Nice clear CDV of Sumner from the waist up in a dark suit jacket and light vest with black tie. His spectacles hang from a chain in front of him. Image has some light discoloration along the top edge. Reverse has “SUMNER” in period ink at bottom and a photographer’s imprint of E. & H. T. ANTHONY from a Brady negative.

Charles Sumner was born January 6, 1811 in Boston Massachusetts. He attended Harvard College and later Harvard Law School graduating in 1834. After graduation he toured Europe and returned to the United States in 1840. In Boston he practiced law and became an orator. Active in anti-slavery issues he was instrumental in the state of Massachusetts abolishing school segregation in 1855 and helped found the Free-Soil political party which nominated Zachary Taylor for President.

On April 24, 1851 Sumner won election to the US Senate by one vote. During his time in the Senate Sumner spoke against the Fugitive Slave Law and the Kansas-Nebraska Act. For his efforts in the Senate Sumner was savagely beaten by a Southern Representative from South Carolina, Preston Brooks. The attack took place on May 22, 1856 on the floor of the Senate and Sumner was nearly killed. Upon his return to the Senate in 1859 he continued his attack on slavery.

Throughout the Civil War Sumner served in the Senate and became close to President Abraham Lincoln. Sumner was present when President Lincoln died on the morning of April 15, 1865. He stood by Robert Lincoln who rested his head on Sumner’s shoulder when the final moments came.

Sumner continued in office until his death on March 11, 1874 and is buried in Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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