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

[176] hundred a year and three thousand a year, so rapid was his success. This will be your case. I shall expect nice rooms in your palazzo on my next visit to the Eternal City. Ah! when will that be? Images of art and the olden time all rise before me as I think of Rome. Those three months that I passed there were the happiest of my life.

Your bust of Greene is a capital likeness and a beautiful work of art. It is admired by all who see it. It occupies a conspicuous place in Longfellow's room, and he is very proud of it. We are amused when we compare it with one of Clevenger. This self-made man has met with great success; he goes to Italy laden with orders. I see his busts in every house. They are very good portraits, but devoid of grace, poetry, and artistic finish. He preserves all the hardness of features, every wrinkle, and even multiplies the crow's-feet at the corners of the eye. In this way he gives you an unmistakable face, but a wretched bust. He never has produced a ‘Young Augustus’!

We all admire the ‘Shield of Achilles,’ which is the chief ornament of Felton's house. Tell Greene he must write us the history of that. How did he come by it? Has the engraving of your ‘Orpheus’ been published in the ‘Ape’? What is there new in Rome? What works have you in hand, and how are the other artists doing? Is Thorwaldsen there? Give my love to Greene.

Believe me ever very sincerely yours,

Charles Sumner.

To Lord Morpeth, London.

Boston, April 15, 1841.

my dear Morpeth,—Many thanks for your kind, cordial, and most interesting letter,—an olive-branch in these troublous times. I have followed you through the long debates, and in imagination have sat out the speeches long drawn out. You all seem to be firmly fixed in your places, and I rejoice in it, for I think the peace of our two countries would be seriously endangered by a change of ministry. We have lost our President; and you will see how noiselessly the mantle has fallen upon his successor, who, in his unexpected arrival at power, realizes the phrase of Lord Thurlow, ‘the accident of an accident.’ It was accident that turned the attention of the Whig party to Mr. Tyler, and induced them to put him in nomination for the Vice-Presidency, little contemplating the contingency of his becoming President. And now the great accident of death has vacated the office of President in his favor. He is a worthy, honorable, patriotic person,¹ but not of great mark It has been usual to select rather second-rate men for the Vice-Presidency. Mr. Tyler was never thought of for the Presidency. You are aware of the strong popular feeling that brought Harrison into power. This would have given great vigor and explicitness to his administration. The people trusted him, and he would have been able to carry his measures with