Now, as to our friends who have recently come into this Chamber, I beg them to understand, that, so far as I am concerned, there is no disposition to deny or to begrudge them anything to which, according to geographical proportions, they may be entitled; but I beg them to consider that time is an essential element of this transition through which we are passing. MR. FESSENDEN. Will my friend allow me to make a suggestion to him? MR. SUMNER. Certainly. MR. FESSENDEN. I merely wish to allude to the notorious fact that for half a century before the Rebellion the proportion of persons in civil office in the Departments in Washington from the Southern States was very nearly, if not quite, two to one to those from all the other States. They had the control, and had pretty much all the offices, for years and years. MR. SUMNER. We are now in a process of transition, and I was observing that time is an essential element in that process. What the Senator from North Carolina aims at cannot be accomplished at once. The change cannot be made instantly. The men are not presented from the States lately in rebellion in sufficient numbers, in sufficient proportion, with competency for these posts. I know that there are gentlemen there fit to grace many of these posts, but I know also that there is not relatively the same proportion of persons fit for the civil service as there is in the other parts of the country; and our friends from the South, it seems to me, must take this into consideration kindly, and wait yet a little longer. NATIONAL AFFAIRS AT HOME AND ABROAD. SPEECH AT THE REPUBLICAN STATE CONVENTION IN WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, SEPTEMBER 22, 1869. Mr. Sumner was selected as President of the Convention. On taking the chair he spoke as follows:-- FELLOW-CITIZENS OF MASSACHUSETTS:--