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SUMNER, Charles (1811 - 1874), Massachusetts Senator. Autograph letter signed ("Charles Sumner") to an unidentified correspondent, Boston, 4 June 1865. 4pp., 8vo, docketed by recipient "Relative to state of affairs in the South."
"IF THEY CANNOT HOLD COLORED PEOPLE AS SLAVES, THEY ARE DETERMINED TO HOLD THEM AS 'AN INFERIOR CLASS.'" A very fine, prophetic letter of Sumner, best remembered for his grievious caning on the floor of the Senate by Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina on 22 May 1856. Sumner, a founder of the Free-Soil Party, is pessimistic about reconstruction: "...I cannot refrain from expressing my solicitude with regard to the condition of things in the rebel states." He has heard "that the old rebels are crawling out of their hiding-places, in order to resume their old mastery, which is the [John C.] Calhoun idea." One letter even said "'we shall have the Confederacy back yet.' Of course they will--or something like it--if their policy is not arrested." In Savannah, "the Chief Justice told me that 'one at least of the officers there have given aid to the capture of men as slaves.'" He goes on to discuss a North Carolina proclamation and reactions to it.
"IF THEY CANNOT HOLD COLORED PEOPLE AS SLAVES, THEY ARE DETERMINED TO HOLD THEM AS 'AN INFERIOR CLASS.'" A very fine, prophetic letter of Sumner, best remembered for his grievious caning on the floor of the Senate by Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina on 22 May 1856. Sumner, a founder of the Free-Soil Party, is pessimistic about reconstruction: "...I cannot refrain from expressing my solicitude with regard to the condition of things in the rebel states." He has heard "that the old rebels are crawling out of their hiding-places, in order to resume their old mastery, which is the [John C.] Calhoun idea." One letter even said "'we shall have the Confederacy back yet.' Of course they will--or something like it--if their policy is not arrested." In Savannah, "the Chief Justice told me that 'one at least of the officers there have given aid to the capture of men as slaves.'" He goes on to discuss a North Carolina proclamation and reactions to it.