Sumner, Charles, 1811-1874

Massachusetts lawyer and U.S. Senator, 1851-1874. He was an ardent abolitionist who attacked the south in his "crime against Kansas" speech in 1856. Two days later he was assaulted in the Senate, receiving injuries that took him years to recover from.

Born in Boston, Mass., the U.S. statesman Charles Sumner studied law at Harvard and practiced law in his native city before turning to politics. After an unsuccessful run for a U.S. Congressional seat in 1848, Sumner was elected to the Massachusetts Senate as a Democrat in 1850 and was selected to finish Daniel Webster's term in the U.S. Senate in 1851. He later became a Republican. A committed abolitionist, Sumner became known in the Senate for his fierce anti-slavery speeches, one of which provoked South Carolina Congressman Preston Brooks, nephew of one of Sumner's political adversaries, pro-slavery South Carolina Congressman Andrew Butler, to physically attack him while he was seated at his desk in the Senate. During the U.S. Civil War Sumner served as chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

Massachusetts senator.

Charles Sumner was a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts (1851-1974), an attorney and an author.

Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina believed that Sumner had insulted his cousin, Senator Butler. In retaliation, Brooks used his cane to beat Sumner, who was seated at his desk on the Senate floor, to unconsciousness. The caning of Sumner became a symbol in the North of Southern brutality.

U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, orator, author.

Radical Republican politician and U. S. Senator from Massachusetts.

Senator for Massachusetts and campaigner against slavery.

Charles Sumner was the U.S. Senator from Massachusetts for 23 years. He was a prominent abolitionist who was deeply involved in the legislation preceding the Civil War, as well as the Reconstruction process.

Sumner was a U. S. Senator from Massachusetts. On 2 December 1872, Charles Sumner introduced in the U.S. Senate a bill "to regulate the Army Register and the regimental colors of the United States." This provided that Civil War victories should not be among those commemorated in regimental honors. Rabid Northerners in the Massachusetts House of representatives passed a vote of unqualified censure against Sumner for his act. Willard P. Phillips, John Greenleaf Whittier and others fought to have this resolution rescinded and annulled, which was accomplished early in 1873.

Charles Sumner (1811-1874), an American statesmen and abolitionist. A graduate of Harvard Law School (class of 1833), he was admitted to the bar in 1834 and began practicing law in Boston, Mass. He also lectured at Harvard Law School in 1836-1837. In 1848, Sumner, one of the founders of the Free Soil Party, ran, unsuccessfully, for Congress. In 1851, he was elected to the United States Senate as a Free Soiler, and was reelected as a Republican in 1857, 1863, and 1869. On May 22, 1854, Sumner was assaulted by South Carolina congressman Preston Brooks and was absent from Congress until December 1859. Sumner served as the chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations in the Thirty-seventh through Forty-first Congresses. In 1871, left the post because of disagreeemnts with President Ulysses S. Grant over policy in Santo Domingo.

Sumner was a United States senator and anti-slavery advocate.

United States Senator from Massachusetts.

American politician and statesman.

Charles Sumner was an U.S. statesman of the American Civil War period dedicated to human equality and to the abolition of slavery. George Washington Greene was an American author and educator.

American statesman.

U.S. Senator from Massachusetts.

Born in Boston, Mass., U.S. statesman Charles Sumner studied law at Harvard and practiced law in his native city before turning to politics. After an unsuccessful run for a U.S. Congressional seat in 1848, Sumner was elected to the Massachusetts Senate as a Democrat in 1850 and was selected to finish Daniel Webster's term in the U.S. Senate in 1851. He later became a Republican. A committed abolitionist, Sumner became known in the Senate for his fierce anti-slavery speeches, one of which provoked South Carolina Congressman Preston Brooks, nephew of one of Sumner's political adversaries, South Carolina Congressman Andrew Butler, to physically attack him while he was seated at his desk in the Senate. During the U.S. Civil War Sumner served as chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

Sumner was an American politician and abolitionist.

Charles Sumner, American senator and statesman. As the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he was instrumental in maintaining peace between the Union and Great Britain during the Civil War. Sumner opposed Johnson's Reconstruction policies and lead the move to impeach the president.

