[THE PACIFIC RAILROAD AND THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.]
Letter to the Mayor of Boston, for the Celebration Of July 4, 1853.
Boston, July 1, 1853.
Dear Sir,—It will not be in my power to unite with the City Council of Boston in the approaching celebration of our national anniversary; but I beg to assure you that I am not insensible to the honor of their invitation.
The day itself comes full of quickening suggestions, which can need no prompting from me. And yet, with your permission, I would gladly endeavor to associate at this time one special aspiration with the general gladness. Allow me to propose the following toast.
The Railroad from the Atlantic to the Pacific.—Traversing a whole continent, and binding together two oceans, this mighty thoroughfare, when completed, will mark an epoch of human progress second only to that of our Declaration of Independence. May the day soon come!
Believe me, dear Sir, faithfully yours,
Charles Sumner.
Hon. Benjamin Seaver, Mayor, &c.
[THE REPRESENTATIVE SYSTEM, AND ITS PROPER BASIS.]
Speech on the Proposition to amend the Basis of the House of Representatives of Massachusetts, in the Convention to revise and amend the Constitution of that State, July 7, 1853.
Mr. President,—If the question under consideration were less important in its bearings, or less embarrassed by conflicting opinions, I should hesitate to break the silence which I have been inclined to preserve in this Convention. In taking the seat to which I was unexpectedly chosen while absent from the Commonwealth, in another sphere of duty, I felt that it would be becoming in me, and that my associates here would recognize the propriety of my course, considering the little opportunity I had enjoyed of late to make myself acquainted with the sentiments of the people on proposed changes, especially in comparison with friends to whom this movement is mainly due,—on these accounts, as also on other accounts, I felt that it would be becoming in me to interfere as little as possible with these debates. To others I willingly left the part which I might have taken.