Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 05 (of 20)Sumner, Charles
History
Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 05 (of 20)
Sumner, Charles
Slavery -- United States; Speeches, addresses, etc., American
With regret I come again upon the Senator from South Carolina [Mr.
BUTLER], who, omnipresent in this debate,[126] overflows with rage
at the simple suggestion that Kansas has applied for admission as a
State, and, with incoherent phrase, discharges the loose expectoration
of his speech, now upon her representative, and then upon her people.
There was no extravagance of the ancient Parliamentary debate which
he did not repeat; nor was there any possible deviation from truth
which he did not make,--with so much of passion, I gladly add, as to
save him from the suspicion of intentional aberration. But the Senator
touches nothing which he does not disfigure--with error, sometimes
of principle, sometimes of fact. He shows an incapacity of accuracy,
whether in stating the Constitution or in stating the law, whether in
details of statistics or diversions of scholarship. He cannot ope his
mouth, but out there flies a blunder. Surely he ought to be familiar
with the life of Franklin; and yet he referred to this household
character, while acting as agent of our fathers in England, as above
suspicion: and this was done that he might give point to a false
contrast with the agent of Kansas,[127]--not knowing, that, however
the two may differ in genius and fame, they are absolutely alike in
this experience: that Franklin, when intrusted with the petition of
Massachusetts Bay, was assaulted by a foul-mouthed speaker where he
could not be heard in defence, and denounced as “thief,” even as the
agent of Kansas is assaulted on this floor, and denounced as “forger.”
And let not the vanity of the Senator be inspired by parallel with the
British statesmen of that day; for it is only in hostility to Freedom
that any parallel can be found.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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