,~tje ~?ebellon:,-l ~tigiu anib;Mina-,ifiutn~.
AN 0RATION
DELIVERED. BY
HEON. CHARLES SUMNER
UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE
YOUNG.MEN'S REPUBLICAN UNION OF NEW YORK,
NOVEMBER  27, 1861.
NEW YORK:
PRINTED FOR THE YOUNG MEN'S REPUBLICAN lUN-ON,
1861.




YOUNG MEN'S REPUBLICAN UNION,
Organized June, 1856, as the "FREMONT & DAYTON CENTRAL UNION."
HEAD-QUARTERS, STUYVESANT INSTITUTE, 659 Broadway, New York.
This organization was the first in the country to inscribe the name of LnrcoLN on its banner, and the
first to ratify the Chicago nominations in New York. It organized the first company of Wide-Awakes in
the Empire State, and published and circulated 3,961,000 pages of Campaign documents, among which
were the Illustrated Life of Lincoln, in German, and Mr. Lincoln's Cooper Institute Speech, with notes.
Officers of the Union.
CHARLES T. RODGERS, President,
DEXTER A. HAWKINS, Vice-President,
ERASMUS STERLING, Secretary,
WILLIAM  M. FRANKLIN, Treasurer.
Executive Committee.
CEPHAS BRAINERD, Chkairman,                  JAMES H. WELSH,
BENJAMIN F. MANIERRE,                        E. C. JOHNSON,
CHARLES C. NOTT,                             CHARLES H. COOPER,
FRANK W. BALLARD,                            P. G. DEGRAW,
THOMAS L. THOIR4ELL,                        LEWIS M. PECK.
@ -I *'                Advisory Board.
WM. CULLEN BRYANT,                           RICHARD C. McCORMICK,
HON. HORACE GREELEY,                         WILLIAM CURTIS NOYES,
HON. HAMILTON FISH,                          HON. GEORGE FOLSOM,
HON. HIRAM BARNEY,                           JAMES KELLY,
HRON. WILLIAM V. BRADY,                      EDGAR KETCHUM,
DANIEL DREW,                                 GEORGE W. BLUNT,
HON. BENJAMIN F. MANIERRE,                   HON. ABIJAH MANN, JR..
FRANCIS HALL,                                HENRY A. HURLBUT.
HON. CHARLES A. PEABODY,
A fine edition of ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S SPEECH AT THE CooPER INsTITTrr, New York,
1860, with Notes, may be had of G. P. Putnam, 532 Broadway. Price, 10 cents.
Advertisement.
Tin REBELLION RECORD, edited by Frank AMoore, and published by G. P. Putnam, 532 Broadway, contains every Official
Document, and all other Public Papers, Narratives, Facts, and Incidents of Interest connected with the Present Crisis.
The First Volume is now complete. Illustrated with maps and portraits on steel. The Second Volume early in
January. Continued in Weekly Numbers, and in Monthly Parts.




ihe ${bellion:-uts    eri in and   [ain-   ring.
AN ORATION
Delivered before the Citizens of Nlew York,
UNDER THE AUSPICES OF
The New York Young Men's Republican Union,
AT COOPER INSTITUTE,
ON WEDNESDAY EVE3NING, NOV. 27, 1861,
BY HON. CHARLES SUMNER,
UNITED STATES' SENATOR FROM MASSACHUSETTS.
THE assemblage before which this oration was delivered was remarkable in numbers and in character.  Long before the hour named for the meeting, the immense
hall was crowded, and notwithstanding that the evening was stormy, the proportion
of ladies present was larger than ever before seen in New York on such an occasion.
Upon the platform were seated many distinguished Americans, among whom
may be named Hon. William Pennington, Ex-Governor of New Jersey, and ExSpeaker of the House of Representatives; Hon. Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana; Hon.
Lot C. Morrill, of Vermont; Charles King, LL.D., President of Columbia College;
Professor Francis Lieber; David Dudley Field, Esq., William M. Evarts, Esq., John
Jay, Esq., Rev. Stephen H. Tyng, D.D., Rev. William Hague, D.D., Rev. George B.
Cheever, D.D., Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler, Rev. Alfred Cookman, John H. Griscom,
M.D., Hon. John W. Edmonds, Gen. Prosper M. Wetmore, Lewis Tappan, Rev.
William Goodell, Hon. Charles A. Peabody, Rev. Roswell D). Hitchcock, D.D., Rev.
HIenry M. Field, Hon. Thomas B. Stillman, HIon. Benjamin F. Manierre, R. M.
Blatchford, Esq., William Pitt Palmer, Esq., D. A. Harsha, Esq., George P. Putnam, Esq., Elliott C. Cowdin, Esq., Hon. William  B. Taylor, Postmaster of New
York, Hon. Rufas F. Andrews, Surveyor of the Port, Hon. II. B. Stanton, Deputy
Collector, Hon. Joseph IHoxie, Major A. A. Selover, U. S. Army, Oliver Johnson,
Esq.
Charles T. Rodgers, Esq., President of the "Union," introduced William  Curtis
Noyes, Esq., as the presiding officer of the meeting, and a list of: Vice-Presidents
and Secretaries was unanimously adopted.
Mr. NOYES, upon taking the chair, delivered the following address:- 
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:-Thanking you, as I do, gratefully for the kindness which has
called me to preside over this meeting, let me remind you that within the modest chapel which
impresses with devotional emotions every visitor to Mount Auburn-that most beautiful of
American cemeteries-stands a marble statue of one of the patriot leaders of the American
Revolution. Its simple dignity arrests attention and commands admiration and respect. Stern
resolve and unflinching courage are depicted in lineament and attitude. We see him voluntarily renouncing a high professional office under the crown to take his place in the forum as a
private citizen, to oppose, without reward, the odious violations of the liberties of the people by
means of writs of assistance. His exordium startles the prejudiced judges: -
Let the consequences be what they will, I am determined to proceed. The only principles of public
conduct that are worthy of a gentleman or a man, are to sacrifice estate, ease, health, and applause, and
even life, to the sacred calls of country. These principles, in private life, make the good citizen; in public
life, the patriot and the hero.
Then, rising with the progress of his great theme, he continues:Every man in a state of nature is an independent sovereign, subject to no law but the law written upon
his heart and revealed to him by his Maker. His right to his life, his liberty, and his property, no created
being can rightfully contest; these rights are inherent and inalienable.
We watch the effect of his indignant words-they convince and awe, and yet the royal tribunal dare not decide. It prevaricates and postpones, but the victory is won; the odious measure is abandoned for ever, and the orator's utterances have lighted up a flame which independence alone can ever quench.
We go with him from this first theatre of triumph through many long years of' toil and
anxiety, in shaping the measures which led to the great conflict with the mother country, to




