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Edward Everett, in a eulogy, likened the fidelity of John Quincy Adams to his seat in the House of Representatives, to that of a marble column of the Capitol to its pedestal;1 and the same tribute is Sumner's due. No private errand and no listlessness kept him from his public duty; and he attended with severe punctuality the sessions of his committee and of the Senate.
When the Internal Tax bill, which had consumed many days of discussion, was pending (nearly six months after the session began), he remarked that he had not been absent from his seat three minutes since it was taken up, or half an hour since the session began.2 Near the end of the session he spoke forcibly against a final adjournment until the public business was completed, pointing out that Congress was by several weeks short of the limit which it was accustomed to reach when members were paid by the day instead of by the year.3 In declining an invitation to attend a public meeting in the city of New York, he said, ‘A senator cannot leave his place more than a soldier.’4
It has often occurred in the Senate,—and it occurred many times during this session, in which the duties of patriotism were most exacting,—that it was obliged to adjourn for want of a quorum, or for want of the attendance of a sufficient number to make its action decisive.
Sumner's vacant chair, while he was in health, was never an obstruction to public business.
Again and again, at this and at other sessions, as the official record shows, he protested against an early adjournment in the afternoon, and urged that the Senate go on with its calendar.5 His
1 Senator Casserly referred, March 31, 1871, to Sumner as the senator ‘whom I do not see in his seat, which is very unusual, by the way.’
2 May 30, 1862. Works, vol. VII. pp. 110, 111.
3 July 12 (Works, vol. VII. pp. 176-179). He had made similar remarks May 22 (Congressional Globe, p. 2225). The New York Evening Post, June 7, 1862, had an article of the same tenor.
4 July 14, 1862. Works, vol. VII. pp. 180, 181.
5 Henderson of Missouri (May 16, 1868, Congressional Globe, p. 2494) referred to Sumner's constant votes against adjournments until after five or six P. M., and against final adjournments even in July or August, saying. ‘If the senator had his way, he would remain here forever and ever.’ Edmunds said in relation to his opposition, April 17. 1869 (Globe, p. 726), ‘I never knew the day to come when my friend from Massachusetts really thought the Senate ought to adjourn;’ and three days later (Globe, pp. 733, 734) he referred to Sumner's chronic difficult about adjournments. Similar pressure from Sumner, with similar resistance from other senators who recalled his uniform position on the suspension of business, will be found in the record of later sessions (June 25, 1864, Globe, p. 3263; July 2, 1864, Works, vol. IX. pp. 55-63; July 26, 1866, Globe, pp. 4166, 4167; Dec. 14, 1868, Globe, p. 68; Dec. 15, 1869; May 5, 6, and 20, 1870, Globe, pp. 137, 3239, 3274, 3277, 3658; Feb 15, 1871, Globe, p. 1262). Thurman's tribute, April 27, 1874 (Globe, p. 3400), referred to Sumner's high estimate of the effect of full discussion.
Cambridge, MA. Press of John Wilson and Son. 1877.
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