Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 12 (of 20)

Volume twelve gathers a vibrant array of Charles Sumner’s public orations and private letters from the crucial year of 1864‑1865. Listeners will travel from his jubilant congratulations after Lincoln’s re‑election to impassioned pleas for equal rights, from heated Senate debates on the St. Albans raid to heartfelt tributes to the fallen president. The documents capture the urgency of wartime legislation, the fight to extend citizenship to Black soldiers, and early debates over Reconstruction policies.

Through Sumner’s precise prose and rhetorical vigor, the audio experience feels like sitting in a 19th‑century hall where the nation’s moral compass is being calibrated. The speeches on emancipation, foreign treaty terminations, and the push for free public education reveal a mind that linked liberty at home with national security abroad. Listeners gain a clear sense of how one statesman used every platform—senate floor, public rallies, private correspondence—to shape a post‑war America still wrestling with its promises.