Sumner, Charles (1811-1874), was a famous statesman and antislavery leader in the United States. He helped found the Republican Party in 1854. He favored freeing the slaves and giving them the right to vote.
Sumner was born in Boston. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1833. He joined the antislavery Free Soil Party in 1848 and was elected to the United States Senate from Massachusetts in 1851.
Before the start of the Civil War (1861-1865), Sumner opposed any compromise with the South on the issue of slavery. His Senate speeches were often personally directed at Southern senators. One speech in 1856 included several sneering remarks about Senator Andrew P. Butler of South Carolina. Two days later, Representative Preston S. Brooks, a relative of Butler’s, attacked Sumner in the Senate, beating him severely.
Sumner supported President Abraham Lincoln’s policies during the Civil War. But Sumner believed that Lincoln’s reconstruction plans for the South did not protect the civil rights of black people or guarantee against further rebellion by the South. For these same reasons, Sumner also opposed the postwar plans of President Andrew Johnson.
