From that chamber and from that mansion I fled aghast. The storm was still abroad in all its wrath as I found myself crossing the old causeway. Suddenly there shot along the path a wild light, and I turned to see whence a gleam so unusual could have issued; for the vast house and its shadows were alone behind me. The radiance was that of the full, setting, and blood-red moon, which now shone vividly through that once barely-discernible fissure of which I have before spoken as extending from the roof of the building, in a zigzag direction, to the base. While I gazed, this fissure rapidly widened, there came a fierce breath of the whirlwind,—the entire orb of the satellite burst at once upon my sight, my brain reeled as I saw the mighty walls rushing asunder, there was a long, tumultuous, shouting sound like the voice of a thousand waters, and the deep and dank tarn at my feet closed sullenly and silently over the fragments of the "House of Usher." CHARLES SUMNER. THIS distinguished scholar, jurist, statesman, and philanthropist is the son of Charles Pinckney Sumner, for some years sheriff of Suffolk County, and was born in Boston, January 6, 1811. He was graduated at Harvard College in 1830, and in 1831 commenced his studies at the Cambridge law-school. While yet a student, he wrote several articles for the "American Jurist," which attracted attention by their learning and ability; and thereupon he became the editor of that periodical, which position he occupied for three years. In 1834, he commenced the practice of his profession in Boston; and, having been appointed reporter to the Circuit Court, he published three volumes known as Sumner's Reports. In 1836, he edited "A Treatise on the Practice of the Courts of Admiralty in Civil Causes of Maritime Jurisdiction, by Andrew Dunlap," adding an "Appendix" equal in extent to the original work. lu 1837, he visited Europe, where he remained three years, enjoying unusual advantages of social intercourse with the most distinguished men of the day. On his return from Europe, Mr. Sumner lectured at the Cambridge lawschool, and in 1844 edited an edition of "Vesey's Reports," in twenty volumes, to which he contributed numerous valuable notes and treatises on the points in question. The next year he delivered an Oration on the True Grandeur of Nations, before the authorities of the city of Boston, July 4,-taking therein a position as bold and novel as it was beautiful and truthful.2 Well and beautifully was it thus written by Edmund Burke's schoolmasterAbraham Shackleton: The memory of Edmund Burke's philanthropic virtues will outlive the period when his shining political talents will cease to act. fashions of political sentiment will exist; but PHILANTHROPY-IMMORTALE MANET." New 2 It had been customary, "from time immemorial," for the authorities of Boston to appoint some one to deliver an oration before them and the assembled From this time forward, Mr. Sumner took a more prominent part in public affairs. He early opposed the annexation of Texas; and when the Whig party in Massachusetts, in 1848, would not act up to its professions against that iniquitous scheme, he abandoned it. In 1851, he was elected to the Senate of the United States, from Massachusetts, as the successor of Mr. Webster, and soon distinguished himself as one of the ablest and most eloquent, as all acknowledged him the most learned, of that body. On the 26th of August, 1852, he delivered his masterly and unanswerable speech on the unconstitutionality and wickedness of the "Fugitive Slave Bill." So powerful were his efforts in the cause of freedom, and so unanswerable his positions, that some of the more violent slaveholding members of the Senate and of the House felt that he must be silenced, and employed one Preston S. Brooks, a member of the House from South Carolina, to do the work. On the 22d of May, 1856, he, accompanied by L. M. Keitt, of the same House and from the same State, entered the Senate-chamber, after the adjournment of the Senate, and seeing Mr. Sumner, with no one near him, seated in his arm-chair writing at his desk, (which was fastened to the floor,) approached him with a heavy bludgeon, and, by one severe blow upon the head, stunned him so that he fell upon his desk. In endeavoring to extricate himself from his seat, Mr. Sumner wrenched the desk from its fastenings, and fell senseless and bleeding upon the floor. His assailant renewed the blows upon the head of his prostrate victim, until, after more than a dozen had been given, he was stopped by some members of the Senate who happened to be present. Mr. Sumner was taken to his lodgings in a carriage, so severely injured that it was thought he could not