SUMNER, CHARLES, American statesman, was born at Boston, Mass., Jan. 6, 1811. His father was a lawyer, and for many years sheriff of the county. He was educated at Harvard college, where he graduated in 1830; studied law at the Cambridge law school; was admitted to the bar in 1834, and entered.upon a large practice; edited the American Jurist; published three volumes of Sumner's Reports of the Circuit Court of the United States; gave lectures at the law school, but declined a proffered professorship; and from 1837 to 1840, visited England and the continent of Europe. On his return he edited Vesey's Reports, in 20 vols., and in 1845. made his debut in politics in a 4th of July oration, on the true grandeur of nations—an oration against war and the war with Mexico, pro nounced by Mr. Cobden the noblest contribution by any modern writer to the cause of peace. Identifying himself with the free-soil party, he was, in 1850, chosen U. S. sena tor from Massachusetts, in place of Daniel Webster, where he opposed the fugitive slave law, and declared " freedom national—slavery sectional." In 1856 he made a two days
speech on " the crime against Kansas," some of which was of a violently personal charac ter, in consequence of which he was attacked in the senate chamber, May 22, and severely beaten by Preston C. Brooks, and so severely injured that his labors were suspended for three or four years; during which he visited Europe for repose and health. Returning to the senate, he supported the election of Mr. Lincoln, urged upon him the proclama tion of emancipation, and became the leader of the senate, as chairman of the committee on foreign relations. In 1862 he was again elected a senator, and re-elected in 1869. In 1871 he opposed the annexation of Hayti to the United States. He published White Slavery in the Barbary States (1853); Orations and Speeches (1850), etc. He died in 1874. A Memoir and Letters appeared in 1878.