THE



WORKS'



OF



CHARLES SUMNER.



Veniet fortasse aliud tempus, dignius nostro, quo, debellatis odiis,
veritas triumphabit. Hoc mecum opta, lector, et vale.

LEIBNITZ.



VOL. XII.






BOSTON:
LEE AND SHEPARD

187T.



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1877,

BY FRANCIS V. BALCH, EXECUTOR,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.



UNIVERSITY PRESS: WELCH, BIGELOW, & Co.,
CAMBRIDGE.



V.



CONTENTS OF VOLUME XII.



PAGE
PROPHETIC VOICES CONCERNING AMERICA. A Monograph . . 1

EQUAL RIGHTS, WHETHER POLITICAL OR CIVIL, BY ACT OF CON
GRESS. Letter to the Border State Convention at Baltimore, Sep
tember 8, 1867 . . . . , , f .184

ARE WE A NATION? Address before the New York Young Men's
Republican Union, at the Cooper Institute, Tuesday Evening, No
vember 19, 1867 . -187

CONSTANT DISTRUST OF THE PRESIDENT. Remarks in the Senate,

on the Final Adjournment, November 26, 1867 .... 250

THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT : WITHDRAWAL OF ASSENT BY A
STATE. Remarks in the Senate, on the Resolutions of the Legis
lature of Ohio rescinding its former Resolution in Ratification of
the Fourteenth Amendment, January 31, 1868 .... 253

LOYALTY IN THE SENATE : ADMISSION OF A SENATOR. Remarks
in the Senate, on the Resolution to admit Philip F. Thomas as Sen
ator from Maryland, February 13, 1868 . . . .257

INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. Letter to a Committee in New York,

on this Subject, February 17, 1868 . . . . . 270

THE IMPEACHMENT OF THE PRESIDENT. THE RIGHT OF THE PRESI
DENT OF THE SENATE PRO TEM. TO VOTE. Remarks in the Sen
ate, on the Question of the Competency of Mr. Wade, Senator from
Ohio, then President of the Senate pro Tern., to vote on the Im
peachment of President Johnson, March 5, 1868 .... 272

THE CHIEF JUSTICE, PRESIDING IN THE SENATE, CANNOT RULE OR
VOTE. Opinion in the Case of the Impeachment of Andrew John
son, President of the United States, March 31, 1868 . . . 282

EXPULSION OF THE PRESIDENT. Opinion in the Case of the Impeach
ment of Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, May 26,
1868 .... 318



iv CONTENTS.

PAGE

CONSTITUTIONAL RESPONSIBILITY OF SENATORS FOR THEIR VOTES
IN CASES OF IMPEACHMENT. Resolutions in the Senate, June 3,
1868 411

VALIDITY AND NECESSITY OF FUNDAMENTAL CONDITIONS ON STATES.

Speech in the Senate, June 10, 1868 414

ELIGIBILITY OF A COLORED CITIZEN TO CONGRESS. Letter to an

Inquirer at Norfolk, Va., June 22, 1868 439

INDEPENDENCE, AND THOSE WHO SAVED THE ORIGINAL WORK. Let
ter on the Soldiers' Monument at North Wej-mouth, Mass., July 2,
1868 . . ,-..., 440

COLORED SENATORS, THEIR IMPORTANCE IN SETTLING THE QUES
TION OF EQUAL RIGHTS. Letter to an Inquirer in South Caro
lina, July 3, t8gg 441

FINANCIAL RECONSTRUCTION THROUGH PUBLIC FAITH AND SPECIE
PAYMENTS. Speech in the Senate, on the Bill to fund the Na
tional Debt, July 11, 1868 443

No REPRISALS ON INNOCENT PERSONS. Speech in the Senate, on

the Bill concerning the Rights of American Citizens, July 18, 1868 481

THE CHINESE EMBASSY, AND OUR RELATIONS WITH CHINA. Speech
at the Banquet by the City of Boston to the Chinese Embassy,
August 21, 1868 502

THE REBEL PARTY. Speech at the Flag-Raising of the Grant and Col-
fax Club, in Ward Six, Boston, on the Evening of September 14,
1868 510

ENFRANCHISEMENT IN MISSOURI : WHY WAIT ? Letter to a Citizen

of St. Louis, October 3, 1868 515

ISSUES AT THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. Speech at the City Hall,

Cambridge, October 29, 1868 617



PROPHETIC VOICES CONCERNING
AMERICA.

