Life span: 01/06/1811 to 03/11/1874TabsLife SummaryFull name: Charles SumnerPlace of Birth: Boston, MABurial Place: Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, MABirth Date Certainty: ExactDeath Date Certainty: ExactGender: MaleRace: WhiteSectional choice: NorthOrigins: Free StateNo. of Spouses: 1No. of Children: 0Family: Charles Pinckney Sumner (father), Relief Jacob (mother), Alice Mason Hooper (wife) Education: HarvardOtherOther Education: Boston Latin SchoolOccupation: Attorney or JudgeEducatorJournalistPolitical Parties: DemocraticWhigFree SoilRepublicanOther Affiliations: Abolitionists (Anti-Slavery Society)Government: US Senate Census SnapshotOccupation in 1860: U.S. SenatorResidence in 1860: Boston, MA Note Cards Charles Sumner, Free Soil Party (American National Biography) ScholarshipBy 1848 the United States had seized vast new western territories from Mexico, leading Sumner and his faction to join with the Liberty party and northern antislavery Democrats to create the new Free Soil party. In so doing Sumner never hesitated in attacking former friends, whom he said supported the slave power in an alliance between "the lords of the lash and the lords of the loom." Such attacks were fast becoming a Sumner trademark, as he spared no one who opposed his goals. The young reformer did not confine his concern for racial justice to territorial slavery. In 1849 he argued in court for the integration of Boston's public schools and, while losing his case, presented arguments for social change far in advance of his times. Participation in the Free Soil movement gave Sumner his first taste of political prominence, which he quickly utilized to secure public office. In a skillful political maneuver in 1851, Massachusetts Free Soilers formed a coalition in the state legislature with Democrats and secured Sumner's election to the U.S. Senate. Thus began his long tenure as an outspoken reformer in Congress. Frederick J. Blue, "Sumner, Charles," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/04/04-00969.html. Charles Sumner, Civil War & Slavery (American National Biography) ScholarshipFor Sumner the Civil War presented the opportunity to free the slaves, and he became one of the first members of Congress to urge abolition. He worked for the next eighteen months to persuade President Abraham Lincoln. During that time he skillfully pushed legislation that weakened slavery in numerous small ways, as he successfully prepared public opinion to accept black freedom. Clearly he was among the most important of those who influenced Lincoln to issue his Emancipation Proclamation. So, too, he helped convince Lincoln of the wisdom and justice of allowing blacks to join Union armies against the Confederacy in behalf of their own freedom. Frederick J. Blue, "Sumner, Charles," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/04/04-00969.html. Charles Sumner (Congressional Biographical Directory) ReferenceSUMNER, Charles, a Senator from Massachusetts; born in Boston, Mass., January 6, 1811; attended the Boston Latin School; graduated from Harvard University in 1830 and from the Harvard Law School in 1833; admitted to the bar the following year and commenced the practice of law in Boston, Mass.; lectured at the Harvard Law School 1836-1837; traveled extensively in Europe 1837-1840; declined the Whig nomination in 1846 for election to the Thirtieth Congress; one of the founders of the Free Soil Party in 1848; unsuccessful candidate for election in 1848 on the Free Soil ticket to the Thirty-first Congress; elected to the United States Senate in 1851 as a Free Soiler; reelected as a Republican in 1857, 1863, and 1869 and served from April 24, 1851, until his death; in response to his “Crime Against Kansas” speech, was assaulted by Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina on May 22, 1856, while in his seat in the Senate, and was absent on account of injuries received until December 1859; chairman, Committee on Foreign Relations (Thirty-seventh through Forty-first Congresses), Committee on Privileges and Elections (Forty-second Congress); removed as chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations in 1871 as a result of differences with President Ulysses S. Grant over policy in Santo Domingo; died in Washington, D.C., March 11, 1874; lay in state in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, March 13, 1874; interment in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Mass. “Sumner, Charles,” Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774 to Present, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=S001068. Caning of Sumner (Boyer, 2008) TextbookOn the day before the sack of Lawrence, Republican senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts delivered a bombastic and wrathful speech, "The Crime Against Kansas," in which he verbally whipped most of the U.S. Senate for complicity in slavery. Sumner singled out Senator Andrew Butler of South Carolina…Two days later, a relative of Butler, Democratic representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina, strode into the Senate chamber, found Sumner at his desk, and struck him repeatedly with a cane. The hollow can broke after five or six blows, but Sumner