CHARLES SUMNER
Name: Charles Sumner
Born: 6 January 1811 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died: 11 March 1874 Washington D.C., U.S.
Charles Sumner (January 6, 1811 – March 11, 1874) was an American politician and
statesman from Massachusetts. An academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner
was the leader of the antislavery forces in Massachusetts and a leader of the
Radical Republicans in the United States Senate during the American Civil War
and Reconstruction along with Thaddeus Stevens, who filled that role in the
United States House of Representatives. He jumped from party to party, gaining
fame as a Republican. One of the most learned statesmen of the era, he
specialized in foreign affairs, working closely with Abraham Lincoln. 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. His severe beating in 1856 by
South Carolina Representative Preston Brooks's cane on the floor of the United
States Senate (Sumner-Brooks affair) helped escalate the tensions that led to
war. After years of therapy Sumner returned to the Senate to help lead the Civil
War. Sumner was a leading proponent of abolishing slavery to weaken the
Confederacy. Although he kept on good terms with Abraham Lincoln, he was a
leader of the hard-line Radical Republicans.
As a 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, teaming with House leader
Thaddeus Stevens defeated Andrew Johnson, and imposed their hard-line views on
the South. In 1871, however, he broke with President Ulysses Grant; Grant's
Senate supporters then took away Sumner's power base, his committee chairmanship.
Sumner supported the Liberal Republicans candidate Horace Greeley in 1872 and
lost his power inside the Republican party.
Name: Charles Sumner
Born: 6 January 1811 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died: 11 March 1874 Washington D.C., U.S.
Charles Sumner (January 6, 1811 – March 11, 1874) was an American politician and
statesman from Massachusetts. An academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner
was the leader of the antislavery forces in Massachusetts and a leader of the
Radical Republicans in the United States Senate during the American Civil War
and Reconstruction along with Thaddeus Stevens, who filled that role in the
United States House of Representatives. He jumped from party to party, gaining
fame as a Republican. One of the most learned statesmen of the era, he
specialized in foreign affairs, working closely with Abraham Lincoln. 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. His severe beating in 1856 by
South Carolina Representative Preston Brooks's cane on the floor of the United
States Senate (Sumner-Brooks affair) helped escalate the tensions that led to
war. After years of therapy Sumner returned to the Senate to help lead the Civil
War. Sumner was a leading proponent of abolishing slavery to weaken the
Confederacy. Although he kept on good terms with Abraham Lincoln, he was a
leader of the hard-line Radical Republicans.
As a 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, teaming with House leader
Thaddeus Stevens defeated Andrew Johnson, and imposed their hard-line views on
the South. In 1871, however, he broke with President Ulysses Grant; Grant's
Senate supporters then took away Sumner's power base, his committee chairmanship.
Sumner supported the Liberal Republicans candidate Horace Greeley in 1872 and
lost his power inside the Republican party.