Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and letters of Charles Sumner: volume 2

United States Senate Chamber, Washington, July 10, 1873.

my dear Sir,—Few events have given me more pleasure than the vote on your motion. I thank you for making the motion, and I thank you also for not yielding to Mr. Gladstone's request to withdraw it. You were in the very position of Buxton on his motion against Slavery. He, too, insisted upon a division; and that vote led to Emancipation. May you have equal success! I anticipate much from this vote. It will draw attention on the Continent, which the facts and figures of your speech will confirm. I find in your speech grand compensation for the long postponement to which you have been constrained. It marks an epoch in a great cause. I know you will not rest.

But this speech alone, with the signal result, will make your Parliamentary life historic. Surely, Mr. Gladstone acted under some imagined exigency of politics. He cannot, in his soul, differ from you. Honoring him much, I regret that he has allowed himself to appear on the wrong side. What fame so great as his, if he would devote the just influence of his lofty position to securing for nations the inappreciable benefits of a Tribunal for the settlement of their differences!

How absurd to call your motion Utopian, if by this word is meant that it is not practical! There is no question so supremely practical; for it concerns not merely one nation, but every nation: and even its discussion promises to diminish the terrible chances of war. Its triumph would be the greatest reform of history. And I doubt not that this day is near.

Accept my thanks and congratulations, and believe me, my dear sir,

Sincerely yours,

Charles Sumner.

And as a final testimony to his faith in the cause which was ever dear to his heart, he directed by his Will as follows:—

I bequeath to the President and Fellows of Harvard College one thousand dollars in trust, for an annual prize to the best dissertation by any student of the College, or any of its schools, undergraduate or graduate, on Universal Peace and the methods by which war may be permanently superseded. I do this in the hope of drawing the attention of students to the practicability of organizing peace among nations which I sincerely believe may be done. I cannot doubt that the same modes of decision which now prevail between individuals, between towns, and between smaller communities, may be extended to nations.