Wendell Phillips to Senator Charles Sumner, April 27, 1852

I have never, my dear friend, ceased one moment to trust you. Passing over the whole State this winter, lecturing sometimes four nights in the week, I have been asked scores of times by Free Soilers as well as our folks, “Do you put entire trust in C. S.?” Theodore Parker tells me he has met the same questioning many times. My answer has always been the expression, the frank, cordial expression, of most entire confidence in you. I have then dwelt on the expediency of getting acquainted with your audience before speaking; obtaining a point d'appui by showing a knowledge of, and interest in, other questions, etc., — adding that I knew you were acting in concert with, and by advice of, all the prominent friends of antislavery in Washington. This I learned from your letters, but did not say so, as they were marked “confidential,” and I did not wish to compromise you. Last week there was a resolution offered at the Dedham meeting declaring your course inexplicable. I opposed it; went over your whole reform life. “A man of more rightful expectations than any of his age in New England spoke what peace address July 4. Perhaps he did not know then all he was sacrificing; the proof of his true devotion was, that, finding the sacrifice possibly greater than he anticipated, he stood by his position, — never retreated an inch; on the contrary, advanced to the prison discipline struggle, and to a more prominent and radical position on antislavery, etc. Such a man has earned the right to be trusted, even while we do not understand his whole ground or all his reasons. Some men the more radical among his party, I think — expect more from him than he has ever promised; but I believe Charles Sumner will fulfil every promise he has ever made, every expectation he has ever given any one ground for entertaining. I think his course at Washington impolitic and wrong;¹ but that matters not. He has used, I doubt not, his best discretion, and the best advice at hand. He has his way of doing things; he did not suit us wholly while here; it's no surprise to me that his course should not wholly suit us now. I shall trust him at least till the end of the session, and listen then to his explanations.” If you shall always have ten such friends as I have been, your political life will be a happy one, and your fame (were it Sodom) as a fulfiller of all your pledges will be saved."²

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¹ Sumner felt hurt at this phrase in the speech; but Phillips claimed that being addressed to dissatisfied persons it was in the connection judicious, and not open to objection as unfriendly.

² Theodore Parker, though deeply regretting that Sumner delayed his speech so long, nevertheless expressed publicly no distrust of him, and made an apology for his silence at a meeting, July 5, [1852] in Abington. His very cordial and frank letters to Sumner himself rather imply a fear that his fibre was not quite so strong as it should be, and needed to be stiffened.

SOURCE: Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 285-6

John A. Andrew to Senator Charles Sumner, June 2, 1852

When by the circumstances a speech is an act for liberty, then I trust that you will make it. But when by speaking you feel that you would only drown your own testimony by the sound of your own voice, then it is not such as I am who desire you to break your silence.

SOURCE: Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 286

Joshua Leavitt to Senator Charles Sumner, June 11, 1852

I like your course, and especially that it is yours, and not any other man's. I told you at the outset to take time, act deliberately, so as to have nothing to take back, and not be in a hurry, and let croakers croak.

SOURCE: Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 286

Richard Henry Dana Jr. to Senator Charles Sumner, August 9, 1852

We have perfect faith in your course. We believe that if you had been permitted to speak,¹ a better day for the speech could not have been selected than the time you took. If you had spoken, all would have said so. It was just at the right interval between the settlement of the policy of the old parties and the opening of our own. A speech before the conventions of the old parties would have been reckoning without your host. There are some men who think that nothing is doing unless there is a gun firing or a bell ringing. There are superficial persons in whom is no depth of root; they are easily offended. The work we have to do is a long one; there is no pending question. Patience and judgment and preparation are as necessary as zeal, and more rare.

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¹ A reference to the Senate's refusal to hear him, July 28.

SOURCE: Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 287

Nathaniel P. Banks Jr. to Senator Charles Sumner, August 9, 1852

If the people of Massachusetts who now distrust you could have heard your voice in the Senate, and witnessed the attention you received, they would leave everything to you, knowing that your course would be for the best.

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[BLOG EDITOR’S NOTE: Charles Sumner delivered his eulogy for former United States Senator Robert Rantoul Jr. on the floor of the United States Senate on August 9, 1852, two days after Rantoul’s death.]

SOURCE: Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 287

Henry Wilson to Senator Charles Sumner, June 29, 1852

You must not let the session close without speaking. Should you do so, you would be openly denounced by nine tenths of our people. They say they are daily tormented about your silence by the Whigs all over the State, and many of them think you will not speak at all.

