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Sumner was born in Boston on January 6, 1811. His father was Charles Pinckney Sumner, a Harvard-educated lawyer, and like his son, a prominent abolitionist. The elder Sumner was one of the first to advocate for racially integrated schools. Sumner senior served as Clerk of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1806 to 1807 and again 1810 to 1811, and later as Sheriff of Suffolk County, a position he held from 1825 until his death in 1839.
Sumner attended the Boston Latin School. He graduated in 1830 from Harvard College, and from Harvard Law School in 1834. He was mentored by Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story. Sumner was admitted to the bar following his graduation and he began private practice in Boston in partnership with George Stillman Hillard. He contributed articles to the quarterly American Jurist and edited Story's court decisions. From 1836 to 1837, Sumner lectured at Harvard Law School.
Sumner traveled to Europe in 1837, landed at Le Havre and going on to Paris in December, where he studied French. He attended lectures at the Sorbonne on subjects ranging from geology to Greek history to criminal law. In France he observed black men treated as social equals and reinforced his viewpoint that Americans were wrong to see African-Americans as inferior. When he returned home his abolitionist viewpoint was reinvigorated. In 1838, Sumner visited Britain before returning home in 1840.
In 1840, at the age of 29, Sumner returned to Boston to practice law and to lecturing at Harvard Law. He developed a friendship with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1843. In 1845, he delivered an Independence Day oration on "The True Grandeur of Nations" in Boston in which he spoke out against the Mexican–American War. Sumner developed a reputation as a skilled orator. He was six feet four inches tall, with a massive frame and a loud and clear voice.
After the annexation of Texas as a new slave-holding state in 1845, Sumner took an active role in the anti-slavery movement. He represented the plaintiffs in Roberts v. Boston, a case which challenged the legality of segregation. Though unsuccessful, his arguments would be very similar to those that would be made in Brown v. Board of Education over a century later. Although Sumner lost the case, the Massachusetts legislature abolished school segregation in 1855.
Sumner helped to organize the Free Soil Party, which opposed both the Democrats and the Whigs. In 1848 he ran for the U.S. House of Representatives as a Free Soil candidate, but lost the election. In 1851, Democrats gained control of the Massachusetts state legislature in coalition with the Free Soilers. The Free Soilers named Sumner their choice for U.S. Senator. Sumner was elected by a one-vote majority on April 24, 1851. His abolitionist viewpoint was in sharp contrasted with that of his well-known predecessor in the seat, Daniel Webster, who had been one of the foremost supporters of the Compromise of 1850 and of the Fugitive Slave Act.
Sumner took his Senate seat in late 1851 as a Free Soil Democrat. On August 26, 1852, Sumner, despite strenuous efforts to dissuade him, delivered his first major speech, in which he vigorously attacked the Fugitive Slave Act. Sumner called for the Act's repeal.
In 1856, during the "Bleeding Kansas" crisis, Sumner denounced the Kansas–Nebraska Act. In a famous speech known as the "Crime against Kansas" speech, he spoke in the senate on May 19 and May 20 and argued for the immediate admission of Kansas as a free state. He denounced the "Slave Power". In the speech, he said:
"Not in any common lust for power did this uncommon tragedy have its origin. It is the rape of a virgin Territory, compelling it to the hateful embrace of slavery; and it may be clearly traced to a depraved desire for a new Slave State, hideous offspring of such a crime, in the hope of adding to the power of slavery in the National Government."
Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina was enraged by the speech. infuriated. Brooks later said that he intended to challenge Sumner to a duel, but he was advised that dueling was for gentlemen of equal social standing. Two days later, on the afternoon of May 22, Brooks confronted Sumner as he sat writing at his desk in the almost empty Senate chamber. Brooks is reported to have said: "Mr. Sumner, I have read your speech twice over carefully. It is a libel on South Carolina". As Sumner began to stand up, Brooks beat Sumner severely on the head, using a thick cane with a gold head. Sumner was unable to get to his feet and Brooks continued to strike Sumner mercilessly. Sumner collapsed, lapsing into unconsciousness. Brooks continued to beat the motionless Sumner until his cane broke, at which point he left the chamber. Several other Senators attempted to help Sumner, but were blocked by South Carolina Representative Laurence Keitt who brandished a pistol.
