ISSUES AT THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.
Speech at the City Hall, Cambridge, October 29, 1868.
At the Republican State Convention, held at Worcester, September 9, 1868, of which Hon. George S. Boutwell was President, the following was the last resolution of the platform, which was unanimously adopted:—
“That the public life of the Honorable Charles Sumner, during three terms of service in the Senate of the United States, has fully justified the confidence which has been successively reposed in him; that his eloquent, fearless, and persistent devotion to the sacred cause of Human Rights, as well in its early struggles as in its later triumphs,—his beneficent efforts, after the abolition of Slavery, in extirpating all the incidents thereof,—his constant solicitude for the material interests of the country,—his diligence and success, as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, in vindicating the policy of maintaining the just rights of the Government against foreign powers, and at the same time preserving peace with the nations,—all present a public record of rare usefulness and honor; and that his fidelity, experience, and honorable identification with our national history call for his reëlection to the high office in which he has rendered such illustrious service to his country and to mankind.”
The report of the Boston Daily Advertiser stated that “the reading of the resolutions was accompanied by repeated applause,—the last one, relating to Mr. Sumner, calling forth a perfect tempest of approval.”
January 19, 1869, Mr. Sumner was reëlected Senator for the term of six years, beginning with March 4th following, by the concurrent vote of the two Houses of the Legislature. The vote was as follows:—