recover. The news of this high-handed assault upon such a man, and in such a place, ran like lightning through the nation, and aroused the deepest indignation in every breast. For weeks, Mr. Sumner was confined to his room and bed; but he gradually gained strength, and hoped that he might be able to return to the Senate in the December following: this his physicians peremptorily forbade, and he spent the winter in Boston. In the spring of 1857, he went to Europe for his health, receiving there, from all the noblest and most learned wherever he went, the highest marks of attention and respect. He returned in the fall, somewhat improved; but, his former symptoms returning as soon as he began to apply himself to public duties, his physicians urged him to go abroad again, and accordingly he sailed for Europe in the spring of 1858. The accounts received, from time to time, of the state of his health are rather favorable; yet it is doubtful whether he will be able very soon to resume his seat in the Senate.2 citizens and military on the anniversary of our national independence. These orations, though often eloquent and learned, were generally cast in about the samne mould, that of national vanity and military glory. It was left for Charles Sumner to strike out in an entirely new path, and to show, by rare eloquence, learning, and by an array of facts and figures, not to be gainsaid, on the cost, the horrors, and the inefficacy of war, that the "True Grandeur of Nations" consists in cultivating the arts of peace. The following admirable sentiment from Oliver Cromwell was printed on the title-page of this speech:-" If any man thinks that the interests of these nations, and the interests of Christianity, are two separate and distinct things, I wish my soul may never enter into his secret." 2 A beautiful edition of his Speeches, Addresses, and Literary Essays, has been published by Ticknor & Fields, in three volumes. EXPENSES OF WAR AND EDUCATION COMPARED. It appears from the last Report of the Treasurer of Harvard University, that its whole available property, the various accumulations of more than two centuries of generosity, amounts to $703,175. There now swings idly at her moorings, in this harbor, a ship of the line, the Ohio, carrying ninety guns, finished as late as 1836, for $547,888; repaired only two years afterwards, in 1838, for $223,012; with an armament which has cost $53,945; making an amount of $834,845, as the actual cost at this moment of that single ship; more than $100,000 beyond all the available accumulations of the richest and most ancient seat of learning in the land! Choose ye, my fellow-citizens of a Christian state, between the two caskets, that wherein is the loveliness of knowledge and truth, or that which contains the carrion death. Still further let us pursue the comparison. The pay of the captain of a ship like the Ohio is $4,500, when in service; $3,500, when on leave of absence, or off duty. The salary of the President of the Harvard University is $2,205; without leave of absence, and never being off duty! If the large endowments of Harvard University are dwarfed by a comparison with the expense of a single ship of the line, how much more must it be so with those of other institutions of learning and beneficence, less favored by the bounty of many generations! The average cost of a sloop of war is $315,000; more, probably, than all the endowments of those twin stars of learning in the western part of Massachusetts, the colleges at Williamstown and Amherst, and of that single star in the East, the guide to many ingenuous youth, the Seminary at Andover. The yearly cost of a sloop of war in service is above $50,000; more than the annual expenditures of these three institutions combined. Take all the institutions of learning and beneficence, the precious jewels of the Commonwealth, the schools, colleges, hospitals, and asylums, and the sums by which they have been purchased and preserved are trivial and beggarly, compared with the treasures squandered within the borders of Massachusetts in vain preparations for war. There is the Navy Yard at Charlestown, with its stores on hand, all costing $4,741,000; the fortifications in the harbors of Massachusetts, in which have been sunk already incalculable sums, and in which it is now proposed to sink $3,853,000 more; and, besides, the Arsenal at Springfield, containing, in 1842, 175,118 muskets, valued at $2,999,998, and which is fed by an annual appropriation of about $200,000, but whose highest value will ever be, in the judgment of all lovers of truth, that it inspired a poem which in its influence shall be mightier than a battle, and shall endure when arsenals and fortifications