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

[216] will be admitted to its just share in the trusts and honors of the Republic. Prostrate the Slave Oligarchy, and you will possess the master-key with which to unlock the whole house of bondage. Prostrate the Slave Oligarchy, and the gates of emancipation will be open at the South.

To this work, fellow-citizens, you are now summoned. By your votes you are to declare, not merely your predilection for men, but your devotion to principles. Men are erring and mortal. Principles are steadfast and immortal. Forgetting all other things—especially forgetting men—you are to cast your votes so as best to promote Freedom.

But in the choice of men we are driven to the organization of parties; and here occurs the practical question on which hinges our immediate duty, by what political party can our desire be accomplished? There are individuals in all the parties, even the Democratic, who hate Slavery, and say so; but a political party cannot be judged by the private opinions of some of its members. Something else, more solid and tangible, must appear. The party that we select to bear the burden and honor of our great controversy, must be adapted to the work. It must be a perfect machine. Wedded to Freedom, for better or for worse, and cleaving to it with a grasp never to be unloosed, it must be clear, open and unequivocal in its declarations, and must admit no other question to divert its energies. It must be all in Freedom, and, like Caesar's wife, it must be above suspicion. But besides this character which it must sustain in Massachusetts, it must be prepared to take its place in close phalanx with the united masses of the North, now organizing through all the Free States, junctaeque umbone phalanges, for the protection of Freedom, and the overthrow of the Slave Oligarchy.

Bearing these conditions in mind, there are three parties which we may dismiss, one by one, as they pass in review. Men do not gather grapes from thorns, nor figs from thistles; nor do they expect patriotism from Benedict Arnold. A party which sustains the tyrannies and perfidies of the Slave Oligarchy, and is represented by the President, through whom has come so much of all our woe, need not occupy our time; and such is the Democratic party. If there be within the sound of my voice a single person, who, professing sympathy with Freedom, still votes with this party, to him I would say: The name of Democrat is a tower of strength; let it not be a bulwark of Slavery; for the sake of a name do not sacrifice a thing; for the sake of party do not surrender Freedom.

According to a familiar rule, handed down from distant antiquity, we