Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 08 (of 20)Sumner, Charles
History
Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 08 (of 20)
Sumner, Charles
Slavery -- United States; Speeches, addresses, etc., American
The Senator from New Hampshire [Mr. CLARK] has reminded us--as John
Quincy Adams reminded another generation--of that beautiful work of
Art in the other wing of the Capitol, where the Muse of History, with
faithful pen, registers the transactions of each day, and he trusted
that over against the record of past disloyalty another page might beam
with the just judgment that followed. But there is another work of Art,
famous as Art itself, and proceeding from its greatest master, which
may admonish us precisely what to do. The ancient satrap Heliodorus,
acting in the name of a distant sovereign, entered that sumptuous
temple dedicated to the true God, where stood the golden candlesticks
and hung the veil which was yet unrent, and profanely seized the
riches under protection of the altar itself, when suddenly, at the
intercession of the high priest, an angelic horseman armed with thongs
is seen to dash the intruder upon the marble pavement, and to sweep him
with scourges from the sacred presence. Now that disloyalty, in the
acknowledged name of a distant traitor, intrudes into this sanctuary
of the Constitution, and insists upon a place at our altar, there
should be indignant chastisement, swift as the angelic horseman that
moves immortal in the colors of Raffaelle. In vain do you interpose
appeals for lenity or forbearance. The case does not allow them. I know
well the beauty and the greatness of charity. For the Senator I have
charity; but there is a better charity due to the Senate, whose solemn
trusts are in jeopardy; and even if you do not accept completely the
saying of Antiquity, which makes duty to country the great charity
embracing all other charities, you will not deny that it is at least a
commanding obligation, by the side of which all that we owe the Senator
is small. And, Sir, let us not forget, let the precious example be
present in our souls, that He who taught the beauty and the greatness
of charity was the first to scourge the money-changers from the temple
of the Lord.
Mr. Davis, of Kentucky, followed. Some of his words are quoted,
from their bearing on Mr. Sumner’s opposition to Slavery.
“The gentleman shakes his imperial locks like a Jove, and
menaces death and destruction to Slavery. I thank my stars
that the gentleman is not yet the Jove of this land, nor
the Jove of this Senate either. There are minds as exalted
and as cultivated as his, and there are wills as patriotic
and as true to the Constitution and to the country as his,
and altogether independent of his; and it is to those minds
that I appeal, whenever a question involving the interests
of my constituents comes up here, not to the mind of the
gentleman from Massachusetts. I know, Sir, what fate would
await Slavery, if he could speak the fiat. He is, however,
but one member of this body.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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