required stitches, experienced shock, and did not return to the Senate for three years. Brooks became an instant hero in the South, and the fragments of his weapon were "begged as sacred relics." A new cane, presented to Brooks by the city of Charleston, bore the inscription "Hit him again."Paul S. Boyer, et al., eds., The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People, 6th ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008), 409. Events Date span begin Life span End Event 05/22/1855 05/22/1855 Representative Brooks attacks Senator Sumner in the Senate chamber 02/17/1860 02/17/1860 Large gathering of leading New Yorkers demonstrate their support of Italian liberty 07/11/1860 07/11/1860 In a fiery speech, Senator Sumner predicts slavery will one day die as "a poisoned rat dies in its hole" 07/18/1860 07/18/1860 Harvard College graduates its largest ever class, watched by Stephen Douglas and Charles Sumner 10/01/1861 10/01/1861 Moncure Conway publishes "The Rejected Stone" arguing for emancipation 02/09/1862 02/09/1862 Brigadier General Charles Pomeroy Stone, USA, arrested in his Washington hotel room and imprisoned 03/28/1862 03/28/1862 Friends of imprisoned Brigadier General Charles Stone seek aid from the Massachusetts Legislature 07/01/1862 07/01/1862 Moncure Conway liberates his father's slaves 03/17/1863 03/17/1863 In Washington, the Senate votes to strike down the color bar on railroad cars in the District of Columbia 06/25/1864 06/25/1864 The U.S. Senate votes to ban exclusion from testifying in United States courts on grounds of race 06/29/1864 06/29/1864 The House of Representatives upholds Senate on banning exclusion from U.S. courts on grounds of race 01/02/1866 01/02/1866 The Radical Republican former Congressman Henry Winter Davis is buried in Baltimore, Maryland Major TopicsCaning of SumnerRepublican PartyThirty-Seventh Congress of the United StatesThirty-Eighth Congress of the United StatesThirty-Ninth Congress of the United StatesFortieth Congress of the United States Documents Author Docs Date Title 08/07/1863 Charles Sumner to Abraham Lincoln, August 7, 1863 Subject Docs Date Title 06/10/1856 Abraham Lincoln's Speech at Springfield, Illinois, June 10, 1856 07/26/1856 New York Herald, "Our Boston Correspondance," July 26, 1856 01/03/1857 Richmond (VA) Dispatch, "A Case in Point," January 3, 1857 01/13/1857 New York Times, "The Re-election of Mr. Sumner," January 13, 1857 02/04/1857 New York Times, “The Charleston Press on the Death of Preston S. Brooks,” February 4, 1857 09/02/1857 New York Times, “Mr. Marcy on the Sumner Assault,” September 2, 1857 11/08/1858 Fayetteville (NC) Observer, “Revival of the Whig Party,” November 8, 1858 07/16/1859 New York Times, “A Democratic Dove from Georgia,” July 16, 1859 10/28/1859 Baltimore (MD) Sun, "More Harper's Ferry Disclosures," October 28, 1859 11/03/1859 Carlisle (PA) American Volunteer, "Tenderly Sensitive," November 3, 1859 11/11/1859 Boston (MA) Liberator, "Bad News for the Abolitionists," November 11, 1859 12/25/1859 New York Herald, “Seward Nominated for the Presidency by the Abolitionists,” December 25, 1859 02/11/1860 New York Times, “The Senatorial Inquisition,” February 11, 1860 02/16/1860 New York Times, “Manufacturing Martyrs,” February 16, 1860 06/08/1860 Chicago (IL) Press and Tribune, “Sumner’s Speech,” June 8, 1860 07/25/1860 (Jackson) Mississippian, “Black Republicanism Defined,” July 25, 1860 09/21/1860 Cleveland (OH) Herald, “Who Began It?,” September 21, 1860 10/28/1860 New York Herald, “Helper and His Black Republican Endorsers,” October 28, 1860 12/06/1860 Fayetteville (NC) Observer, “Brooks and Sumner,” December 6, 1860 05/17/1861 Richmond (VA) Dispatch, “New European Views of the South,” May 17, 1861 08/09/1862 New York National Anti-Slavery Standard, "Speech of Rev. M.D. Conway," August 9, 1862 04/13/1865 "The President's Speech - The Question of Reconstruction," New York Times, April 13, 1865 04/19/1865 George Alfred Townsend, "The Obsequies in Washington," April 19, 1865 11/15/1865 Philadelphia (PA) North American, "Reception of Colored Troops," November 15, 1865 02/08/1866 Joseph S. Ingraham to Andrew Johnson, Bangor, Maine, February 8, 1866 02/22/1866 Andrew Johnson, Speech before Washington's Birthday Meeting, Washington, D.C., February 22, 1866 Addressee Docs Date Title 02/27/1857 Theodore Parker to Charles Sumner, February 27, 1857 Images Charles Sumner, engraving Charles Sumner, engraving, detail Charles Sumner, portrait by Brady Charles Sumner, portrait by Brady, detail Charles Sumner Bibliography Chicago Style Entry Link Harsha, David Addison. The Life of Charles Sumner. New York: Dayton & Burdick, 1856. View Record Blue, Frederick J. “The Poet and the Reformer: Longfellow, Sumner, and the Bonds of Male Friendship.” Journal of the Early Republic 15 (1995): 273-297. View Record Sinha, Manisha. "The Caning of Charles Sumner: Slavery, Race, and Ideology in the Age of the Civil War." Journal of the Early Republic 23, no. 2 (Summer 2003), 233-262. View Record Blue, Frederick J. Charles Sumner and the Conscience of the North. Arlington Heights, IL: Harlan Davidson, 1994. View Record Donald, David Herbert. Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War. New York: Knopf, 1960. View Record Donald, David Herbert. Charles Sumner and the Rights of Man. New York: Knopf, 1970. View Record Gienapp, William E. "Crime Against Sumner: The Caning of Charles Sumner and the Rise of the Republican Party." Civil War History 25, no. 3 (1979): 218-245. View Record