The episode transformed Sumner into a martyr in the North and Brooks a hero in the South. Northerners were outraged. Thousands attended rallies in support of Sumner in Boston, Albany, Cleveland, Detroit, New Haven, New York, and Providence. Over a million copies of Sumner's speech were distributed. Southerners sent Brooks hundreds of new canes in endorsement of his assault. One was inscribed "Hit him again".
Sumner suffered a severe head trauma, accompanied by nightmares, severe headaches, and what is now understood to be post-traumatic stress disorder. He spent months convalescing. The Massachusetts legislature reelected him in November 1856, believing that his vacant chair in the Senate chamber served as a powerful symbol of free speech and opposition to slavery. Sumner attempted to return to the Senate in 1857, but was unable to last a day. On his doctors' advice he sailed for Europe and this seemed to aid in his recovery. He spent two months in Paris in the spring of 1857, where he renewed friendships and attended the opera. He then toured several countries, including Germany and Scotland, before returning to Washington where he spent only a few days in the Senate in December. Once again he found it difficult to attend to Senate business. He sailed once more for Europe on May 22, 1858, leaving on the second anniversary of Brooks' attack.
In 1858 while in Paris, prominent physician Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard diagnosed Sumner's condition as spinal cord damage that could be treated by burning the skin along the spinal cord. Sumner refused anesthesia, because it was believed that this would reduce the effectiveness of the procedure. Today physicians doubt that Brown-Séquard's efforts were of any value. After spending weeks recovering from these treatments, Sumner resumed his touring, traveling to Dresden, Prague and south to Italy.
Sumner returned to the Senate in 1859. Fellow Republicans advised taking a less aggressive tone than he had previously, but Sumner would have none of it. He delivered his first speech following his return on June 4, 1860, during the 1860 presidential election. He spent the summer rallying the anti-slavery forces and opposing talk of compromise.
Sumner became a leader in the faction of the Republican Party known as the Radicals. In March 1861, after the withdrawal of Southern Senators, Sumner became chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations. The Radicals advocated the immediate abolition of slavery and the destruction of the Southern planter class. Other Radicals included Senators Zachariah Chandler and Benjamin Wade. During the Civil War, after the fall of Fort Sumter, in April 1861, Sumner, Chandler and Wade repeatedly visited President Abraham Lincoln at the White House.
Lincoln was initially resistant to freeing the slaves, fearing that this might encourage border states that were also slave states such as Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, to join the Confederacy. Sumner was confident that the war would eventually cause Lincoln to free the slaves. As a compromise, the Radicals and Lincoln agreed on the passage of two Confiscation Acts in 1861 and 1862 that allowed the Union military to free confiscated slaves who were performing tasks for the Confederate army.
Sumner believed that emancipating the slaves would keep Britain from entering the Civil War and the millions of slaves freed from bondage would give America higher moral standing. On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
On November 8, 1861, the Union naval ship USS San Jacinto, under the command of Capt. Charles Wilkes, intercepted the British steamer RMS Trent, captured and put into U.S. port custody two Confederate diplomats James M. Mason and John Slidell. This led to concern that the British would use this as grounds to go to war with the United States. The British government dispatched 8,000 British troops on the Canada–US border and efforts were made to strengthen the British fleet.Sumner advised Lincoln that in his opinion the men did not qualify as war contraband, since they were unarmed. He recommended that their release with an apology by the U.S. government was appropriate. Lincoln agreed with Sumner's assessment, telling his cabinet, "One war at a time".The Trent Affair helped to improve Sumner's reputation improved among conservative Northerners.
In February 1865, there was considerable debate over authorizing the creation of a memorial to United States Chief Justice Roger Taney. Sumner was very critical of Taney for his decision in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case. Speaking on the Senate floor, Sumner said of Taney:
"I speak what cannot be denied when I declare that the opinion of the Chief Justice in the case of Dred Scott was more thoroughly abominable than anything of the kind in the history of courts. Judicial baseness reached its lowest point on that occasion. You have not forgotten that terrible decision where a most unrighteous judgment was sustained by a falsification of history. Of course, the Constitution of the United States and every principle of Liberty was falsified, but historical truth was falsified also."
Sumner was the most vigorous advocate of emancipation, as well as of enlisting African-Americans in the Union Army, and of the establishment of the Freedmen's Bureau. Sumner fought for equal civil and voting rights for the freedmen.
