The failure in the House did not prevent the Senate from proceeding with the election, on January 22d, when the whole number of votes was 38: for Charles Sumner, 23; for R.C. Winthrop, 14; and for Henry W. Bishop, 1; and Mr. Sumner was accordingly chosen on the part of the Senate.
During the long contest which ensued, Mr. Sumner was constant to the end, without doing or saying anything to change or modify his position. Extracts from his speeches, printed in capitals, with hostile comments, appeared daily in the Whig and Democratic papers, and were often characterized as treasonable, while he was called a disunionist. In reply to a personal and political friend, who sought some mode of meeting these attacks, he wrote the following private letter, which was never published.
Boston, January 21, 1851.
My dear Sir:—
The peculiar nature of your inquiry, and the friendship which prompts it, do not allow me to decline an answer.
You know well that I do not seek or desire any political office, that I am not voluntarily in my present position as candidate, and that, prescribing to myself the rule of non-intervention, I have constantly declined doing anything to promote my election, and have refused pledges or explanations with regard to my future course, beyond what are implied in my past life, my published speeches, and my character.
To these I now refer. They will give a sufficient refutation to the charge that I am a Disunionist. No honest person, acquainted with them, can make this charge.
Besides, I am closely identified, as you also are, with the well-known principles of the Free-Soil party. These, while declaring the duty of opposing Slavery and its influence, wherever they exist under the National Government, always recognize that other duty of loyalty to the Union and the Constitution. We propose to wait and work patiently under and through the Constitution, that our purposes may be peaceably accomplished in the spirit of that instrument and of our fathers. We are Constitutionalists and Unionists. In this class I have always been and still am.
That I may place this matter beyond question, I beg leave to repeat and reaffirm what I said on a former occasion: "We reverence the Constitution of the United States, and seek to guard it against infractions, believing that under the Constitution Freedom can be best preserved. We reverence the Union of the States, believing that the peace, happiness, and welfare of all depend upon this blessed bond."
Faithfully yours,
Charles Sumner.
In another letter, written during the contest and published at its close, Mr. Sumner stated his position more fully, and released the party from all obligation to him as a candidate.
Boston, February 22, 1851.
My dear Sir:—
I desire to repeat to you in writing what I have so constantly said to you and others by word of mouth.
Early in life I formed a determination never to hold any political office, and of course never to be a candidate for any. My hope was (might I so aspire!) to show, that, without its titles or emoluments, something might be done for the good of my fellow-men.
Notwithstanding the strength of this determination, often declared, I have, by the confidence of the friends of Freedom in Boston, more than once been pressed into the position of candidate; and now, by the nomination of the Free-Soil and Democratic members of the Legislature of Massachusetts, contrary to desires specially made known to all who communicated with me on the subject, I have been brought forward as their candidate for the Senate of the United States.
Pardon me, if I say that personal regrets mingle with gratitude for the honor done me. The office of Senator, though elevated and important, is to me less attractive than other and more quiet fields.
Besides, there are members of our party, valued associates in our severe struggle, to whom I gladly defer, as representatives of the principles we have at heart.
I trust, therefore, that the friends of Freedom in the Legislature will not, on any ground of delicacy towards me, hesitate to transfer their support to some other candidate, faithful to our cause. In this matter, I pray you, do not think of me. I have no political prospects which I desire to nurse. There is nothing in the political field which I covet. Abandon me, then, whenever you think best, without notice or apology. The cause is everything; I am nothing.
I rely upon you in some proper way to communicate this note to the Free-Soil members of the Legislature.
Believe me, my dear Sir,
Very faithfully yours,
Charles Sumner.
Hon. Henry Wilson, Chairman of the Committee of the Free-Soil Members of the Legislature.
He also wrote privately to more than one leader, proposing to withdraw. Hon. Charles Allen, who was then at Washington, said in reply: "I need no declaration from you to assure me that you did not seek nor desire political office. On that subject you have no secrets to communicate to me. Your purposes and wishes have been transparent.... Though not so tall by some inches, I believe I have kept myself about as bolt upright as you have, and as far within the lines of the Free-Soil party. I shall give no more heed to the suggestion of your letter. You must be the hero of this war to the end,—the conquering hero, I trust." Hon. Stephen C. Phillips, though not sympathizing with the "Coalition," gave his best wishes to Mr. Sumner, saying: "As the case now stands, I hope you will not be disposed, and I am clear that the Free-Soil members should not allow you, to withdraw yourself; and in view of what may affect you personally, and of some probable or possible general results, I rejoice in the prospect of your election."
The issue was presented, if possible, with increased distinctness by the revival in the papers of the speech at Faneuil Hall on the eve of the election. The editor of the Times, a Democratic paper in Boston, calling on Mr. Sumner, invited him to modify his opinions, or, as was sometimes said, to "ease off," especially with regard to his recent speech. This Mr. Sumner declined to do, when the editor inquired how he would like that speech reprinted in the Times, that it might be read by the Legislature. Mr. Sumner replied at once, that nothing could give him more pleasure. The speech appeared the next day, with an appeal to the Legislature as follows. "Mr. Sumner avows that what is called his Faneuil-Hall Speech contains his calm, deliberately formed, and well-matured opinions,—opinions by which his action would be governed in the event of his election to the office of United States Senator.... We hope that every Democratic member of the Legislature will read the speech of the man for whom they are asked to vote, and then consider whether it is not their duty to vote for some other person."[63]
As the discussion proceeded, the Commonwealth also published the speech, introducing it with these defiant words: "We treat our readers to-day to the noble speech of Charles Sumner at that great 'treasonable' meeting in Faneuil Hall. We are proud of it, and of the man who made it. We give it as it was reported by Dr. Stone for the Traveller, and as it was copied into the Times. The apologists for Slavery have heaped abuse on Mr. Sumner for this speech, and garbled it to serve their base purposes; but here it stands. Not a glorious word of it can or shall be rubbed out. We ask any member of the Legislature, whatever may be his politics or party, as a man, as a son of New England, and as an admirer of Washington, Jefferson, Patrick Henry, John Hancock, and Samuel Adams, to read this speech, and tell us how he can do a better thing than to vote for its author next Wednesday. Here you have the intellect and heart of a man,—a man for the times, a man for Massachusetts!"[64]
The session wore on, with constantly recurring ballots, always unsuccessful, when the organ of the Free-Soil party made another appeal, in which it presented strongly the issue of principle involved. An extract will show the character of this appeal. "Circumstances have conspired to give extraordinary interest to this election in Massachusetts. Not here only, but elsewhere, both North and South, it is regarded as symbolical of the march of new opinions on an important subject. There can be no doubt in the mind of any reasonable man that there is gradually, but certainly, approaching that tremendous moral conflict in politics which was early foreseen by the wise men of the Republic as sure at some day to happen, and which no human power can do more than to retard.... One peculiarity attending this election is, that it involves a true issue of principle.... The question is not so much whether Mr. Sumner or any one else is to be Senator as whether the antislavery sentiment shall be understood as having established itself not only in the internal and domestic policy of the Commonwealth, where it has always been, but also in the channels through which it connects itself with the government of the Union. Tenfold importance has been attached to this decision from the fact of the apostasy to Freedom lately committed by the person who for many years was considered as the leading exponent of Massachusetts doctrines in the Senate. The election of such a man as Charles Sumner in the room of such a man as Daniel Webster may be construed to be quite as much a complete disavowal of the late conduct of the one as a sanction of the system advocated by the other. Herein it is not difficult to trace the real causes as well of the extraordinary opposition on the one side as of the tenacious adherence on the other."[65]