have crumbled to the earth.1 True Grandeur of Nations. TRUE GLORY. Whatever may be the temporary applause of men, or the expressions of public opinion, it may be asserted, without fear of contradiction, that no true and permanent Fame can be founded, except in labors which promote the happiness of mankind. There are not a few who will join with Milton in his admirable judgment of martial renown :- 66 They err who count it glorious to subdue Large countries, and in field great battles win, And all the flourishing works of peace destroy?" Well does the poet give the palm to moral excellence! But it is from the lips of a successful soldier, cradled in war, the very pink of the false heroism of battle, that we are taught to appreciate the literary Fame, which, though less elevated than that derived from disinterested acts of beneficence, is truer and more permanent far than any bloody Glory. I allude to Wolfe, the conqueror of Quebec, who has attracted, perhaps, a larger share of romantic interest than any of the gallant generals in English history. We behold him, yet young in years, at the head of an adventurous expedition, destined to prostrate the French empire in Canada, guiding and encouraging the firmness of his troops in unaccustomed difficulties,-awakening their personal attachment by his kindly suavity, and their ardor by his own example,climbing the precipitous steeps which conduct to the heights of the strongest fortress on the American continent,-there, under its walls, joining in deadly conflict,-wounded-stretched upon the fieldfaint with the loss of blood-with sight already dimmed, his life ebbing fast,-cheered at last by the sudden cry that the enemy is fleeing in all directions, and then his dying breath mingling with the shouts of victory. An eminent artist has portrayed this scene of death in a much-admired picture. History and poetry have dwelt upon it with peculiar fondness. Such is the Glory 1 See Longfellow's "Arsenal of Springfield," page 564. 2 Paradise Regained, Book iii. v. 71. of arms! But there is, happily, preserved to us a tradition of this day, which affords a gleam of a truer Glory. As the commander floated down the currents of the St. Lawrence in his boat, under cover of the night, in the enforced silence of a military expedition, to effect a landing at an opportune promontory, he was heard to repeat to himself that poem of exquisite charms,—then only recently given to mankind, now familiar as a household word wherever the mother-tongue of Gray is spoken, the “Elegy in a Country Churchyard." Strange and unaccustomed prelude to the discord of battle! And as the ambitious warrior finished the recitation, he said to his companions, in a low but earnest tone, that he would rather be the author of that poem than take Quebec." And surely he was right. The Glory of that victory is already dying out, like a candle in its socket. The True Glory of the poem still shines with star-bright, immortal beauty. Fame and Glory. PROGRESS AND REFORM. Cultivate a just moderation. Learn to reconcile order with change, stability with Progress. This is a wise conservatism; this is a wise reform. Rightly understanding these terms, who would not be a conservative? Who would not be a reformer? A conservative of all that is good,—a reformer of all that is evil; a conservative of knowledge,- -a reformer of ignorance; a conservative of truths and principles, whose seat is the bosom of God,a reformer of laws and institutions which are but the wicked or imperfect work of man; a conservative of that divine order which is found only in movement,- -a reformer of those earthly wrongs and abuses which spring from a violation of the great Law of Human Progress. Blending these two characters in one, let us seek to be, at the same time, Reforming Conservatives and Conservative Reformers. And, finally, let a confidence in the Progress of our race be, under God, our constant faith. Let the sentiment of loyalty, earth-born, which once lavished itself on King or Emperor, give place to that other sentiment, heaven-born, of devotion to Humanity. Let Loyalty to one Man be exchanged for Love to Man. And be it our privilege to extend these sacred influences throughout the land. So shall we open to our country new fields of peaceful victories, which shall not want the sympathies and gratu lations of the good citizen, or the praises of the just historian. Go forth, then, my country, "conquering and to conquer," not by brutish violence; not by force of arms; not, oh! not on dishonest fields of blood; but in the majesty of Peace, of Justice, of Freedom, by the irresistible might of Christian Institutions. Phi Beta Kappa Address at Union College, 1818. |