PRELIMINARY PROCEEDINGS.,the General Court, guided by his skill and political sgacity; to the popular assembly alike
aroused to turbulence and flushed to repose by his burning eloquence. We see him hurling defiance at the minions of power who, with secret malevolence, assailed his reputation. We witness their malignant hatred, and their deadly assault upon his person when alone and unarmed.
We see him fall, covered with wounds, and carried bleeding to his homne.
Thenceforward, to the actual opening of the Revolutionary drama, and during its progress,
this act of regal barbarism obscured, but did not wholly extinguish, the light of the great intellect which it sought to destroy, but all that remained was a wreck, reminding only of thle
glories of the past. The crime against the person added to its atrocity a greater crime against
the soul, dooming it to pursue its earthly career in sadness and gloom. Conscious of being only
a monument of decay, well might the gradually expiring patriot wish that when God, in his
righteous Providence, should call him from time into eternity, it might be by a flash of lightning. We may rejoice that. his prayer was answered, and that-too noble to be permitted to
die a common death-in a manner equally affecting and sublime, JAMES OTIS (applause) was
removed to the mansions of eternal, felicity.
It is the necessary result of barbarism, in all its phases, to furnish historic parallels by reproducing itself in viler forms. Not a century elapsed, and a similar atrocity is enacted in the
Senate Chamber of the United States. The ruffians were actuated by as deadly a hate, their
malice was as foul and murderous, their defiance of law was as manifest, their victim was also
the friend and advocate of universal freedom, and as much distinguished and feared, and he also
fell beneath the blows of assassins in heart and conduct.
But here the parallel ends. This outrage did not impair the intellect which it sought to
destroy;'that survived the trial-enlarged, strengthened, purified-to set forward in a new and
more glorious career in the cause of fireedom and humanity. Instead of the lightning's flash to
remove it to heaven, a divine influence, equal in potency, has emanated thence. inspiring it with
a larger love of freedom, more zeal in the cause of the oppressed, and a more earnest conviction
that human slavery produces only evil, and that it should be forever eradicated. (Enthusiastic
appla,use.)
Happy, then, for us, and for our country, has been the suffering of these martyrs in the cause
of freedom. The name of James Otis has descended to posterity on the brightest pages of our
history, associated with those of Hancock, and Adams, and Jay, and Jefferson, and Henry, and
Rutledge, and there it will;remain forever.
The name of that other hiartyr in the cause of truth and justice, will find equal distinction in
future ages on the roll of philanthropists, with those of Howard, and Clarkson, and Wilberforce,
and others of that glorious company, " of whom the world was not worthy."
But history has also its retributions.  The infamous actors in these tragedies passed away
under the scorn and contempt of mankind, their names only searched for and remembered
among the persecutors. and slayers of their race. They who countenanced and approvedthe
last —by a fitting gradation-became the betrayers and assassins of their country, and two of
these-the highest in station and basest in conduct-are now awaiting the punishment due to
their crimes: in a prison within the shadow of Bunker Hill Monument, (applause,) which indignantly frowns upon them from base to summit.
In the reality of the present, behold the promise of the future, when all traitors like them
shall meet a similar doom. Still devoting himself to the cause of his country and to the freedom of the oppressed, the advocate and friend of all, of whatever rank or condition of color, the
scholar, the philanthropist, the martyr, the statesman, has come again among us, and it is with
equal pride and pleasure that I present to you the Eon. Charles Sumner, not of Massachusetts,
but of the United States of AmericA. one and indivisible.
Mr. SUAMNER then came forward, and was received by the vast audience with
tumultuous applause, in which the ladies joined with every manifestation of delight.
The cheers, and waving  of hats, and handkerchiefs lasted several minutes.
At the conclusion of Mr. Sumner's oration, the following resolutions were offered
and adopted by acclamation:
Resolved, That the doctrine enunciated by Major-General Fremont with respect to the emancipation of the slaves of rebels, and the more recent utterances of General Burnside, Senator Wilson, and the Hon. George Bancroft, in this city; and of Col. John Cochrane and the Hon. Simon Cameron at Washington, foreshadowing the eventual rooting out of slavery, as the cause of
the rebellion, indicate alike a moral, political, and militarynecessity; and, in the judgment of
this meeting, the public sentiment of the North is now fully in sympathy with any practicable
scheme which may be presented for the extirpation of this national evil, and will accept such
result as the only consistent issue of this contest between civilization and barbarism.
Resolved, That the thanks of this meeting be, and are hereby, tendered to the Hon. Charles
Sumner, the distinguished orator of this evening, for his reassertion and eloquent enforcement
of the' political principle;herein indorsed.




SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER.
Mn. PRESIDENT: -It is my nature to be more of the Liberator-of Columbus and of Washingtouched by the kindness of friends than by the ton-may be eclipsed by the- mild effulgence
malignity of enemies; and I know something beaming from an act of god-like justice, which,
of both. You make me feel that I am among within its immediate influence, will create a new
friends.  It gives me much pleasure to be heaven and a new earth, while in other lands
welcomed by the Republican Union, first, as its life-giving example will be felt so long as
you represent the young men who are. the men struggle for rights denied, so long as any
hope and strength of the country, and, second- human being wears a chain.
ly, as you constitute an association which has   War is always an epoch. Unhappily, history
already rendered signal service in saving the counts by wars. Of these, some have been wars
country from the rule of the Slave Oligarchy. of ideas-like that between the Cathllolics and
It was under your auspices, that our candidate Huguenots in France; between the Catholics
for the Presidency, known and honored in.Illi- and Protestants in Germany; between the arnois, became equally known and honored in bitrary crown of Charles I. and the Puritanism
New York. Nor is it too much to say that the of Oliver Cromwell; and like that between our
masterly speech which he made at your invita- fathers and the mother country, when the Detion in this very hall, was needed to complete claration of Independence was put in issue.
those titles to regard which caused his nomina- Some have originated in questions of form;
tion at Chicago, and his election by the people. some in the contentions of families; some in
It was he who did the work; but you supplied the fickleness of princes, and some in the mathe opportunity.                            chinations of politicians. England waged war
on Holland, and one of the reasons openly asFellow- Citizens of New York:-             signed was an offensive picture in the town
In the presence of such an audience, so genial hall of Amsterdam. France hurled her armies
and almost so festive in character-assembled  across the Rhine, carrying fire and slaughter
for no purpose of party or even of politics, in into tile Palatinate, and involving great nations
the ordinary sense of that termn-I incline nat- in a most bloody conflict, and all this wickedurally to some topic of literature, of history, ness has been traced to the intrigue of a minisof science, of art,-to something, at least, which ter, who sought in this way to divert the attenmakes for peace. But at this moment, when tion of his sovereign. But we are now in the
our whole continent is beginning to shake with midst of a war, which, whatever may be the
the tread of mustering armies, the voice re- reasons assigned by the unhappy men who be-'
fuses any such theme. The ancient poet, long- gan it,'or by those who sympathize with them
ing to sing of Achilles and the house of Atreus, elsewhere, has an origin and main-spring so
found that he could only sing of love,-and he clear and definite as to be beyond question.
snatched from his lyre its bloody string. Alas! Ideas are sometimes good and sometimes bad;
for me the case is all changed. I can speak to and there may be a war for evil as well as for
you only of war; but do not forget that if I good. Such was that earliest rebellion waged
speak of war, it is because unhappily war has by the fallen spirits against the Almighty
become to us the only way of peace.         Throne; and such, also, is that now waged by
The present is too apt to appear trivial and the fallen slave-masters of our Republic against
unimportant, while the past and the future are the national Government.
grand. Rarely do men know the full signifi-  If you will kindly listen, I shall now endeavcance of the period in which they live, and we or to unmask this rebellion, in its origin and
are all inclined to sigh for something better in niain-spring.'It is only when these are known
the way of opportunity-such as was given to that you cani determine how the rebellion is
the hero of the past, or such as our imagination to be treated. Your efforts will naturally be
allots to the better hero of the future. But governed by the character of the adverse force
there is no occasion for such repining now. -whether regarded as a motive power or as a
There is nothing in the past, and it is difficult disease. A steam-engine is stopped at once by
to imagine any thing in the future, more in- stopping the steam. A ghastly cancer which
spiring than our present. Even with the cur- has grappled the very fibres of the human
tain yet slightly lifted, it is easy to see that fiame, and shot its poison through every vein,
events are now gathering, which, in their de- will not yield to lip-salve or rose-water.
velopmnent, must constitute the third great
epoch in the history of this Western Hemi-          Diases desper9ategrown
By desperate appliances are relieved,
sphere; —the first being its discovery by Chris-   Or not at all.
topher Columbus, and the second being the
American Revolution. And now'it remains to
be seen that this epoch of ours may not surpass   On the 6th November last, the people of the
in grandeur either of its two predecessors, so United States, acting, in pursuance of the Conthat the fame of the Discoverer and the fame stitution and laws,'chose Abraham  Lincoln