A MONOGRAPH.



I have another and a far brighter vision before my gaze. It may be but
a vision, but I will cherish it. I see one vast confederation stretching from
the frozen North in unbroken line to the glowing South, and from the wild
billows of the Atlantic westward to the calmer waters of the Pacific main,
and I see one people, and one language, and one law, and one faith, and,
over all that wide continent, the home of Freedom, and a refuge for the
oppressed of every race and of every clime. JOHN BRIGHT, Speech at Bir
mingham, December 18, 1862 : Speeches on Questions of Public Policy,
ed. Rogers, (London, 1868,) Vol. I. p. 225.



VOL. XII.



THIS monograph appeared originally in the "Atlantic
Monthly" for September, 1867. It is now revised and
enlarged. In the celebration of our hundredth birthday as
a nation, now fast approaching, these prophetic voices will
be heard, teaching how much of present fame and power
was foreseen, also what remains to be accomplished.

C. S.
MARCH, 1874.



History shows that the civilization to which we belong is subject to a
general law which makes it advance with halts, in the manner of armies,
in the direction of the Occident, making the sceptre pass successively into
the hands of nations more worthy to hold it, more strong and more able
to employ it for the general good.

So it seems that the supreme authority is about to escape from Western
and Central Europe, to pass to the New World. In the northern part of
that other heinisphere offshoots of the European race have founded a vig
orous society full of sap, whose influence grows with a rapidity that has
never yet been seen anywhere. In crossing the ocean, it has left behind
on the soil of old Europe traditions, prejudices, and usages, which, as
impedimenta heavy to carry, would have embarrassed its movements and
retarded its progi-essive march. In about thirty years the United States
will have, according to all probability, a hundred millions of population, in
possession of the most powerful means, distributed over a territory which
would make France fifteen or sixteen times over, and of the most wonderful
disposition

Vainly do the occidental and central nations of Europe attribute to them
selves a primacy, which, in their vanity, they think sheltered from events
and eternal : as if there were anything eternal in the grandeur and pros
perity of societies, the works of men ! MICHEL CHEVALIER, Rapports du
Jury International: Exposition Universelle de 1867 d Paris, Tom. I., In
troduction, pp. DXIV-DXVL

America, and especially Saxon America, with its immense virgin terri
tories, with its republic, with its equilibrium between stability and pro
gress, with its harmony between liberty and democracy, is the continent of
the Future, the immense continent stretched by God between the Atlantic
and Pacific, where mankind may plant, essay, and resolve all social prob
lems. [Loud cheers.'] Europe has to decide whether she will confound
herself with Asia, placing upon her lands old altars, and upon the altars old
idols, and upon the idols immovable theocracies, and upon the theocracies
despotic empires, or whether she will go by labor, by liberty, and by the
republic, to cooperate with America in the grand work of universal civili
zation. EMILIO CASTELAB, Speech in the Spanish Cortes, June 22, 1871.



MONOGRAPH.



THE discovery of America by Christopher Columbus
is the greatest event of secular history. Besides
the potato, the turkey, and maize, which it introduced
at once for the nourishment and comfort of the Old
World, 1 and also tobacco, which only blind passion for
the weed could place in the beneficent group, this dis
covery opened the door to influences infinite in extent
and beneficence. Measure them, describe them, picture
them, you cannot. While yet unknown, imagination
invested this continent with proverbial magnificence.
It was the Orient, and the land of Cathay. When after
wards it took a place in geography, imagination found
another field in trying to portray its future history. If
the Golden Age is before, and not behind, as is now
happily the prevailing faith, then indeed must America
share, at least, if it does not monopolize, the promised
good.

