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554      DOUGLASS' MONTHLY.      NOVEMBER, 1861

SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER ON THE EMANCIPATION OF THE SLAVES.

The following masterly and patriotic speech was made by Hon. Charles Sumner at the recent Republican State Convention in Massachusetts which renominated Gov. Andrew:

FELLOW CITIZENS:——In meeting my fellow-citizens of Massachusetts, who have come together on this occasion from all parts of the Commonwealth, I find myself in a familiar scene, but I feel that there has been a change.  Yes! there has been a great change, and it is felt in our Convention.

We are no longer met, as so often in times past, for purposes of controversy, or to sustain our cause by argument.  That hour has passed.  Formerly I have exposed to you the atrocities of the Fugitive Slave Bill; I have rejoiced to show that freedom was rational and slavery sectional; I have striven to prevent the extension of slavery into the territories; I have vindicated especially freedom in Kansas, assailed by slaveholding conspirators; I have exposed the tyrannical usurpations of the slave oligarchy; and I have dragged into day the whole vast intense barbarism of slavery.  But these topics have now passed into history, and are no longer of practical interest.  They are not of to-day.

Let us rejoice that at least so much has been gained, and from the extent of our present triumphs let us take hope and courage for the future.  Providence will be with the good cause in times to come, as in times past.  Others may despair:  I do not.  Others may see gloom:  I cannot.  Others may hesitate:  I will not.  Already the country has been saved.  Great as may seem to be its present peril, its peril was greater far while it was sinking year after year under the rule of slavery.  Often have I exclaimed, in times past, that our first great object was the emancipation of the National Government, so that it should no longer be the slave of slavery, ready to do its bidding in all things.  But this victory has been won.  It was won first by the ballot-box, when Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States; and it was won the second time by the cartridge-box, when, at the command of the President, the guns of Fort Sumter returned the fire of the Rebel artillery.  Such was the madness of slavery that the first was not enough.  Unhappily, the second was needed to complete the work.

The slave oligarchy, which, according to the vaunt of a slaveholding Senator, has ruled the Republic for more than fifty years; which has stamped its degrading character upon the national forehead; which has entered into and possessed not only the politics, but the literature and even the religion of the country; which has embroiled us at home and given us a bad name abroad; which has wielded at will President, Cabinet, and even judicial tribunals; which has superceded public opinion by substituting its own immoral behests; which has appropriated to itself the offices and honors of the Republic; which has established slavery as the single test and shibboleth of favor; which, after opening all our territories to this wrong, was already promising to renew the slave trade and all its unutterable woes; nay more, which, in the instinct of that tyranny through which it ruled, was beating down all the safeguards of human rights——freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and security of person, and delivering the whole country to a rule whose vulgarity was second only to its madness; this slave oligarchy has been dislodged from the National Government, never more to return.  Thus far, at least, has emancipation prevailed.  The greatest slave of all is free.

Surely, if at any moment we are disposed to be disheartened——if the future is not always clear before us, we may find ample occasion for joy in the victory already won.——Pillars like those of Hercules might fitly mark this progress.

Among the results of this victory is one which we may especially enjoy on this occasion.  It is slavery which has been the occasion of our party divisions, keeping men asunder who ought to act together.  But with the expulsion of this disturbing influence, the occasion for our division has ceased.  All patriots——all men who truly love their country——may now act together; no matter in what party combination they may have formerly appeared; no matter of what accent is the speech by which our present duties are declared; call them Democrats, Union men, natives or foreigners, what you will, are we not all engaged in a common cause?  Nor will I claim as yet the highest praise for those with whom I am most intimately associated.  I have read history too well not to remember that Hannibal, in his campaigns, relied less on his own Carthagenians than on his Spanish infantry and Numidian horse.

The Government is assailed by a rebellion without precedent in human history.  Never before since Satan warred upon the Almighty has rebellion assumed such a front; and never before has it begun in such a cause.  The rebels are numerous and powerful, and their cause is slavery.

It is the very essence of rebellion to be audacious, unhesitating, unscrupulous.  Rebellion sticks at nothing; least of all, will a rebellion which began in slavery.  It can be successfully encountered only by a vigor and energy which shall surpass its own.  Patriotism surely is not less potent as a motive than treason.  It must be invoked.  By all the memories of your fathers, who founded this Republic and delivered to you the precious heritage; and by all the sentiments of gratitude for the good you have enjoyed beneath its protecting care, you are summoned to its defense.  Defense, did I say?  It is with mortification that I utter the word; but you all know the truth.

