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
On taking the chair, Mr. Sumner made the speech below, and then
introduced Richard H. Dana, Jr., Esq., of Boston, a delegate to the
Buffalo Convention, who reported what had been done there. He was
followed by John A. Andrew, Esq., who moved a series of resolutions
affirming the principles declared at Buffalo and ratifying the
nominations. The reading of these was continually interrupted by
applause. Mr. Sumner then introduced David Dudley Field, Esq., of New
York, who insisted at length upon the prohibition of slavery in the
Territories. Then came Rev. Joshua Leavitt, representing the Liberty
Party, now dissolved in the Free-Soil Party. The meeting was singularly
auspicious.
FELLOW-CITIZENS, FRIENDS OF FREEDOM:--
Grateful for this cordial welcome, I must consider it offered, not to
myself, but to the cause, whose humble representative I am. It is the
cause, the good old cause of Freedom, so familiar to early echoes of
this hall, which justly awakens your regards, irrespective of men. We
are nothing; the cause is everything.
And why, in this nineteenth century, are we assembled here in Faneuil
Hall, to vow ourselves to Freedom? Because Freedom is now in danger.
The principles of our fathers, of Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson,
nay, the self-evident truths of the Declaration of Independence, are
assailed. Our Constitution, which was the work of Freedom-loving men,
which was watched by Freedom's champions, which, like the Ark of the
Covenant, was upborne by the early patriarchs of our Israel, is now
prostituted to the uses of Slavery. A body of men, whose principle of
union was unknown to the authors of the Constitution, have seized the
government, and caused it to be administered, not in the spirit of
Freedom, but in the spirit of Slavery. This combination is known as the
Slave Power.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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