[544] country more service than did Charles Sumner. His incorruptibility was never impeached. No one ever dared offer him a bribe. He was always on the side of justice, and did not care what the consequences might be; to give the largest freedom to every man of every color was the polar star on Charles Sumner's horizon which never set. The type of manhood of which Charles Sumner was a representative, is growing scarcer every year. When his body was taken from the Senate chamber last Friday he did not leave his peer behind him. He stood preeminent as a scholar, as a statesman, and in general culture. He was a fine model for our American youth to emulate. He was a splendid example for the advancement of those principles which make true patriots.The genial Washington correspondent of Mr. Beecher's ,Christian Union—
This house of his was as wonderful and as curious as the man himself. It was so crowded with all things rare and beautiful, and so many of them bore on their faces or carried in their hands a story they seemed longing to tell, that he must have little of feeling or culture who did not find the very walls an inspiration. Over the mantel in his dining-room, hung the painting he has singled out from the rest and willed to his friend, Mr. Smith, of Boston. It is called ‘The Miracle of the Slave.’ Mr. Sumner's own words, as nearly as I can remember them, will tell its story better than I can. Said he, at a breakfast party one morning, ‘I suppose that picture, or its original, did more than any one thing toward my first election. I saw it first on my first trip to Europe, but it made no great impression on me. Still the picture remained in my mind, though I thought no more about it. When I was a candidate for the Senate, they wanted me to speak in Faneuil Hall, and at last they persuaded me to. It was at the time of the Fugitive Slave excitement in Boston, and while I was speaking I remembered that picture. So I said to the audience: ‘There is in Venice a picture of a slave brought before the judge to be remanded to his owner. On the one side are the soldiers who have brought him there, on the other the men from whom he has fled. Just as the judge is about to give him back to their tyranny, St. Mark appears from the heavens and strikes off the fetters from the hands and feet of the trembling man. So, if ever Massachusetts remands to his master a slave who has sought protection in her borders, I pray God that the holy angels may themselves appear and strike the fetters from his hands and feet.’ The next time I went to Venice, in rummaging around the print-shops, I found this picture, and was told ’
