ANTISLAVERY DUTIES OF THE WHIG PARTY. Speech at the Whig State Convention of Massachusetts, in Faneuil Hall, Boston, September 23, 1846 303 WRONGFUL DECLARATION OF WAR AGAINST MEXICO. Letter to Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, Representative in Congress from Boston, October 25, 1846 317 REFUSAL TO BE A CANDIDATE FOR CONGRESS. Notice in the Boston Papers, October 31, 1846 330 SLAVERY AND THE MEXICAN WAR. Speech at a Public Meeting in the Tremont Temple, Boston, November 5, 1846 333 INVALIDITY OF ENLISTMENTS IN THE MASSACHUSETTS REGIMENT OF VOLUNTEERS FOR THE MEXICAN WAR. Argument before the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, January, 1847 352 WITHDRAWAL OF AMERICAN TROOPS FROM MEXICO. Speech at a Public Meeting in Faneuil Hall, Boston, February 4, 1847 374 [Illustration: GEORGE F. HOAR] INTRODUCTION. BY HON. GEORGE FRISBIE HOAR, LL.D. The speeches of Charles Sumner have many titles to endure in the memory of mankind. They contain the reasons on which the American people acted in taking the successive steps in the revolution which overthrew slavery, and made of a race of slaves, freemen, citizens, voters. They have a high place in literature. They are not only full of historical learning, set forth in an attractive way, but each of the more important of them was itself an historical event. They afford a picture of a noble public character. They are an example of the application of the loftiest morality to the conduct of the State. They are an arsenal of weapons ready for the friends of Freedom in all the great battles when she may be in peril hereafter. They will not be forgotten unless the world shall attain to such height of virtue that no stimulant to virtue shall be needed, or to a depth of baseness from which no stimulant can arouse it. Mr. Sumner held the office of Justice of the Peace, and that of Commissioner of the Circuit Court, to which he was appointed by his friend and teacher, Judge Story. He was a member of the convention held in 1853 to revise the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. With these exceptions, his only official service was as Senator in Congress from Massachusetts, from the 4th of March, 1851, when he was just past forty years of age, until his death, March 9, 1874.