Sumner's Plagiarism.Cleveland, Ohio, Plain Dealer [Democratic](17 June 1856)
We are unprepared to say that a man should be
cudgeled over the head for the gross crime of
plagiarism, but we believe it is a pretty good
rule in the old-fashioned schools to give a youth
a good licking for that offence. Under this rule
Sumner would certainly have to hold out his
hand.
The Republican journals have been quite
lavish in their praise of Senator Sumner's speech.
They have pronounced it Demosthenic, &c.,
and the Buffalo Republic takes occasion to show
that in this respect they are not far out of the
way. It quotes from Demosthenes's great
oration on the crown:
It cannot be that you have acted wrong in
encountering danger bravely for the liberty
and safety of all Greece. No! By the generous
souls who were exposed at Marathon! By those
who stood arrayed at Platea! By those who
encountered the Persian fleet at Salamis, who
fought at Artemisium! By all those illustrious
sons of Athens whose remains lie deposited in
the public monuments! What belongs to
gallant men they all performed; their success was
such as Providence dispenses to each.
The following is from Senator Sumner's
speech:
But it cannot be that she acts wrong for herself
and children, when in this cause she thus
encounters reproach. No! By all the souls who
were exposed at Lexington -- by those who stood
arrayed at Bunker Hill -- by the many from her
bosom who, on all the fields of the first great
struggle, lend their vigorous arms to the great
cause of all -- by the children she has borne,
whose names alone are national trophies, is
Massachusetts now vowed irrevocable to this
work. What belongs to the faithful servant she
will do in all things, and Providence shall
determine the result.
Sumner has also the Demosthenic courage.--
It is related of that weak-kneed Greecian, that
when escaping from some sanguinary foe he
was arrested by a bush, he fell upon his knees
and begged for his life most piteously.
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