In the second session of the 33d Congress, that commencing December 1854, Sumner endeavored to secure a repeal of the Fugi tive Slave Law, but was defeated. In the spring of 1855 he prepared an address entitled °The Anti-Slavery Enterprise, its Necessity, Practicability, and Dignity, with Glances at the Special Duties of the North.* This was de livered in Boston, New York and other places. It was in this address that he prophesied the downfall of slavery because of a °moral blockade* against it. °With the sympathies of all Christendom as allies, already it (Anti Slave movement), encompasses the slave mas ters by a moral blockade, invisible to the eye, but more potent than navies, from which there can be no escape except in final capitulation.* Two of the great events of the session of Congress that met 3 Dec. 1855, were Sumner's speech of 19 and 20 May 1856, on °The Crime against Kansas,* and the assault on him by Rep resentative Brooks of South Carolina. It was on 12 March 1856 that Senator Douglas reported a bill for organizing a State government in Kansas. This provided that the steps taken should be prescribed by the territorial legisla ture. This was the pro-slavery legislature which had been elected in March 1855 as a result of fraudulent votes of Missourians who had entered Kansas for this purpose. Con gress had to decide whether it would recognize this legislature or admit Kansas as a free State under the Topeka constitution, which had been formed by the free-state men in the con vention which met at Topeka 23 Oct. 1855. The debate on the subject began 20 March and continued for some months. Conditions in Kansas had been going from bad to worse and pro-slavery troops had been disarming free-state settlers, and finally, on 21 May, they made an attack on Lawrence, demanded the surrender of all arms, broke the presses of the newspapers, burned the Free State Hotel and plundered houses and dwellings.
It was under such circumstances that Sum ner delivered his famous and carefully pre pared speech which he meant to be "the most thorough philippic ever uttered in a legislative body.* In this speech he reviewed the whole case from the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill up to the time of the attack on Lawrence. He criticized the administration and attacked his opponents in the most bitter language, especially Senators Butler of South Carolina and Douglas of Illinois. The former had °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.* Douglas had used language in denouncing Sumner that brought forth the reply that °no person with the upright form of a could be allowed °to switch out from his tongue the perpetual stench of offen sive personality. Sir, that is not a proper weapon of debate, at least on this floor. The noisome, squat, and nameless animal to which I refer is not the proper model for an Ameri can senator. Will the senator from Illinois take notice?"' These bitter personalities led to the assault on Sumner on 22 May by Preston S. Brooks, a representative from South Caro lina, and a cousin of Senator Butler. The Senate had adjourned and Sumner was seated at his desk writing letters, when Brooks en tered and said, "Mr. Sumner, I have read your speech carefully and with as much impartiality as was possible, and I feel it my duty to tell you that you have libeled my State and slandered a relative who is aged and absent, and I am come to punish you for it." He then .struck Sumner a series of blows on the head with a gutta percha cane, until he fell bloody and senseless to the floor. An effort to ex pel Brooks from the House failed because of lack of two-thirds majority. While a resolu
tion of censure was pending Brooks resigned, but was immediately re-elected by his constitu ents. His action was generally upheld by the Southern leaders and press. The indignation in the North was intense, and the incident crystallized sentiment against* slavery more, perhaps, than any other single event had done up to this time.
Sumner was re-efected to the Senate in January 1857, but. owing to the state of his health he spent nearly four years abroad, re turning in time to resume his seat in the Senate 5 Dec. 1859. It was not until June 1860, however, that he delivered an im portant speech on "The Barbarism of Slavery:° It was intended as a reply to numerous assertions recently made to the effect that slavery was a moral, social and political blessing, and "ennobling to both races, the white and black.° The speech was a reservoir of facts drawn largely from South ern sources, and an appeal to the. great moral sentiment of the North to help abolish the system.
In the session of Congress which opened 3 Dec. 1860, Sumner devoted himself to pre venting any compromise between the slave and the free States; for his object was the de struction of slavery. When the Southern senators withdrew as a result of secession, the committee was reorganized, and Sumner was made chairman of the committee on Foreign Relations. In this capacity he rendered the country signal service during the war. He was largely instrumental in the surrender of the captured Confederate commissioners, Slidell and Mason, who had been taken from the English mail steamer Trent by Captain Wilkes while on the high seas. He showed the President that this would be in accordance with our doctrines and an abandonment of claims made by Eng land to which we had always objected. He used all his influence to prevent foreign inter vention, and opposed the use of force in an attempt to get the French troops out of Mexico, as it might result in war. He was opposed to the issuing of letters of marque, and when the bill was passed used every effort to prevent the law going into effect, in which he was success ful. His argument was that it would embroil us with foreign nations. His speech in New York, 10 Sept. 1863, was g strong statement of the America_n position. He raked England for her unfriendly acts with respect to neutrality and for allowing Confederate cruisers to be fitted out in English ports, and called France to account for her intervention in Mexico.. The speech had an important effect in putting a check on England. He made an exhaustive re port on the French Spoliation Claims. He argued vigorously for the treaty for the purchase of Alaska in 1867. He was in favor of settling all questions of dispute with Eng land and in bringing the two nations into re lations of harmony and good will, and hence supported the efforts to settle the Alabama claims. Owing to a disagreement with Presi dent Grant and Republican senators over the acquisition of Santo Domingo, which Sumner opposed, he was removed from his chairman ship of the Committee on Foreign Relations, 10 March 1871, Sumner supported the policy of emancipa tion and wished-to take the step before Lincoln finally acted because he thought that it would prevent foreign intervention. He made the first public demand for emancipation by a responsible statesman on 1 Oct. 1861, before the State Re publican Committee of Massachusetts, and re peated his demand in a number of cities in the next few months. In the session of Congress which met in December 1861, he spoke in favor of legislation to prevent the surrender of fugi tive slaves by the Union army, and in favor of the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, the first public word on the subject since the Republican party came into power.