This speech given by Charles Sumner, entitled “The Republican Party: It’s Origin, Necessity & Permanence,” was delivered to the Young Men’s Republican Union of New York, at the Cooper Institute, on July 11, 1860. The speech was published in the National Anti-Slavery Standard, depicted here. Sumner, a senator from Massachusetts, was perhaps most well known for his speech, “Crime Against Kansas,” delivered in May 1856. Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina assaulted Sumner in response to his speech.
Sumner’s “Republican Party” speech expounds on the views of John Quincy Adams, who opposed slavery, and John C. Calhoun, who supported slavery. Both Adams and Calhoun were deceased by the time the speech was given.
Image Courtesy Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield; WICR 32389