Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 06 (of 20)Sumner, Charles
History
Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 06 (of 20)
Sumner, Charles
Slavery -- United States; Speeches, addresses, etc., American
Alike by sympathy with the slave and by determination to
save ourselves from wretched thraldom, we are all summoned
to the effort now organized for _the emancipation of the
National Government_ from a degrading influence, hostile
to civilization, which, wherever it shows itself, even
at a distance, is brutal, vulgar, and mean, constituting
an unnatural tyranny, calculated to arouse the generous
indignation of good men. Of course, no person, unless
ready to say in his heart that there is no God, can doubt
the certain result. But this result, like every great
good, can be accomplished only by well-directed effort. I
know something of the labor and trial which such service
imposes; I also know something of the satisfaction it
affords, giving to all who truly espouse it a better joy
than anything in office or honor. In the weary prostration
of months, from which I have now happily risen, the
sharpest pang came out of my enforced separation from
the cause which was so dear to me; and now my content is
in the assurance that to this service I may dedicate the
vigorous health which, through medical care and the kindly
ministrations of Nature, I am permitted to expect. In this
well-founded assurance, I welcome the trust which has been
again conferred upon me, while I once more bespeak the
candid judgment of my fellow-citizens, and once more invoke
the guardianship of a benignant Providence.
I have the honor to be, fellow-citizens, with grateful
regard,
Your faithful servant and Senator,
CHARLES SUMNER.
BOSTON, January 22, 1857.
The following tribute, taken from contemporary newspapers,
attests a feeling much above that of ordinary politics, and
therefore illustrates this record.
“‘CHARLES SUMNER, OF BOSTON.’
“‘Three hundred and thirty-three members answered to their
names, with the words, “CHARLES SUMNER, of Boston”; and
as the Clerk responded with the same words to each vote,
they rang upon the ears of the large assembly more than six
hundred times during the hour occupied with calling the
roll.’
“‘It is said, no sound is ever lost,--that every word
uttered upon earth is echoed and reëchoed through space
forever.’
“Old Massachusetts! nobly thou
This day thy work hast done;
Proudly thou speakest for the Right,
And for thy honored son:
“Three hundred voices on the air,
Ringing the loved name forth;
Three hundred voices echoing back,
‘CHARLES SUMNER, of the North!’
“Throughout the land, beyond the sea,
The voices will be heard;
His name shall stand for Liberty,
The freeman’s rallying word.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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