Thursday, October 9, 2014

Senator Charles Sumner to John M. Forbes, January 13, 1861

Washington, 13 January, 1861.

My Dear Forbes, — . . . I think you will agree with me in regretting the tone of Seward's speech. He read it to me last Tuesday, and I protested most earnestly against every word of compromise, concession, or offer to the traitors. I wish to try the strength of the government now. Surely it is not worth having, on the condition that any one State may at any time break it up. If this is the rule, it were better to know it now, and govern ourselves accordingly. We must not postpone this question until still greater interests will depend upon it. Besides, what kind of concession can we offer? Ignoble will it be in us to concede beyond the Constitution, which of itself embodies all that our fathers would concede.

The South calls Seward's speech a “cheat.”    It is unsatisfactory, except to a very few. Even Cameron, of Pennsylvania, told me that he regretted he should “so let down the party.”

If the North will be firm, our future will be bright. For God's sake, let there be no wavering. . . .

Good-by! Ever sincerely yours,
Charles Sumner.

SOURCE: Sarah Forbes Hughes, Letters and recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 1, p.186

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