Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 02 (of 20)Sumner, Charles
History
Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 02 (of 20)
Sumner, Charles
Slavery -- United States; Speeches, addresses, etc., American
All the speakers united in renouncing old party ties. None did
this better than C.F. Adams, who concluded his remarks by saying:
"Forgetting the things that are behind, I propose that we press forward
to the high calling of our new occupation; and, fellow-citizens,
whatever may be the fate of you or me, all I can now add is to repeat
the words of one with whom I take pride in remembering that I have been
connected: 'Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish,' to go with
the liberties of my country is my fixed determination." To these words
Mr. Sumner alluded at the beginning of his speech.
MR. PRESIDENT AND FELLOW-CITIZENS:--
At the close of a day crowded with exciting interest and full of best
auguries, I feel that I can add little to what you have already heard.
What can I say that shall enforce the great cause so successfully
commended by my friend from Ohio [Mr. GIDDINGS], and, lastly,
by my friend [Mr. ADAMS] who has just spoken, with the voice
of the American Revolution on his lips? One thing, at least, I can
do: I can join them in renunciation of party relations, so plainly
inconsistent with the support of Freedom. They have been Whigs; and
I, too, have been a Whig, though "not an ultra Whig." I was a Whig
because I thought this party represented the moral sentiments of the
country,--that it was the party of Humanity. It has ceased to sustain
this character. It represents no longer the moral sentiments of the
country. It is not the party of Humanity. A party which renounces its
sentiments must expect to be renounced. In the coming contest I wish it
understood that I belong to the party of Freedom,--to that party which
plants itself on the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution
of the United States.
The transactions in which we are now engaged recall an incident of
French history. It was late in the night, at Versailles, that a
courtier of Louis the Sixteenth, penetrating the bed-chamber of his
master, and arousing him from slumber, communicated the intelligence,
big with destiny, that the people of Paris, smarting under wrong and
falsehood, had risen in their might, and, after a severe conflict
with hireling troops, destroyed the Bastile. The unhappy monarch,
turning upon his couch, said, "It is an _insurrection_." "No, Sire,"
answered the honest courtier, "it is a _revolution_." And such is our
movement to-day. It is a REVOLUTION,--not beginning with the
destruction of a Bastile, but destined to end only with the overthrow
of a tyranny differing little in hardship and audacity from that
which sustained the Bastile of France,--I mean the Slave Power of our
country. Do not start at this similitude. I intend no unkindness to
slaveholders, many of whom are doubtless humane and honest. Such also
was Louis the Sixteenth; and yet he sustained the Bastile, with the
untold horrors of its dungeons, where human beings were thrust into
companionship with toads and rats.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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