scarcely anybody but himself. But in the end Senate and people came to his opinion.
Let me repeat what I said in reviewing Mr. Pierce's admirable biography:—
"Let us hope that these volumes will always be a text-book for Americans. Let successive generations be brought up on the story of the noble life of Charles Sumner. Let the American youth think of these things. They are things true, honest, just, lovely, and of good report. There is virtue in them and praise, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise. They do not belong to fiction, but to history. It is no Grecian, or Roman, or English heroism that the youth is invited to study. Charles Sumner belongs to us. His youth was spent under a humble American roof. His training was in an American school and college. He sleeps in American soil. He is ours, wholly and altogether. His figure will abide in history like that of St. Michael in art, an emblem of celestial purity, of celestial zeal, of celestial courage. It will go down to immortality with its foot upon the dragon of slavery, and with the sword of the spirit in its hand, but with a tender light in its eye, and a human love in its smile. Guido and Raphael conceived their 'inviolable saint,'
"'Invulnerable, impenetrably armed;
Such high advantages his innocence
Gave him above his foe; not to have sinned,
Not to have disobeyed; in fight he stood
Unwearied, unobnoxious, to be pained
By wounds.'
The Michael of the painters, as a critic of genius akin to their own has pointed out, rests upon his prostrate foe light as a morning cloud, no muscle strained, with unhacked sword and unruffled wings, his bright tunic and shining armor without a rent or stain. Not so with our human champion. He had to bear the bitterness and agony of a long and doubtful struggle, with common weapons and against terrible odds. He came out of it with soiled garments, and with a mortal wound, but without a regret and without a memory of hate."
Charles Sumner will always be a foremost figure in our history. His name will be a name to conjure with. Whenever freedom is in peril; whenever justice is menaced, whenever the race, whose right he vindicated, shall be trodden under foot, those lips of stone, from the stately antechamber of the Senate, will again utter their high commands. The noble form of Charles Sumner, to the vision of the lovers of liberty, will seem to take its place again in the front of the battle.
"Pass thou first, thou dauntless heart,
As thou wert wont of yore."
Worcester,