EXPULSION OF TRUSTEN POLK, OF MISSOURI.

RESOLUTION AND REMARKS IN THE SENATE, DECEMBER 18, 1861.

DECEMBER 18, 1861, Mr. Sumner offered the following resolution, which, on his motion, was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. "Resolved, That Trusten Polk, of Missouri, now a traitor to the United States, be expelled, and he hereby is expelled, from the Senate."

Mr. Sumner produced a letter from Mr. Polk, which had found its way into the newspapers, where he says: "Dissolution is now a fact, not only a fact accomplished, but thrice repeated. Everything here looks like inevitable and final dissolution. Will Missouri hesitate a moment to go with her Southern sisters? I hope not."

Mr. Saulsbury, of Delaware, thought the letter was "not genuine," and added:

"He is a native of my own State; from early boyhood he has been an exemplary Christian, a member of a religious denomination; and when the phrase is used in that letter, professing to have been written by Trusten Polk, that he had to ante up $ 200,' I am satisfied the language is not the language of Trusten Polk. He is not familiar with scenes where hundreds of dollars areanted up.'"

Mr. Sumner replied:

I

DO not pretend to an opinion on the genuineness of the letter. Like the Senator from Delaware, I have seen it in several newspapers, and my attention. has been specially called to it by correspondents in Missouri, who write that its genuineness cannot be doubted. But this is a question for the Committee.

If I understand the Senator, his argument against the genuineness of the letter is founded on a phrase which

he thinks Trusten Polk could never have written: it is a phrase of doubtful style or taste, showing bad associations. I am not familiar enough with Trusten Polk to sit in judgment on his style, nor is the Senate called to any such responsibility; but we are to sit in judgment on his public conduct, and if the letter is not a forgery, there can be no question as to our duty.

Believing the inquiry important, not doubting the duty of the Senate to purge itself of traitors who have too long found sanctuary in its Chamber, and satisfied that the country justly expects this to be done, I have felt bound to introduce the resolution.

But there is more than the letter. The Senate has heard within a few days that this person has found his way to Memphis. Why is he at Memphis, when he should be at Washington?

Some time afterwards Mr. Sumner received from Missouri the very letter, in the undoubted autograph of Mr. Polk, and with the phrase which it was insisted he could not have written.

January 9, 1862, Mr. Ten Eyck, of New Jersey, reported the resolution from the Committee, with the unanimous recommendation that it pass.

January 10, the resolution was adopted without debate: Yeas, 36; Nays, 0.

EMANCIPATION AND THE PRESIDENT.

LETTER TO GOVERNOR ANDREW, OF MASSACHUSETTS, December 27, 1861.

THE following extract, copied from the letter-book of Governor Andrew, is a contemporary record of Mr. Sumner's efforts with the Governor, and also of an important remark by President Lincoln.

E

WASHINGTON, December 27, 1861.

We hope that in your Message you will keep Mas

sachusetts ahead, where she always has been, in the ideas of our movement. Let the doctrine of Emancipation be proclaimed as an essential and happy agency in subduing a wicked rebellion. In this way you will help a majority of the Cabinet, whose opinions on this subject are fixed, and precede the President himself by a few weeks. He tells me that I am ahead of him only a month or six weeks. God bless you!....

Ever yours,

CHARLES SUMNER.

THE TRENT CASE, AND MARITIME RIGHTS.

SPEECH IN THE SENATE, ON THE SURRENDER OF MASON and Slidell, REBEL AGENTS, TAKEN FROM THE BRITISH MAIL STEAMER TRENT, JANUARY 9, 1862. WITH APPENDIX.

[LAERTES wounds HAMLET; then, in scuffling, they change rapiers, and HAMLET wounds LAERTES ]

SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet, Act V. Scene 2.

It is, perhaps, well that you settled the matter by sending away the men at once. Consistently with your own principles you could not have justified - RICHARD COBDEN, MS. Letter to Mr. Sumner, January

their detention. 23, 1862.

7*

This announcement is not made, my Lord, to revive useless recollections of the past, nor to stir the embers from fires which have been in a great degree smothered by many years of peace. Far otherwise. Its purpose is to extinguish those fires effectually, before new incidents arise to fan them into flame. The communication is in the spirit of peace and for the sake of peace, and springs from a deep and conscientious conviction that high interests of both nations require this so long contested and controverted subject now to be finally put to rest. - DANIEL WEBSTER, Letter to Lord Ashburton, August 8, 1842: Works, Vol. VI. p. 325.