OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 327 



resorted to for the purjjose of suppressing by force all public demon- 

 strations of dissatisfaction only had the natural effect of spreading the 

 uneasiness ; and this uneasiness soon took the form customary in a free 

 country, of the combination of numbers to promote by their union the 

 common object of resistance to that which in the established state of 

 things they disapproved. 



Such in brief was the rise of the anti-slavery party in American 

 history. It was just beginning to change its character of a purely 

 moral protest to an effective political resistance, at the moment when 

 Mr. Sumner had fully discovered his aptitude for sj^eaking before the 

 people on precisely this order of public questions. He at once entered 

 into the movement with the ardor natural to his disposition. No 

 wider field for the development of his peculiar gift could have been 

 presented, and he availed himself of his opportunities most effectively. 

 From this date he altogether abandoned his professional career, and 

 embarked, in stormy conflict, on the voyage of anti-slavery politics. 



Neither was it a great while before the growth of the party with 

 which he had • associated himself had become sufficient in Massa- 

 chusetts, if not to control its action, at least to hold a balance 

 between the two older and antagonist organizations which had pre- 

 viously ruled. The consequence was a combination, not altogether 

 defensible on purely moral grounds, though rarely declined in prac- 

 tice, by which, at the expense of surrrendering the control of the State 

 government for the year into the hands of the party least in sympathy 

 with its own great object, it secured the extraordinary advantage of 

 placing through their aid Mr. Sumner as their champion in the Senate 

 of the United States. 



The field being now open before him, Mr. Sumner lost no time to 

 profit by the opportunities for advancing his cause. The result was 

 the production of a variety of speeches, all of them in a bold and 

 trenchant style of oratory, well calculated to impress itself strongly 

 upon the minds of multitudes. The severity of his invective in one 

 instance roused the passions of a youthful member of the House of 

 Representatives to such an extent as to prompt a personal assault 

 upon him, which practically disabled him for three years. But 

 the moral effect of the blows was only the more surely to perpet- 

 uate his retention of his elevated position, and vastly to increase his 

 influence over the community. He continued by successive elec- 

 tions to be a member of the Senate for a period of three and twenty 

 years, until his death, which took place at Washington on the 11th of 

 March, 1874. 



