to the party of the Union."

Charles Sumner, the leader of the radicals in the Senate, was moved less than
Stevens by personal hostility toward the whites of the South, but his sympathy
was reserved entirely for the blacks. He was unpractical, theoretical, and not
troubled by constitutional scruples. To him the Declaration of Independence
was the supreme law, and it was the duty of Congress to express its principles
in appropriate legislation. Unlike Stevens, who had a genuine liking for the
Negro, Sumner's sympathy for the race was purely intellectual; for the
individual Negro he felt repulsion. His views were in effect not different
from those of Stevens. And he was practical enough not to overlook the value
of the Negro vote. "To my mind," he said, "nothing is clearer than the
absolute necessity of suffrage for all colored persons in the disorganized
states. It will not be enough if you give it to those who read and write; you
will not, in this way, acquire the voting force which you need there for the
protection of unionists, whether white or black. You will not secure the new
allies who are essential to the national cause." A leader of the second rank
was his colleague Henry Wilson, who was also actuated by a desire for the
Negro's welfare and for the perpetuation of the Republican party, which he
said contained in its ranks "more of moral and intellectual worth than was
ever embodied in any political organization in any land . . . created by no
man or set of men but brought into being by Almighty God himself . . . and
endowed by the Creator with all political power and every office under
Heaven." Shellabarger of Ohio was another important figure among the radicals.
The following extract from one of his speeches gives an indication of his
character and temperament: "They [the Confederates] framed iniquity and
universal murder into law . . . . Their pirates burned your unarmed commerce
upon every sea. They carved the bones of the dead heroes into ornaments, and
drank from goblets made out of their skulls. They poisoned your fountains, put
mines under your soldiers' prisons; organized bands whose leaders were