Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 07 (of 20)Sumner, Charles
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Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 07 (of 20)
Sumner, Charles
Slavery -- United States; Speeches, addresses, etc., American
“I am surprised and disappointed at the temper shown by
the Republicans. Before the Worcester Convention I was
ready to declare that the people were only waiting to
have the word Emancipation strongly pronounced to repeat
it with the aggrandizement of a hundred thousand votes. I
am deeply pained to see how the newspapers receive your
declarations. They thinly veil a spirit which is ready at
the first opportunity to forget the Past, and to sacrifice
its living representatives,--the men who alone preserve the
glorious Antislavery idea, and whose prophecies can alone
secure the Future.… ‘Cry aloud, and spare not.’ Reiterate
more flatly and unsparingly, that the war must destroy the
evil which engendered it. Give the bullets their billet,
and the bayonets something to think about, and lend them
a manifesto of Freedom to punctuate. What a Congress will
next winter’s be! Compromise will seek to make War its
missionary.”
Orestes A. Brownson, Catholic thinker and writer, wrote from
Elizabeth, New Jersey:--
“I have re-read your speech at Worcester, and I’m even
better pleased with it than I was at the first reading.
You have struck the right chord, as the manner in which my
own article has been received sufficiently indicates. Our
venerable President and his rhetorical adviser, whatever
their timidity, or their reluctance, or attachment to the
‘Rule of Three,’ must come to the policy you recommend.
It is clear to me that it is impossible to save both the
integrity of the Nation and Southern Slavery, and the great
question before us now is, whether we shall sacrifice the
Nation to Slavery, or Slavery to the Nation. This is the
issue before the people, and this issue we must meet.”
Rev. R. S. Storrs, the eminent Congregational divine, wrote
from Braintree, Massachusetts:--
“Your admirable speech before the Worcester Convention
ought to have been sooner acknowledged, with the fervent
gratitude of my heart, to Heaven and you, for its delivery.
The spirit that condemns its argument or author is either
the spirit of blind infatuation, or of treachery as foul as
marks the Southern Confederates themselves. It surprises
and grieves me that _Republicans_ wince and scold at the
_just_ lashing given to the grand conspirator against
Liberty and Religion,--for in this contest they are
identical. The timeserving policy of multitudes who have
hitherto acted with us, and, as it seems to me, of the
Administration itself, is revolting, and puts far away the
day of peace and prosperity.”
Rev. Francis LeBaron, afterwards of Ohio, earnest against
Slavery, wrote from Dighton, Massachusetts:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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