780 



SUMNER, CHAELES. 



Francois's machines are used with the daily 

 average progress above recorded. Boring oper- 

 ations had to he suspended during the whole 

 of December on account of the want of venti- 

 lation, caused by the fall of the waters of the 

 Tremola. Snow and ice also hindered the 

 operations very much. Up to the 12th of De- 

 cember three of Someiller's machines had been 

 in use for widening the tunnel ; from that date 

 four of McKean's machines began working. 

 In several places boring operations were also 

 carried on by hand. For the railways in the 

 Ticino Valley in connection with the tunnel, 

 over 660,000 cubic feet of earth had been cleared 

 away ; the total number of workmen employed 

 there at the present time is on the average 

 2,952, and on the whole St. Gothard Eailway 

 4,914. 



SUMNER, CHAELES, LL. D., S. P. A. S., etc., 

 an American statesman, scholar, and author, 

 born in Boston, Mass., January 6, 1811 ; died 

 in Washington, D. 0., March 11, 1874. He 

 was the son of Charles Pinkney Sumner, of 

 Boston, and was educated at the Boston Latin 

 School and at Harvard College, graduating 

 from the latter in 1830. He commenced the 

 study of law under Mr. Justice Story. He was 

 admitted to the bar in Worcester in 1834, but 

 began in Boston the practice which soon sur- 

 passed that of any other young lawyer there. 

 He was not long after made Reporter of the 

 United States Circuit Court, and published 

 three volumes of Judge Story's decisions, at 

 the same time editing the American Jurist. 

 During the first three winters following his 

 entrance into the profession, he lectured be- 

 fore the Law School in the absence of Judge 

 Story and Prof. Greenleaf, and with so much 

 success, that he was urged to take a profess- 

 or's chair. Several years before he had edit- 

 ed, with great ability and discrimination, "A. 

 Treatise on the Practice of the Courts of Ad- 

 miralty in Civil Causes of Maritime Jurisdic- 

 tion," by Andrew Dunlap ; a work undertaken 

 in consequence of the illness of Mr. Dunlap. 

 In 1837 he went to Europe, and remained 

 there three years, visiting the highest courts, 

 and both Houses of Parliament. In France 

 and Germany he made the acquaintance of the 

 most eminent jurists, publicists, and distin- 

 guished scientists. While in Paris, he wrote, 

 at the request of our minister, General Cass, a 

 paper in defense of our northeastern boundary 

 claims, which attracted great attention both 

 in Europe and America. In 1840 he resumed 

 the practice of his profession. In 1843 he was 

 again made lecturer at the Law School, and in 

 1844-'46 published, with numerous biographi- 

 cal. sketches and explanatory notes, "Vesey's 

 Reports," in twenty volumes. On July 4, 1845, 

 he pronounced, before the authorities of the 

 city of Boston, an oration entitled "The True 

 Grandeur of Nations." It was an eloquent de- 

 fense of peace. Before the close of the year, 

 he spoke ably and eloquently against the Mex- 

 ican War and against the pro-slavery inter- 



ests which were urging it ; and in 1846, in an 

 address before the Whig Convention on the 

 " Antislavery Duties of the Whig Party," he 

 announced his uncompromising hostility to 

 slavery. In 1848 Mr. Sumner abandoned the 

 Whigs, and went over to the Free-Soilers ; 

 Mr. Webster, after having sustained the fugi- 

 tive-slave law, resigned his seat in the Senate 

 for one in the cabinet; and in 1851, after a 

 long and fierce struggle, Sumner was elected 

 his successor. He was almost alone in the 

 Senate, and the tactics of his adversaries were, 

 never to allow him to gain the floor, so that it 

 was nearly nine months after he had taken his 

 seat in the Senate, and then only by seizing an 

 opportunity when they were off their guard, 

 that he was able to make a speech on the 

 subject nearest his heart. That speech has 

 become historical under the title, "Freedom 

 National, Slavery Sectional." Thenceforward, 

 in the Senate and out of it, he was known and 

 welcomed as the most eloquent and efficient 

 of the opponents of slavery. lie spoke at 

 Plymouth Rock in August, 1853 ; at the Re- 

 publican Convention of Massachusetts, in Sep- 

 tember, 1854; in the Metropolitan Theatre in 

 New York, in May, 1855; and at Fanueil Hall 

 in November of the same year : and each time 

 with great boldness and fervor, on different 

 phases of the great subject. In the Senate he 

 opposed the repeal of the Missouri Compro- 

 mise. In May, 1856, he delivered his great 

 speech in the Senate, "The Crime against 

 Kansas," occupying two days ; and its uncom- 

 promising spirit, and its severity, led to his 

 being assaulted in his seat in the-Senate-cham- 

 ber, by Preston S. Brooks, a member of Con- 

 gress from South Carolina, two days later, the 

 circumstances of which are well known. The 

 injuries he received were severe, so that he 

 was disabled from public duties for nearly four 

 years; and from its efi'ects he never fully re- 

 covered. He took his seat again in the Senate 

 in the spring of 1860, and in the early summer 

 delivered a speech entitled " The Barbarism 

 of Slavery," in which he referred to the assault 

 in no vindictive or even pointed terms. He 

 labored actively in the presidential campaign 

 of 1860 for the election of Lincoln and Hamlin. 

 In the winter of 1860-'61 he was firm in his 

 opposition to any concessions to the South, as 

 alike foolish and wicked. 



At the commencement of the next session 

 of Congress, in the summer of 1861, he became 

 chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign 

 Relations. Mr. Sumner was often accused of 

 being radical, ultra, and bitter ; but in all the 

 years of the war, he was, according to the 

 testimony of those best qualified to judge, and 

 who were themselves never accused of radical- 

 ism, the most cautious, prudent, and judicious 

 of counselors, and more than once was instru- 

 mental in averting war with Great Britain or 

 France when it appeared imminent. In other 

 measures appertaining to home affairs, he was 

 not less active and useful. The thirteenth 



