Charles Sumner Revisited (part 3)

Summary

Podcast Summary: Stuff You Missed in History Class

Episode: Charles Sumner Revisited (Part 3)
Hosts: Tracy V. Wilson & Holly Fry
Date: December 1, 2025
Producer: iHeartPodcasts

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Overview

This episode concludes a three-part deep dive into the life and legacy of Charles Sumner, Radical Republican senator and leading abolitionist. The discussion picks up immediately after Sumner’s 1856 “Crime Against Kansas” speech and examines the infamous caning attack by Preston Brooks, its consequences, and Sumner’s subsequent role in the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the ongoing struggle for civil rights. The hosts also reflect on Sumner’s uncompromising character and ultimate influence on American history, especially the rights of Black Americans.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

The Caning of Charles Sumner (02:16–12:22)

• Backdrop: Charles Sumner delivered the incendiary “Crime Against Kansas” speech (May 1856), provoking anger among pro-slavery advocates.
• Assault: On May 22, 1856, Representative Preston Brooks violently attacked Sumner on the Senate floor with a walking cane, believing Sumner’s words insulted both his state and a relative.
  • Brooks anticipated the attack would be humiliating ("Brooks thought that Sumner might just take a whip out of his hand, so he decided to use a walking cane." [02:58] Holly Fry).
  • An accomplice, Lawrence Kitt, helped block intervention.
• Eyewitness Account: Colonel Joseph H. Nicholson testified:
  • “...while Senator Sumner was in the act of rising, Colonel Brooks struck him over the head with a dark colored walking Cane, which blow he repeated twice or three times and with rapidity...Sumner finally collapsed in a, quote, bleeding and apparently exhausted condition.” [05:06] Holly Fry
• Injuries: Sumner was pinned under his bolted desk and sustained head trauma, extensive bruising, and likely PTSD.
• Symbolism: The attack paralleled punishments wielded by enslavers—a point noted by abolitionists and Black journalists.
  • Mary Ann Shad Carey: “...the violence of slavery had spread, quote, from the black man to the white.” [07:31] Tracy V. Wilson

National Reaction (07:55–11:46)

• Media Response: The North condemned the attack, casting Sumner as a martyr. The South largely celebrated Brooks’s actions.
  • Notably pro-southern quote: “A glorious deed, a most glorious deed... administered to Senator Sumner... an effectual and classic caning. We are rejoiced. The only regret we feel is that Mr. Brooks did not employ a slave whip instead of a stick.” [08:40] Holly Fry
  • Julia Ward Howe praised Sumner: “Never on a milder brow gleamed the crown of the martyr.” [09:14] Tracy V. Wilson
  • Henry Ward Beecher: “The symbol of the north is the pen. The symbol of the south is the bludgeon.” [09:14] Tracy V. Wilson
• Support from Boston’s Black Community:
  • “No persons felt more keenly and sympathized with you more deeply and sincerely than your colored constituents in Boston.” [09:42] Holly Fry

Legal and Political Fallout (10:27–11:46)

• Minimal Consequences: Brooks and Kit were censured but resigned and promptly re-elected. Brooks was fined $300 for misdemeanor assault (paid by supporters).
• Sumner’s Recovery: Severe psychological and physical aftereffects lingered for years.

Sumner’s Long Recovery and Return to Senate (11:46–15:32)

• Protracted Healing: Suffered infection, brain injury, and likely PTSD.
  • Sumner sought experimental treatment from neurologist Charles Edouard Brown-Séquard in Paris—painful procedures with lifelong complications.
• Four-Year Absence: His Senate seat stood empty, a symbol of Southern brutality and Northern resolve.

The Caning’s Historical Significance (15:32)

• The attack became emblematic of irreconcilable North-South tensions that precipitated the Civil War.

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Sumner’s Return: From Recovery to the Civil War (18:44–29:15)

• Speech: “The Barbarism of Slavery” (1860)
  • “Ours is no holiday contest. It is a solemn battle between right and wrong, between good and evil. Such a battle cannot be fought with excuses or rose water.” [20:03] Tracy V. Wilson
• Opposition and Praise:
  • Abolitionists celebrated, e.g., Frederick Douglass: “At last the right word has been spoken in the chamber of the American Senate.” [21:28] Holly Fry
  • Many pro-slavery senators walked out, some fearing Sumner's increased influence if Lincoln were elected.

The Civil War and Sumner’s Influence (21:59–30:47)

• Role in Union Policy: Advocated emancipation, Black enlistment, international diplomacy to keep Britain neutral.
  • Played crucial role convincing Lincoln to shift the war’s focus toward ending slavery.
  • “This should not be interpreted as friendly, mutually supportive work. The two men had very fierce arguments about it.” [25:02] Holly Fry
• Legal Landmarks: Instrumental in pushing the Emancipation Proclamation and working for recognition of Haiti and Liberia.
• Civil Rights Advocacy: Helped Black professionals (e.g., John Rock) gain legal recognition, challenged Dred Scott decision legacy.

Personal Relationships and Loss (26:57–28:48)

• Bond with Mary Todd Lincoln: Their friendship grew from shared experiences of grief and loss.
  • Sumner credited with helping Mrs. Lincoln embrace abolitionism.
• Personal Tragedy: Sumner’s life marked by family deaths, personal loneliness, and depression.

