Sumner, Charles, 1811–74, U.S. Senator from Massachusetts (1851–74), b. Boston. He attended (1831–33) and was later a lecturer at Harvard law school, was admitted (1834) to the bar, and practiced in Boston. He spent the years 1837 to 1840 in Europe. Later he became involved in several reform movements, including antislavery, and in 1851 a combination of Free-Soilers and Democrats sent him to the Senate. An aggressive abolitionist, Sumner attacked the fugitive slave laws, denounced the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, and on May 19–20, 1856, delivered his notable antislavery speech called "The Crime against Kansas." A master of invective, he singled out as his special victim Senator Andrew Pickens Butler of South Carolina, who was not there to reply. Two days later he was assaulted in the Senate chamber by Preston S. Brooks Brooks, Preston Smith, 1819–57, U.S. Congressman (1852–57), b. Edgefield District, S.C. A lawyer and the nephew of Senator Andrew Pickens Butler, he is remembered as the man who in 1856 caned Charles Sumner after Sumner had bitterly criticized Senator
..... Click the link for more information. , Butler's nephew. It took Sumner more than three years to recover from the attack, but Massachusetts reelected him, and he resumed his seat in Dec., 1859. He had been important in organizing the new Republican party and in 1861 was made chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee. In the Trent Affair Trent Affair, incident in the diplomatic relations between the United States and Great Britain, which occurred during the American Civil War. On Nov. 8, 1861, the British mail packet Trent, carrying James M.
..... Click the link for more information. he favored the release of the captured Confederate commissioners. Sumner highly approved Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation; indeed he had been impatient at the long delay. Sumner in the Senate and Thaddeus Stevens Stevens, Thaddeus, 1792–1868, U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania (1849–53, 1859–68), b. Danville, Vt. He taught in an academy at York, Pa., studied law, and was admitted to the bar in Maryland.
..... Click the link for more information. in the House led the radical Republicans in their Reconstruction Reconstruction, 1865–77, in U.S. history, the period of readjustment following the Civil War. At the end of the Civil War , the defeated South was a ruined land.
..... Click the link for more information. program for the South. He held that the Southern states had "committed suicide" by their secession and thus had lost any rights under the Constitution. Reconstruction he considered the function of Congress alone and he was most active in trying to secure the conviction of President Andrew Johnson on the impeachment charges. During the administration of Ulysses S. Grant, Sumner's excessive demands regarding Civil War claims against Great Britain hampered the administration's negotiations with that country. His relationship with Grant deteriorated further when Sumner denounced Grant's questionable scheme to annex Santo Domingo; this led to his removal (Mar., 1871) from the chairmanship of the committee on foreign relations. Humiliated, Sumner helped organize (1872) the short-lived Liberal Republican party Liberal Republican party, in U.S. history, organization formed in 1872 by Republicans discontented at the political corruption and the policies of President Grant's first administration. Other disaffected elements were drawn into the party.
..... Click the link for more information. . Sumner wrote and spoke widely, and there are two editions of his works (15 vol., 1870–83; 20 vol., 1900).
(born Jan. 6, 1811, Boston, Mass., U.S.—died March 11, 1874, Washington, D.C.) U.S. politician. He practiced law while crusading for the abolition of slavery, prison reform, world peace, and educational reform. He was elected to the U.S. Senate (1852–74) and spoke out against slavery. He denounced the Kansas-Nebraska Act as the “crime against Kansas” and scorned its authors, Sen. Stephen A. Douglas and Sen. Andrew P. Butler. In 1856 an incensed relative of Butler, Congressman Preston S. Brooks of South Carolina, invaded the Senate and severely beat Sumner with a cane. He returned to the Senate in 1859, and as chairman of the foreign relations committee (1861–71) he helped resolve the Trent Affair.