6                        SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER.
President. Of course this choice was in every only a few slaves will constitute a Slave State
particular completely constitutional and legal. with all the sympathies and animosities of
As such it was entitled to the respect and ac- slavery. This is the rebellion which I am to
quiescence of every good citizen. It is vain to unmask. But bad as it is on its face, it becomes
say that the candidate represented opinions aggravated when we consider its origin, and
obnoxious to a considerable section of the coun- the agencies by which it has been conducted.
try, or that he was chosen by votes confined to It is not merely a rebellion, but it is a rebellion
a special section. It is enough that he was begun in conspiracy; nor, in all history, ancient
duly chosen.  You cannot set aside or deny' or modern, is there any record of conspiracy so
such an election without assailing, not only the vast and so wicked, ranging over such spaces
whole frame-work of the Constitution, but also both of time and territory, and contemplating
the primal principle of American institutions. such results. A conspiracy to seize a castle or
You become a traitor at once to the existing to assassinate a prince is petty by the side of
Government, and also to the very idea of pop- this enormous protracted treason, where half a
ular rule. You snatch a principle from the red continent studded with castles, fortresses, and
book of despotism, and openly substitute the public edifices, is seized, where the Governcartridge-box for the ballot-box.           ment itself is overthrown, and where the PresiAnd yet, scarcely had this intelligence been dent, on his way to the national capital, narflashed across the country, before the mutter- rowly escaped a most cruel assassination.
ings of sedition and treason began to reach us   But no conspiracy could have ripened into
from the opposite quarter.  The Union was such wicked fruit, if it were not rooted in a soil
menaced; and here the first distinct voice of congenial malignity. To appreciate properly
came firom South Carolina; A Senator from  this influence, we must go back to the beginning
that State, one of the largest slaveholders of of the Government.
the country, and a most strenuous partisan of   South Carolina, which has taken so forward
slavery-Mr. Hammond-openly declared, in a part in this treason,' hesitated originally, as
language not easily forgotten, that before the is well known, with regard to the Declaration
18th December South Carolina would be " out of Independence. Once her vote was recorded
of the Union high, and dry, and forever." These against that act; and when it finally prevailed,
words heralded the outbreak. With the per- lieer vote was given for it only formally and for
tinacity of demons its leaders pushed forward. the sake of seeming unanimity. But so little
Their avowed object was the dismemberment,was she inspired by the Declaration, that, in
of the Republic by detaching State after State, the contest which ensued, her comnmissioners
in order to found a slave-holding Confederacy. made a proposition to the British commander,
And here the clearest utterance came from a which has been properly characterized by an
late Representative of Georgia-Mr. Stephens able historian as "equivalent to an offer from
— now Vice-President of the rebel States, who the State to return to the British crown."
did not hesitate to proclaim " that the founda- The same hesitation shown with regard to
tions of the new Government are laid upon the the Declaration of Independence was renewed
great tiruth, that slavery-subordination to the with regard to the Federal Constitution, and
superior race-is the negro's natural and moral here it was shared by another State. It is nocondition; that it is the first Government in torious that both South Carolina and Georgia,
the history of the world based upon this great'which, with the States carved out their origiphysical, philosophical, and moral truth; and nal territory-Alabama and Mississippi-conthat the stone which was rejected by the first stitute the chief seat of the conspiracy-hesibuilders is in the new edifice become the chief tated to become parties to the Union, and
stone of the corner."  Here is a savage frank- stipulated expressly for the recognition of the
ness which shows an insensibility to shame. slave-trade in the Federal Constitution as an
Surely the object avowed is hideous in every indispensable condition.  In the Convention,
aspect, whether we regard it as treason to our Mr. Rutledge, of South Carolina, while oppospaternal Government, as treason to the idea ing a tax on the importation of slaves, said:
of American institutions, or as treason also to  "The true question at present is, whetlher
those commanding  principles of economy, Southern States shall or shall not be parties to
morals, and Christianity, without which civili- the Union." Mr. Pinckney, also of South Carozation is changed into barbarism.           lina, followed with the unblushing declaration:
And now we stand face to face in deadly  " South Carolina can never receive the plan [of
conflict with this double-headed, triple-headed the Constitution] if it prohibits the slavetreason.  Beginning with those States most trade."  I quote now  from  Mr. Madison's
peculiarly interested in slavery, and operating authentic report of these important debates.
always with an intensity proportioned to the (See Elliot's Debates, vol. v., p. 457.)  With
prevalence of slavery, it has fastened upon  shame let it be confessed, that, instead of repelother States less interested-Tennessee, North ling this disgraceful overture, our fathers subCarolina, Virginia-and with much difficulty mitted to it, and in that submission you will
has been prevented from enveloping every State find the beginning of our present sorrows. The
containing slaves, no matter how few; for slave-trade, whose aggregate iniquity no tongue
suCh is the malignant poison of slavery that can tell, was placed for twenty years under the




SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER.                               7
safeguard of the Constitution, thus giving to under the influence of Mr. Calhoun, it assumed
slavery itself increase, support, and sanction. the defiant front of nullification; nor did it
The language was modest, but the intent was yield to the irresistible logic of Webster or the
complete. South Carolina and Georgia were stern will of Jackson without a compromise.
pacified, and took their places in the Union, to, The pretended ground of complaint was the
which they were openly bound only by a most tariff; but Andrew Jackson, himself a patriot
revolting tie. Regrets for the past are not en- slaveholder-at that time President-saw the
tirely useless, if out of them we get wisdom  hollowness of the complaint. In a confidential
for the future, and learn to be brave. It is letter, which has only recently been brought to
easy now to see that, had the unnatural pre- light, dated at Washington, 1st May, 1833-and
tensionr of these States been originally encoun- which, during the last winter, I had the honor
tered by a stern resistance worthy of an honest of reading and holding up before the conspirapeople, the present conspi-acy would have been tors of the Senate, in the original autograph,
crushed before it saw the light. Its whole suc- he says:
cess, from  its distant beginning down to this   "The tariff was only the pretext, and disunion and
hour, has been from our timidity.            a Southern Confederacy the real object. 17e next
But there was also another sentiment, of a pretext will be the negro or slavery question."
kindred perversity, which prevailed in the same
quarter. This is vividly portrayed by John Jackson was undoubtedly right; but the
Adams, in a letter to General Gates, dated at pretext which he denounced in advance was
Philadelphia, 23d March, 1776:              employed so constantly afterwards as to become
threadbare.  At the earliest presentation of
" However, my dear friend Gates, all our misfor- abolition petitions-at the Texas question-at
tunes arise from a single source: the resistance of the the compromises of 1850-at the Kansas quesSouthern colonies to Republican Governmnent."  * tion-at the probable election of Fremont-on
*  * (John Adams' Works, vol. i., p. 207.)  all these occasions, the Union was threatened
And he proceeds to declare in strong lan- by the angry slave-masters.
guage that'"popular principles and axioms   But the conspiracy has been unblushingly
were abhorrent to the inclinations of the barons confessed by recent parties to it. Especially
of the South."  This letter was written in the was this done in the rebel Convention of South
early days of the Revolution. At a later period Carolina.
of his life John Adams testifies again to the   Mr. Packer said: " Secession is no spasmodic
discord between the North and the South; and effort that has come suddenly upon us. It has
he refers particularly to the period after the been gradually culminating for a long series of
Federal Constitution, saying: "The Northern years."
anl the Southern States were invariably fixed   Mr. Inglis said: " Most of us have had this
in opposition to each other."  (See letter to subject under consideration for the last twenty
James Lloyd, 11th Feb., 1815, John Adams' years."
Works, vol. x., p. 19.) This was before any   Mr. Keitt said: "I have been engaged in
question of tariff, or of free trade, or before the this movement ever since I entered political:
growing fortunes of the North had awakened  life."
Southern jealousy. The whole opposition had   Mr. Rhett, who was in the Senate when Iits root in slavery-as also had the earlier re- first entered that body, and did not hesitatesistance to Republican Government.          then to avow himself a Disunionist, said, in,
In the face of these influences the Union the same Convention: "It is nothing produced4
was formed, but the seeds of conspiracy were by Mr. Lincoln's election or the non-executiow
latent in its bosom. The spirit already revealed of the fugitive slave law. It is a matter whicht.
was scarcely silenced.; it was not destroyed. has been gathering headfor thirty years."
It still existed, rankling, festering, burning to    The conspiracy thus exposed by Jackson
make itself manifest. At the mention of sla- and confessed by recent parties to it, was
very it always appeared full-armed, with bar- quickened by the growing passion for slavery-.
barous pretensions. Even in the first Congress throughout the slave States. The well-known
under the Constitution-at the presentation of opinions of the fathers, the declared convictions,
that famous petition where Benjamin Franklin of all who were inost eminent at the foundation
simply called upon Congress to step to the verge of the Government, and the example of Wash —
of its powers to discourage every species of ington were all discarded, and it was recklesstraffic in our fellow-men-this spirit broke ly avowed that slavery is a divine institution —
forth in violent threats. With a kindred law- the highest type of civilization-a blessing tolessness it early embraced that extravagant master and slave alike-and the very key-stone'
dogma of State rights which has been! ever of our national arch. A generation has grown,
since the convenient cloak of treason and of up with this teaching, so that it is now ready
conspiracy. At the Missouri question in 1820, to say with Satan,
it openly menaced a dissolution of the Union.    Evil be thou my good; by thee at least
Instead of throttling the monster, we submitted  Divided empire with heaven's king I hold
fee  it  it new concessions.   eanhile  As man ere long and-this new world shall knaw.
to feed  it with new concessions. Meanwhile
the conspiracy grew, until, at last, in 1810, It is natural that a leople thus trained; should,




