The Man at the Top of the Stairs
A portrait of Charles Sumner hangs to the right of the 2nd-floor landing window in the Emerson House. Photo by B. Ewen.
At the top of the stairs in the Emerson House hangs a photograph of a distinguished gentleman. This picture is displayed among portraits of cherished family members and United States Presidents Lincoln and Grant. Who was this individual, and how did his image come to occupy such an honored place in the Emersons’ home?
The portrait depicts U.S. Senator Charles Sumner, who represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate from 1851 to 1874. He was a vocal and fervent abolitionist, advocating antislavery agendas in Congress. Emerson’s connection with Sumner strengthened around their mutual antipathy toward the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. The law required citizens of free states to comply with the seizure and return of self-emancipated individuals to enslavement. “This is a filthy enactment,” Emerson wrote in his journal. Addressing the citizens of Concord on May 3, 1851, he declared, “Here is a statute which enacts the crime of kidnapping—a crime on one footing with arson and murder. A man’s right to liberty is as inalienable as his right to life.” He continued, “This law must be made inoperable. It must be abrogated and wiped out of the statute book. But whilst it stands, it must be disobeyed.”
On August 26, 1852, Senator Sumner spoke on his motion to repeal the Fugitive Slave Act. His speech established him as the voice of anti-slavery in the Senate. The galvanizing moment of Sumner’s senatorial career came during the Kansas-Nebraska Act debates on May 19 and 20, 1856, when he delivered a five-hour speech—32 double-columned pages—entitled “The Crime against Kansas.” He railed against slavery and hurled invective and insults at the South, and South Carolina in particular, personally naming some congressional members and their families.
This dishonor to the South would not go unanswered. On May 22, 1856, fury became violence on the Senate floor when South Carolina congressman Preston Brooks beat Sumner with a gold-headed walking cane, nearly killing him. Sumner’s lengthy, painful recovery lasted almost three years and he was unable to return to the Senate until 1859, where he then remained until his death in 1874.
Senator Charles Sumner
Depiction of Charles Sumner being beaten by Preston Brooks in the Senate chamber.
On May 26, 1856, Emerson spoke to the citizens of Concord on “The Assault Upon Mr. Sumner.” He remarked, “I do not see how a barbarous community and a civilized community can constitute one state. I think we must get rid of slavery, or we must get rid of freedom.” As the Civil War approached, Emerson continued to press for peace, realizing that this option was fast disappearing.
This bronze statue of Charles Sumner by Thomas Ball stands in Boston’s Public Garden.
In January 1862, Emerson’s lectures brought him to the Smithsonian Institute in the war-torn nation’s capital. With introductions from Sumner, Emerson met President Lincoln and the members of his cabinet.
Following the terrible Civil War, Sumner was active in Reconstruction, and from 1861-1871 he served as the influential Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In 1870, he co-authored and introduced the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which passed a year after his death and was signed into law by President Grant.
Sumner remained engaged in the work of the Senate until his death from a massive heart attack on March 11, 1874; he was 63 years old. On his deathbed, Sumner asked Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, former U.S. Attorney General, to deliver a message back to Concord. He said, “Judge, tell Emerson how much I love and revere him.”
Sumner lay in state at the U.S. Capitol and in the Massachusetts State House. His coffin was guarded by Civil War veterans from the famed African-American 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. With Emerson among the pallbearers, Sumner was interred in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Among the memorials that honor Charles Sumner today are an imposing statue in Boston’s Public Garden and another in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
— I. Bornstein, Emerson House guide
