Elias Nason, The Life and Times of Charles Sumner: His Boyhood, Education and Public Career.

[272] letter of Andrew Jackson, containing these remarkable words: “Haman's gallows ought to be the fate of all such ambitious men, who would involve their country in a civil war, and all the evils in its train, that they might reign and ride on its whirlwinds, and direct the storm. . . . The tariff was only the pretext (for nullification), and disunion and a Southern confederacy the real object. The next pretext will be the negro or slavery question.”

To the Crittenden Compromise, introduced into the Senate Dec. 18, and recognizing slavery in the territory south of 36° 30′ north latitude, Mr. Sumner was unequivocally opposed. South Carolina passed the ordinance of secession on the twentieth day of December. Other States soon followed: stout hearts were trembling; yet through the tremendous agitation Mr. Sumner stood to principle firm as a rock. He saw the storm impending; he deprecated bloodshed; he felt that the best way to avert it was for the North to hold itself immovable. He exhorted every one to stand for the right with unwavering front. He wrote (Jan. 1) to William Claflin, President of the Massachusetts Senate, “Let the timid cry; but let Massachusetts stand stiff: God bless her!” To Count Gurowski, author of an admirable treatise on slavery, he wrote (Jan. 8), “These compromisers do not comprehend the glory of principle. ”