8                        SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER.
listen to the voice of conspiracy. Slavery it- ern coast were so far abandoned by the public
self is a constant conspiracy, and its supporters, force, that the larger part-counting upwards
whether in the slave States or-elsewhere, easily of 1,200 cannons, and built at a cost of upwards
become indifferent to all rights and principles of six million dollars-became at once an easy
by which it may be constrained.             prey to the rebels.
But this rage for slavery was itself quick-   Fourthly. National arms were transferred
ened by two influences, which have shown from Northern to Southern arsenals, so as to
themselves since the formation of oulr Union;-  disarm the free States and to equip the slave
one economical and the other political. The States. This was done on a large scale. Upfirst was found in the unexpected importance wards of 115,000 arms, of the latest and most
of the cotton-crop, which, through the labor of approved pattern, were transferred from the
slaves and the genius of a New England inven- Springfield and Watervliet arsenals to differtor, has passed into an extraordinary element ent arsenals in the slave States, where they
of wealth and of imagined strength, so that we have been seized by the rebels. And a quarhave all been summoned to do homage to cot- ter of a million percussion muskets were sold
ton; as king. The second of these influences to various slave States for $2.50 a musket,
was found in the temptations of political power when they were worth, it is said, on an av-than which no influence is more potent-for.erage, $12. Large quantities of cannon, morit became obvious that this power could be tars, powder, ball, and shell received the same
assured to slavery only through the permanent direction.
preponderance of its Representatives in the   Fifthly. The national Treasury, which so.
Senate; so that the continued control of all recently had been prosperous beyond example,
offices and honors was made to depend upon was disorganized and plundered even to the
the extension of slavery. Thus, through two verge of bankruptcy. Upwards of six millions
strong appetites-one for gain and the other are supposed to have been stolen, and much of
for power-was slavery stimulated; but the: this treasure doubtless went to help the work
conspiracy was strong only through slavery.    of rebellion.
But- even this conspiracy, thus supported    Thus, even before its outbreak, the conspirand nurtured, would have been more wicked acy contrived to degrade and despoil the Govthan strong, if it had not found perfidious aid ernment, so as to secure a free course for the
in the very cabinet of the President.  The projected rebellion. The story seems incredSecretary of the Treasury, a slave-master from  ible. But it was not enough to disperse the
Georgia;. the Secretary of the Interior, a slave- army, to disperse the navy, to abandon forts,
master from Mississippi; the Secretary of War, to disarm the free States, and to rob the Treasthe notorious Floyd, a slave-master from Vir- ury. The President of the United States, solginia; and, I fear, also the Secretary of the emnly sworn to execute the laws, was won into
Navy, who was a Northern man with Southern a system of inactivity amounting to a practical
principles, lent their active exertions. Through abdication of his important trust.  He saw
these eminent functionaries the treason was treason plotting to stab at the heart of his
organized and directed, while their important country; he saw  conspiracy, daily, hourly,
posts were prostituted to its infamy. Here, putting on the harness of rebellion, but,
again, you see the extent of the conspiracy. though warned by the watchful commanderNever before, in any country, was there a simi- in-chief, he did nothing to arrest it, standing
lar crime, which embraced so many persons in always
the highest places of power, or which took                      like a painted Jove,
within its grasp so large a theatre of humanWithidlethunderinhisliftedhand.
action. In anticipation of the election of Mr. Aye, more; instead of those instant lightnings
Lincoln, the Cabinet conspirators had prepared smiting and blasting in their fiery crash, which
the way for the rebellion:                  an indignant patriotism would have hurled at
First. The army of the United States was the criminals, he nodded sympathy and acquiesso far dispersed and exiled, that the com- cence. No page of history is more melancholy,
mander-in-chief found it difficult during the because nowhere do we find a ruler who so
recent anxious winter to bring together a completely abandoned his country; not Charles
thousand troops for the defence of the national I. in his tyranny, not Louis XVI. in his weakness.
capital, menaced by the conspirators.       Mr. Buchanan  had been advanced to power
Secondly. The navy was so far dispersed by slave-masters, who knew well that he could
or dismantled, that on the 4th March, when be used for slavery. The slave-holding conthe new Administration came into power, spirators were encouraged to sit in his Cabinet,
-there were no ships to enforce the laws, collect where they doubly betrayed their country,
the revenues, or protect the national property first by evil counsels, and then by disclosing
in the rebel ports. Out of 72 vessels of war, what passed to their distant slave-holding conthen counted as our navy, it appears that our federates. The sudden act of Major Anderwhole available force at home was reduced to son, in removing from Fort Moultrie to Fort
the steamer Brooklyn, carrying 25guns, and the Sumter, and the sympathetic response of an
store-ship Relief, carrying 2 guns.         aroused people, compelled a change of policy,
Thirdly. The forts on the extensive South- and the rebellion received its first check. It




SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER.                               9
was decided *at last, after a painful struggle,   Crowned be the man with lasting praise,
that Fort Sumter should be maintained.  It          Who loorst contrived the haisen,
To loose mad horses from the chaise,
is difficult to exaggerate the importance of        And save the necks within.
that decision, which, I believe, was duo mainly But this is the impossible contrivance which.
to an emient democrat-General Cass. This, has been attempted.  Nothing is clearer than
at least, is true: it saved the national capitl.  that this pretension, if acknowledged, leaves to
Meanwhile the conspiracy increased in ac- every State the right to play at will " the mad
tivity, mastering State after State, gathering horse," but with very little chance of saving
its forces and building its batteries. The time any thing.  It takes from the Government not
had come for the tragedy to begin. " At Not- merely the unity, but even the possibility of
hingham," says the great English historiarv continued existence, and reduces it to the
speaking of King Charles I., "he erected his shadow of a name, or, at best, a mere tenancy
royal standard, the open signal of discord and at will —an unsubstantial form, liable to be decivil war throughout.the kingdomS  The same composed at the touch of a single State. Of
open signal now came from Charlston, when course, such an anarchical pretension —so intho conspirators ran up the rattle-snake flag, stinct with all the lawlessness of slavery-must
and directed their wicked cannonade upon the be encountered peremptorily. It.is not enough
small, half-famished garrison of Sumter.    to declare our dissent from it. - We must see
Were all this done in the name of revolu- that our conduct is such as not to give it any
tion, or by virtue of any revolutionary princi- recognition or foothold. [Applause.]
pie, it would assume a familiar character. But   But instead of scouting this pretension, and
this is not the case. It is all done under the utterly spurning it from  the Government, new
pretence of constitutional right. The forms concessions to slavery were gravely propoundof the Constitution are seized by the conspira- ed as the means of pacification —like a new
tors-as they have already seized every thing sacrifice offered to an obscene divinity.  It
else-and wrested to the purposes of treason. was argued that in this way the Border States
It is audaciously declared that, under the exist- at least might be preserved to the Union, and
ing Constitution, each State, illn the exercise of some of the Cotton States, perhaps, be won
its own discretion, may withdraw  from  the back to their duty; in other words, that in
Union; and this asserted right of secession is consideration of such concessions these States
invoked as the cover for a rebellion begun in would consent to waive the present exercise of
conspiracy. The election of Mr. Lincoln is the pretended right of secession.  Against all
made the occasion for the exercise of this pre- such propositions-without considering their
tended right. Certain opinions at the North  character-there was on the threshold one obon the subject of slavery are made the pretext. vious and imperative objection. It -was clear
Who will not deny that this election can be that the very bargain or understanding, whetha just occasion.?                           er express or implied, was a recognition of
Who will not condemn the pretext?        this pretended right, and that:l State yielding
But both occasion and pretext are determined only to this appeal and detained through conby slavery, and thus testify to the part it has cessions, practically asserts this claim, and
constantly performed.                       holds it for future exercise, tanquam gladium
And the pretended right of secession is not in vagina. Thus a concession called small beless monstrous than the. pretext or the occa- comes infinite, for it concedes the pretended
sion; and this, too, testifies to slavery.  It right of secession and makes the permnanence
belongs to that brood of assumptions and per- ofthe national Government impossible. Amidst
versions, of which slavery is the  prolific all the grave responsibilities of the hour it beparent. Wherever slavery prevails, this pre- longs to us to take care that the life of the Retended right is recognized, and generally with  public is sacredly preserved. But this would
an intensity proportioned to the prevalence of be sacrificed at once, did we submit its exslavery; as, for instance, in South Carolina istence to the conditions sought to be imand Mississippi, more intensely than in Ten- posed.
nessee and Kentucky. It may be considered    But looking at the concessions proposed, I
a fixed part of the slave-holding system. A  have always found them  utterly unreasonable
pretended right to set aside the Constitution  and indefensible. I should not expose them
to the extent of breaking up the Government, now, if they did not constantly testify to. the
is the natural companion of the pretended origin and main-spring of this rebellion. Slaright to set aside human nature to the extent very was always the single subject-matter, and
of making merchandise of men. They form  nothing else. Slavery  -as not only an ina well-matched couple, and travel well together tegral part of every con:~ession, but the single
— destined to perish together. If we do not integer. The single idea was to give some
overflow toward the first with the same indig- new security-in some form-to slavery. That
nation which we feel for the latter, it is because brilliant statesman, Mr. Canning, in one of
its absurdity awakens our contempt.  An those eloquent speeches which charm so much
English poet of the last century exclaims, in by the style, said that he, was "tired of being
mocking verses —                             a security-grinder," but his experience was not




