[94]
XIII.
But these great efforts of the private citizen were drawing to a close. Mr. Sumner was soon to be transferred to a broader field of effort and power. A radical change had passed over the public mind everywhere, especially in Massachusetts. There the indignation that had been aroused by the passage of the Fugitive Slave Bill can hardly be understood at this day. The vast popularity of Daniel Webster seemed to vanish in an hour after his speech of the 7th of March. Those words with which he opened that speech in the Senate—‘I find the Fugitive Slave law in the Constitution, and I take no step backwards’—had alienated from him the friends of a lifetime, and slammed the doors of old Faneuil Hall in his face. There was but one man in Massachusetts that could be his successor. That man was Charles Sumner. But before we give an account of his election, and the unforeseen circumstances which attended it, we shall give some extracts from a powerful speech he delivered at the Free-Soil State Convention in Boston, on the 3d of October, 1850, his theme being once more, our present Anti-Slavery duties.The long session of Congress had come to an end; its members were hurrying to their homes to give an account of their stewardship. No man at the North, who had voted for the Fugitive Slave Law, was ever to recover his former popularity. Many of them were to leave public life forever: some with the regrets and the esteem of large minorities; others with the hostility of former friends, and the contempt of whole communities. Mr. Webster's usefulness, however, was by no means over. He was to vacate the Senate April 24, 1851, and become [95] Secretary of State, under Mr. Filmore. His management of our foreign affairs—then somewhat complicated—commanded the confidence of the country, and the respect of foreign nations, which still left a broad field for the exercise of his consummate abilities in the public service. But it was felt then, as it was afterwards known, that his course on the Fugitive Slave Bill had been an act of political suicide. On the rock of Slavery the whig party had gone to pieces; and very few good men regretted its fate. Like some of the convicts of a celebrated judge, it had survived its usefulness, and was put out of the way. The illustrious sage of Marshfield had given place to the rising young statesman on whose broad shoulders Destiny had fixed the forlorn hope, not only of four million slaves, but perhaps of the Republic of Washington itself.
But let us listen to the last trumpet-call to Freedom that Charles Sumner sounded out from the ranks of the people, before he went into the National Councils to lead the crusaders for the recovery of the tomb of the Father of his country from the long and deep disgrace which still overshadowed the soil of Mount Vernon.