Following Lincoln's death and the end of the war, Sumner joined his fellow Republicans in overriding President Johnson's vetoes. Sumner's radical theory of Reconstruction proposed that, by declaring secession, the states which seceded could now be turned into territories that should be prepared for statehood, under conditions set by the national government. He objected to Lincoln's and later Andrew Johnson's more lenient Reconstruction policies. When Andrew Johnson was impeached, Sumner voted for conviction. He said, he wished he could have voted, "Guilty of all, and infinitely more."
During Reconstruction, Sumner attacked civil rights legislation as inadequate and fought for legislation to give land to freed slaves and to mandate education for all, regardless of race, in the South. He introduced a civil rights bill in 1872 to mandate equal accommodation in all public places and required suits brought under the bill to be argued in the federal courts. The bill failed, but Sumner revived it in the next Congress, and on his deathbed begged visitors to see that it did not fail.
Sumner's foreign relations committee approved the Alaska Purchase and sent the treaty to the Senate. In a 3-hour speech, Sumner spoke in favor of the treaty, describing Alaska's history, natural resources, population, and climate. Sumner wanted to block British expansion, arguing that Alaska was geographically and financially strategic, especially for the Pacific Coast States. The treaty won its needed two-thirds majority by one vote.
After the war, the U.S. had claims against Britain for the damage inflicted by Confederate raiding ships fitted out in British ports. Sumner held that since Britain had accorded the rights of belligerents to the Confederacy, it was responsible for extending the duration of the war and consequent losses. In 1869, he asserted that Britain should pay damages for their part in causing the "prolongation of the war". He demanded $2,000,000,000 for these claims. Sumner suggested that Britain turn over Canada as payment.
In 1869, President Ulysses Grant considered the annexation of a Caribbean island country, the Dominican Republic, then known as Santo Domingo. Grant believed that the mineral resources on the island would be valuable to the United States, and that African Americans repressed in the South would have a safe place to migrate to. Orville Babcock, private secretary to President Grant, secretly negotiated a treaty with President Buenaventura Báez, President of the Dominican Republic. The official treaty, drafted by Secretary of State Hamilton Fish in October 1869, annexed the Dominican Republic into the United States, gave eventual statehood, the lease of Samaná Bay for $150,000 yearly, and a $1,500,000 payment of the Dominican national debt. In January 1870, Grant met with Sumner, mistakenly believing that Sumner supported the treaty. The treaty was formally submitted to the United States Senate on January 10, 1870. Sumner, opposed the treaty, concerned that annexation would lead to the conquest of the neighboring republic of Haiti. He was also convinced that corruption lay behind the treaty. Sumner's committee voted against annexation. Grant persisted and sent messages to Congress in favor of annexation on March 14, 1870, and May 31, 1870. Sumner spoke out against the treaty. Finally, on June 30, 1870 the treaty was voted on by the Senate and failed to gain the required 2/3 majority for treaty passage.
In retaliation for what be believed to be an act of betrayal on Sumner's part, the following day Grant ordered the dismissal of Sumner's close friend John Lothrop Motley, as Ambassador to Britain. Grant also initiated a campaign to depose Sumner from the chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Grant grew more bitter toward Sumner. He was once told that Sumner did not believe in the Bible, and is supposed to have said: "I'm not surprised. He didn't write it."
As the rift between Grant and Sumner increased, Sumner's health began to decline. When the 42nd U.S. Congress convened on March 4, 1871, Senators who were supporters of Grant voted to oust Sen. Sumner from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairmanship. Sumner reacted by speaking out against the corruption in Grant's administration. In 1872, Sumner joined the Liberal Republican Party which had been started by reformist Republicans such as Horace Greeley.
Unlike some other Radical Republicans, Sumner strongly opposed any hanging or imprisonment of Confederate leaders. In December 1872, he introduced a Senate resolution providing that Civil War battle names should not appear as "battle honors" on the regimental flags of the U.S. Army. He believed that any United States regiment, that would in the future enlist southerners as well as northerners, should not carry on its ensigns any insult to those who joined it. His resolution offended Union army veterans and the Massachusetts legislature passed a motion of censure against Sumner. Poet John Greenleaf Whittier successfully led an effort to rescind that censure the following year.
Charles Sumner died of a heart attack at his home in Washington, D.C., on March 11, 1874. He lay in state in the U.S. Capitol rotunda, the second senator so honored (Henry Clay being the first, in 1852). He was buried on March 16 in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His pallbearers included Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and John Greenleaf Whittier.