His voice was clear and of great power his gestures unconventional and individual, but vigorous and impressive. His lofty themes and stately eloquence made a profound impression his platform presence was imposing (he stood six feet and four inches tall, with a massive frame). He became a sought-after orator for formal occasions. He spoke against war, and made an impassioned appeal for freedom and peace. In 1840, at the age of 30, Sumner returned to Boston to practice law but devoted more time to lecturing at Harvard Law School, to editing court reports, and to contributing to law journals, especially on historical and biographical themes.Ī turning point in Sumner's life came when he delivered an Independence Day oration on "The True Grandeur of Nations," in Boston in 1845. Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux declared that he "had never met with any man of Sumner's age of such extensive legal knowledge and natural legal intellect." Not until many years after Sumner's death was any other American received so intimately into British intellectual circles. Sumner visited England in 1838 where his knowledge of literature, history, and law made him popular with leaders of thought. He met with many of the leading statesmen in Europe, and secured a deep insight into civil law and government.
There he became fluent in French, German and Italian, with a command of languages equaled by no American then in public life. From 1836 to 1837, Sumner lectured at Harvard Law School.įrom 1837 to 1840, Sumner traveled extensively in Europe. He contributed to the quarterly American Jurist and edited Story's court decisions as well as some law texts. A visit to Washington filled him with loathing for politics as a career, and he returned to Boston resolved to devote himself to the practice of law. In 1834, Sumner was admitted to the bar, entering private practice in Boston, where he partnered with George Stillman Hillard. He graduated in 1830 from Harvard College (where he lived in Hollis Hall), and in 1834 from Harvard Law School where he studied jurisprudence with his friend Joseph Story. Sumner was born in Boston on Irving Street on January 6, 1811. Sumner supported the Liberal Republicans candidate Horace Greeley in 1872 and lost his power inside the Republican party. In 1871, however, he broke with President Ulysses Grant Grant's Senate supporters then took away Sumner's power base, his committee chairmanship. Sumner, teaming with House leader Thaddeus Stevens defeated Andrew Johnson, and imposed their hard-line views on the South. Although he kept on good terms with Abraham Lincoln, he was a leader of the hard-line Radical Republicans.Īs the Radical Republican leader in the Senate during Reconstruction, 1865-1871, Sumner fought hard to provide equal civil and voting rights for the freedmen, and to block ex-Confederates from power. Sumner, who specialized in foreign affairs, was a leading exponent of abolishing slavery to weaken the Confederacy. After years of therapy Sumner returned to the Senate to help lead the Civil War. His severe beating in 1856 by South Carolina Representative Preston Brooks on the floor of the United States Senate helped escalate the tensions that led to war. He devoted his enormous energies to the destruction of what he considered the Slave Power, that is the conspiracy of slave owners to seize control of the federal government and block the progress of liberty. One of the most learned statesmen of the era, he specialized in foreign affairs, working closely with Abraham Lincoln. He jumped from party to party, gaining fame as a Republican. Senate during the American Civil War and Reconstruction.
An academic lawyer but a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the antislavery forces in Massachusetts and the Radical Republicans in the U.S. Charles Sumner ( Janu– March 11, 1874) was an American politician and statesman from Massachusetts.
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