Charles Sumner: A Featured Biography

Civil War Chronology

March 3, 1863: The Conscription Act became law. Sponsored by the chairman of the Senate Committee on Military Affairs, Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts, the act established the first national draft system.

June 20, 1863: West Virginia was admitted as a state. When Virginia seceded in 1861, a majority of the delegates representing the northwestern counties of the state voted against secession. Meeting in Wheeling the following month, delegates from these counties voted to remain loyal to the Union and form a new state.

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Senate as Protector of Constitutional Liberties

But now, at last, these rules have become a beautiful machine by which business is conducted, legislation is molded, and debate is secured in all possible freedom. From the presentation of a petition or the introduction of a bill all proceeds by fixed processes until without disorder the final result is reached and a new law takes its place in the statute-book.... But the rules are more even than a beautiful machine; they are the very temple of constitutional liberty.
 -Charles Sumner, 1866