Charles Sumner (January 6, 1811 – March 11, 1874) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate from 1851 until his death in 1874. Before and during the American Civil War, he was a leading American advocate for the restriction and abolition of slavery. He chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1861 to 1871, until he lost this position over a dispute with President Ulysses S. Grant over the attempted annexation of Santo Domingo. After breaking with the Grant administration, he joined the dissident faction of Liberal Republicans. He spent his final two years in the Senate alienated and isolated from his party until his death in 1874. Sumner had a controversial and divisive legacy for many years after his death, but in recent decades, his historical reputation has improved in recognition of his early support for racial equality.