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Mr. Schleiden, slight as was the sympathy of that minister with the antislavery movement.
Sumner contributed to the New York Tribune1 at this time a paper introducing Macaulay's article, written when a youth, on slavery in the West Indies, which appeared in tile Edinburgh Review in 1825, and had been overlooked or designedly omitted in the collected edition of his Essays.
The paper contained a reference to his recent intercourse with the historian, who had died a few weeks before.2
For once Sumner came home for the Christmas and New Year holidays.3 On his return, while at Mr. Furness's in Philadelphia, he called with Mr. Allibone on an old friend, Henry D. Gilpin, an invalid with but few days in store, cheering him with a report of the kind inquiries made concerning him by the Grotes and other English friends.
He declined at the time two invitations in New York city,—one to address the New England Society, dressed by Mr. Evarts; and the other to speak in the Academy of Music, given by Greeley, C. A. Dana, H. C. Bowen, and Oliver Johnson.
Warned by physicians and friends to enter slowly into the excitement of debate,4 he took little part in the proceedings of the Senate for three months, although tempted by the ever-recurring discussions on slavery.
The investigation by Mason's committee of John Brown's invasion of Virginia drew him into debate March 12, 1860, when
1 March 3, 1860. Works, vol. IV. pp. 417-423.
2 The Duke of Argyll, whose home at Kensington was very near Macaulay's, wrote Sumner an account of the historian's last days; the duchess added a note, recalling how heartily he grasped Sumner's hand at their last meeting at Argyll Lodge. Motley wrote Sumner, Jan. 2, 1860: ‘Do you remember the breakfast at Holly Lodge? This was the last time we had any of us the pleasure of meeting Macaulay, I believe. I am sure it was the last time that I saw him, and I am not likely to forget it very soon. Do you remember how gay and amusing he was after breakfast, in his library,—repeating ballads from Mother Goose, and quoting stanzas from Dante's Inferno in the same breath, and fighting Monckton Milnes about German poetry? Well, in that very room, and in the very arm-chair in which he then sat, he breathed his last, on Wednesday evening last, 28 December.’
3 While at home he was presented by James Freeman Clarke, George W. Bond. and others with an interesting souvenir,—a dessert service of knives and forks once belonging to Lajos Batthyanyi, the Hungarian patriot.
4 Among bills and resolutions offered by him, not elsewhere noted, were these: for the substitution of simple declarations for custom-house oaths (Works, vol. IV. p. 441): for the promotion of the safety of passengers on steamers between New York and San Francisco (Works, vol. IV. p. 455); for limiting the liability of shipowners; for preventing violence and crime on board of the merchant marine; for abolishing the discrimination between citizens and foreigners in office-fees on the issue of patents; for preventing the abuse of seamen's protections; for raising to a higher grade the mission to Sardinia, the last being reported by him from his committee.
Cambridge, MA. Press of John Wilson and Son. 1877.
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