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Frasi di Charles Sumner

Charles Sumner è stato un avvocato, attivista e politico statunitense membro del Senato per lo Stato del Massachusetts.

Nella sua qualità di avvocato accademico e potente oratore si mise alla guida delle forze anti-schiavismo nel proprio Stato d'origine, divenendo ben presto uno dei leader riconosciuti dei cosiddetti Radical Republicans durante la guerra di secessione americana.

Lavorò quindi duramente per distruggere militarmente gli Stati Confederati d'America, liberare tutti gli schiavi e continuare a mantenere buoni rapporti con l'Europa. Durante l'Era della Ricostruzione combatté per ridurre al minimo il potere degli ex secessionisti nel profondo Sud e garantire pari diritti civili ai liberti afroamericani attraverso il movimento per i diritti civili degli afroamericani .

Cadde in una disputa con la Presidenza di Ulysses S. Grant sulla questione inerente l'assunzione del controllo della Repubblica Dominicana. Gli alleati di Grant spogliarono Sumner del suo potere al Senato nel 1871 tanto che questi finirà con l'unirsi al movimento repubblicano liberale nel tentativo di sconfiggere il presidente incumbent alle elezioni presidenziali del 1872.

Cambiò più volte partito politico nel corso degli anni 1830 e 1840 prima di coalizzarsi negli anni 1850 con il neonato Partito Repubblicano; dedicò le sue enormi energie alla distruzione di quello che i repubblicani chiamavano il "potere negriero", l'influenza dei proprietari di schiavi del Sud sul Governo federale i quali cercavano la prosecuzione e l'espansione della pratica schiavista. Nel 1856 il Democratico sudista Preston Smith Brooks quasi lo uccise nell'Aula senatoriale, due giorni dopo che Sumner pronunciò un discorso fortemente anti-schiavista denominato Il crimine contro il Kansas.

Sumner caratterizzò il cugino dell'aggressore, il senatore sud-caroliniano Andrew Butler, un Democratico, come "mezzano della schiavitù" . L'episodio giocherà un ruolo importante nell'avvicinamento alla Guerra Civile. Durante il conflitto fu uno dei leader della fazione repubblicana radicale che criticava il presidente Abraham Lincoln per essere troppo moderato nei riguardi del Sud.

Uno degli statisti più colti dell'epoca, si specializzò negli affari esteri e lavorò a stretto contatto con la Presidenza di Abraham Lincoln per impedire agli inglesi e ai francesi di intervenire a fianco dei "ribelli secessionisti". La competenza e l'energia di Sumner lo resero un potente presidente della commissione per le relazioni estere del Senato.

Essendo il capo dei senatori radicali durante la Ricostruzione, Sumner combatté duramente per garantire uguali diritti civili e di voto per i liberti sulla base del fatto che il "consenso dei governati" era un principio basilare del repubblicanesimo americano e per impedire agli ex confederati di riassumere il potere. In collaborazione con Thaddeus Stevens lottò contro i piani di Ricostruzione della Presidenza di Andrew Johnson e cercò di imporre un programma radicale al Sud.

Sebbene sostenesse con forza l'acquisto dell'Alaska, fu nettamente contrario all'annessione della Repubblica Dominicana, allora conosciuta con il nome della sua capitale, Santo Domingo. Dopo aver condotto i senatori a rigettare il trattato di Santo Domingo del Presidente Ulysses S. Grant nel 1870, Sumner ruppe con lui e lo denunciò in termini tali da rendere impossibile la riconciliazione.

Nel 1871 il presidente Grant e il suo Segretario di Stato Hamilton Fish si vendicarono; attraverso i sostenitori di Grant al Senato, Sumner venne deposto. Egli si convinse che Grant fosse un despota corrotto e che il successo delle politiche di Ricostruzione richiedesse una nuova leadership nazionale. Si oppose aspramente alla rielezione di Grant sostenendo il candidato "repubblicano liberale" Horace Greeley nel 1872 e perse il suo potere all'interno del Partito. Meno di due anni dopo, morì in carica. Wikipedia  

✵ 6. Gennaio 1811 – 11. Marzo 1874
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Charles Sumner: Frasi in inglese

“Slavery shall not exist anywhere within the United States or the jurisdiction thereof; and the Congress shall have power to make all laws necessary and proper to carry this prohibition into effect.”

