During the war and after he was active in furthering the interests of the negro. He was influential in getting ratified the treaty with England for the more effectual suppression of the slave trade. He proposed bills allowing colored persons to become mail carriers, for en listing negroes freed by Confiscation Act and for receiving colored volunteers. He proposed and carried legislation preventing the exclusion of witnesses in the courts of the District of Columbia on account of color. He voted against the bill to admit West Virginia, because the Senate refused to amend it so that after 4 July 1863 slavery should cease in that State. He was continually urging Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. He introduced a bill in the Senate to repeal all fugitive slave laws, and succeeded in getting-a similar bill, which had been passed in the House, through the Senate. He began the contest for negro suffrage,• was a leader in his effort to prevent the exclusion of colored persons from street cars in the District of Columbia, supported a bill to secure for colored soldiers equal pay with the. white and was energetic in getting the bill passed to es tablish the Freedman's Bureau, which Sumner called "a bridge from slavery to freedom.° He also aided in forcing a repeal of the law which excluded colored testimony in the United States courts, and was largely responsible for the ad mission of a colored man to the bar of the Supreme Court, the privilege being granted by Chief Justice Chase on motion of Sumner. He offered an amendment to one of the reconstruc tion measures to the effect that "every constitu tion in the rebel States shall require the legis lature to establish and maintain a system of public schools open to all without distinction of race or color.° On the question of reconstruction, Sumner felt that the conditions must be faced by Con gress and the President together, and hence opposed the policies of Lincoln and Johnson, viz., reconstruction by the executive. He con sidered this policy unconstitutional while the Constitution supported the authority of Con gress — its duty "to guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of govern ment." He voted for the conviction of Presi dent Johnson in his impeachment trial.
After his removal as chairman of the Com mittee on Foreign Affairs, Sumner exerted lit tle influence in the Senate, and occupied his time mainly in pressing civil rights bills for negroes. He supported Horace Greeley for
President in the election of 1872, on the ground that he was an "unswerving" Republican, that principles must be preferred to party and that Grant was unfaithful to the Constitution and Republican principles.
The character of Sumner and his services to his country were both based on fidelity to great moral principles. He was sincere, unselfish, simple, kind, conscientious, honest and pure and without envy or personal animosity. He was also energetic, uncompromising, courageous and fearless, and indomitable in his purpose. On the other hand, while not entirely a man of one idea, his intense convictions on slavery often helped to defeat his desires, because of his in ability to give sufficient weight to other im portant interests. He became egotistical, dog matic, irritable, and was lacking in a sense of humor. Next to Lincoln he undoubtedly did more to win freedom for the colorea race than any other man. His other great service was in keeping the country out of war with England and France during the period of the Civil War, when such a catastrophe might easily have led to a permanent dissolution of the Union.
Bibliography.— The best short life of Sum ner is that by Moorfield Storey((American Statesmen Series,' Boston 1900). biog raphies are those by Edward Lillie Pierce, 'Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner' (4 vols., Boston 1877-93) ; by Anna L. Dawes, Sumner' of America Series,' New York 1892); by George H. Haynes Crisis Biographies,' Philadelphia, Copyright, 1909); by G. H. Grimke, of Charles Sumner, the Scholar in Politics' (New York 1892). The "Works" of Sumner were published in 15 volumes, Boston 1874-83. A famous oration on Sumner is that by L. Q. C. Lamar, 27 April 1874. Consult also Shotwell, W. G., of Charles Sumner' (New York 1910), and Whipple, E. P. (Recol lections of Eminent Man.' Some of Sumner's most famous speeches have been printed separately, viz., "Report on the War with Mexico," and "Speech on the Crime against Kansas" (Directors of Old South Work, Bos ton) ; "Address on War, containing True Gran deur of "War System of Nations"; "Duel between France and Germany" (Boston).