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Reconstruction and Lasting Impact (33:52–49:57)

• 13th Amendment and Beyond: Strongly advocated for constitutional abolition of slavery, although often too uncompromising for political consensus.
• Senate Career Highlights:
  • Chaired important committees.
  • Advocated for Black suffrage, public accommodations, and land redistribution to freed people.
  • Fought to prevent state readmission to the Union without Black voting rights: “Employ every parliamentary device which is allowable to stop Louisiana from being admitted.” [35:47] Holly Fry
• Relationship with Other Leaders: Supported Lincoln but later clashed with President Grant, especially over Dominican Republic annexation.
  • "No wild bull ever dashed more violently at a red flag than [Sumner] goes at anything he thinks the President is interested in." – Hamilton Fish, 1871 [43:23] Tracy V. Wilson
• Civil Rights Legislation:
  • Introduced sweeping civil rights bills, often rejected or diluted.
  • “He would reintroduce this civil rights bill every Congressional session for the rest of his life.” [45:19] Holly Fry

Death and Legacy (47:14–48:57)

• Final Moments: Sumner’s dying words centered on his Civil Rights Bill: “Do not let the Civil Rights Bill fail.”
• Funeral: Marked by widespread respect, with significant Black participation and mourners, including Frederick Douglass.
  • Funeral flowers spelled out: “Do not let the Civil Rights Bill fail.”
• Contemporary Assessments:
  • Henry Ward Beecher: “He never meanly calculated. He never asked the question whether it was dangerous to speak. He was one of those heroic spirits that carried the fight further than it needed to be carried... He was a self sacrificing man, giving up every prospect of light life for the sake of doing his duty and establishing rectitude.” [48:14] Tracy V. Wilson

The Realization of Sumner’s Vision (48:57–End)

• The Civil Rights Act of 1875, inspired by Sumner but less comprehensive, was ultimately overturned. Many provisions would not become law until the Civil Rights Act of 1964, nearly a century after his death.

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• “The symbol of the north is the pen. The symbol of the south is the bludgeon.” – Henry Ward Beecher [09:14] Tracy V. Wilson
• “No persons felt more keenly and sympathized with you more deeply and sincerely than your colored constituents in Boston.” – Robert Morris [09:42] Holly Fry
• “Ours is no holiday contest... freedom cannot consent to fling away any of her weapons.” – Charles Sumner (The Barbarism of Slavery) [20:03] Tracy V. Wilson
• “At last the right word has been spoken in the chamber of the American Senate.” – Frederick Douglass [21:28] Holly Fry
• “[Charles Sumner] erred by an excess of bravery. He was a self sacrificing man, giving up every prospect of light life for the sake of doing his duty and establishing rectitude.” – Henry Ward Beecher [48:14] Tracy V. Wilson
• "Do not let the Civil Rights Bill fail." – Charles Sumner’s reported last words [47:14] Tracy V. Wilson

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• The Caning and Immediate Aftermath – 02:16–12:22
• National Reaction & North-South Divide – 07:55–11:46
• Sumner's Recovery and Medical Treatment – 11:46–15:32
• Sumner’s Return and Influence on Civil War – 18:44–29:15
• Relationship with Lincoln, Emancipation, Rights for Black Americans – 25:02–30:47
• Reconstruction & Civil Rights Legislation – 33:52–49:57
• Death and Posthumous Legacy – 47:14–48:57

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Tone and Atmosphere

The hosts maintain a scholarly and empathetic tone, blending historical analysis with personal anecdotes and a sense of urgency about civil rights. The mood is one of reflective admiration for Sumner’s dedication, with clear-eyed acknowledgment of his flaws and the limitations of his era.

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For listeners new and old, this episode comprehensively covers the violence Sumner suffered, his remarkable resilience, his fierce advocacy for abolition and civil rights, and his enduring—if complicated—legacy in American history.

Transcript

[Tracy V. Wilson]

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[Holly Fry]

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[Tracy V. Wilson]

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[Holly Fry]

Welcome to Stuff youf Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartradio.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson.

[Holly Fry]

And I'm Holly Fry.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

This is the third part of our three parter about Charles Sumner. I don't want to call this a cliffhanger because we're talking about a person's actual human life, but we did leave off at a precarious moment. Charles Sumner had delivered an incendiary speech before the Senate called Crime against Kansas. He had delivered that over two days in May of 1856. And so we are picking up with what happens two days later on May 22, when Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina came into the Senate chamber and attacked Charles Sumner at his desk.

[Holly Fry]

Representative Brooks thought Senator Sumner deserved to be punished for what he had said in his crime against Kansas speech. Brooks also thought this should be humiliating for Sumner, and his initial plan was to use a whip. But Sumner was a big man. He was 6 foot 4 with a barrel chest, and he outweighed brooks by about 30 pounds. Brooks thought that Sumner might just take a whip out of his hand, so he decided to use a walking cane.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

When Brooks arrived at the Senate chamber that day, Sumner was at his desk. He was franking copies of the speech that he had just given. Another South Carolina representative, Lawrence Kitt, accompanied Brooks and was prepared to get in the way of anybody who might intervene. Kit was a major part of planning this attack and of encouraging Brooks to go through with it when it seemed like he might change his mind.

