Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and letters of Charles Sumner: volume 2

[156] United States Senate, 1841-42, they treated of the same themes in correspondence. Later they were associated professionally in the boundary dispute between Massachusetts and Rhode Island.¹

The ‘Five of Clubs,’ now with its full complement, met at the homes of its members; but Cleveland, whose health had been for some time delicate, became, in the summer of 1841, the prey of a disease which was soon to be fatal.

At this period, Sumner's relations with Dr. Samuel G. Howe, which had been friendly for some years, became very intimate. Dr. Howe was already the Superintendent of the Perkins Institution for the Blind, at South Boston,—a post which he continued to hold for the rest of his life. To the charm of personal qualities he added, while yet young, the fascination of his career in Greece, and of his noble work for the blind. He was still unmarried, and was Sumner's senior by ten years. Sumner often sought his friend at South Boston, frequently passing the night at the institution. The two rode much together on horseback, galloping through the streets of Boston and Cambridge, and the beautiful lanes of Brookline and Dorchester. Howe took the place in the ‘Five of Clubs’ which Cleveland, stricken with disease, had left vacant. In some respects he came nearer to Sumner than any of the ‘Five;’ and there were times through Sumner's life when he opened his inmost thoughts to Howe as to no other. Their friendship was to be sealed by a long and earnest co-operation in the causes of education, prison discipline, and freedom, where often the brunt of the conflict fell on them.

Sumner, in company with a friend,—quite often with Felton, —took lunches or evening refreshment at Brigham's Concert Hall, or Parker's restaurant, in Court Square; and on these occasions oysters were the favorite dish. He was neither Sybarite nor ascetic. To excess of any kind he had the aversion which comes of good breeding as well as good morals; but he did not accept the rule of ethics on which many good people now insist, —that, for example and self-discipline, one ought to abstain from what is very liable to abuse. He seasoned his food with hock and claret, always however with moderation; but these he never took except at meals, and rigidly abstained from the