Charles Sumner, Free Soil Party (American National Biography) ScholarshipBy 1848 the United States had seized vast new western territories from Mexico, leading Sumner and his faction to join with the Liberty party and northern antislavery Democrats to create the new Free Soil party. In so doing Sumner never hesitated in attacking former friends, whom he said supported the slave power in an alliance between "the lords of the lash and the lords of the loom." Such attacks were fast becoming a Sumner trademark, as he spared no one who opposed his goals. The young reformer did not confine his concern for racial justice to territorial slavery. In 1849 he argued in court for the integration of Boston's public schools and, while losing his case, presented arguments for social change far in advance of his times. Participation in the Free Soil movement gave Sumner his first taste of political prominence, which he quickly utilized to secure public office. In a skillful political maneuver in 1851, Massachusetts Free Soilers formed a coalition in the state legislature with Democrats and secured Sumner's election to the U.S. Senate. Thus began his long tenure as an outspoken reformer in Congress. Frederick J. Blue, "Sumner, Charles," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/04/04-00969.html.
Charles Sumner, Civil War & Slavery (American National Biography) ScholarshipFor Sumner the Civil War presented the opportunity to free the slaves, and he became one of the first members of Congress to urge abolition. He worked for the next eighteen months to persuade President Abraham Lincoln. During that time he skillfully pushed legislation that weakened slavery in numerous small ways, as he successfully prepared public opinion to accept black freedom. Clearly he was among the most important of those who influenced Lincoln to issue his Emancipation Proclamation. So, too, he helped convince Lincoln of the wisdom and justice of allowing blacks to join Union armies against the Confederacy in behalf of their own freedom. Frederick J. Blue, "Sumner, Charles," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/04/04-00969.html.
Charles Sumner (Congressional Biographical Directory) ReferenceSUMNER, Charles, a Senator from Massachusetts; born in Boston, Mass., January 6, 1811; attended the Boston Latin School; graduated from Harvard University in 1830 and from the Harvard Law School in 1833; admitted to the bar the following year and commenced the practice of law in Boston, Mass.; lectured at the Harvard Law School 1836-1837; traveled extensively in Europe 1837-1840; declined the Whig nomination in 1846 for election to the Thirtieth Congress; one of the founders of the Free Soil Party in 1848; unsuccessful candidate for election in 1848 on the Free Soil ticket to the Thirty-first Congress; elected to the United States Senate in 1851 as a Free Soiler; reelected as a Republican in 1857, 1863, and 1869 and served from April 24, 1851, until his death; in response to his “Crime Against Kansas” speech, was assaulted by Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina on May 22, 1856, while in his seat in the Senate, and was absent on account of injuries received until December 1859; chairman, Committee on Foreign Relations (Thirty-seventh through Forty-first Congresses), Committee on Privileges and Elections (Forty-second Congress); removed as chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations in 1871 as a result of differences with President Ulysses S. Grant over policy in Santo Domingo; died in Washington, D.C., March 11, 1874; lay in state in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, March 13, 1874; interment in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Mass. “Sumner, Charles,” Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774 to Present, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=S001068.
Caning of Sumner (Boyer, 2008) TextbookOn the day before the sack of Lawrence, Republican senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts delivered a bombastic and wrathful speech, "The Crime Against Kansas," in which he verbally whipped most of the U.S. Senate for complicity in slavery. Sumner singled out Senator Andrew Butler of South Carolina…Two days later, a relative of Butler, Democratic representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina, strode into the Senate chamber, found Sumner at his desk, and struck him repeatedly with a cane. The hollow can broke after five or six blows, but Sumner required stitches, experienced shock, and did not return to the Senate for three years. Brooks became an instant hero in the South, and the fragments of his weapon were "begged as sacred relics." A new cane, presented to Brooks by the city of Charleston, bore the inscription "Hit him again."Paul S. Boyer, et al., eds., The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People, 6th ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008), 409.
