Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 20 (of 20)Sumner, Charles
History
Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 20 (of 20)
Sumner, Charles
Slavery -- United States; Speeches, addresses, etc., American
Then my friend from Vermont suggests that this bill is practically
an invitation to the people of Boston to go to Europe and elsewhere
in order to find workmen. He seemed frightened at the possibility. I
think my friend sees too often the question of protection to American
industry, and makes himself too unhappy on this account. I hope that
this bill will be considered without any question of protection. Let
the people of Boston go where they can buy cheapest in order to meet
their great calamity; and if it be to their neighbor British provinces,
I hope my friend from Vermont will not interfere to prevent it.
THE LATE HON. GARRETT DAVIS, SENATOR OF KENTUCKY.
REMARKS IN THE SENATE ON HIS DEATH, DECEMBER 18, 1872.
MR. PRESIDENT,--I was a member of the Senate, when, in 1861, our
departed Senator entered it; and I was to the end the daily witness
of his laborious service. Standing now at his funeral, it is easy to
forget the differences between us and remember those things in which he
was an example to all.
Death has its companionship. In its recent autumn harvest were Garrett
Davis, William H. Seward, and Horace Greeley. Seward was the precise
contemporary of Davis, each beginning life with the century and dying
within a few days of each other. Always alike in constancy of labor,
they were for the larger part of this period associated in political
sentiment as active members of the old Whig party. But the terrible
question of Slavery rose to divide them. How completely they were on
opposite sides I need not say. Horace Greeley was ten years the junior,
but he was the colleague and peer of Garrett Davis in devotion to Henry
Clay. In the whole country, among all whose enthusiastic support he
aroused, there was no one who upheld the Kentucky statesman with more
chivalrous devotion than these two. Here they were alike, and in the
record of life this signal fidelity cannot be forgotten. It was to the
honor of Henry Clay that he inspired this sentiment in such men, and it
was to their honor that they maintained it so truly. Kindred to truth
is fidelity.
At his death, Garrett Davis was our Congressional senior, having
entered the other House as early as 1839, after previous service of
six years in the Legislature of Kentucky. For eight years he sat as
Representative, and then, after an interval of thirteen years, he
was for nearly twelve years Senator. During this long period he was
conspicuous before the country, dwelling constantly in the public eye.
How well he stood the gaze, whether of friend or foe, belongs to his
good name.
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