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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Charles Sumner Biography SUMNER, Charles (1811–74). An American statesman. He was born in Boston, Jan. 6, 1811, graduated at Harvard in 1830; entered the Harvard Law School the following year, and was admitted to the bar in 1834. In early life he maintained unusual literary activity, writing chiefly upon legal topics, and appearing as a lecturer. His strength becoming overtaxed from literary labor, he sailed for Europe in 1837, traveling for three years, devoting much time to languages, literature, and history. Returning to America in 1840, he began to take an active interest in the antislavery movement, and in 1845 he delivered a notable Fourth of July oration at Boston, on "The True Grandeur of Nations." This gave offense to prominent Whigs and led eventually to his withdrawal from their party. This oration was soon followed by others of great force, mainly against slavery. He was a leader of the "Conscience Whigs" of Massachusetts, who helped to form the Free Soil party. In 1851, through a combination of Free Soilers and Democrats, he was elected to the United States Senate, of which body he was a member until his death. Here he waged an uncompromising war on slavery. His first important speech (August, 1852) was entitled "Freedom National; Slavery Sectional." This was followed in 1856 by another on "The Crime against Kansas," in which he reflected severely upon Senator Butler of South Carolina. This arraignment led to an assault in the Senate Chamber upon Sumner by Preston Brooks (q.v.), a Southern Representative and a relative of Butler, Sumner being so injured that he was incapacitated for nearly four years. This attack led to the disease which ended his life. In December, 1859, he resumed his seat, but took little part in the debates until the middle of 1860, when he delivered a speech on "The Barbarism of Slavery." From the beginning he was recognized as one of the leading men in the Republican party. In 1861 he became chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and made a number of able speeches on questions of foreign concern during the war, notably on the Trent Affair (q.v.). For ten years of a critical period Sumner held this chairmanship. He took an active part in the debates on reconstruction and allied questions, ably advocating what came to be known as the "suicide theory" of the status of the Southern States at the close of the war. He favored negro suffrage, since he believed the negro could only be protected by giving him the ballot. (See Reconstruction.) He supported impeachment proceedings against President Johnson and secured the enactment of a civil rights law to secure equality of treatment to negroes in public places, subsequently declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. He broke with the Grant administration on the question of the annexation of Santo Domingo, and in 1872 joined the Liberal-Republican movement in advocating the election of Greeley for President. Sumner was a pioneer in civil service reform, and in 1864 introduced such a bill in the Senate. Sumner's Works were published in 15 volumes (Boston, 1874–83). The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XXI (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 665-666. |