[Holly Fry]

Brooks and Kit waited for the session to end and for some women who were in the hallway to leave. Then Brooks approached Sumner. In a letter he later wrote to his brother, Brooks said he told the senator, quote, Mr. Sumner, I have read your speech with care and as much impartiality as was possible, and I feel it my duty to tell you that you have libeled my state and slandered a relative who is aged and absent, and I am come to punish you for it.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

In this letter, Brooks went on to say, quote, at the concluding words, I struck him with my cane and gave him about 30 first rate stripes with a gutter percha cane which had been given me a few months before by a friend from North Carolina named Vic. Every lick went where I intended for about the first five or six licks. He offered to make a fight, but I plied him so rapidly that he did not touch me. Towards the last, he bellowed like a calf. I wore my cane out completely, but saved the head, which is gold. The fragments of the stick are begged for as sacred relics. Every Southern man is delighted, and the abolitionists are like a hive of disturbed bees.

[Holly Fry]

I have so much to say. On our behind the scenes, Colonel Joseph H. Nicholson gave an eyewitness account to the Senate in which he said, quote, I saw Colonel Brooks lean on and over the desk of Senator Sumner and seemingly say something to him, and instantly. And while Senator Sumner was in the act of rising, Colonel Brooks struck him over the head with a dark colored walking Cane, which blow he repeated twice or three times and with rapidity. I think several blows had been inflicted before Senator Sumner was fully in possession of his locomotion and extricated from his desk, which was thrown over or broken from its fastenings by the efforts of the senator to extricate himself. As soon as Senator Sumner was free from the desk, he moved down the narrow passageway under the impetuous drive of his adversary, with his hands uplifted as though to ward off the blows which were rained on his head with as much quickness as was possible for any man to use a cane on another whom he was intent on chastising. Nicholson described the cane as being broken into several pieces during this attack and said Sumner finally collapsed in a, quote, bleeding and apparently exhausted condition.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Sumner's injuries, which were serious, went beyond just the ones that Brooks had inflicted on him. This desk that he was seated at was large and it was heavy and it was bolted to the floor. So when Brooks started attacking him, Sumner was basically pinned in between the chair and the underside of the desk. Trying to get away involved wrenching the desk out from the floor and. And both of his thighs were severely bruised in the process.

[Holly Fry]

Violence in the halls of Congress was not unheard of at this point. The previous year, there had been an altercation between Senators Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri and Henry Foote of Mississippi, in which Foote had pulled a gun. Other fights over slavery had come to blows. In 1858, Kit would be involved in what was effectively a brawl in the house over a proposed pro slavery constitution for Kansas. But this was different. In addition to being a much more serious and violent attack, Brooks's decision to attack Sumner with a cane had parallels to the way enslavers delivered physical punishments with things like canes and whips.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

People noticed the similarity between what Brooks did to Sumner and what enslavers did to the enslaved. More broadly, this included black journalists and abolitionists who condemned the attack. Mary Ann Shad Carey, who we covered on the show in July of 2016, described this as an indication that the violence of slavery had spread, quote, from the black man to the white.

[Holly Fry]

Thanks to the existence of the telegraph, word of the attack spread quickly, with people in major cities hearing about it less than an hour after it happened. Broadly speaking, Brooks's actions drew outrage from the north and praise from the south, although there were Southerners who thought it went against Southern ideas of gentility and gentlemanly behavior.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Brooks received a letter from five people from Charleston, South Carolina, who wrote, quote, you have put The Senator from Massachusetts, where he should be, you have applied a blow to his back. He has undergone the infamy of personal punishment. His submission to your blows has now qualified him for the closest companionship with a degraded class.

[Holly Fry]

An Alabama newspaper also celebrated the attack, saying, quote, sumner has been needing something of the sort since the first day he put his foot into the Senate chamber. The Richmond Whig was exuberant, quote, a glorious deed, a most glorious deed. Mr. Brooks of South Carolina administered to Senator Sumner, a notorious abolitionist from Massachusetts, an effectual and classic caning. We are rejoiced. The only regret we feel is that Mr. Brooks did not employ a slave whip instead of a stick.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

From the northern point of view, Julia Ward Howe wrote a poem praising Sumner called A Woman's Word for the Hour, which was published in the New York Tribune. It said in part, quote, never on a milder brow gleamed the crown of the martyr. The Reverend Henry Ward Beecher drew a comparison between the north and the south in response to the attack. Quote, the symbol of the north is the pen. The symbol of the south is the bludgeon.

[Holly Fry]

Sumner also got a lot of support from Boston's black community. Attorney Robert Morris wrote to him and said, quote, no persons felt more keenly and sympathized with you more deeply and sincerely than your colored constituents in Boston. There was also a meeting of black abolitionists at Boston's Twelfth Baptist Church who wrote in support of our Senator, saying, quote, that in this dastardly attempt to crush our free speech, we painfully recognize the abiding prevalence of that spirit of injustice which has for two centuries upon this continent ground our progenitors and ourselves under the iron hoof of slavery that we Hereby Express to Mr. Sumner Our entire confidence in him as a faithful friend of the slave.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Perhaps unsurprisingly, or at least that was how I felt about it. Living in the year 2025, Brooks and Kit faced minimal consequences. The Senate investigated, but found that it did not have the standing to discipline representatives from the House. The House voted on a measure to expel Brooks and Kit from their number. And while a majority did vote in favor of that measure, it did not get the two thirds majority that was necessary to actually expel them. There was also a recommendation to censure Henry A. Edmondson of Virginia for having prior knowledge of the attack. But he was not censured. The House did censure Kit, and both Kit and Brooks resigned in protest. When special elections were held to fill their seats, they were both re elected.

