Charles Sumner

Charles Sumner (1811-74), American statesman, known for his stand against slavery. He was born in Boston and educated at Harvard University. In 1851, through a coalition of Free-Soilers and Democrats, he was elected to the U.S. Senate. A member of the Senate until his death, he waged an uncompromising battle against slavery.

In a speech entitled “The Crime Against Kansas” delivered before his colleagues on May 20, 1856, Sumner severely criticized the senator from South Carolina, Andrew Pickens Butler. Two days later he was caned in the Senate chamber by Butler's nephew, Preston Smith Brooks, a member of the House of Representatives, also from South Carolina. Severely injured, Sumner was subsequently absent from the Senate floor for several years. In 1860 he delivered a speech entitled “The Barbarism of Slavery.” He was chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations from 1861 to 1871. He was also a prominent advocate of impeachment proceedings against President Andrew Johnson because the president opposed such Radical Republican policies as requiring the former Confederate states to establish public schools open to all children. Sumner differed with the foreign policies of President Ulysses S. Grant and opposed him in his campaign for reelection in 1872. He died in Washington, D.C., on March 11, 1874.