Volume 4 — A LIBERTY-LOVING EMIGRATION TO GUARD KANSAS.

Letter to a Massachusetts Committee, May 1, 1854.

Senate Chamber, May 1, 1854.

My Dear Sir,—I cannot be with you at your meeting on Wednesday next: my post of duty is here. But I must not lose the opportunity afforded by your invitation to express anew my abhorrence of the outrage upon Freedom and public faith attempted by the Nebraska Bill, and to offer my gratitude to those who unite in the good work of opposing it.

In this warfare there is room for every human activity. By speech, vote, public meeting, sermon, and prayer, we have already striven. But a new agent is now announced. It is proposed to organize a company of Liberty-loving citizens, who shall enter upon the broad lands in question, and by example, voice, and vote, trained under the peculiar institutions of Massachusetts, overrule the designs of slave-masters. The purpose has a nobleness which gives assurance of success.

With a heart full of love for Massachusetts, her schools, libraries, churches, and happy homes, I should hesitate to counsel any one to turn away from her, a voluntary exile. I do not venture such advice. But if any there be among us, to whom our goodly Commonwealth seems narrow, and who incline to cast their lines in other places,—to such I would say, that they will do well, while becoming, each for himself, the artificer of his fortune, to enter into the Sacred Legion by which Liberty shall be safely guarded in Nebraska and Kansas. Thus will mingle public good with private advantage.

The Pilgrim Fathers turned their backs upon their native land to secure Liberty for themselves and their children. The emigrants whom you organize have a higher motive. Liberty for themselves and their children is already secured in Massachusetts. They will go to secure Liberty for others,—to guard an immense territory from the invasion of Slavery, and to dedicate it forever to Liberty. In such an expedition volunteers may win a victory of peace, which history will record with admiration and gratitude.

Believe me, dear Sir,

Very faithfully yours,

Charles Sumner.

Thomas Drew, Esq., Chairman of the Committee.