Page:Memorial services.djvu/14

 destiny, molded oat of the matrix of heaven by the command of God, to front the reformatory measures borned in the middle of the nineteenth century, and well did he do the work assigned. What staggered Hale and disheartened Chase, only fired the soul of the great Sumner. The Southern statesmen for years had swayed a sceptre of political power over this country, till in many respects they regarded themselves as lords of the manor, but in Mr. Sumner they had an antagonist they were unable to cope with in learning or baffle in argument. But South Carolina the pestiferous State of my nativity, was so bent upon silencing his otherwise impregnable batteries, that she resorted to the bludgeon in the hands of Preston S. Brooks. The sequence was, that in May, 1856, Mr Sumner was knocked down in the Senate Chamber, drenched in his own blood, and the skull that enclosed the finest brain in the world was fractured for life, but this was only the harbinger of greater results. While Mr. Sumner was for a short time silent from the brutal effects of a cowardly assault upon his person, the silence was counter-ballanced by the thunders of a hundred volcanoes, which spit forth angry fire, smoke, and seething lava in terrible ebulitions to the consternation of every like ruffian, for the whole North was mad, and even the South was mantled in shame and had to censure her own hero. But the blood of the saints are said to be the seed of the Church, and so it was in this case, the blood of Mr. Sumner proved to be the seed of liberty, for although he so far recovered as to be able to resume his seat in that body, when he returned, he went with a feeble constitution, but a stronger will and a greater soul, where both he and the blood he shed so profusely, plead the cause of the oppressed. From that time till the overthrow of slavery, Mr. Sumner spoke to man but his blood spoke to God, Mr. Sumner cried to earth but his blood cried to Heaven, Mr. Sumner plead in the Senate but his blood plead in the skies. Mr. Sumner with his solid reason and thrilling eloquence touched the hearts of millions, but his blood touched the heart of God, Mr. Sumner marshalled the armies of the nation against the institution of slavery, but his blood marshalled the armies of heaven.