Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 07 (of 20)Sumner, Charles
History
Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 07 (of 20)
Sumner, Charles
Slavery -- United States; Speeches, addresses, etc., American
This is all on that point; but I wish to make one other remark. The
Senator intimated, if I understood him aright, that his propositions,
at least in his own mind, were not applicable to territory hereafter
acquired.
MR. CRITTENDEN. No: I do not mean to be understood as saying
that.
MR. SUMNER. I understood the Senator so.
MR. CRITTENDEN. I said I did not consider that proposition as
an essential part of mine,--that I did not intend to insist
upon it, if I found it would not be acceptable. I did not
intend that that should be any obstacle to an adjustment, and I
would propose to strike it out, if necessary.
MR. SUMNER. The Senator did not consider that an essential part; and
yet in the Journal of the Senate, now before me, in the yeas and nays,
I find his name recorded in the affirmative on introducing those words,
“now held or hereafter to be acquired.” Here is the record,--the name
of the Senator from Kentucky answering yea, when we were all asked to
answer yea or nay.
This brief effort of Mr. Sumner at a critical moment found
response, not only from his constituents, but from the North
generally. In Massachusetts many made haste to testify that the
petition praying for such a shameful surrender had been signed
by large numbers without knowing its true character,--while
the Common Council of Boston, then controlled by Compromisers,
also made haste to censure Mr. Sumner, declaring, in formal
resolution, that his assertion in the Senate with regard to
the petitioners was “undignified, unbecoming a Senator and a
citizen of Boston, and untrue.”
As through this remarkable petition, and the speech of Mr.
Crittenden in presenting it, Massachusetts was vouched for
Slavery, a few witnesses may be properly adduced to show how
the signatures were obtained, and also what was the real
sentiment of the people there.
William Lloyd Garrison, always watchful for Human Rights, and
knowing the wiles of Compromise, wrote from Boston:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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