Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and letters of Charles Sumner: volume 4

[553] and honorable way towards a public man who had rendered illustrious service to the State and nation. Whether they had joined with him or not in the contest with the President, they felt that he was not without justification for his course, and it was their purpose to keep him in the Senate. Rev. James Freeman Clarke promptly denounced from his pulpit the legislative resolution, and justified Sumner. As soon as the session of the new Legislature began, in January, 1873, a movement for rescinding and annulling the resolution of censure began under the leadership of John G. Whittier. It was supported by more than five thousand petitioners, the number of whom could have been easily increased many fold. Among them were the names of those in the State most distinguished for learning, public spirit, philanthropy, devotion to the Antislavery cause, and courage as soldiers in the Civil War. The annals of the State contain no paper of such import in its list of names as this one now addressed to the Legislature.¹ Scholars, merchants, politicians, and veteran Antislavery leaders gladly gave their names to it. Among the signers were soldiers of distinguished rank in the Civil War, who bore in several instances on their persons the marks of their heroism,—William F. Bartlett² and Joseph Tucker, each of whom lost a leg in battle; A. B. Underwood, severely wounded at Wauhatchie and maimed for life; Charles Francis Adams, Jr., who led the colored troops into Richmond, the first to enter the Confederate capital; and Henry S. Russell, who served in Libby prison as well as in the field. The petitioners were supported by an appeal from other States, in which Chief-Justice Chase, William C. Bryant, Frederick Douglass, Gerrit Smith, and Governor Noyes of Ohio joined. A remonstrance was sent in, but it contained few signatures, and those not of persons well known in the State.

The committee on federal relations, to which the petitions were referred, gave public hearings. At the first one, Ex-Governor William Claflin, who opened the case briefly for the petitioners, was followed by Ex-Governor Emory Washburn the jurist, and by