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Charles Sumner

Proposed amendment https://books.google.com/books?id=pmZEAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA24&dq=%22james+madison%22+%22property+in+man%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiwiczw5s_LAhVMOT4KHaM8CdMQ6AEINDAA#v=onepage&q=%22james%20madison%22%20%22property%20in%20man%22&f=false (8 April 1864)

“Without security, civilization is cramped and dwarfed. Without security, there can be no freedom. Nor shall I say too much, when I declare that security, guarded of course by its offspring, freedom, is the true end and aim of government.”

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Charles Sumner

The Crime Against Kansas speech (May 19-20, 1856)

“Senators undertake to disturb us… by reminding us of the possibility of large numbers swarming from China; but the answer to all this is very obvious and very simple. If the Chinese come here, they will come for citizenship or merely for labor. If they come for citizenship, then in this desire do they give a pledge of loyalty to our institutions; and where is the peril in such vows? They are peaceful and industrious; how can their citizenship be the occasion of solicitude?”

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Charles Sumner

Speech https://books.google.com/books?id=HGM9AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA5172&lpg=PA5172&dq=%22Worse+than+any+heathen+or+pagan+abroad+are+those+in+our+midst+who+are+false+to+our+institutions.%22&source=bl&ots=n-wpUEfhND&sig=wHyJSOd8M1rswurZUUnUgAFrTn0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjXtt2swKjLAhWFGD4KHWCjBDsQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=%22Worse%20than%20any%20heathen%20or%20pagan%20abroad%20are%20those%20in%20our%20midst%20who%20are%20false%20to%20our%20institutions.%22&f=false (4 July 1870)

“The Senator from South Carolina has read many books of chivalry, and believes himself a chivalrous knight, with sentiments of honor and courage. Of course he has chosen a mistress to whom he has made his vows, and who, though ugly to others, is always lovely to him; though polluted in the sight of the world, is chaste in his sight I mean the harlot, Slavery. For her, his tongue is always profuse in words.”

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Charles Sumner

"The Crime against Kansas," speech in the Senate (May 18, 1856). The claims made against Senator Andrew Butler of South Carolina so angered Butler's cousin, Democrat Representative Preston Brooks, that Brooks assaulted Sumner with a cane in the Senate chamber a few weeks later

“Worse than any heathen or pagan abroad are those in our midst who are false to our institutions.”

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Charles Sumner

Speech https://books.google.com/books?id=HGM9AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA5172 (1870)

“The true greatness of a Nation cannot be in triumphs of the intellect alone. Literature and art may widen the sphere of its influence; they may adorn it; but they are in their nature but accessaries. The true grandeur of humanity is in moral elevation, enlightened and decorated by the intellect of man. The truest tokens of this grandeur in a State are the diffusion of the greatest happiness among the greatest number, and that passionless God-like Justice, which controls the relations of the State to other States, and to all the people, who are committed to its charge.”

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Charles Sumner

"True Grandeur of Nations," oration before the authorities of the City of Boston (July 4, 1845)

“You must take care of the civil rights bill - my bill, the civil rights bill - don't let it fail.”

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Charles Sumner

Last words https://web.archive.org/web/20010407205532/http://republicanbasics.com/Cover_Photos/cover_photos.html

“The time has passed for argument. Nothing more need be said. For a long time it has been clear that colored persons must be senators.”

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Charles Sumner

As quoted in "First African American Senator" http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/First_African_American_Senator.htm, United States Senate

“The same national authority that destroyed slavery must see that this other pretension is not permitted to survive.”