Sumner, Charles (1811–74) U.S. senator; born in Boston, Mass. An exceptional law student, he originally rejected a law practice and political career to become a lecturer at Harvard Law School and an editor of legal textbooks. Between 1835–37 he traveled in Europe. He emerged as a public figure when he denounced the Mexican War at an Independence Day speech in Boston in 1845 and he toured as a lyceum lecturer. He then entered the U.S. Senate through a coalition of Free Soilers and Democrats (Mass., 1851–54), later becoming the Republican senator (1854–74). He became an outspoken abolitionist and was physically assaulted by Representative Preston Brooks (S.C.) while sitting at his Senate desk (1856) and was left slightly crippled for life. He continued to advocate the emancipation of slaves, and as a Radical Republican after the Civil War, he pressed for imposing harsh terms on the former Confederate states and for the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson. He soon fell out with President Ulysses Grant's administration, but he remained a voice of moral integrity until his death.
..... Click the link for more information. , Butler's nephew. It took Sumner more than three years to recover from the attack, but Massachusetts reelected him, and he resumed his seat in Dec., 1859. He had been important in organizing the new Republican party and in 1861 was made chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee. In the Trent Affair Trent Affair, incident in the diplomatic relations between the United States and Great Britain, which occurred during the American Civil War. On Nov. 8, 1861, the British mail packet Trent, carrying James M.
..... Click the link for more information. he favored the release of the captured Confederate commissioners. Sumner highly approved Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation; indeed he had been impatient at the long delay. Sumner in the Senate and Thaddeus Stevens Stevens, Thaddeus, 1792–1868, U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania (1849–53, 1859–68), b. Danville, Vt. He taught in an academy at York, Pa., studied law, and was admitted to the bar in Maryland.
..... Click the link for more information. in the House led the radical Republicans in their Reconstruction Reconstruction, 1865–77, in U.S. history, the period of readjustment following the Civil War. At the end of the Civil War , the defeated South was a ruined land.
..... Click the link for more information. program for the South. He held that the Southern states had "committed suicide" by their secession and thus had lost any rights under the Constitution. Reconstruction he considered the function of Congress alone and he was most active in trying to secure the conviction of President Andrew Johnson on the impeachment charges. During the administration of Ulysses S. Grant, Sumner's excessive demands regarding Civil War claims against Great Britain hampered the administration's negotiations with that country. His relationship with Grant deteriorated further when Sumner denounced Grant's questionable scheme to annex Santo Domingo; this led to his removal (Mar., 1871) from the chairmanship of the committee on foreign relations. Humiliated, Sumner helped organize (1872) the short-lived Liberal Republican party Liberal Republican party, in U.S. history, organization formed in 1872 by Republicans discontented at the political corruption and the policies of President Grant's first administration. Other disaffected elements were drawn into the party.
..... Click the link for more information. . Sumner wrote and spoke widely, and there are two editions of his works (15 vol., 1870–83; 20 vol., 1900).
Bibliography
See E. L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner (4 vol., 1877–93); D. Donald, Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War (1960, repr. 1970) and Charles Sumner and the Rights of Man (1970).
Sumner, Charles
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Charles Sumner
(credit: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.)
Sumner, Charles (1811–74) U.S. senator; born in Boston, Mass. An exceptional law student, he originally rejected a law practice and political career to become a lecturer at Harvard Law School and an editor of legal textbooks. Between 1835–37 he traveled in Europe. He emerged as a public figure when he denounced the Mexican War at an Independence Day speech in Boston in 1845 and he toured as a lyceum lecturer. He then entered the U.S. Senate through a coalition of Free Soilers and Democrats (Mass., 1851–54), later becoming the Republican senator (1854–74). He became an outspoken abolitionist and was physically assaulted by Representative Preston Brooks (S.C.) while sitting at his Senate desk (1856) and was left slightly crippled for life. He continued to advocate the emancipation of slaves, and as a Radical Republican after the Civil War, he pressed for imposing harsh terms on the former Confederate states and for the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson. He soon fell out with President Ulysses Grant's administration, but he remained a voice of moral integrity until his death.
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