10                       SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER.
comparable to ours. "Security-grinding," in capital and in other places within the excluthe name of slavery, has been for years the sive Federal jurisdiction; that they sought to
way in which we have encountered this con- give new constitutional securities to the transpiracy. [Laughter and applause.]           sit of slaves from State to State, opening the
The propositions at the last Congress began, way to a roll-call of slaves at the foot of Bunwith the President's Message, which in itself ker Hill or the gates of Faneuil Hall; and that
was one long concession. You do not forget they also sought the disfranchisement of more
his sympathetic portraiture of the disaffection than 10,000 of my fellow-citizens in Massachuthroughout the Slave States, or his testimony setts, whose rights are fixed by the Constituto the cause. Notoriously and shamefully his tion of that Commonwealth, drawn by John
heart was with the conspirators, and he knew  Adams; considering these things, I felt at the
intimately the main-spring of their conduct. time, and I still feel, that the best apology of
He proposed nothing short of a general sur- these petitioners was that they were ignorant
rendel to slavery, and thus did he proclaim  of the true character of these propositions, and
slavery as the head and front-the very causa that in signing the petition they knew not
eausans-of the whole crime.                 what they did. But even in their ignorance
You have not forgotten the Peace Confer- they testified to slavery, while the propositions
ence-as it was delusively styled-convened were the familiar voice of slavery crying,
at Washington on the summons of Virginia, " Give, give."
with John Tyler in the chair, where New    There was another single proposition which
York as well as Massachusetts was represented came from still another quarter, but like all
by some of her ablest and most honored citi- the others, it related exclusively to slavery.
zens. The sessions were with closed doors; It was to insert in the text of the Constitution
but it is now known that throughout the pro- a stipulation against any future amendment by
ceedings, lasting for weeks, nothing was dis- which Congress might be authorized to intercussed but slavery.  And the propositions fere with slavery in the States. If you read
finally adopted by the Convention were con- this proposition you will find it crude and illfined to slavery. Forbearing all details, it will shaped-a jargon of bad grammar-a jumble
be enough to say that they undertook to give and hodge-podge of words-calculated to harto slavery positive protection in the Constitn- monize poorly with the accurate text of our
tion, with new sanction and immunity-mak- Constitution. But even if tolerable in form, it
ing it, notwithstanding the determination of was obnoxious, like the rest, as a fresh stipulaour fathers, national instead of sectional; and tion in favor of slavery. Sufficient- surely in
even more than this, making it one of the this respect is the actual Constitution. Beyond
essential and permanent parts of our repub- this I cannot, I will not, go. What Washinglican system. But slavery is sometimes as de- ton, Franklin, and Jay would not; insert we
ceptive as at other times it is bold; -and these cannot err in rejecting. [Applause.]
propositions were still further offensive from    I do not dwell on other propositions, because
their studied uncertainty, amounting to posi- they attracted less attention; and yet among
tive duplicity. At a moment when frankness these was one to overturn the glorious safewas needed above all things, we were treated guards of freedom  set up in the free States,
to phrases pregnant with doubts and contro- known as the Personal Liberty Laws. Here
versies, and were gravely asked, in the name again was slavery-with a vengeance. But
of slavery, to embody them in the Constitu- there is one remark which I desire to make
tion.                                        with regard to all these propositions. It was
There was another string of propositions sometimes said that the concessions they ofmuch discussed during the last winter, which fered to slavery Dwere "small."  What a misbore the name of the venerable Senator from  take is this! No concession to slavery can be
whom  they came —Mir. Crittenden, of Ken- "snall."  Freedom  is priceless, and in this
tucky. These also related to slavery and noth- simple rule alike of morals and jurisprudence,
ing else. They were more obnoxious even you will find the just measure of any concesthan those from the Peace Conference. And sion, how small soever, by which freedom is
yet there were petitioners from the North-  sacrificed. Tell me not that it concerns a few
and even from Massachusetts-who prayed for only. I do not forget the saying of antiquity,
this great surrender to slavery. Considering that the best government is where an injury
the character of these propositions-that they to a single individual is resented as an injury
sought to change the Constitution in a manner to the whole State; nor do I forget that menmrevolting to the moral sense; to foist into orable instance of our own recent history,
the Constitution the idea of property in man; where, in a distant sea, the thunders of our
to protect slavery in all present territory south navy with all the hazards of war were aroused
of 360 30', and to carry it into all territory here- to protect the liberty of a solitary person who
after acquired south of that line, and thus to claimed the rights of an American citizen.
make our beautiful Stars and Stripes in their By such examples let me be guided rather
southern' march -the flag of slavery; consider- than by the suggestion that human freedom,
ing that they further sought to give new con- whether in many or in few, is of so little value
ktitutional securities to'slavery in the national that it may be put in the market to appease a




SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER.                              11
traitorous conspiracy or to soothe those who, the Republic or hereafter acquired. This conwithout such concession, threaten to join the cession was the ultimatum on which was staked
conspirators.                               their continued loyalty to the Union —as the
But the warnings of the past, like the sug- continuance of the slave-trade had been the
gestions of reason and of conscience, were all original condition on which South Carolina
against concession. Timid counsels have al- and Georgia had entered into the Union. And
ways been an encouragement to sedition and the reason, though wicked, was obvious. It
rebellion. If the glove be of velvet, the hand  was because without such opportunity of exmust be of iron.  An eminent master of pansion slavery would be stationary, while the
thought, in some of his most vivid words, Free States, increasing in number, would obseems to have spoken for us. Here they are:  tain a fixed preponderance in the national
Government, assuring to them the political
"To expect to tranquillize and benefit a country  Government, assuring to them  te political
by gratifying its agitators, would be like the piactice power. Thus at that election the banner of
of the superstitious of old with their sympathetic the slave-masters had for its open device-not
powder and ointments; who, instead of applying the Union as it is, but the extension and permedicaments to the wound, contented themselves petuation of human bondage. The popular
with salving the sword which had inflicted it. Since vote was against further concession, and the
the days of Dane-gelt downwards, nay, since the conspirators proceeded with their crime. The
world was created, nothing but evil has resulted from  occasion so long sought had come. The pretext
concession made to intimidation." — Whately's Es- foreseen by Jackson, was the motive power.
says of Bacon. Essay 15, p. 134.               But here mark well that, in their whole conThese words are most applicable to these duct, the conspirators acted naturally under the
times, when it has been so often proposed to instincts implanted by slavery; nay, they acted
salve the sword of secession.               logically even. Such is slavery that it cannot
In the same spirit spoke the most eminent exist unless where it owns the government. An
practical statesman in English history, Mr. injustice so plain can find protection only from
Fox. Ilere are his words:                    a government which is a reflection of itself.
Cannibalism cannot exist except under a gov* "To humor the present disposition and temporize, ernment of cannibals. Idolatry cannot exist
is a certain, absolutely certain confirmation of the except under a government of idolaters. And
evil. No nation ever did or ever can recover from  Slavery cannot exist except under a governslavery by such methods."-Charles James Fox, 1ment of slave-masters. This is positive, uniette to od Hland, 18t June,  4.  versal truth-at Petersburg, Constantinople,
Pardon me if I express a regret, profound Timbuctoo, or Washington. The slave-masters
and heartfelt, that the pretensions of slavery, of our country saw that they were dislodged
whether in its claim of privilege or in its doc- from the national Government, and straighttrine of secession, were not always encountered  way they rebelled. The Republic which they
boldly and austerely.  Alas! it is ourselves could no longer rule they determined to ruin.
that have encouraged the conspiracy and made   But though thus audaciously wicked, they
it strong. Secession has become possible only are not strong in numbers. The whole quanthrou(gh long-continued concession. In pro- tity of slave-owners, great and small, according
posing concession we have encouraged seces- to the recent census, is not more than four
sion, and while professing to uphold the Union, hundred thousand; out of whom there are not
we have betrayed it. It seems now beyond more than one hundred' thousand who are
question that the concessionists of the North  interested to any considerable extent in this
have from the beginning played into the hands peculiar species of property; and yet this petof the secessionists of the South. I do not ty oligarchy-itself controlled by a squad still
speak in ha'rhness or even in criticism, but more petty-in a population of many millions,
simply according to my duty in unfolding his- has aroused and organized this gigantic rebeltorically the agencies, conscious and uncon- lion. But this success is explained by two
scions, which have been at work, while I hold considerations. First, the asserted value of
them  up as a warning for the future. They the slaves, reaching to the enormous sumn total
all testify to slavery, which from the earliest of two thousand millions of dollars, constitutes
days has been at the bottom of the conspiracy an overpowering property interest-one of the
and also at every stage of the efforts to arrest largest in the world; to which may be added
it.. It was slavery which fired the conspira- the intensity and unity of purpose naturally
tors, and slavery also which entered into every belonging to the representatives of such a sum
proposition of compromise. Secession and con- total, stimulated by the questionable character
cession both had their root in slavery.     of the property. But, secondly, it is a pheAnd now after this review, I am brought nomenort attested by the history of revolutions,
again to the significance of that Presidential that all such movements-at least in their
election with which I began. The slave-mas. early days-are controlled by minorities. This
ters entered into that election with Mr Breck- is- because a revolutionary minority once eminridge as their candidate, and their platform  barked, has before it only the single simple
claimed constitutional protection for slavery path of unhesitating faction. While others
in all Territories, whether flow belonging to doubt or hold back, the minority strikes and