Before the voyage of Columbus in 1492, nothing of
America was really known. Scanty scraps from anti
quity, vague rumors from the resounding ocean, and the

1 In the Description of England, prefixed to Holinshed's Chronicles,
and dated 1586, one of these gifts is mentioned: "Of the potato and such
venerous roots as are brought out of Spaine, Portingale, and the Indies to
furnish vp our bankets, I speake not." Book II. Ch. VI., Vol. I. p. 281
(London, 1807).



6 PROPHETIC VOICES CONCERNING AMERICA.

hesitating speculations of science were all that the in
spired navigator found to guide him. Foremost among
these were the well-known verses of Seneca, so interest
ing from ethical genius and a tragical death, in the cho
rus of his " Medea," which for generations had been the
finger-point to an undiscovered world :

" Venient annis
Secula sens, quiSus Oceanus
Vincula rerum laxet, et iiigens
Pateat tellus, Tiphysque novos
Detegat orbes, nee sit terris
Ultima Tliule." 1

These verses are vague and lofty rather than specific ;
but Bacon, after setting them forth, says of them, " A
prophecy of the discovery of America"; and this they
may well be, if we adopt the translation of Archbishop
Whately, in his notes to the Essay on Prophecies :
"There shall come a time in later ages, when Ocean
shall relax his chains and a vast continent appear, and
a pilot shall find new worlds, and Thule shall be no
more earth's bound." 2 Fox, turning from statesman
ship to scholarship, wrote to "Wakefield : " The prophecy
in Seneca's ' Medea ' is very curious indeed." 3 Irving
says of it : " Wonderfully apposite, and shows, at least,
how nearly the warm imagination of a poet may ap
proach to prophecy. The predictions of the ancient
oracles were rarely so unequivocal." 4 These verses
were adopted by Irving as a motto on the title-page
of the revised edition of his " Life of Columbus."

1 Act. II. 374-379.

2 Bacon's Essays, annot. Whately, (London, 1858,) p. 379.

8 June 20, 1800. Memorials and Correspondence, ed. Russell, Vol. IV.
p. 393.

4 Life of Columbus, Appendix, No. XXIV., Author's Revised Edition,
(New York, I860,) Vol. III. p. 402.



PROPHETIC VOICES CONCEKNING AMEEICA. 7

Two copies are extant in the undoubted handwriting
of Columbus, precious autographs to tempt collectors,
both of them in his book on the Prophecies. 1 By
these the great admiral sailed.

Humboldt gives the verses in the following form :

" Venient annis saecula seris,
Quibus Oceanus vincula rerum
Laxet, et ingens pateat tellus,
Tethysque novos detegat orbes,
Nee sit terris ultima Thule." 2

This sympathetic and authoritative commentator, who
has illustrated the enterprise with all that classical or
mediaeval literature affords, declares his conviction that
the discovery of a new continent was more completely
foreshadowed in the simple geographical statement of
the Greek Strabo, 3 who, after a long life of travel, sat
down in his old age, during the reign of Augustus, to
write the geography of the world, including its cosmog
raphy. In this work, where are gathered the results of
ancient study and experience, the venerable author, after
alluding to the possibility of passing direct from Spain
to India, and explaining that the inhabited world is
that which we inhabit and know, thus lifts the curtain :
" There may be in the same temperate zone two and in
deed more inhabited lands, especially near the parallel of
Thinae or Athens, prolonged into the Atlantic Ocean." 4
This was the voice of ancient Science.

1 Navarrete, Coleccion de los Viages y Descubrirnientos, Tom. IT. pp.
264, 272. Humboldt, Examen Critique de 1'Histoire de la Geographic du
Nouveau Continent, Tom. I. p. 101.

2 Examen Critique, Tom. I. p. 162.
8 Ibid., pp. 152, 165.

* Geographica, Lib. I. p. 65, C. Comp. Lib. II. p. 118, C. See Hum
boldt, Examen Critique, Tom. I. pp. 147, seqq. ; Cosmos, tr. Otte, Vol. II.
pp. 516, 556, 557, 645.



