Charles Sumner: Conscience of a Nation

by Zaakir Tameez

AN AMERICAN NAVAL OFFICER PAID CHARLES SUMNER A VISIT. DISTURBED by the actions at Fort Sumter, he wanted to seek the senator’s advice on what he should do. South Carolinian by birth and education, the officer couldn’t make up his mind about which side to serve. He was loyal to the American flag, which he had sworn to protect, but his friends and family were in South Carolina, which he called home. “What shall I do, if my ship is ordered to the South to coerce my own people?” the officer sheepishly asked Sumner. “Read your commission, sir,” Sumner replied. He was referring to the official U.S. government certificate that the officer had received when becoming a soldier. “But suppose my ship is ordered to Charleston?” The officer pushed back. “Read your commission, sir,” Sumner repeated. The officer kept offering hypotheticals: “But suppose she ranges her broadsides against the city of my birth? But Senator, what if I am ordered to fire on my father’s plantation?” Sumner didn’t think any of it mattered. Frustrated by the officer’s uncertainty, he barked at him, “Read your commission, sir.” In Sumner’s mind, loyalty to the American flag had no ifs, buts, or maybes. Reluctant as he was, the officer heeded Sumner’s advice and kept his post in the Union Navy.