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Charles Sumner

As quoted in "The Ideology of the Republican Party" https://books.google.com/books?id=5Cl2cVkEV9wC&pg=PA65&dq=%22the+party+of+emancipation%22+GOP&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjW0tfNv5_LAhUJ8CYKHUxcBv4Q6AEILjAD#v=onepage&q=man's%20government&f=false, by Eric Foner, The Birth of the Grand Old Party: The Republicans' First Generation (2002), edited by Robert F. Engs and Randall M. Miller, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, p. 18

“With me, sir, there is no alternative. Painfully convinced of the unutterable wrongs and woes of slavery; profoundly believing that, according to the true spirit of the Constitution and the sentiments of the fathers, it can find no place under our National Government — that it is in every respect sectional, and in no respect national — that it is always and everywhere the creature and dependent of the States, and never anywhere the creature or dependent of the Nation, and that the Nation can never, by legislative or other act, impart to it any support, under the Constitution of the United States; with these convictions, I could not allow this session to reach its close, without making or seizing an- opportunity to declare myself openly against the usurpation, injustice, and cruelty, of the late enactment by Congress for the recovery of fugitive slaves. Full well I know, sir, the difficulties of this discussion, arising from prejudices of opinion and from adverse conclusions, strong and sincere as my own. Full well I know that I am in a small minority, with few here to whom I may look for sympathy or support. Full well I know that I must utter things unwelcome to many in this body, which I cannot do without pain. Full well I know that the institution of slavery in our country, which I now proceed to consider, is as sensitive as it is powerful — possessing a power to shake the whole land with a sensitiveness that shrinks and trembles at the touch. But, while these things may properly prompt me to caution and reserve, they cannot change my duty, or my determination to perform it. For this I willingly forget myself, and all personal consequences. The favor and good-will of my fellow-citizens, of my brethren of the Senate, sir, — grateful to me as it justly is — I am ready, if required, to sacrifice. All that I am or may be, I freely offer to this cause.”

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Charles Sumner

"Freedom National, Slavery Sectional," speech in the Senate (July 27, 1852).

“Ideas are more important than battles.”

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Charles Sumner

As quoted in Lies My Teacher Told Me https://books.google.com/books?id=5m23RrMeLt4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22lies+my+teacher+told+me%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAGoVChMIgsHjgsrpxwIVBpANCh3kRgDA#v=snippet&q=even%20canada&f=false, by James W. Loewen

“To make a law final, so as not to be reached by Congress, is, by mere legislation, to fasten a new provision on the Constitution. Nay, more; it gives to the law a character which the very Constitution docs not possess. The wise fathers did not treat the country as a Chinese foot, never to grow after infancy; but, anticipating Progress, they declared expressly that their great Act is not final. According to the Constitution itself, there is not one of its existing provisions — not even that with regard to fugitives from labor — which may not at all times be reached by amendment, and thus be drawn into debate. This is rational and just. Sir, nothing from man's hands, nor law, nor constitution, can be final. Truth alone is final.”

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Charles Sumner

"Freedom National, Slavery Sectional," speech in the Senate (July 27, 1852)

“I have fought a long battle with slavery; and I confess my solicitude when I see any thing that looks like concession to it. It is not enough to show me that a measure is expedient: you must show me also that it is right. Ah, sir, can any thing be expedient which is not right? From the beginning of our history the country has been afflicted with compromise. It is by compromise that human rights have been abandoned. I insist that this shall cease. The country needs repose after all its trials: it deserves repose. And repose can only be found in everlasting principles. It cannot be found by inserting in your constitution the disfranchisement of a race.”

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Charles Sumner

Final speech in the U.S. Senate on Constitutional Amendment (9 March 1866)

“The age of Chivalry has gone. An age of Humanity has come. The Horse, whose importance more than human, have the name to that early period of gallantry and war, now yields his foremost place to Man. In serving him, in promoting his elevation, in contributing to his welfare, in doing him good, there are fields of bloodless triumph, nobler far than any in which Bayard or Du Guesclin conquered.”

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Charles Sumner

Speech on "The Scholar, the Jurist, the Artist, the Philanthropist," oration before the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard University at their anniversary (August 27, 1846)

“If a man has done evil in his life, he must not be complimented in marble.”

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Charles Sumner

As quoted in Simon, James F., Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney (2006), Simon and Schuster, p. 268.

“There is beauty in art, in literature, in science, and in every triumph of intelligence, all of which I covet for my country; but there is a higher beauty still—in relieving the poor, in elevating the downtrodden, and being a succor to the oppressed. There is true grandeur in an example of justice, in making the rights of all the same as our own, and beating down the prejudice, like Satan, under our feet.”

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Charles Sumner

Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Volume 4, p. 500, also cited in W. E. B. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction in America (1935), p. 592