A happy New Year to you, my dear Sumner. May you see, learn, and live as much in 1839 as you have in 1838! I suppose that is about the best a friend can wish you. May you enjoy good health, and thus be capable to receive Europe; and may you do this, that you may return to your own country and become one of the many links by which God unites period to period,—an agent in his vast plans for the development of civilization, and in the great mental exchange of the moving nations of the earth. The task before you is great and noble. Your mind, your soul, has early been consecrated to become one of the priests in the sacred temple of truth and humanity, of right and pure liberty. Fulfil, then, your destiny, and be conscious of an august calling. Be a true citizen by being a noble man.Mr. Daveis wrote, Jan. 18:—
But I must not exhaust my whole sheet on one topic, though you invited it. It is no less interesting to you and your friends what is to be the chance for you when you get home. And can there be any question about it? The only practical point will be whether you will bring yourself down to the work. If your head can bear the transition, you will have no difficulty. You will only have to contend with the embarrassment of your riches.Joseph R. Ingersoll wrote, April 22:—
It has given me great delight to learn, as I have learned from various sources, how distinguished has been your reception and how agreeable your career abroad. As long as gentlemen like yourself and Mr. Webster are the representatives of the country, we are perfectly safe in the belief that we shall gain largely in reputation, and in the hope that we may at length persuade the most reluctant out of their prejudices against us.John O. Sargent wrote, May 8:—
Your visit has almost tempted me to envy you, for it has been flattering to a degree beyond any thing you had reason to expect,—the most flattering probably enjoyed by any American since time began.Professor Greenleaf wrote, Sept. 7, 1838:—
It is a long time since I received a line from you; but the Judge kindly hands me all yours to him, and once in a while I see one of Hillard's; so that I am kept acquainted with most of what befalls you, and am enabled to rejoice with the rest of your friends in the singular felicity of your travels. It seems to us hardly credible that one of our circle should so suddenly and, as it were, by magic be spirited away into the first society in England, and enabled to give us, with all the freshness of daily incidents, the sayings and doings of the giants of the legal and political world with whom he is so familiar. We think it a piece of rare good fortune for you; and, to whisper you another truth, we deem ourselves fortunate to have sent them so good a specimen of New England and of the law. See all you can, and profit by all you see. See quite
