Charles Sumner (1811-1974), was a United States Senator from Massachusetts for twenty-three years, 1851-74.  He was strongly opposed to slavery and was persecuted for taking that unpopular stand.  So firm was his conviction against slavery, that he was once physically assaulted on the floor of the House by Congressman Preston S. Brooks of South Carolina, the injuries of which he never fully recovered from.  As one of the founders of the Republican Party, Charles Sumner declared:

"Familiarity with that great story of redemption, when God raised up the slave-born Moses to deliver His chosen people from  bondage, and with that sublimer story where our Saviour died a cruel death that all men, without distinction of race, might be saved, makes slavery impossible.

"Because Christians are in the minority there is no reason for renouncing Christianity, or for surrendering to the false religions; nor do I doubt that Christianity will yet prevail over the earth as the waters cover the sea." ¹

¹ E.C. Lester, Life and Public Services of Charles Sumner, p. 321, 171.  Stephen Abbott Northrop, D.D., A Cloud of Witnesses (Portland, Oregon: American Heritage Ministries, 1987), p. 436.