nlike
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 concealed in your homes; and commissions ordered the torch
and yellow fever to be carried to your cities and to your women and
children. They planned one universal bonfire of the North from Lake
Ontario to the Missouri."

Among the lesser lights may be mentioned Morton and Wade, both bluff,
coarse, and ungenerous, and thoroughly convinced that the Republican
party had a monopoly of loyalty, wisdom, and virtues, and that by any
means it must gain and keep control; Boutwell, fanatical and mediocre;
and Benjamin Butler, a charlatan and demagogue. As a class the Western
radicals were less troubled by humanitarian ideals than were those of
the East and sought more practical political results.

The Joint Committee on Reconstruction which finally decided the fate
of