Charles Sumner and the Rights of Man

1121 Charles Sumner and the Rights of Man, by David Donald (read 25 Jul 1971) This is the second volume of Donald's two-volume biography of Charles Sumner. I read the first volume on Mar 17, 1968, and just now realized the second volume had come out in 1970. So I have read it with avidity. It has the format of perfect biography. The footnotes are copious and on the same page as the number indicators. The chronological sequence is good, and it is easy to keep track of the year. Substantively, some of the things Sumner was involved in during the years covered by this volume (1861 to his death on March 11, 1874) were not too interesting to me (e.g., I have never been too intrigued by the effort to annex Santo Domingo) but this book show more presents all well. Sumner was a difficult person--ego-centered, long-winded, with touches of monomania. Withal, he was right on much and would have rejoiced over Brown v. Board of Education (1954) and its sequelae. One minor note: this book stops with his death, and so his funeral--and Senator Lamar's tribute--go unmentioned. I hadn't even known that Sumner came out for Greeley in 1872 and so held no committee positions from Dec 1872 till he died. Earlier, in 1871, he had been ousted from his longtime position as chairman of Foreign Relations. Sumner, of course, was a 'Pater Senatus', serving from Mar 16, 1851 to Mar 11, 1874--he became dean of the Senate when Solomon Foot died on March 28, 1866. A worthwhile book. show less