Lix.
In the Senate, on the 8th of May, he reported the following resolutions:
Resolved, etc., That the Congress of the United States has learned with deep regret of the attempt made upon the life of the Emperor of Russia by an enemy of emancipation.
The Congress send their greeting to his Imperial Majesty and to the Russian nation, and congratulates the twenty million serfs upon the providential escape from danger of the sovereign to whose head and heart they owe the blessings of their freedom.
And be it further resolved, That the President of the United States be requested to forward a copy of this resolution to the Emperor of Russia.
Mr. Sumner said:
The public prints have informed us that an attempt was made on the life of the Emperor of Russia, by a person animated against him on
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account of his divine effort to establish emancipation.
That report, I am inclined to think, has not disclosed completely the whole case.
It does not appear, from what we are told, that the special ground of animosity to the Emperor at the present moment, is so much the original act of emancipation as the courage and perseverance and wisdom which he has displayed in carrying it forward to its practical results.
I have had occasion, formerly, to remind the Senate how completely the Emperor has done his work.
Not content with issuing the decree of emancipation, which was in the month of February, 1861, he has proceeded, by an elaborate system of regulations, to provide in the first place, for what have been called the civil rights of all the recent serfs; then, in the next place, to provide especially for their rights in court; then, again, to provide for their rights in property, securing to every one of them a homestead; and then, again, by providing for them rights of public education.
Added to all these, he has secured to them also political rights, giving to every one the right to vote for all local officers, corresponding to our officers of the town and of the county.
It is this very thoroughness with which he has carried out his decree of emancipation, that has aroused against him the ancient partisans of slavery; and I doubt not it was one of these who aimed at him that blow which was so happily arrested.
The laggard and the faithless are not pursued by assassins.
The Emperor of Russia was born in 1818, and is now forty-eight years of age. He succeeded to the throne on the death of his late father in 1855.
Immediately after his accession, he was happily inspired to bring about emancipation in his great country.
One of his first utterances when declaring his sentiments, was, that it was important that this great work should begin from above, to the end that it should not proceed from below.
Therefore he insisted that the Imperial Government itself should undertake the blessed work, and not leave it to the chance of insurrection or of blood.
He went forth bravely, encountering much opposition; and now, that emancipation has been declared in form, he is still going forward bravely in order to crown it, by assuring all those rights, without which emancipation is little more than a name.
It was, therefore, on account of his thoroughness in the work, that he became the mark of the assassin; and, sir, our country does well when it offers its homage to the sovereign who has attempted so great a task, under such difficulties and at such hazards, making a landmark of civilization.
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The measure was adopted, and the resolution transmitted to the
Emperor of
Russia, in the iron-clad steamer
Miantonomah.
