Having many enemies because of his views and after recovering from the cane beating, the Massachusetts General Court re-elected him in November 1856. They thought that his unoccupied chair in the Senate chamber served as a powerful symbol of free speech and resistance to slavery. He made quite a few speeches about slavery, including one he delivered in the months leading up to the 1860 presidential election, called "The Barbarism of Slavery." His father hated slavery and told Sumner that freeing the slaves would "do us no good" except if they were treated equally by society. With this in mind, Sumner thought that moral law and laws that made a man unable to become a greater person like slavery or segregation were evil. Many events made Sumner take an active role in the anti-slavery movement, including the annexation of Texas a new slave-holding state in
Having many enemies because of his views and after recovering from the cane beating, the Massachusetts General Court re-elected him in November 1856. They thought that his unoccupied chair in the Senate chamber served as a powerful symbol of free speech and resistance to slavery. He made quite a few speeches about slavery, including one he delivered in the months leading up to the 1860 presidential election, called "The Barbarism of Slavery." His father hated slavery and told Sumner that freeing the slaves would "do us no good" except if they were treated equally by society. With this in mind, Sumner thought that moral law and laws that made a man unable to become a greater person like slavery or segregation were evil. Many events made Sumner take an active role in the anti-slavery movement, including the annexation of Texas a new slave-holding state in