12                       SPEECH OF HON.. CHARLES SUMNER.
goes forward.  Audacity then counts more protection, and affection.  Never in history
than numbers, and crime counts more than  did rebellion assume such a front. Call their
virtue. This phenomenon has been observed numbers 400,000 or 200,000-what you willbefore. " Often have I reflected with awe," they far surpass any armed forces ever before
says Coleridge, "on the great and dispropor- marshalled in rebellion; they are among the
tionate. power which an individual of no extra- largest ever marshalled in war.
ordinary talents or attainments may exert by    And all this is in the name of slavery, and
Inerely throwing off all restraint of conscience. for the sake of slavery, and at the bidding of
*  * The abandonment of all principle of slavery. The profligate favorite of the English
Tight enables the soul to choose and act upon  monarch-the famous Duke of Buckinglam —
a principle of wrong, and to subordinate to  was not more exclusively supreme-even acthis one principle all the various vices of hu- cording to those words by which he was exman nature." —('Coleridge's Friend, Essay 16.) posed to the judgment of his contemporariesThese are remarkable words. But a French
writer, Condorcet, the philosopher of the           Who rules the King? The Duke.
French Revolution, who sealed his. principles       Who rules the Duke? The Devil.
by his death, urged this very phenomenon for
a practical purpose. In a pamphlet addressed    The prevailing part here attributed to the
to the Parliamentary Reformers of England, royal favorite belongs now to slavery, which
he sought to enlist them  in a revolutionary  in the rebel States is a more than royal favormovement, and, by way of encouragement, he ite.
boldly announces that " revolutions must al-     Who rules the Prebel States?  The President.
ways be the work of the minority-that every      Who rules Slavery?
r evolution hat been the work of. a minoritythat the French Revolution itself was accom-   The latter question I need not answer. But
plished by the minority."  And Brissot de all must see-aiid nobody can deny-that
Warville, another partaker and victim alsoin  slavery is the ruling idea of this rebellion. It
this great Revolution, declared that it was car- is slavery which marshals these hosts and
tied by not more than twenty men. These breathes into their embattled ranks its own
declarations were made the subject of a debate barbarous fire. It is slavery which stamps its
shortly afterwards in the British Parliament, character alike upon officers and men. It is
where Sheridan bore a brilliant part. They are slavery which inspires all, from the general to
most suggestive-even if they do not explain tlt( trumpeter. It is slavery which speaks in
the early success of our conspirators. The fu- the word of command and wliich sounds in the
ture historian will record that the present re- morning drum-beat. It is slavery which digs
bellion-nowithstanding its protracted origin, trenches and builds hostile forts. It is slavery
the multitudes it has enlisted,'and its extensive  which pitches its white tents and stations its
sweep-was at last precipitated by fewer than  sentries over against the national capital. It
twenty men; Mr. Everett says by as few as is slavery which sharpens the bayonet and
ten. It is certain that thus far it has been the casts the bullet; which points the cannon and
triumph of a minority; but of a minority  scatters the shell, blazing, bursting with death.
moved, inspired, combined, and aggrandized  Wherever this rebellion shows itself —whatby slavery.                                  ever form it takes-whatever thing it doesAnd now this traitorous minority, putting. whatever it meditates-it is moved by slavery;
aside all the lurking, slimy devices of conspi- nay, it is slavery itself, incarnate, living, actracy, steps forth in the full panoply of war. ilg, raging, robbing, murdering, according to
Assuming to itself all the functions of a gov- the essential law of its being. [Applause.]
ernment, it organizes States under a common    But this is not all. The rebellion is not
head-sends ambassadors into foreign countries only ruled by slavery, but owing to the pecn-levies taxes-borrows money-issues letters liar condition of the slave States, it is for the
of marque-and sets armies in the field sum- moment, according to their boast, actually remoned from  distant Georgia, Louisiana, and enforced by this institution. As the fields of
Texas, as well as from nearer Virginia, and the South are cultivated and labor generally
composed of the whole lawless population- is performed by slaves, the white freemen are
the poor who cannot own slaves as well as the at liberty to play the part of rebels. The
rich who own them-throughout the extensive slaves toil at home, while the masters work at
region where,with satanic grasp, this slavehold- rebellion, and thus by a singular fatality is this
ing minority claims for itself               doomed race actually engaged, without taking
up arms, in feeding, supporting, succoring, inThe chracters of hell to tra enough.  vigorating those who are now battling for their
enslavement. Full well I know that this is an
Pardon the language which I employ. The element of strength only through the indulwords of the poet do not picture too strongly  gence of our own Government; but I speak
the object proposed. And now these parricidal now of things as they are; and that I may not,hosts stand arrayed openly against that pater- seem to go too far, I ask your attention to the
&aIl Government to which they owed loyalty, testimony of a Southern journal:




SPEECH  OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER.                                li
THE SLAVES AS A MILITARY ELEMENT IN THE to forego their customary tea, or coffee, or
SoTH. —The total white population of the eleven sugar, now  burdened by increased taxation?
States now comprising the Confederacy, is 6,000,000, let them  pledge themselves anew against the
and, therefore, to fill up the ranks of the proposed criminal giant tax-gatherer.  Does any comarmy, (600,000,) about ten per cent. of the entire munity mourn gallant men, who, going forth
white population will be required. In any other joyous and prou  beneath their country's flar,
country than our own, such a draft could not be met,  oyous and proud beneath their country's flag,
-but the Southern States can furnish that number of have be   brought home col a
men and still not leave the material interests of the folds wrapped about them  for a shroud?  Let
country in a suffering condition. Those whoare in- all who truly mourn  the dead be aroused
capacitated for bearing arms can oversee the planta- against slavery. Does a mother drop tears for
tions, and the negroes can go on undisturbed in their a son in the flower of his days cut down upon
usual labors. In the North'the case is different; the distant battle-field which he moistens with
the men who join the army of subjugation are the his youthfult, generous blood? Let her know
laborers, the producers, and the factory operatives. that slavery dealt the deadly blow which took
Nearly every man from that section, especially those at once his life and her peace.  [Sensation.]
from the rural districts, leaves some branch of indus-   But I hear a voice saying that all this protry to suffer during his absence. The institution of ceeds not from  slavery —oh no!-but from
slavery in the South alone enables her to place in the anti-slavery; that the Republicans, who hate
field a force mutch larger in proportion to her white slavery,  that the Abolitionists-are the aupopulation than the North, or indeed any country thors of this tehrible conflagration.  Surely you
which is dependent entirely on free labor. The in-       ths terible  onf lagration.  Surely yo
stitution is a tower of strength to the South, parttcu- may w ell suspect the sense or loyalty of him
larly at the present crisis, and our enemies will be who puts forth this irrational and utterly
likely to find that the " moral cancer," about which wicked imputation. As well say that the early
their orators are so fond of prating, is really one of Christians were the authors of the heathen
the most efrective weapons employed against the Union enormities against which they bore their marby the South. Whatever number of men may be tyr testimony, and that the cross, the axe, the
needed for this war, we are confident our people gridiron, and the boiling oil by which they
stand ready to furnish. We are all enlisted for the suffered were a part of the Christian dispensawar, and there must be no holding back until the tion.  But the early Christians were Illisrepreindependence of the South is fully acknowledged.-  sented and falsely chailged with crime, even as
_obntgomery (Ala.) Advertiser.                 you are.  The tyrant Nero, after setting Rome
As the rebels have already confessed the con- on fire and dancing at the conflagration, despiracy which led to the rebellion, so in this nounced the Christians as guilty of this wickarticle do they openly confess the main-spring edness. Here are the authentic words of the
of their strength.  With triumphant vaunt,  historian Tacitus:
they declare slavery to be the especial source   "So for the quieting of this rumor, Nero judicially
of their belligerent power.        -           charged with the crime, and punished with most
But slavery mnay be seen not only in what it studied severities, that class, hated for their general
has done for the rebellion of which it is the wickedness, whom the vulgar call Christians.  The
indisputable head —the fountain and life -but originator of that name was one Christ, who, in the
indisputable head-the fountain and life —but reign of Tiberius, suffered death by sentence of the
also in what it has inflicted upon us.  There is reign of Tiberius sPilatred dThe baneful superstition
not a' community, not, a family, not an indi- thereby repressed for the time, again broke out, not
vidual, man, woman, or child, who does not feel only over Judea, the native soil of that mischief, but
its heavy, bloody hand.  Why these lnmustering in the city also, where from every side all atrocious
armies?  Why this drum-beat in your peaceful and abominable things collect and flourish." (Annal.
streets?  Why these gathering means of war? XV. 44.)
Why these swelling taxes?  Why these unpre-   The writer of these remarkable words was
cedented loans?  Why this derangement of the wisest and most penetrating man of his
business?  Why among us the suspension of generation, and he lived! amidst the events
the habeas corpus, and the prostration of all which he describes.  Perhaps in listening to
safeouards of freedom?  Why this constant him you may find an apology for those among
solicitude visible in all your faces?  The an- us who heap upon contemporaries a similar
swer is clear. Slavery is the author, the agent, obloquy.  The Abolitionists need no defence
the cause.  The anxious hours that you pass fromn me. It is to their praise-destined to fill
are darkened by slavery. The habeas corpus, an imlnortal, page-that from  the beginning
and all those safeguards of freedom which you they saw the true character of slavery and
deplore have been prostrated by slavery.  The warned their country against its threatening
business which you have lost has been filched domination.  Through them the fires of liberty
by slavery. The millions of money now amass- have been kept alive in the United States-as
ed by patriotic offerings are all snatched by Hume is constrained to confess that these same
slavery.  The taxes now wrung out of your fires were kept alive in England by the Puridiminished means are all consumed by slavery. tans, whom  this great historian never praised
And all these gathering means of war-this if he could help it.  And yet they are charged
drum-beat in your peaceful streets-and these with this rebellion.  Can this be serious?
mustering armies-are on account of slavery Even at the beginning of the Republic the
and nothing else. Do the poor feel constrained seeds of thle conspiracy were planted, and in