8 PKOPHETIC VOICES CONCERNING AMERICA.

Before the voyage of Columbus two Italian poets
seem to have beheld the unknown world. The first
was Petrarca; nor was it unnatural that his exquisite
genius should reach behind the veil of Time, as where
he pictures

"The daylight hastening with winged steps,
Perchance to gladden the expectant eyes
Of far-off nations in a world remote." *

The other was Pulci, who, in his " Morgante Maggiore,"
sometimes called the last of the romances and the earli
est of Italian epics, reveals an undiscovered world be
yond the Pillars of Hercules :

" Know that this theory is false ; his bark
The daring mariner shall urge far o'er
The western wave, a smooth and level plain,
Albeit the earth is fashioned like a wheel.
Man was in ancient days of grosser mould,
And Hercules might blush to learn how far
Beyond the limits he had vainly set
The dullest sea-boat soon shall wing her way.

" Men shall descry another hemisphere,
Since to one common centre all things tend ;
So earth, by curious mystery divine
Well balanced, hangs amid the starry spheres.
At our Antipodes are cities, states,
A nd thronged empires, ne'er divined of yore.
But see, the sun speeds on his western path
To glad the nations with expected light." 2

This translation is by our own eminent historian,
Prescott, who first called attention to the testimony, 3
wliich is not mentioned even by Humboldt. Leigh

1 " . . . . che '1 di nostro vola

A gente, che di 1& forse 1' aspetta."

Rime, Part. I. Canzone V.
Canto XXV. st. 229, 230.
History of Ferdinand and Isabella, Vol. II. pp. 117, 118.



PKOPHETIC VOICES CONCEKNING AMERICA. 9

Hunt referred to it at a later day. 1 Pulci was born in
1431, and died about 1487, five years before Columbus
sailed; so that he was not aided by any rumor of the
discovery he so distinctly predicts.

Passing from the great event which gave a new world
not only to Spain, but to civilized man, it may not be
uninteresting to collect some of the prophetic voices
concerning the future of America and the vast unfold
ing of our continent. They will have a lesson also.
Seeing what has been fulfilled, we may better judge
what to expect. I shall set them forth in the order
of time, prefacing each prediction with an account of
the author sufficient to explain its origin and character.
If some are already familiar, others are little known.
Brought together in one body, on the principle of our
National Union, E pluribus unum, they must give new
confidence in the destinies of the Eepublic.

Only what has been said sincerely by those whose
words are important deserves place in such a collection.
Oracles had ceased before our history began ; so that we
meet no responses paltering in a double sense, like the
deceptive replies to Croesus and to Pyrrhus, nor any
sayings which, according to the quaint language of Sir
Thomas Browne, "seem quodlibetically constituted, and,
like a Delphian blade, will cut on both sides." 2 In Ba
con's Essay on Prophecies there is a latitude not to be
followed. Not fable or romance, but history, is the true
authority; and here experience and genius are the lights
by which our prophets have walked. Doubtless there

1 Stories from the Italian Poets, (London, 1846,) Vol. I. p. 295.

2 Christian Morals, Part II. Sec. 3 : Works, ed. Wilkin, (London, 1835,)
Vol. IV. p. 81.

1*



10 PROPHETIC VOICES CONCERNING AMERICA.

is a difference in human faculties. Men who have lived
much and felt strongly see further than others. Their
vision penetrates the future. Second-sight is little more
than clearness of sight. ]\Iilton tells us that

" Old experience doth attain
To something like prophetic strain."

Sometimes this strain is attained even in youth. But
here Genius with divine power lifts the curtain and
sweeps the scene.

The elder Disraeli, in his " Curiosities of Literature,"
has a chapter on " Prediction," giving curious instances,
among which is that of Eousseau, toward the end of
the third book of " fimile," where he says, " We ap
proach a condition of crisis and the age of revolutions." 1
Our own Revolution was then at hand, soon followed
by that of France. The settlement of America was not
without auguries even at the beginning.

A PEOPHETIC GROUP.

