government which the Constitution guaranteed. The freedmen were of
course not citizens, and could, as such, take no part in these
proceedings; but Lincoln recommended, without attempting to dictate,
that the franchise should be extended to "the very intelligent and those
who have fought for us during the war."

Such was Lincoln's policy of reconstruction. He was anxious to get as
much as possible of that policy in working order before Congress should
meet. His foresight was justified, for as soon as Congress met the
policy was challenged by the Radical wing of the Republican Party,
whose spokesman was Senator Sumner of Massachusetts.

Charles Sumner has already been mentioned in these pages. The time has
come when something like a portrait of him must be attempted. He was of
a type which exists in all countries, but for which America has found
the exact and irreplaceable name. He was a "high-brow." The phrase
hardly needs explanation; it corresponds somewhat to what the French
mean by _intellectuel_, but with an additional touch of moral
priggishness which exactly suits Sumner. It does not, of course, imply
that a man can think. Sumner was conspicuous even among politicians for
his ineptitude in this respect. But it implies a pose of superiority
both as regards culture and as regards what a man of that kind calls
"idealism" which makes such an one peculiarly offensive to his
fellow-men. "The Senator so conducts himself," said Fessenden, a
Republican, and to a great extent an ally, "that he has no friends." He
had a peculiar command of the language of insult and vituperation that
was all the more infuriating because obviously the product not of sudden
temper, but of careful and scholarly preparation. In all matters
requiring practical action he was handicapped by an incapacity for
understanding men; in matters requiring mental lucidity by an incapacity
for following a line of consecutive thought.

The thesis of which Sumner appeared as the champion was about as silly
as ever a thesis could be. It was that the United States were bound by
the doctrine set out in the Declaration of Independence to extend the
Franchise indiscriminately to the Negroes.

Had Sumner had any sense it might have occurred to him that the author
of the Declaration of Independence might be presumed to have some
knowledge of its meaning and content. Did Thomas Jefferson think that
his doctrines involved Negro Suffrage? So far from desiring that Ne