SOURCE: Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 288

John Jay to Senator Charles Sumner, July 5, 1852

I know too well the strength and depth of your antislavery principles, and have been too recently assured of your anxiety to utter your full views touching the Fugitive law to the Senate and the country, to attribute your delay in doing so to any other reason than your belief that an expedient occasion has not yet arrived. Others, however, who confound you with common politicians, attribute your silence to the Southern atmosphere of the Capitol, and profess to believe either that your opinions have become essentially modified, or that you are fearful of encountering the intellectual power of the defenders of Compromise, and incurring the odium and contempt with which the chivalry look down upon an abolitionist. I need not tell you, my dear Sumner, how warmly and indignantly I have repelled, and will continue to repel, all such insinuations against your honor and your integrity, and how confidently I have told your defamers to wait a little while for the promised speech that would silence their croakings, and awaken the country anew with strains of eloquence like those uttered by you in Faneuil Hall. Mr. Webster's awful treachery and shameless apostasy have so weakened the confidence of the people in the power of individuals to hold fast to unpopular truths that the meanness of such lesser traitors as Stanton and John Van Buren has excited no surprise.

SOURCE: Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 288

Senator Charles Sumner to John Jay, July 8, 1852

I thank you for your watchful friendship. Had I imagined the impatience of friends, I would have anticipated their most sanguine desires. But, with the absolute mens conscia recti, knowing the completeness of my devotion to the cause, I have let time proceed in the full conviction that at last I shall be understood. I fear nothing. I am under no influences which can interfere with this great duty. From the time I first came here I determined to speak on slavery some time at the end of June or in July, and not before, unless pressed by some practical question. No such question has occurred, and I have been left to my original purposes. My time has now come. I wish I could speak this week; but I cannot. For some time I have not been well; I have lost strength, and owing to this circumstance I have not made the preparation necessary. I am now at work, and to this devote myself whenever out of the Senate. Amidst these heats I am doing as well as I can. Your appeal and the interest expressed by others in my speech fill me with a painful conviction of my utter inability to do what is expected. But I shall try to do my duty. As to the responsibilities of standing alone, and as to any answers to me, to all these I am absolutely indifferent, — of this be assured. But when I speak, I wish to speak completely.

SOURCE: Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 289

Senator Charles Sumner to George Sumner, April 23, 1852

You are right in regarding both the old parties as substantially alike. I do not think that one who looks at principles and seeks to serve his fellowman can have much satisfaction in becoming the hack of one of these combinations; nor would I recommend you to enlist in any public efforts unless for the sake of a cause which you have at heart, or under an impulse too strong to resist. The consciousness of duty done must be your support under the load of misrepresentation and falsehood which are the lot of all in conspicuous stations. I have been tempted to say this by your note. I could not say less; I have not time now to say more.

SOURCE: Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 280

Senator Charles Sumner to George Sumner, April 26, 1852

If you are conscious that you can speak an effective word for Kossuth's Hungarian career, I should regret not to have it done, though I commend you to the prudence of careful preparation. Boston society, to which you allude, is of course the other way; but your point of view will enable you to look with indifference upon its criticisms. Remember this: while I counsel all caution and a proper reserve, particularly at the beginning, I would not have you sail by the meridian of Boston. Your own soul would rebuke you if you did.

SOURCE: Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 280

Senator Charles Sumner to John Bigelow, June 9, 1852

I longed to see you. When you called I was at Eames's, discoursing on Baltimore and its scenes. This nomination¹ makes me lament anew the fatal '49, when the Barnburners and the Hunkers coalesced. Had they kept apart, we should all have been together,—perhaps in a minority, but powerful from our principles and character. For myself, I am left alone. The political fellowships I had hoped to establish are vanishing. Of course I can have nothing to do with Pierce or his platform,—probably nothing with Scott or his. How I wish we had all stuck together! Should Pierce be elected, with a Democratic Senate and House, we should have the iron rule of the slave-power.

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¹ Of Franklin Pierce, as Democratic candidate for President.

SOURCE: Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, pp. 280-1

Senator Charles Sumner to Charles Francis Adams Sr., June 21, 1852

We hear that Scott is nominated at last. I tell you confidentially how Seward regards it. He thinks that his friends have been defeated, that Scott is made to carry weight which will probably defeat him, and that the campaign can have little interest for the friends of our cause. He will take an opportunity, by letter or speech, to extricate himself from the platform. Seward's policy is to stick to the Whig party; no action of theirs can shake him off. But the cause of freedom he has constantly at heart; I am satisfied of his sincere devotion to it. Major Donaldson says that there is now no difference between the Whigs and Democrats; their platforms, he says, are identical. This is the darkest day of our cause. But truth will prevail. Are there any special words of your grandfather against slavery anywhere on record, in tract or correspondence? If there are, let me have them. I wish you were here.

