Unlike Stevens, who had a genuine liking for the Negro, Sumner's sympathy for the race was purely intellectual; for the individual Negro he felt repulsion.

His views were in effect not different from those of Stevens.
And he was practical enough not to overlook the value of the Negro vote.
"To my mind," he said, "nothing is clearer than the absolute necessity of suffrage for all colored persons in the disorganized states.

It will not be enough if you give it to those who read and write; you will not, in this way, acquire the voting force which you need there for the protection of unionists, whether white or black.

You will not secure the new allies who are essential to the national cause." A leader of the second rank was his colleague Henry Wilson, who was also actuated by a desire for the Negro's welfare and for the perpetuation of the Republican party, which he said contained in its ranks "more of moral and intellectual worth than was ever embodied in any political organization in any land...

created by no man or set of men but brought into being by Almighty God himself...