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
defunct Tyrannies.
In this contest Kansas bravely stands forth, the stripling leader, clad
in the panoply of American Institutions. Calmly meeting and adopting a
frame of government, her people with intuitive promptitude perform the
duties of freemen; and when I consider the difficulties by which she is
beset, I find dignity in her attitude. _Offering herself for admission
into the Union as a_ FREE STATE, _she presents a single issue for the
people to decide_. And since the Slave Power now stakes on this issue
all its ill-gotten supremacy, the People, while vindicating Kansas,
will at the same time overthrow this Tyranny. Thus the contest which
she begins involves Liberty not only for herself, but for the whole
country. God be praised that Kansas does not bend ignobly beneath the
yoke! Far away on the prairies, she is now battling for the Liberty of
all, against the President, who misrepresents all. Everywhere among
those not insensible to Right, the generous struggle meets a generous
response. From innumerable throbbing hearts go forth the very words of
encouragement which in the sorrowful days of our fathers were sent by
Virginia, speaking by the pen of Richard Henry Lee, to Massachusetts,
in the person of her popular tribune, Samuel Adams:--
“CHANTILLY, VA., June 23, 1774.
“I hope the good people of Boston will not lose their spirits,
under their present heavy oppression, for they will certainly
be supported by the other Colonies; and the cause for which
they suffer is so glorious, and so deeply interesting to the
present and future generations, that all America will owe, in a
great measure, their political salvation to the present virtue
of Massachusetts Bay.”[138]
In all this sympathy there is strength. But in the cause itself there
is angelic power. Unseen of men, the great spirits of History combat
by the side of the people of Kansas, breathing divine courage. Above
all towers the majestic form of Washington, once more, as on the bloody
field, bidding them remember those rights of Human Nature for which
the War of Independence was waged. Such a cause, thus sustained, is
invincible.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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