Elias Nason, The Life and Times of Charles Sumner: His Boyhood, Education and Public Career.

Thus, fearful of the truth, and fencing off the question, the slaveocracy prolonged the struggle through the entire day; and, at the close, the Senate determined not to introduce the bill. But the elements were in commotion; the breast of the nation was heaving; a spirit was abroad which neither senatorial manoeuvrings nor unjust laws nor bannered army could intimidate or resist.

Under the persistent arrogance of the South, the anti-slavery sentiment of the North was still extending; and, in order to combine the scattered elements opposed to the servile system into one grand, compact, and solid body, the Republican party was, through the constructive power of Henry Wilson and a few other leading politicians, formed in the summer of 1854 to occupy the place of the Free-soil organization. A large convention was held in the city of Worcester on the seventh day of September, over which the Hon. Robert Rantoul of Beverly presided. As Mr. Sumner entered the convention, the whole assembly rose, and with long-continued cheering gave him welcome as their honored champion. He then made one of the most effective and brilliant speeches ever heard in that city. His theme was “The duties of Massachusetts at the present crisis;” and with the skill of a master whose heart is glowing with the grandeur of his subject, whose