Although Sumner had played little role in the passage of these antislavery bills, Douglass believed the credit belonged to him. “To you, more than to any other American Statesman, belongs the honor of this great triumph,” he wrote. He said he rejoiced not only for his “freed brothers” but for Sumner himself. “You have lived to strike down in Washington the power—that lifted the bludgeon against your own free voice,” Douglass observed.
