Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner was an outspoken abolitionist and Senator from Massachusetts. He is most remembered for being hit with a cane by sitting Congressman Preston Brooks in 1856 after giving his “Crime Against Kansas” speech. As a Radical Republican, Sumner was very good friends with the Seward family in the 1850s. He was especially close with Frances, with whom he shared many a conversation about the horrors of slavery. In the 1860s, Sumner had a bit of a falling out with Seward, who was becoming increasingly moderate during the Civil War.
Since he was a frequent visitor at the Seward residence when Fanny was young, she considered Mr. Sumner a close friend. He signs a book for her with a note about the injustice of slavery when she is 10 years old. She writes about him a few times in her diary, and one of her first written impressions of him is that he is religious.
“Mr Sumner is an excellent man, and one of deep religious feeling, even his servants bear testimony that like David he “kneels three times a day before the Lord.” Jan 29, 1860