BEFORE passing to the more serious examples, I bring
into group a few marking at least a poet's apprecia
tion of the newly discovered country, if not a prophetic
spirit. The Muse was not silent at the various reports.
As early as 1595, Chapman, famous as the translator of
Homer, in a poem on Guiana, thus celebrates and com
mends the unknown land :

" Guiana, whose rich feet are mines of gold,
Whose forehead knocks against the roof of stars,
Stands on her tiptoes, at fair England looking,
Kissing her hand, bowing her mighty breast,

i (Bin-res, (Paris, 1821-23,) Tom. VIII. p. 836. Curiosities of Literature, (Lon
don, 1849,) VoL III. p. 301, note.



A PROPHETIC GROUP. 11

And every sign of all submission making,
To be her sister, and the daughter both
Of our most sacred Maid.

And there do palaces and temples rise
Out of the earth and kiss the enamored skies,
Where New Britannia humbly kneels to Heaven,
The world to her, and both at her blest feet
In whom the circles of all empire meet." 1

In similar strain, Drayton, who nourished under James
the First, says of Virginia :

" And ours to hold
Virginia,
Earth's only paradise.

" Where Nature hath in store
Fowl, venison, and fish,

And the fruitfull'st soil,

Without your toil,
Three harvests more,
All greater than your wish.

"To whose the Golden Age
Still Nature's laws doth give,

No other cares that 'tend

But them to defend
From winter's age,
That long there doth not live." 2

Daniel, poet-laureate and contemporary, seemed to
foresee the spread of our English speech, anticipating
our own John Adams :

"And who (in time) knows whither we may vent
The treasure of our tongue ? To what strange shores
This gain of our best glory shall be sent,
T' enrich unknowing nations with our stores ?
What worlds, in th' yet unformed Occident,
May come refined with th' accents that are ours ? " 8

1 De Guiana Carmen Epicum : Hakluyt, Voyages, (London, 1600,) VoL III. pp.
668-672.

* To the Virginian Voyage : Anderson's British Poets, Vol. III. p. 583.
3 Musophilus : Ibid., VoL IV. p. 217.



12 PROPHETIC VOICES CONCERNING AMERICA.

The emigration prompted by conscience and for the
sake of religious liberty inspired the pious and poetical
Herbert to famous verses :

" Religion stands on tiptoe in our land,
Ready to pass to the American strand." 1

The poet died in 1632, twelve years after the landing
of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, and only two years after
the larger movement of the Massachusetts Company,
which began the settlement of Boston. The verses saw
the light with difficulty, being refused the necessary
license ; but the functionary at last yielded, calling
the author " a divine poet," and expressing the hope
that "the world will not take him to be an inspired
prophet." 2 Fuller, writing a little later, was perhaps
moved by Herbert, when he said : " I am confident
that America, though the youngest sister of the four,
is now grown marriageable, and daily hopes to get
Christ to her husband by the preaching of the Gos
pel." 3 In a different vein, a contemporary poet, the
favorite of Charles the First, Thomas Carew, in a
masque performed by the monarch and his courtiers
at Whitehall, February 18, 1633, made sport of New
England, saying that it had " purged more virulent
humors from the politic body than guaiacum and all
the West Indian drugs have from the natural bodies
of this kingdom." 4 But these words uttered at the
English Court were praise.

Then came answering voices from the Colonies. Rev.
William Morrell, of the Established Church, a settler

l The Church Militant, 239, 240. 2 Life, by Izaak Walton.

8 The Holy State, Book III. Ch. 16 : Of Plantations.

4 Ccelum Britannicum : Anderson's British Poets, Vol. III. p. 716.



A PROPHETIC GROUP. 13

of 1623, said of New England, in a Latin poem trans
lated by himself:

" A grandchild to Earth's paradise is born,
Well-limbed, well-nerved, fair, rich, sweet, yet forlorn." 1

" The Simple Cobbler of Agawam," another name for
Eev. Nathaniel Ward, of Ipswich, Mass., at the close of
his witty book, first published in 1647, and having four
different editions in this single year, sends an invita
tion to those at home:

" So farewell, England Old !

If evil times ensue,
Let good men come to us,
We'll welcome them to New."