14                       SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER.
1820, and then again in 1830, it showed itself pestilent extravagance of State Sovereignty,
— while nearly thirty years ago Jackson de- which has supplied the machinery for this renounced it, and one of its leading spirits has bellion and afforded a delusive cover for treason,
recently boasted that it has been gathering will be trampled out-never again to disturb
head for this full time, thus-not only in its the majestic unity of the republic. And, secdistant embryo, but in its well-attested devel- ondly, the unrighteous attempt to organize a
opment-ante-dating those Abolitionists whose new confederacy solely for the sake of slavery
prophetic patriotism is now made the apology and with slavery as its corner-stone, will be
for the crime. As well, where the prudent overthrown. These two pretensions, one so
passenger has warned the ship's crew of the shocking to our reason and the other so shockfatal lee-shore, arraign him  for the wreck ing to our moral nature, will disappear forever.
which has engulfedfpll; as well cry out that And with their disappearance will commence a
the philosopher who foresees the storm is re- new epoch, the beginning of a grander period.
sponsible for the desolation that ensues, or that But if by any accident the rebellion should
the astronomer who calculates the eclipse is prevail, then just in proportion to its trithe author of the darkness which covers the umph, whether through  concession on our
earth. [Enthusiastic applause.]             part, or through successful force on the other
And now, that I may give a practical clar- part, will the Union be impaired and peace be
acter to this whole history, let nme bring it impossible. Therefore, in the name of the
all to bear upon our present situation and Union and for the sake of peace are you sumits duties. You have seen Slavery even be- moned to the work.
fore the Federal Union, not only a disturbing   But how shall the rebellion be crushed?
influence, but an actual bar to Union except That is the question. Men, money, munitions
on condition of surrender to its immoral be- of war, a well-supplied commissariat, means of
hests. You have seen Slavery at all times mili- transportation;-all these you have in ablntant whenever any proposition was brought dance-in some particulars beyond the rebels.
forward with regard to it, and more than once You have too the consciousness of a good cause,
threatening a dissolution of the Union. You which in itself is an army. And yet thus farhave seen Slavery for many years the animating until within a few days —the advantage has not
principle of a conspiracy against the Union, been on our side. The explanation is easy.
while it matured its flagitious plans and obtain- The rebels are combating at home on their
ed the mastery of Cabinet and President. And own soil, strengthened and maddened by Slawhen the conspiracy had wickedly ripened, very, which is to them an, ally and a fanaticism.
you have seen that it was only by concessions More thorax:uhly aroused than ourselves —more
to Slavery, that it was encountered, as by sirm- terribly in earnest-with every sinew vindicilar concessions it had from the beginning been tively strained to its most perfect work-they
encouraged. You now see Rebellion every- freely use all the resources that God and nawhere throughout the Slave States elevating its ture put into their hands; raising against us,
bloody crest and threatening the existence of not only the whole white population, but
the National Government, and all in the name enlisting  the war-whoop of the Indiansof Slavery, while it proposes to establish a new  cruising upon the sea in pirate ships to despoil
government whose corner-stone shall be -Sla- our commerce and, at one swoop, confiscating
very. [Hisses, and cries of Never! ]       our property to the extent of hundreds of milAgainst this rebellion we wage war. It is lions of dollars, while all this time their four
our determination, as it is our duty, to crush millions of slaves undisturbed at home are freely
it; and this will be done. The region now  contributing by their labor to sustain the war,
contested by the rebels belongs to the United  which without them must soon expire.
States by every tie of government and of   It remains for us to encounter the rebellion
right. Some of it has, been bought by our calmly and surely by a force superior to its
money, while all of it-with its rivers, harbors, own. But to this end something more will be
and extensive coast-has become essential to needed than men or money. Our battalions
our business in peace and to our defence in must be renfiorced by ideas, and we must
war. Union is a geographical-economical-  strike directly at the origin and ilain-spring
commercial-political-military-and if I may  of the rebellion. I do not say now in what
so say-even a fluvial necessity.  Without way or to what extent; but simply that we
union, peace on this continent is impossible; must strike; it may be by the system of a Masbut life without peace is impossible also.  sachusetts General-Butler; it may be by that
Only by crushing this rebellion can union of Fremont, [here the audience rose and gave
and peace be restored. Let this be seen in its long-continued cheers;] or it may be by the
reality, and who can hesitate?  If this were grander system of John Quincy Adams. Readone instantly-without further contest-then  son and sentiment both concur in this policy,
besides all the countless advantages of every which is only according to the most common
kind obtained by such restoration, two especial principles of human conduct. In no way can we
goods will be accomplished-one political and do so much at so little cost. To the enemy such
the other moral as well as political. First, the a blow will be terror; to good men it will be an
pretended right of secession, with the whole encouragement, and to foreign nations watching




SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER.                                15
this contest, it will be an earnest of something  the rebellion itself. [Applause.] The pious canbeyond a mere carnival of battle. There has tion with which you avoid harming Slavery is
been the cry " On to Richmond," and still an- like that ancient superstition, which made the
other worse cry "On to England."  Better than'wlf sacred among the Romans and tile crocoeither is the cry, "On to Freedom." [Tremen- dile sacred among the Egyptians; nor shall I
dous cheering.]  Let this be heard in the voices hesitate to declare that every  surrender of a
of your soldiers; aye-let it resound in the  slave by your soldiers back to bondage is an
purposes of the Government, and victory must offering of human sacrifice-whose shame is too
be ours. By this sign conquer.                great for any army to bear. That men should
It is with no little happiness that I now an- still hesitate to strike at Slavery is only another
nounce that this cry is at last adopted by the  illustration of human weakness. The English
~Government. You will find it in the instruc- republicans, in their bloody contest with the
tions from the Secretary of War, dated War De- Crown, hesitatedfor a long time to fire upon the
partment, Oct. 14th, 1861, and addressed to the  king; but under the valiant lead of Cromwell,
general commanding the forces which have just surrounded by his well-trained Ironsides, they
effected a successful landing in South Carolina. banished all such scruple, and you know well
Here are the important words:                 the result. The king was not shot, but his head
"You will, however, in general avail yourself of  was brought to the block.
the services of any persons, whether fugitives from The duty which I suggest, if not urgent now, as
labor or not, who may offer them to the National a MILITARY NECESSITY, injustself-defence,
Government; you will employ such persons in such  will present itself constantly on other grounds, as
services as they may be fitted for, either as ordinary  our armies advance in the Slave States or land
employees or, if special circumstances seem to require on their coasts. If it does not stare us in the
it, in any other capacity, with such organization, in  face at this moment, it is because unhappily we
squads, companies or otherwise, as you deem most are still everywhere on the defensive.  As we
beneficial to the service. This, however, not to mean  begin to be successful it must rise before us for
a general arming of them for military service. You  practical decision; and you cannot avoid it.
will assure all loyal masters that Congress will pro- There will be slaves in your camps or  itin
vide just compensation to them for the loss of the your extended lines whose condition you must
services of the persons so employed."          determine. There will be slaves also claimed
These words have not the positive form of a by rebels, whose continued chattelhood you
proclamation; but, analyze them, and you will will scorn to recognize. The decision of these
find them full of meaning. First, martial law  two cases will settle the whole great question.
is hereby declared:; for the powers committed  Nor can the rebels complain. They challenge
to the discretion of the general are derived  our armies to enter upon their territory in the
from  that law and not from  the late Confis- free exercise of all the l)owers of war-accordcation Act of Congress. Secondly, fugitive  ing to which, as you well know, all private inslaves are not to be surrendered.  Thirdly, all terests are subordinated to the public safety,
coming within the camp are to be treated as which for the time becomes the supreme law
freemen. Fourthly, they may be employed in  above all other laws and above the Constitusuch service as they may be fitted for. Fifthly, tion itself. If everywhere under the flag of the
in squads, companies or otherwise, with the  Union,-in its triumphant march, —Fredom is
single limitation that this is not to mean " a substituted for Slavery, this outrageous rebelgeneral arming of them for military service."  lion will not be the first instance in history
And, sixthly, compensation, through Congress, wlhere God has turned the wickedness of man
is promised to loyal masters; saying nothing  into a blessing; nor will the examplo of Samof rebel masters. All this is little short of a son stand alone when he gathered honey out
Proclamation of Emancipation-not unlike that of the carcass of the dead and rotten lion.
of old Caius Miarius, when he landed on the  [Cheers.]
coast of Etruria, and, according to Plutarch,   Pardon me if I speakl; only in hints, and do
proclaimed liberty to the slaves. As such I niot stop to argue or explain. Not now, at the
do not err when I call it the most important close of an address, devoted to the rebellion in
event of the war-the more important because  its origin and main-spring, can I enter ifpon this
it is understood to have the deliberate sanction  great question of military duty in its details.
of the President as well as of the Secretary of  There is another place where this discussion will
War, and therefore marks the policy of the Ad- he open for me. [ Cheers.]  It is enough now
ministration. That this policy should be first if I indicate the simple principle which will be
applied to South Carolina is just. As the great the natural guide of all who are really in earrebellion began in this State, so should the  nest-of all whose desire to save their country
great remedy.  [Applause and cheers.]         is stronger than their desire to save Slavery.
Slavery is the inveterate culprit-the tran- You will strike where the blow will be most
scendent criminal-the persevering traitor-the  felt; nor will you miss the precious opportuarch rebel-the open outlaw. As the less is nity. The enemy is before you; nay he has
contained in the greater, so the rebellion is all comle out in ostentatious challenge, and his name
contained in Slavery. The tenderness which  is Slavery. You can vindicate the Union only
you show to Slavery is, therefore, tenderness to  by his prostration. Slavery is the very GoliaL




16                       SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SITNE.
jof the rebellion, armed with a Coat of mail, at the altar-aven tffsare willing to continue
with a helmet of brass upon his head, greaves to Slavery the  bituwe are now paying of
of brass upon his legs, a target of brass bet en more than a million of dollars a day.
his:shoulders, and with the staff of hiB spea.like   Events too; under Providence, will be our
a: weaver'sI beam. But a stone from a simple masters. For the rebels ihere can be no sucslihg dl make the gialt fall' upon his face to cess. Every road for them leads to disaster.
the earth. [Prolonged cheering.]            Defeat for them  will be bad; but victory:Thank God! our Government' is:  strong; will be worse; for then will the North be inbut thus far all signs denote that it is not spired to a sublimer energy.. The proposition
stroig Tenough to save the Union and at the of emancipation whichshook ancient Athens
-same time to save slavery. One or the other followed close upon the disaster sat Cherornea;
must suffer; and just in proportion as you reach and the statesman who mroved it afterwards
forth:to protect slavery, do you protect this vindicated himself by saying that it proceedaccursed' rebellion; nay, you give to it that ed not from  him';but fron  Cheroncea. The
very aid and comfort, which under our Consti- Act of CongreSs punishing, the rebels by giving
tution is treason itself. Perversely and pitifully t freedom -to their slaves employed against us
do you postpone that sure period of. reconcilia- familiarly known *as' the Confiscation Acttion, not only between the two sections —not passed the Senate on the morning after the
only between the men of the North and the disaster at Manassas. In the providence of
men of the South, but, more beautiful still, be- God there are no accidents; and this seeming
tween the slave- and his master, without which reverse thus helped the way to the greatest victhat true tranquillity, which we- all seek, cannot tory which can be won.
be permanently assured to our country.-  Be-   Theire is a classical story of a mighty hunter,
lieve it; only through such reconciliation, un- Whose life in the Book of Fate, had been made
der the sanction of Freedom, can you remove to depend' upon'the preservation of a brand
all occasion of contention hereafter; only in which was burnling at his birth. The bi'and,
this way, can you cut off the head of Jthis great so full of destiny, was snatched from the flames
rebellion, and at the same time eIxtirpate that and carefully preserved by his prudent mother.
principle of evil, which, if allowed to remain, Meanwhile the hunter became powerful and
must shoot forth in perpetual discord, if not in invulnerable to mortal weapons. But at length
other rebellions;' only in this way can you the mother, indignant at his cruelty to her own
command that safe victory-withountwhich this family, flung the brand upon the flames and the
contest will be vain-which will have among hunter died. The story of that hunter, so
its conquests Indemnity for the Past and Se- powerful and invulnerable to mortal weapons,
curity for the Future-the noblest indemnity is now repeated in this rebellion, and Slavery
and the strongest security ever won-because is the fatal brand.  Let our Government,
founded in the redemption of a race. [Cheers.] which has thus far preserved Slavery with
Full well I know the doubts, cavils, and mis- maternal care, simply fling it upon the flames
representations to which this argument for the which'itself has madly aroused, and the rebelintegrity of our Government is exposed; but I lion will'die at once; [Sensationz.]
turn with confidence to the people. ~The heart   Amidst all the perils which now surround'is,
of the people is right, and all great thoughts there is one only which I dread. It is the peril
come from the heart. All who hate Slavery which comes from some new surrender to Slaand who are true to Freedom will join instinct- very-some fresh' recognition of its'power-:ively in this effort, paying with person, time, some present dalliance with its intolerable pretalent, purse. They are: the minute: men of tensions.'Worse-than any defeat or even the
-this war-always ready; and yet mnore ready flight of an army would be such abandonment.just in proportion as the war is truly inspired.  of principle. From  all such peril, good Lord
They at least are sure. It only remains that deliveir us!  And there is one wovy of safety,
-others who do not sharie inr this animosity to clear as sbnlight-pleasant as the paths of:Slavery —that merchants who study their leg- Peace. Over its broad and open gate is written
ers-that bankers who:t~udy-thebil discounts- simply, JUSTICE. There is victory in that
-and thlt politicans'who st1udy sgeqess —shotild word. Do justice, and you will be twicesee that ornly by' a'prompt ind:: nited effort blessed; for so you will subdue the rebel master
-against Slavery can this war be brought to a while you elevate the slave. Do justice frankspeedy and' triumphant' clobe, vithout which ly, generously, nobly, and you will find strength:nmerchant, banker, and, politician will all suffer instead of weakness, while all seeming responsia'like. Leger, discount, and political aspiration bility will disappear in obedience to God's everWill be of small value if the war continues its lasting'law. Do justice, though the Heavens
lava flood, shrivelling and stifling every thing fall; but they will not fall. Every act of jusbut itself. Therefore, under the spr of self- tice becomes   a new pillar of the Universe, or it
interest, if not under the necessities of self- may be a new link of that
defence, we mIust act together. Humanity toogolden everlasting chain
joins in tlis appeal. Blood enough has been                  oden everlasting chaven and
already shed-victims enough have been offered       earth and main.