[Holly Fry]

Brooks was also charged with Misdemeanor assault. He confessed. Or to be more accurate, he bragged about it. He was fined $300, which his supporters raised money to pay. Brooks died the following year at the age of 37 after coming down with what people initially thought was just a cold. Kit would later be killed in action during the Civil War. Kansas was eventually admitted to the Union as a free State in 1861.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Sumner's injuries included multiple severe bruises, lacerations and a concussion. He initially appeared to be recovering pretty well, but then he developed a high fever and when some of his sutured wounds were examined, it became clear that he had developed an infection. As his body started to heal, some of his other symptoms persisted. A lot of his regular activities, including reading and writing, made his head hurt. He just couldn't get comfortable. He couldn't keep his balance while he was walking. In today's terms. He also probably developed post traumatic stress disorder.

[Holly Fry]

Three months after being attacked, Sumner had worked his way up to being able to write 10 letters a day. He had to lie down and rest between each one, and he had to travel on horseback, since he could not keep his balance when he walked.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

There is some speculation that the pro slavery doctor who'd treated him, Cornelius Boyle, didn't do an adequate job. Boyle definitely minimized the extent of Sumner's injuries when talking to investigators in the press, Southerners and slavery supporters accused Sumner of faking it.

[Holly Fry]

On January 7, 1857, a little more than seven months after the attack, the Lydia Maria child wrote a letter to her husband about a visit she had from Sumner. Quote, charles Sumner called to see me and brought me his photograph. We talked together two hours and I never received such an impression of holiness from mortal man. Not an ungentle word did he utter concerning Brooks or any of the political enemies who have been slandering and insulting him for years. He only regretted the existence of a vicious institution which inevitably barbarized those who who grew up under its influence.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

While this letter makes it sound like Sumner might have been doing better than he had been the year before, he still did not feel fully well. Not long after this visit with her, he left for Europe, arriving in Paris in March of 1857. He both traveled and rested and he visited the UK, Switzerland, Germany, Holland and Belgium. He also spent a lot of time with Alexis de Tocqueville.

[Holly Fry]

He returned to the US In November and briefly tried to get back to his work in the Senate, but he was still having issues. He described fatigue and what sounds a lot like brain fog, along with serious back spasms, other pain and susceptibility to illnesses which he had not had before being attacked. He went back to France in the spring of 1859.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

This time he went to Paris and he sought medical treatment from physician Charles Edouard Brown Sicart, who was from Mauritius. Brown Sicard was groundbreaking as a physician, but he also could advocate experimental treatments that did not really seem to have a foundation in medical thought as it existed at the time. He diagnosed Sumner with a contrecoup brain injury, which is an injury that develops on the opposite side from the point of the impact. His treatment involved burning the skin along Sumner's spine over the course of 66 weeks. This raised concern and alarm from Sumner's friends. Like these were not minor burns, some of them seemed very serious and during these treatments Sumner started experiencing angina which he dealt with for the rest of his life.

[Holly Fry]

Four years passed before Sumner was well enough to fully be able to resume his work in the Senate. During that time he was re elected. The Massachusetts legislature saw his empty Senate chair as a visible reminder of what had happened to him and the brutality of slavery.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

This whole attack on Sumner is seen as one of the things that led up to the US Civil War and kind of made it seem like tensions between the north and south could not be resolved. Civil War, of course started after Sumner returned to the Senate and we will get to that after a sponsor break. It's the coziest time of year on Britbox. That means making piping hot tea on a chilly day, wrapping yourself in something soft on the sofa and getting lost in a brilliant series. This holiday season, Britbox has you sorted with the best of British tv. Curl up with eyebrow raising mysteries on the cliffy English coast in the new season of Beyond Paradise. Escape to sweeping countryside manors where headline making scandal is just another Tuesday in Outrageous or patrol the charged streets and criminal underbellies of Belfast in the new season of the BAFTA win police drama Blue Lights. Britbox gives you the kind of entertainment that makes being home on a blustery day a true luxury. So however you cozy, it's all a bit warmer with Britbox. See holidays differently when you stream the best of British TV with BritBox. Watch with a free trial today at BritBox.com.

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[Tracy V. Wilson]

Charles Sumner returned to the U.S. senate full time in 1859, and he continued to represent Massachusetts for well over a decade. On June 4th of 1860, he delivered his first major speech after his return to the Senate called the Barbarism of Slavery. This was another long speech. It was about 30,000 words, and it began, quote, when I last entered into this debate, it became my duty to expose the crime against Kansas and to insist upon the immediate admission of that territory as a state of this Union, with a Constitution forbidding slavery. Time has passed, but the question remains.

[Holly Fry]

This speech made it obvious that Sumner would not back down, even after being severely beaten. After his last speech, he went on to say, quote, the slave trade is bad, but even this enormity is petty compared with that elaborate contrivance by which, in a Christian age, and within the limits of a republic, all forms of constitutional liberty were perverted, by which all the rights of human nature were violated, and the whole country was held trembling on the edge of civil war, while all this large exuberance of wickedness, destable in itself, becomes tenfold more detestable when its origin is traced to the madness.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

For slavery, he continued, quote, slavery must be resisted not only on Political grounds, but on all other grounds, whether social, economical or moral. Ours is no holiday contest. It is a solemn battle between right and wrong, between good and evil. Such a battle cannot be fought with excuses or rose water. There is austere work to be done and freedom cannot consent to fling away any of her weapons.

