C. Edwards Lester, Life and public services of Charles Sumner: Born Jan. 6, 1811. Died March 11, 1874.

[35] Mexico which will not be more honorable than this war. Every fresh victory is a fresh dishonor. ‘Unquestionably,’ you have strangely said, ‘We must not forget that Mexico must be willing to negotiate!’ No! No! Mr. Winthrop. We are not to wait for Mexico. Her consent is not needed; nor is it to be asked, by a Christian statesman, while our armies are defiling her soil by their aggressive footsteps. She is passive. We alone are active. Stop the war. Withdraw our forces. In the words of Colonel Washington, retreat! Retreat! By so doing, we shall cease from further wrong; and peace will ensue.

Let me ask you, Sir, to remember in your public course the rules of Right, which you obey in your private capacity. The principles of morals are the same for nations and for individuals. Pardon me, if I suggest that you do not appear to have acted invariably in accordance with this truth. You would not, in your private capacity, set your name to a falsehood; but you have done so, as a Representative in Congress. You would not, in your private capacity, countenance wrong, even in your friend or your child; but, as a Representative, you have pledged yourself ‘not to withhold your vote from any reasonable supplies which may be called for’ in the prosecution of this wicked war. Do by your country as by your child. You would not furnish to him means of offence against his neighbors; do not furnish them to your country. Do not vote for any supplies to sustain this unrighteous purpose. Again, you would not hold slaves. I doubt not you would join with Mr. Palfrey, in emancipating any who should become yours by inheritance or otherwise. But I have never heard of your joining in efforts, or sympathy, with those who seek to carry into our institutions that practical conscience, which declares it to be equally wrong in individuals and in States to sanction Slavery.

Let me ask you still further—and you will know if there is any reason to justify this request—to bear your testimony against the Mexican War, and all supplies for its prosecution, regardless of the minority in which you may be placed. Think, Sir, of the cause, and not of your associates. Forget for a while the tactics of party, and all its subtle combinations. Emancipate yourself from its close-woven web, spun as from a spider's belly, and walk in the luminous pathway of Right. Remember that you represent the conscience of Boston, the churches of the Puritans, the city of Channing.

Meanwhile a fresh election is at hand, and you are again a candidate for the suffrages of your fellow-citizens. I shall not anticipate their verdict. Your blameless private life, and your respectable attainments,