Sumner was a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts (1851-1874) and noted abolitionist. Francis William Bird was a radical reformer and antislavery activist in Massachusetts.

Charles Sumner (1811-1874) was a Republican senator from Massachusetts and a principal figure in the anti-slavery movement.

U.S. senator from Massachusetts.

Charles Sumner, abolitionist, statesman and the principal antislavery spokesman in the Senate during the 1850's.

Sumner was a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts. On 2 December 1872, Charles Sumner introduced in the U.S. Senate a bill "to regulate the Army Register and the regimental colors of the United States." This provided that Civil War victories should not be among those commemorated in regimental honors. Rabid Northerners in the Massachusetts House of representatives passed a vote of unqualified censure against Sumner for his act. Willard P. Phillips, John Greenleaf Whittier and others fought to have this resolution rescinded and annulled, which was accomplished early in 1873.

Sumner was a Republican senator from Massachusetts and a principal figure in the anti-slavery movement.

U.S. Senator born in Boston.

Sumner was a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts (1851-74) and noted abolitionist who graduated form Harvard in 1833. Francis William Bird was a radical reformer and antislavery activist in Massachusetts.

Charles Sumner (1811-1874) was a politician from Massachussets. He was famously beaten with a cane by South Carolina Senator Preston Brooks in 1856, after Sumner made a speech criticizing the Southern system of slavery which Brooks considered insulting. Edward M. Davis (1811-1887) was a Philadelphia Quaker active in the anti-slavery movement, and the son-in-law of Lucretia Mott. Reynolds's Political Map of the United States (New York: Wm. C. Reynolds, 1856) presents graphic and statistical comparisons of slave-states and free-states, featuring data garnered from the 1850 census.

Charles Babbage was a mathematician and inventor.

Charles Sumner (1811-1874), U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, 1851-1874, leading abolitionist, civil rights activist, and orator, played a large part in the formation of the Republican Party, served with distinction as chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and became a leading opponent of Abraham Lincoln's Reconstruction policies.

U.S. statesman, Massachusetts senator 1852-1874.

U.S. senator from Massachusetts, a leading abolitionist.

Charles Sumner (1811-1874) was an American politician, lawyer, and orator from Massachusetts. A learned statesmen, he specialized in foreign affairs and worked closely with Abraham Lincoln; with Thaddeus Stevens, he led the antislavery faction in Massachusetts and in the United States Senate. He was an early proponent of civil rights for blacks, believing that anything which inhibited a man's right to grow to his full potential was inherently evil. As early as 1849 he represented the plaintiffs in one of the first lawsuits to challenge segregation, Roberts v. Boston, and during Reconstruction he continued his efforts to gain voting and civil rights for the newly-freed blacks in the South.

His uncompromising and outspoken opposition to slavery earned him both supporters and detractors, and in 1856 it nearly cost him his life. In May of that year Sumner delivered a rousing condemnation of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and its authors, Stephen Douglas of Illinois and Andrew Butler of South Carolina. Offended by Sumner's remarks, Butler's nephew Preston Brooks, also a congressman from South Carolina, attacked Sumner in his Senate chambers and beat him nearly to death. Butler became a hero to many in the South while Sumner was equally championed in the North.

Sumner was eventually able to return to the Senate where in March 1861 he was named chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, a position he used in part to block any actions which might bring Britain or France into the growing conflict between North and South. One of his achievements as chairman was the diplomatic recognition of Haiti. After the war, Sumner became a leader of the Radical Republicans and during Reconstruction he was a fierce advocate of harsh penalties for the former Confederacy, viewing them as conquered territories. His reputation in Britain, formerly excellent, suffered when he proposed that Britain turn over Canada to the Unites States as payment for actions which, Sumner claimed, had prolonged the Civil War, and in 1871 he was removed from the chairman position. He died in Washington in 1874.

Sumner began his Senatorial career with the words, "The slave of principles, I call no party master," and his political life bore out that promise. He changed parties several times during his career, preferring to act as his ethics and principles demanded rather than bind himself to a party platform.