Charles Sumner was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate from 1851 until his death in 1874. Before and during the American Civil War, he was a leading American advocate for the abolition of slavery. He chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1861 to 1871, until he lost the position following a dispute with President Ulysses S. Grant over the attempted annexation of Santo Domingo. After breaking with Grant, he joined the Liberal Republican Party, spending his final two years in the Senate alienated from his party. Sumner had a controversial and divisive legacy for many years after his death, but in recent decades, his historical reputation has improved in recognition of his early support for racial equality.
Portrait by Mathew Brady, c. 1865
Sumner's birthplace on Irving Street, Beacon Hill, Boston
Lithograph of Preston Brooks' 1856 attack on Sumner
1860 steel-engraved portrait of Sumner
United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
The United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations is a standing committee of the U.S. Senate charged with leading foreign-policy legislation and debate in the Senate. It is generally responsible for authorizing and overseeing foreign aid programs; arms sales and training for national allies; and holding confirmation hearings for high-level positions in the Department of State. Its sister committee in the House of Representatives is the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
Refusing to give the lady [Peace Treaty of Versailles] a seat—by Senators Borah, Lodge and Johnson
Committee chairman Senator J. William Fulbright (left) with Senator Wayne Morse during a hearing on the Vietnam War in 1966
1976 publication of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the occasion of its 160th anniversary