SOURCE: Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 281

Senator Charles Sumner to Henry Wilson, April 29, 1852

I notice the attack on me in the 'Liberator.' If need be, I shall show backbone in resisting the pressure even of friends. Had I uttered a word for Drayton and Sayres in the Senate, I should have dealt a blow at them which they well understood. At present nothing can be done for them in the Senate. I have presented their case to the President, and am sanguine in believing that they will be pardoned. But of this not a word at present.

SOURCE: Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 278

Samuel Gridley Howe to Senator Charles Sumner, 1852

God bless you for your truly noble and courageous course! Follow it up to the end, however, without caring for blessing or cursing. Such things do my very heart good, and make me love you, if possible, more than ever.

SOURCE: Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 278

Wendell Phillips to Senator Charles Sumner, 1852

I congratulate you most sincerely on the happy issue or your efforts for Drayton and Sayres. You have earned your honors.

SOURCE: Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 278

Senator Charles Sumner to John Bigelow, February 3, 1852

I am won very much by Houston's conversation.¹ With him the antislavery interest would stand better than with any man who seems now among possibilities. He is really against slavery, and has no prejudice against Free Soilers. In other respects he is candid, liberal, and honorable. I have been astonished to find myself so much of his inclining.

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¹ General Samuel Houston, senator from Texas, was mentioned at the time among the Democratic candidates for the Presidency.

SOURCE: Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 278

Senator Charles Sumner to Theodore Parker, February 6, 1852

I have yours of 25th of January proposing to me to write an article on Judge Story in the Westminster Review. As a filial service I should be glad to do this; but how can I? I rarely go to bed before one or two o'clock, and then I leave work undone which ought to be done.

SOURCE: Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 278

Senator Charles Sumner to John Bigelow, February 8, 1852

Pardon me if I say frankly you have done injustice to Story.¹ I admire him as a jurist, but with a discrimination between his titles to regard for his judgments and his books. The former I have always thought unique in variety, learning, point, usefulness, and amount. I love his memory, but I cannot sympathize with much of his politics. Even you will find much to praise in the accumulated expression of his Northern sentiments against doughfaces and the aggressions of the slave-power. I have known many judges and jurists, but I have never known one so completely imbued with jurisprudence as Story.

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¹ Mr. Bigelow had in a review of Judge Story's "Life and Letters," in the New York "Evening Post," Jan. 29 and Feb. 4, 1852, disparaged the judge's character as a jurist and author.

SOURCE: Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, pp. 278-9

Senator Charles Sumner to John Bigelow, March 2, 1852

Congress and all the world have a vacation to-day to quaff fresh air, sunshine, and champagne on board the 'Baltic.'¹ I voted for the adjournment, but did not care to put myself in the great man-trap set especially for members of Congress. I see nothing certain in the Presidential horizon. In all my meditations I revert with new regret to the attempted reconciliation in '49 in your State. Without that we should now control the free States.

I read carefully and enjoyed much Mr. Bryant's address.² It was a truthful, simple, and delicate composition, and, much as I value sculpture and Greenough, I cannot but add will be a more durable monument to Cooper than any other. Webster's historical article was crude and trite enough.

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¹ Of the Collins line of steamships, whose owners were then seeking a subsidy.

²  On J. Fenimore Cooper, Feb. 25, 1852, at a meeting of which Mr. Webster was chairman, called to raise funds for a monument to the novelist. Sumner's reply to the invitation to attend the meeting is printed in his Works, vol. iii. p. 43.

SOURCE: Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 279

Senator Charles Sumner to John Bigelow, March 26, 1853

The post of assistant secretary of state was offered to my brother; but I write, not for any public correction of your paper, but merely for your private information. More than ten days ago Mr. Marcy communicated to me personally his desire to have my brother in the place, his sense of his fitness beyond that of any other person in the country, and also the extent to which he was plagued by applications from persons who would make the office only a clerkship. My brother was absent from Washington at the time. At the request of Mr. Marcy I sent for him; and on his arrival, at Mr. Marcy's request, he reported himself at the state department, was most cordially welcomed, was assured that not only the secretary but the President desired him to be assistant secretary, that his knowledge of European affairs was needed, that it was the intention to raise the salary of the office and to make it a desirable position. At three different stages of a protracted interview the matter was thus pressed upon my brother. But in the course of the interview Mr. Marcy expressed a desire for some confession on the subject of slavery by which my brother should be distinguished from me, some acceptance of the Baltimore platform, - all of which he peremptorily declined to do, in a manner that made Mr. Marcy say to me afterwards that he had behaved in an honorable manner.' After my brother had fully declared his determination, and his abnegation of all desire for office, of which I do not speak in detail, the Secretary still expressed a desire for his services. Subsequently my brother addressed him a brief note absolutely declining, and in another note recommended the appointment of Dudley Mann. This affair has got into the newspapers, but by no suggestion of mine or of my brother.

SOURCE: Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, pp. 279-80