[Holly Fry]

While this was an anti slavery speech, it had some racist elements, like comparing enslavers to these so called uncivilized primitive peoples of the world, meaning various indigenous peoples. He also compared enslavers to Brigham Young's practice of polygamy in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

A number of pro slavery senators walked out of this speech and afterward Sumner got death threats and people started to worry about what would happen if Republican Abraham Lincoln became President in the upcoming 1860 election. There were a lot of worries about Lincoln becoming president from multiple directions. And it seemed likely that Sumner would wind up with a lot of power. If Lincoln were president, people on both sides of the aisle thought that he might be just too radical to be entrusted with that power.

[Holly Fry]

But this speech was widely praised by abolitionists. Frederick Douglass printed it in his paper along with the statement, quote, at last the right word has been spoken in the chamber of the American Senate. Long and sadly have we waited for an utterance like this. And we're beginning to despair of getting anything of the sort of from the present generation of Republican statesmen. But Senator Sumner has exceeded our hopes and filled up the measure of all that we have long desired in the senatorial discussions of slavery.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Of course, Abraham Lincoln was elected president and soon after that southern states started seceding from the Union. South Carolina was the first to do so on December 24, 1860 with its declaration of secession, citing quote, un increasing hostility on the part of the non slave holding states to the institution of slavery. Other states followed, with many of them issuing similar statements, citing that they were leaving the Union over the issue of slavery.

[Holly Fry]

Initially, Sumner thought that if only the most extreme slaveholding states seceded, it might be best for the Union to just let them. He thought those states wouldn't be strong enough to form a functioning national government and that they'd also be vulnerable to slave uprisings. He envisioned something like the Haitian Revolution taking place in those states. Sumner's late father had been in Haiti during the Revolution and Sumner saw it as evidence that black people could advocate for and govern themselves.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Sumner's earlier advocacy had included anti war advocacy and one of his earliest major speeches that we talked about in part one had been an anti war speech. But as states were seceding from the Union, he started to conceive of the oncoming Civil War as a just one and one that could put an end to slavery. And since the south saw enslaved people as property, he thought that under the rules of war that property could be confiscated and then freed.

[Holly Fry]

President Lincoln made Sumner chair of the Senate Foreign relations committee. On May 13, 1861, shortly after the start of the Civil War, Queen Victoria issued a statement of neutrality and the Confederacy started working to try to get British support for their cause. Although Britain had abolished slavery, the British economy was deeply interconnected with the southern cotton industry. Sumner had to work to try to keep Britain from becoming involved in the war on the side of the Confederacy.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

He also had to try to keep Secretary of State William H. Seward from antagonizing the UK and possibly getting into a war with the United States. At one point, this required him to do something he really didn't want to do. A U.S. army officer captured two Confederate diplomats from a British mail ship that was headed to London. They were James Mason and John Slidell, who had both served with Sumner in the Senate. They had both been on the opposite side from Sumner. Northerners were delighted by the two men's capture, but the British thought this was a violation of international law and they demanded that the men be released. Sumner had to convince Seward and the President to release these two men, even though he would have rather them stay in custody because if they did not do so, they would wind up at war with Britain and possibly also with France because France had also condemned the men's capture.

[Holly Fry]

When the Civil War started, Lincoln's goal was to preserve the Union. Charles Sumner played a major role in convincing him to make it about putting an end to slavery. This should not be interpreted as friendly, mutually supportive work. The two men had very fierce arguments about it.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Black men at this point had been advocating for themselves to be able to enlist in the U. S. Army. And during the war, Sumner took up that cause as well. He also argued for emancipation to be part of the Republican party platform. And he worked on getting the United States to recognize the governments of Haiti and Liberia and to negotiate a treaty with the United Kingdom to try to stop the transatlantic slave trade.

[Holly Fry]

Some of the issues Sumner became involved with during these years had to do with the citizenship rights of Black men. In 1857, the U.S. supreme Court had issued its decision in Dred Scott vs Sanford, including that people of African descent were not and were not intended to be US Citizens. That meant that they could not petition US Courts and that they could not be issued US Passports. Robert Morris came to Sumner on behalf of his son who wanted to go attend a university in France. Since he was excluded from most colleges in the U. S because of his race. Sumner took this matter up with the Secretary of State who ultimately issued Morris's son a passport.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Similarly, In February of 1865, Sumner helped a black lawyer named John Rock get admitted to the Supreme Court bar. Rock had approached Sumner to ask for his help with this. And in addition to Sumner feeling like it was just the right thing to do, he thought that if the Supreme Court admitted a black lawyer to its bar, that would help undermine that earlier decision in Dred Scott.

[Holly Fry]

During the Civil War, Sumner also developed a close relationship with first lady Mary Todd Lincoln. This really started after the death of Lincoln's son, 11 year old Willie, who died on February 20, 1862. She became depressed in a way that sounds very similar to what Sumner experienced after the marriages of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Samuel Gridley Howe. Sumner had also been through a whole series of personal tragedies including the death of his twin sister, the loss of his brother Albert and Albert's whole family in a shipwreck and and the death of another brother, Horace in another shipwreck. Sumner's brother George had been injured in an accident and was paralyzed and he was slowly dying. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's wife Fanny had also died and Sumner had not only lost her as a friend, but was also watching Longfellow, who dearly loved her, grieve for her. Sumner became Mary Todd Lincoln's closest male friend as their losses seemed to bring them together. He also talked to her a lot about slavery and she credited him with convincing her to be an abolitionist.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

In 1862, Sumner started trying to build an argument in the Senate that the states that had seceded from the Union no longer existed as states, but the land those states had occupied was still U. S. Territory. Territories were controlled by Congress which had extremely broad authority to pass laws to govern them. So Sumner believed that the Constitution allowed for Congress to simply rewrite the constitutions of the seceded states so that those constitutions would outlaw slavery. I feel like this is a really good argument. The Senate of course did not go for this plan.

