I am struck with wonder at the clear comprehension which you had of the magnitude of the war at the beginning, and of the true and only means by which it could be conducted to a proper termination. Your speech reads to-day like a sacred prophecy. For it you were assailed; but it was true nevertheless, and the country came at length to your defence by adopting your statesmanship.Shortly after the convention (in less than three weeks), Sumner delivered an address, or lecture, in Boston, entitled ‘The Rebellion, its Origin and Mainspring,’3 which during the same and the next month he repeated in several cities of Massachusetts, and also in Providence, Albany, and Philadelphia. Such was the impression which it made on the public that he was urged to deliver it a second time both in Boston and Philadelphia; and he consented to repeat it in the former city, but not in the latter. Its final delivery was at Cooper Institute in New York, November 27. The hall was crowded with an audience the best which that great city could supply. The scene was the more brilliant from the presence of ladies in larger numbers than had ever been seen on such an occasion in New
This text is part of:
[46]
Massachusetts, outside of Boston, however, generally approved the speech.1 Indeed, except in rare instances, the senator did not in his whole career receive the cordial support of the press of his own city, usually controlled by the conservative and commercial classes.
Sumner was among statesmen the first to demand the policy of emancipation.
His address has a historic place as the first formal declaration in any high quarter in favor of that policy.
It stimulated thought in that direction, organized antislavery sentiment in the North, and crystallized public opinion.
Its effects were soon seen in military orders and in speeches from public men, which pointed to a thorough policy against slavery.2
An editor who was then and had long been Sumner's critic, William Schouler, author of the ‘History of Massachusetts in the Civil War,’ wrote, Feb. 18, 1869, of this speech:—
1 The Springfield Republican, however, took the same view as the Boston journals.
2 Secretary Camneron's instructions, Oct. 14, 1861, to Brigadier-General T. W. Sherman, and the latter's proclamation at Port Royal; Colonel John Cochrane's address to his regiment. Nov. 13, 1861, with Mr. Cameron's approving remarks; Wendell Philips's lecture on ‘The War for the Union,’ in December, 1861; G. S. Boutwell's Address, Dec. 16, 1861, in ‘Speeches and Papers relating to the Rebellion,’ p. 123. Cameron's annual report in December, 1861. as prepared contained an argument for emancipation and the arming of slaves, but the President required him to modify it.
3 Works, vol. VI. pp. 65-118.
Cambridge, MA. Press of John Wilson and Son. 1877.
Tufts University provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.