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

[325] small extent on the Pacific coast. The territory was separated from our empire by intervening British possessions. The war debt was still pressing, with a clamor for repudiation in certain quarters, and every effort was being made to put the finances of the country on a firm footing. The purchase-money, $7,200,000, equal to $10,000,000 of our currency as then depreciated, would add to existing embarrassments. A mere enlargement of boundaries, unless sought with an inspiring idea, had no charm for Sumner; and the cant phrase, ‘the extension of the area of freedom,’ which had helped to precipitate our country into an unjust war with Mexico for the support of slavery, had happily lost its spell on the American mind. Aside from the commercial attractions of the acquisition, other considerations had a certain influence on the senator. The negotiation needed only the action of the Senate to consummate it, and a breaking off at this stage would be a disappointment to Russia, whose government had been exceptionally friendly to our own during the Civil War, —not, however, from any sympathy with our republican polity or with liberal ideas. Such were their friendly relations that the senator was glad of an opportunity to please the secretary when he could do so without injury to the public interests. The committee was also composed, with two exceptions, of Eastern senators, and there was a desire to avoid even an appearance of indifference to Western interests.¹ It was something in favor of the acquisition that, unlike some others which had preceded, it was not promoted with a view to extend and strengthen slavery. Sumner's vision, as his ‘Prophetic Voices’ shows, was at the time of a republic coextensive with the continent, and he looked kindly on the expansion, believing it to be ‘a visible step in the occupation of the whole North American continent,’ and ‘unwilling to miss the opportunity of dismissing another European sovereign from our continent, predestined, as he believed, to become the broad, undivided home of the American people.’ Senators were at first somewhat surprised to find him cooperating in such a novel enterprise with an Administration which he and they were now steadily opposing.

After the treaty had been considered by the committee from day to (lay for a week, Sumner reported in favor of a ratification, Fessenden alone dissenting. The pendency of the treaty becoming