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Sumner spoke earnestly on a resolution for the discharge of fugitive slaves from the
Washington Jail, and characterized the
Black Code, prevailing in the District of Columbia, as “a shame to the civilization of the age;” and on the 11th he delivered in the Senate,
Abraham Lincoln being present, a very touching and appropriate eulogy on
Senator E. D. Baker, killed at Ball's Bluff Oct. 21, while serving a piece of artillery.
In the course of this fine tribute he said:--
The nine balls that slew our departed brother came from slavery.
Every gaping wound of his slashed bosom came from slavery.
Every drop of his generous blood cries out from the ground against slavery. . . . The just avenger is at hand, with weapon of celestial temper.
Let it be drawn I Until this is done, the patriot, discerning clearly the secret of our weakness, can only say sorrowfully,--
“Bleed, bleed, poor country!
Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure;
For goodness dares not check thee.
”
As the war went on,
Mr. Sumner felt more and more convinced of the necessity of emancipation; and on the 27th of December he wrote a letter to
Gov. Andrew, in which he said,--
Let the doctrine of emancipation be proclaimed as an essential and happy agency in subduing a wicked rebellion.
In this
