The American Negro Academy celebrated the centenary of Charles Sumner atthe Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church, Washington, D. C., Fridayevening, January 6, 1911. On this occasion the program was as follows: “AMighty Fortress is our God,” by the choir of the church; Invocation, byRev. L. Z. Johnson, of Baltimore, Md.; the Historical address was nextdelivered by Mr. Archibald H. Grimke, President of the Academy, afterwhich Justice Wendell Phillips Stafford made a brief address. A solo, byDr. Charles Sumner Wormley, was sung; Vice-President Kelly Millerdelivered an address. A Poem, “Summer,” by Mrs. F. J. Grimke, was read byMiss Mary P. Burrill. Hon. Wm. E. Chandler made the closing address; afterwhich the Battle Hymn of the Republic was sung by the congregation, led bythe choir. The benediction was pronounced by Rev. W. V. Tunnell.
The oil painting of Mr. Sumner which occupied a place in front of thepulpit, was loaned by Dr. C. S. Wormley.
Every time a great man comes on the stage of human affairs, the fable ofthe Hercules repeats itself. He gets a sword from Mercury, a bow fromApollo, a breastplate from Vulcan, a robe from Minerva. Many streams frommany sources bring to him their united strength. How else could the greatman be equal to his time and task? What was true of the Greek Demigod waslikewise true of Charles Sumner. His study of the law for instance formedbut a part of his great preparation. The science of the law, not itspractice, excited his enthusiasm. He turned instinctively from thetechnicalities, the tergiversations, the gladiatorial display andcontention of the legal profession. To him they were but the ephemera ofthe long summertide of jurisprudence. He thirsted for the permanent, theever living springs and principles of the law. Grotius and Pothier andMansfield and Blackstone and Marshall and Story were the shining heightsto which he aspired. He had neither the tastes nor the talents to emulatethe Erskines and the Choates of the Bar.
His vast readings in the field of history and literature contributed inlike manner toward his splendid outfit. So too his wide contact andassociation with the leading spirits of the times in Europe and America.All combined to teach him to know himself and the universal verities ofman and society, to distinguish the invisible and enduring substance oflife from its merely accidental and transient phases and phenomena.
He was an apt pupil and laid up in his heart the great lessons of the Bookof Truth. His visit to Europe served to complete his apprenticeship. Itwas like Hercules going into the Nemean forest to cut himself a club. Thesame grand object lesson he saw everywhere—man, human society, humanthoughts, human strivings, human wrong, human misery. Beneath differencesof language, governments, religion,[Pg 4] race, color, he discerned theunderlying human principle and passion, which make all races kin, all menbrothers. In strange and distant lands he found the human heart with itsfriendships, heroisms, beatitudes, the human intellect with its neverending movement and progress. He found home, a common destiny wherever hef