The rebel conspirators have set upon us, and now besiege the National Government.——They besiege it at Washington, where are the President, and his Cabinet, and the National archives.  They besiege it at Fortress Monroe on the Atlantic, at St. Louis on the Mississippi, and now they besiege it in Kentucky.  Everywhere we are on the defensive.  Strongholds have been wrested from us.  Soldiers gathered under the folds of our National flag have been compelled to surrender.  Citizens, whose only offense has been their loyalty, have been driven from their homes.  Bridges have been burned.  Railways have been disabled.  Steamers and ships have been seized.  The largest navy-yard of the country has been appropriated.——Commerce has been hunted on the sea, and property, wherever it can be reached, ruthlessly robbed or destroyed.  Only within a few days we have read the order of one Buckner, a Rebel commander in Kentucky, directing the destruction of a most important lock, by which Green River had been rendered navigable.  Pardon me if I read this interecepted [sic] order.  It is instructive, as showing the spirit with which this rebellion is waged.


Bowling Green, September, 1861.

Mr. George W. Triplett.

My dear Sir:——Yours is received.  Lock No.1 must be destroyed.  I rely upon your friends at Owenborough to do it.  Not an hour must be lost.  Its destruction is a great deal to me in crippling our adversary.  Assemble our friends without delay in sufficient force to accomplish the object.  One of the best ways is to open all the gates but one, and to dig down behind the wall at both gates; to put one or two kegs of powder behind the wall, apply a slow match, and blow the wall into the lock.  If possible, it should be done in such a way as to leave a strong current through the lock, which will empty the dam.  Provide everything in advance.  Do not fail.  It is worth an effort.   (Signed).
S. H. BUCKNER.

It is still doubtful if the work of destruction was accomplished according to this Rebel order.  But the spirit is here shown which would sweep away one of the most valuable of the internal improvements of Kentucky, a part of the pride and wealth of the State.

Then you ask in whose name all this has been done.  The answer is easy.  Not 'in the name of God and the Continental Congress,' as Ethan Allen summoned Ticonderoga, but 'in the name of slavery.'  Yes; in the name of slavery has all this crime, destruction and ravage been perpetrated.

Look at the war as you will, and you will always see slavery.  Never were the words of the Roman orator more applicable:  Nullum facimus extitit nisi per te; nullum flagitim sine te.  Slavery is its inspiration; its motive power; its end and aim.  It is often said that the war will make an end of slavery.  This is probable.  But it is surer still that the overthrow of slavery will at once make an end of the war.

If I am correct in this statement, which I believe is beyond question, then do reason, justice and policy all unite and declare that the war must be brought to bear directly on the grand conspirator, and omnipresent enemy, which is slavery.  Not to do this is to take upon ourselves, in the present contest, all the weakness of slavery, while we leave to the rebels its boasted resources of military strength.  Not to do this, is to squander life and treasure in a vain masquerade of battle, which can have no practical result.

Believe me, fellow citizens, I know all the imagined difficulties and the unquestioned responsibilities of this suggestion.  But if you are in earnest, the difficulties will at once disappear, and the responsibilities are such as you will gladly bear.  This is not the first time that a know, hard to untie has been cut by the sword; and we all know that danger flies before the brave man.  Believe that you can, and you can.  The will is only needed.——Courage now is the highest prudence.

It is not necessary, even, according to a familiar phrase, to carry the war into Africa.  It will be enough to carry Africa into the war; in any form, any quantity, any way.——The moment this is done, rebellion will begin its bad luck, and the union will be secure forever.

History teaches by example.  The occasion does not allow me to show how completely this monitor points the way.  I content myself with two instances of special mark——one from ancient Greece, and the other from ancient Rome.

The most fatal day for ancient Greece was the defeat at Cheronaea, when Philip of Macedon triumphed over forces in which Demosthenes was enlisted as a soldier.  Athens was thrown into consternation.  Her great orator had ignobly fled.  Another orator, second only to him——Socrates——died suddenly on hearing the report of the battle.  The Book of Fate seemed about to close, while Athens sank to be a mere dependency of Philip.——Then it was that another orator in the assembly of the people suddenly brought forward a proposition to emancipate the slaves.  The royal Philip, already strong in his victory, trembled.  King and conqueror, he was also statesman, and he saw well that such a proposition, begun in Athens, would shake all Greece, even to his powerful throne, which the young Alexander was then preparing to mount.  His triumphant course was at once arrested, and peace secured.

The other instance is in Roman history.  You will find it in Plutarch's Life of Caius Marius.  This experienced general, who, in the civil conflicts of the time, had been driven from Rome, and found shelter in the ruins of Carthage, was able at last to effect a landing in Italy.  Thus is the incident recorded:

'Marius, upon this news, determined to hasten.  He took with him some Marusia horse which he had levied in Africa, and a few others that were come to him from Italy, in all not amounting to above a thousand men, and with this handful began his voyage.  He arrived at a port of Tuscany, called Telamon, and as soon as he was landed proclaimed liberty to the slaves.  The name of Marius brought down numbers, the ablest of which he enlisted, and in a short time he had a great army on foot, with which he filled forty ships.'

Thus far Plutarch.  It is needless to add that Marius found himself soon master of Rome.

These are historic instances.  I do not adduce

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