Editorial Content for Charles Sumner: Conscience of a Nation

There is an ongoing discussion in present-day America regarding the nature of our political debate. Many have decried the anger and hostility that infiltrate our dialogue. Underlying this discussion is the belief that we should return to an earlier time in history when debate was far more civil and refined, but that is a falsely held view. By now, everyone who has seen Hamilton should recall that Alexander Hamilton’s death came from injuries suffered in a duel with his political opponent, Aaron Burr. Duels resulting from political arguments were a feature of early American politics.

Many might be surprised to learn that the floor of the United States Senate was once the scene of a vicious physical attack on Senator Charles Sumner. This incident is discussed in CHARLES SUMNER: Conscience of a Nation, a deeply researched and well-presented biography of a notable figure in history. That Zaakir Tameez was able to write this 533-page book while completing his third year at Yale Law School makes the accomplishment even more impressive.

"Viewing Sumner in a more contemporary light as an inspiring fighter for racial equality and a prescient advocate of constitutional theory makes this book an exceptional biographical study of the man and the times in which he lived."

Sumner’s time as an attorney and a politician is striking because of the many giants of American history whose intellectual careers touched his own. While a student at Harvard Law School, Sumner was under the tutelage of Justice Joseph Story, who would serve on the Supreme Court for 33 years. Story’s constitutional philosophy of a strong national government deeply influenced Sumner. After graduating from Harvard, Sumner met former President John Quincy Adams, a passionate antislavery advocate who taught him that the Declaration of Independence made a promise to the nation that “all men are created equal.” While Adams and Sumner agreed that the Constitution allowed slavery to exist in the states, they supported an amendment to abolish it in the US.

In 1849, Sumner was still a struggling attorney in Boston handling small claims and the occasional case that generated a reasonable fee. His reputation as a controversial young politician hampered his ability to draw major cases. But that changed when Robert Morris, one of two Black attorneys in Boston, contacted him about becoming co-counsel on a lawsuit seeking to integrate Boston’s public schools.

In addition to raising significant constitutional claims, Roberts v. City of Boston would be the first case in American legal history litigated by an interracial team. Sumner argued the claim of a young Black girl, Sarah Roberts, who sought to attend a public school near her home rather than the Black school located across town. He would advance constitutional theory and arguments that finally would be accepted by the Supreme Court a century later in Brown v. Board of Education. Sadly, in 1849, the Massachusetts Supreme Court was unwilling to adopt Sumner’s positions.

In 1851, Sumner was elected to the U.S. Senate as a member of the Free Soil Party. He later would join the newly formed Republican Party but was sometimes at odds with them because their position on slavery was not vigorous enough for him. On May 19 and 20, 1856, Sumner attacked supporters of the Kansas-Nebraska Act by name and labeled them as advocates for extending slavery to free states. On May 22nd, Preston Brooks, a Congressman from South Carolina, took to the Senate floor and brutally caned Sumner, who suffered permanent and debilitating injuries. This assault aroused passions in Northern states and made Sumner a martyr in the North. But it also made Brooks a hero in the South.

While there have been other biographies of Charles Sumner, including one that received a Pulitzer Prize, Tameez has the benefit of writing about his subject during the present period of political furor. Viewing Sumner in a more contemporary light as an inspiring fighter for racial equality and a prescient advocate of constitutional theory makes this book an exceptional biographical study of the man and the times in which he lived.