[Holly Fry]

However, more and more Republicans started describing themselves as radicals and pushing for legislation that would free people. This included the Second Confiscation act which freed enslaved persons who were able to reach territory that was held by the U.S. army. Congress also abolished slavery in Washington D.C. and in U. S Territories with provisions to compensate enslavers for the loss of their alleged property.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah, that's another thing, yet another thing that we've talked about on the show before when we talked about the the Contraband Camp and other episodes. After months of negotiations and discussions, Lincoln issued the preliminary emancipation proclamation on September 22, 1862. This was something that Sumner had been advocating for and it gave the rebelling states a hundred days to either return to the Union or have their enslaved population freed. We have an episode on this document that's from August of 2016. Of course, the rebelling states did not return to the Union, and on January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation which proclaimed that all persons being held as slaves in the rebelling states were now free. This was exactly the kind of emancipating people that Sumner had been arguing for, but he also felt this did not go far enough. There were a lot of people who were still enslaved.

[Holly Fry]

The Civil War would go on for more than a year after this, but Sumner was already thinking about what would need to happen during Reconstruction. He argued that by seceding from the Union, the Southern states had lost the protections that are given to the states under the Constitution and that to return to the Union they would have to form a republican government that would give equal franchise to black men. He also started proposing bills that would redistribute land to freed people, understanding that freed people would need some way to support themselves.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

The United States won the Civil War, which ended in the spring of 1865. We will talk about Sumner's work during Reconstruction after another sponsor break. It's the coziest time of year on Britbox. That means making piping hot tea on a chilly day, wrapping yourself in something soft on the sofa, and getting lost in a brilliant series. This holiday season, Britbox has you sorted with the best of British tv. Curl up with eyebrow raising Mysterious on the cliffy English coast in the new season of Beyond Paradise. Escape to sweeping countryside manors where headline making scandal is just another Tuesday in Outrageous. Or patrol the charged streets and criminal underbellies of Belfast in the new season of the BAFTA winning police drama Blue Lights. Britbox gives you the kind of entertainment that makes being home on a blustery day a true luxury. So however you cozy, it's all a bit warmer with Britbox. See holidays differently when you stream the best of British TV with BritBox. Watch with a free trial today at BritBox.com.

[Holly Fry]

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[Tracy V. Wilson]

After the Civil War, Charles Sumner was a huge advocate for a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery. Among other things, he worked with the Women's National Loyal League, founded by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. He submitted the League's petition on the subject, nicknamed the Mammoth Petition, to Congress. It had about a hundred thousand signatures, two thirds of them women and one third of them men.

[Holly Fry]

This amendment would ultimately become the 13th amendment to the Constitution. Sumner argued for it to include equality under the law and not to include involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime, neither of which happened. While he supported the amendment, he wasn't a huge part of getting it drafted, passed and ratified. As should be obvious by now, Sumner often just was not a very diplomatic person, and even people who agreed with him could find him relentless and almost zealous and hard to work with. And even though he worked with Stanton and Anthony on the Mammoth Petition, he was never a public advocate for women's Rights.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Sumner was made chair of the Senate Select Committee on Slavery and Freedom, and he introduced bills to repeal the Fugitive slave Act of 1850, to give black people the right to testify in federal court, to hire black postal workers, to desegregate streetcars, and to get equal pay for black soldiers. He also introduced a bill to try to create an independent federal agency specifically to assist the freed people. This was a proposal that was controversial, including among some Republicans, because some legislators did not think white people should be excluded from getting that kind of aid. While Sumner's bill on this did not pass, a different bill establishing the Freedmen's Bureau did. Later on, as all of this was.

[Holly Fry]

Happening, the federal government was trying to figure out how the states that had rebelled could be readmitted to the Union. A proposal to readmit Louisiana allowed it to have a constitution that did not give black men the right to vote. Sumner saw voting rights as critically necessary to achieving racial equality, and he was afraid of the precedent it would set if Louisiana were readmitted under these terms. He said he would, quote, employ every parliamentary device which is allowable to stop Louisiana from being admitted. And then he did, introducing all kinds of amendments to the bill, filibustering, and just on and on. He did this knowing that he was running the risk of destroying his relationship to the President, since the readmission of states seats was part of Lincoln's Reconstruction plan.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Sumner and Lincoln were still on reasonably good terms, though, when Lincoln was inaugurated for a second term on March 4, 1865, and Sumner escorted the first lady to the Inaugural Ball. But a little more than a month later, Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. Sumner rushed to Lincoln's side when he heard that the President had been shot, reportedly sitting by Lincoln's bedside for hours as he died, weeping and holding his hand.