Another witness we meet in the writings of Franklin.
It is George Webb, who, decamping from Oxford and
the temptations of scholarship, indented himself accord
ing to the usage of the times, and became what Frank
lin calls " a bought servant " on our shores, where his
genius flowered in the prophetic couplet, written in
1727:

" Europe shall mourn her ancient fame declined,
And Philadelphia be the Athens of mankind." 2

Another, Gulian Yerplanck, of New York, in verses
written in England in 1773, foretells the repetition of
British wealth, power, and glory in the New World :

" In other worlds another Britain see,
And what thou art America shall be." 8

And yet another, Hugh Henry Brackenridge, born

1 Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., Vol. I. p. 126.

2 Griswold's Poets and Poetry of America, (Philadelphia, 1856,) p. 22.

8 Ibid., p. 29. Mr. Webster, quoting these lines, attributes them to an
anonymous " English poet." Speech at the Festival of the Sons of New
Hampshire, November 7, 1849 : Works, Vol. II. p. 510.



14 PROPHETIC VOICES CONCERNING AMERICA.

in Scotland, and a graduate of our Princeton College
in 1771, in a Commencement poem on "The Eising
Glory of America," pictured the future of the conti
nent, adopting as a motto the verses of Seneca twice
quoted by Columbus:

" This is thy praise, America, thy power,
Thou best of climes by Science visited,
By Freedom blest, and richly stored with all
The luxuries of life ! Hail, happy land,
The seat of empire, the abode of kings,
The final stage where Time shall introduce
Renowned characters, and glorious works
Of high invention and of wondrous art,
Which not the ravages of Time shall waste,
Till he himself has run his long career ! " l

To these add Voltaire, who, in his easy verse, writ
ten in 1751, represents God as putting fever in Euro
pean climates, " and the remedy in America." 2

From this chorus, with only one discordant voice, I
pass to a long line of voices so distinct and full as to
be recognized separately.

JOHN MILTOX, 1641.

THE list opens with John Milton, whose lofty words
are like an overture to the great drama of emigration,
with its multitudes in successive generations. If not
a prophet, he has yet struck a mighty key-note in our
history.

The author of " Paradise Lost," of " Comus," and the
heroic Sonnets, needs no special mention beyond the

1 Duyckinck's Cyclopaedia of American Literature, Vol. I. p. 299.

2 " II met la fievre en nos climats,

Et le rerriede en Amerique."

Epitre LXXV., AuRoide Prusse : (Euvres,
(edit. 1784.) Tom. XIII. p. 170.



ABRAHAM COWLEY, 1667. 15

two great dates of birth and death. He was born 9th
December, 1608, and died 8th November, 1674. The
treatise from which I quote was written in 1641.

" What numbers of faithful and free-born Englishmen and
good Christians have been constrained to forsake their dear
est home, their friends and kindred, whom nothing but the
wide ocean and the savage deserts of America could hide and
shelter from the fury of the bishops ! Oh, Sir, if we could
but see the shape of our dear mother England, as poets are
wont to give a personal form to what they please, how would
she appear, think ye, but in a mourning weed, with ashes
upon her head and tears abundantly flowing from her eyes,
to behold so many of her children exposed at once and
thrust from things of dearest necessity, because their con
science could not assent to things which the bishops thought
indifferent 1 . . . . Let the astrologer be dismayed at the por
tentous blaze of comets and impressions in the air, as fore
telling troubles and changes to states; I shall believe there
cannot be a more ill-boding sign to a nation (God turn the
omen from us !) than when the inhabitants, to avoid insuf
ferable grievances at home, are enforced by heaps to forsake
their native country." 1

Here in a few words are the sacrifices made by our
fathers, as they turned from their English homes, and
also the conscience which prompted and sustained them.
Begun in sacrifice and in conscience, their empire grew
and flourished with constant and increasing promise of
future grandeur.



o



ABRAHAM COWLEY, 1667.

CONTEMPORARY with Milton, and at the time a rival
for the palm of poetry, was Abraham Cowley, born

1 Of Reformation touching Church Discipline in England, Book II. :