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History and Government—Congressional Biographies—MassachusettsCharles SUMNER
(1811-1874)
Senate Years of Service:
1851-1855; 1855-1857; 1857-1873; 1873-1874Party: Free Soil; Opposition;
Republican; Liberal RepublicanSUMNER, Charles, a Senator
from Massachusetts; born in Boston, Mass., January 6, 1811;
attended the Boston Latin School; graduated from Harvard University
in 1830 and from the Harvard Law School in 1833; admitted to the
bar the following year and commenced the practice of law in Boston,
Mass.; lectured at the Harvard Law School 1836-1837; traveled
extensively in Europe 1837-1840; declined the Whig nomination in
1846 for election to the Thirtieth Congress; one of the founders of
the Free Soil Party in 1848; unsuccessful candidate for election in
1848 on the Free Soil ticket to the Thirty-first Congress; elected
to the United States Senate in 1851 as a Free Soiler; reelected as
a Republican in 1857, 1863, and 1869 and served from April 24,
1851, until his death; in response to his “Crime Against
Kansas” speech, was assaulted by Representative Preston
Brooks of South Carolina on May 22, 1856, while in his seat in the
Senate, and was absent on account of injuries received until
December 1859; chairman, Committee on Foreign Relations
(Thirty-seventh through Forty-first Congresses), Committee on
Privileges and Elections (Forty-second Congress); removed as
chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations in 1871 as a result
of differences with President Ulysses S. Grant over policy in Santo
Domingo; died in Washington, D.C., March 11, 1874; lay in state in
the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, March 13, 1874; interment in Mount
Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Mass.
Bibliography
Dictionary of American Biography; The Yale Biographical
Dictionary of American Law; Donald, David Herbert. Charles
Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War. New York: Knopf, 1960;
Donald, David Herbert. Charles Sumner and the Rights of Man.
New York: Knopf, 1970.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present
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