[Holly Fry]

Sumner helped plan Lincoln's funeral, and he had meetings with his successor, Andrew Johnson, to discuss Reconstruction plans. Sumner was optimistic after these initial meetings because Johnson gave him the impression that he was in favor of black suffrage. But of course, this was not at all the case. When Sumner saw Johnson's actual Reconstruction proposals, which included things like a blanket amnesty for most Confederate soldiers and the readmission of states without black suffrage, he described them as madness.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

In 1866, Congress was working on what would become the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which finally incorporated the idea of equal protection under the law, something that Sumner had been talking about going all the way back to Roberts versus the city of Boston. This amendment also included language about how Representatives were apportioned among the states based on their population. The constitution originally counted 3/5 of the number of enslaved people in each state, known, of course, as the three fifths compromise. The 14th Amendment instead counted the whole number of persons in each state, quote, excluding Indians not taxed. But if a state denied any male inhabitant under the age of 21 the right to vote under the 14th Amendment, unless that person had participated in a rebellion or other crime, that state's representation would be reduced in proportion to the number of men who were excluded. In other words, under the 14th amendment, states could exclude black men from the vote if they were willing to also exclude their black population from that apportionment equation.

[Holly Fry]

Sumner was opposed to this language. He gave a speech on the subject called the Equal Rights of all on February 5th and 6th, 1866, in which he said the time had come in which, quote, all compromise of human rights should cease. He also laid out an argument Based on Article 4, Section 4 of the Constitution, known as the Republican Guarantee Clause, which says, in part, quote, the United States shall guarantee to every state in this Union a Republican form of government. In Sumner's opinion, any state that did not give black men the right to vote did not have a Republican form of government. So the Constitution empowered the federal government to force the issue. As happened with so many of Sumner's Senate speeches, he was applauded from the gallery, but he didn't get much of a response from the other senators.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Sumner's mother died in June of 1866, and by September of that year he was engaged to a young woman named Alice hooper. She was 26 and he was 55, and they got married on October 17th. They were not well matched at all. Among other things, she wanted an active social life and he wanted to stay at home. She started a very flirty friendship with a diplomat who was closer to her age and her temperament. And even though this seems to have been platonic, there were rumors that it was not. She and Sumner quickly separated and eventually divorced, and she spread rumors that Sumner was impotent. We already talked about Sumner being mocked and facing suspicion for being a bachelor. Now he faced the same for his failed relationship and the rumors about both him and his ex wife.

[Holly Fry]

Sumner continued to introduce ambitious bills and amendments in the Senate. He tried to expand the Homestead act to explicitly apply to the land claims of freed people. The Homestead act didn't technically mention race, but most of the people who were able to claim land through it were white. He also tried to introduce an amendment to establish free, integrated public schools across the country. These efforts failed.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

In 1867, the Reconstruction act finally set the requirements of for states to be readmitted into the Union. States had to draft new constitutions which had to be approved by a majority of the voters, which included black men, and they had to ratify the 14th Amendment. Johnson vetoed this bill, but Congress overrode his Veto.

[Holly Fry]

Also in 1867, Sumner helped ratify the treaty that had been secretly drafted for the United States to purchase Alaska from the Russian Empire. Finding that there wasn't a lot of widely available information about the area, Sumner also drafted a whole treatise on it based on everything he could find at the Library of Congress. Sumner's writing about Alaska simultaneously acknowledged the harm that the indigenous population had faced while living under the Russian Empire, while also implying that the best course of action for the United States would be to establish mission schools to civilize them. Somewhat similarly to how Sumner never really advocated for women's rights. His comments on the rights of indigenous peoples were largely limited to condemning specific massacres or acts of violence.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

In 1868, President Johnson unilaterally fired Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, which violated the Tenure of Office act of 1867. So Johnson was impeached and Sumner was strongly in favor of that impeachment. Beyond just the violation of the Tenure of Office Act. Sumner thought the impeachment might pave the way for a President who was actually committed to equal rights for black people. This was the first presidential impeachment in US History, and Johnson was acquitted.

[Holly Fry]

Just before the end of Johnson's term, Congress passed the 15th Amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing black men the right to vote. While this sounds like exactly the sort of thing Sumner would have supported, he abstained from voting on it. He didn't think the amendment was doing anything more than an ordinary law would do, and it didn't prohibit tactics that could be used to keep black men from voting, like expensive poll taxes and unfair literacy tests.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah, he had a lot of foresight on this issue. Ulysses S. Grant had been elected as the next president, and after his inauguration that March, he and Sumner frequently butted heads. In the words of Secretary of State hamilton fish in 1871, quote, no wild bull ever dashed more violently at a red flag than he goes at anything he thinks the President is interested in.

[Holly Fry]

One big issue was Grant's proposed annexation of the Dominican Republic, then known as Santo Domingo, which Grant worked on secretly. Getting into all the details of this would have turned this into a four part podcast, but the short version is that Sumner was strongly opposed. In addition to the fact that it had intentionally been kept secret from him. Even though he was chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Sumner thought Dominican President Buenaventura Baez was a corrupt dictator who was being enabled by the United States. He was also furious that the US had dispatched warships to Haiti to determine Haitian retaliation against the plan. This conflict ultimately led Sumner to being removed as chair of the Senate Foreign relations committee.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

In 1870, Sumner started working with black attorney John Mercer Langston to draft a civil rights bill which included the right to access public accommodations, including theaters, regardless of a person's race, as well as the integration of of schools and hospitals. Republicans had a majority in Congress and Sumner thought this bill would easily pass. But a lot of these ideas and the intensity of Sumner's devotion to them were considered so radical that he started losing the support of his party. He would reintroduce this civil rights bill every Congressional session for the rest of his life.

[Holly Fry]

In 1872, Congress started working on the Amnesty act, which removed restrictions that prohibited most former Confederates from holding state or federal office. Sumner tried to append his civil rights bill to it. This is a move that biographer Zakir Tamise describes in his 2025 book, Charles Sumner, Conscience of a Nation as quote, extraordinary in its prescience and moral clarity. It forced Congress to have a debate on the issue of civil rights for black people. Because the Amnesty act was written to override a portion of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, it had to have a 2/3 majority to pass. It didn't get that majority with Sumner's civil rights bill attached, but a standalone version of just the Amnesty Bill was passed later.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

By this point, Sumner was frequently ill. He had started to wonder if it was time to retire. He made another trip to France for more treatment. By Charles Edouard Brown Sicard. After returning to the Senate, Sumner proposed a constitutional amendment that would limit the Presidency to a single term, and one that would have elected the President through a popular vote. If no candidate won a majority of votes in this popular vote he proposed, a runoff would be held. Obviously, neither of those constitutional amendments passed.

[Holly Fry]

In December of 1872, Sumner was censured after he proposed a bill that would prohibit regimental flags from celebrating Union victories in the Civil War. His belief was that victories over fellow citizens should not be celebrated even in the context of a Civil War. But people interpreted the whole thing as anti veteran. After ongoing petitions for his censure to be rescinded, it finally was in January of 1874.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

A few months later, on March 11, 1874, Charles Sumner died at the age of 63 after a heart attack. Back as he was dying, Sumner repeatedly talked about his Civil Rights bill, saying over and over that it should not be allowed to fail.

[Holly Fry]

A congressional delegation escorted his body to the capitol flanked by 300 black men, including Frederick Douglass. After his body lay in state in the Rotunda, it was transported to Boston by rail where he lay in state in the State House. His funeral was held at King's Chapel and afterward tens of thousands of people, including thousands of black Massachusetts residents and a uniformed black honor guard, were part of the five mile procession to Mount Auburn Cemetery where he was buried. There were flowers everywhere at his services, including a shield made of white carnations and blue violets, the violets spelling out the words do not let the Civil Rights Bill fail.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Henry Ward Beecher said of Sumner, quote, he was a man of courage and of fidelity to his convictions. He never meanly calculated. He never asked the question whether it was dangerous to speak. He was one of those heroic spirits that carried the fight further than it needed to be carried. He erred by an excess of bravery. He was a self sacrificing man, giving up every prospect of light life for the sake of doing his duty and establishing rectitude.

[Holly Fry]

The executor of Sumner's estate was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who tried to gather and preserve his correspondence. Samuel Gridley Howe sent only the letters he thought were appropriate.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

In the wake of Sumner's death, Congress passed the Civil Rights act of 1875, which was not nearly as broad as what Sumner had been striving for. It did say that, quote, all persons within the jurisdiction of the United States shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the accommodations, advantages, facilities and privileges of inns, public conveyances on land or water, theaters and other places of public amusement, subject only to the conditions and limitations established by law and applicable alike to citizens of every race and color, regardless of any previous condition of servitude. This act was not widely enforced and the Supreme Court struck it down as unconstitutional in 1883. A lot of Sumner's proposed provisions though did become law under the Civil Rights act of 1964, almost 100 years later. That is our three parts on Charles Sumner.

[Holly Fry]

Do you have a single part listener mail?

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I do. It is from Krista. Krista wrote, hi Holly and Tracy. I learned a few years ago that the most common animal that causes deaths is mosquitoes. So I joined Tracy in disliking mosquitoes for that alone. I know they're good for the ecosystem, but It's a shame they spread so many diseases. I also hate ticks. Ticks do not occur where I lived when I was a kid which was in Ontario. The idea of ticks is so vile and now my area of the world is a hotspot of Lyme disease. Something like half of ticks test positive for Lyme where I am some test positive for anaplasmosis and babiosis. Very rude. So I appreciated Tracy saying she is on the same page as me. I would also get a lyme vaccine with 75% reduction. Yay science. I'm looking forward to spooky season podcasts and I'm looking forward to December holiday slash Christmassy podcasts. I love baking podcast and the eponymous food, sewing history, anything and everything science related and as many whimsical themes as you can come up with. And I miss Krampus and Friends. But of course the reason you don't do them every year is because how many can possibly be left? So I was trying to find new friends and research to help. I don't think I found enough for one episode, but I found a few things so I'm passing them along in case others help you out. And between all this you can cobble together an episode. La Befana is still my favorite, but I've enjoyed them all. And then there is just a list of possible ideas for maybe future Krampus and Friends. So I'll be making sure that Holly has this since Krampus and Friends has been Holly's holiday winter season tradition. Yeah, I just was I also just wanted to say yes. Ticks, mosquitoes. Still not a fan. So thank you so much for this email, Krista and these ideas. If you would like to send us a note about this or any other podcast, we're@history podcastheartradio.com and you can subscribe to our show on the iHeartRadio app and anywhere else you like to get your podcasts. Stuff youf Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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[Tracy V. Wilson]

It'S the.

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[Tracy V. Wilson]

Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap.

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[Tracy V. Wilson]

There the last one. Enjoy a Coca Cola for a pause that refreshes. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.