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in his manner and conduct; and although he could look at the great events passing only from his
Kentucky standpoint, he was a true patriot, and thoroughly loyal to his country.
He remained in the Senate till his death, late in 1872.
Among his eulogists none paid to his memory a warmer tribute than his associate from
Massachusetts, so often his antagonist, who was soon to follow him.
1 On that occasion
Sumner said:—
Time is teacher and reconciler; nor is it easy for any candid nature to preserve a constant austerity of judgment towards persons.
As evening approaches, the meridian eats lose their intensity.
While abiding firmly in the truth as we saw it, there may be charity and consideration for those who did not see it as we saw it. . . . Here let me be frank.
Nothing could make any speech for slavery tolerable to me; but when I think how much opinions are determined by the influences about us, so that a change of birth and education might have made the Abolitionist a partisan of slavery, and the partisan of slavery an Abolitionist, I feel that while always unrelenting toward the wrong we cannot be insensible to individual merits.
In this spirit I offer a sincere tribute to a departed senator, who, amid the perturbations of the times, trod his way with independent step, and won even from opponents the palm of character.
Lieber, who was not always appreciative of his friend's style in state papers and speeches, wrote now with enthusiasm:—
This moment—5 o'clock P. M. the 5th of March—I received, my dear Sumner, your resolutions concerning interference.
They are not resolutions concerning interference; they are a proclamation of the people through their assembled representatives,—a proclamation worthy of their dignity and the grandeur of their cause.
I know something of historical documents; this is one of the calmest, most collected, most faultless, as if America herself had said it, her left [hand] on her sword, her right stretched forward to the multitude of nations.
I cannot write on them as they deserve, because their perusal has thrown me into a mood which makes me desirous to pace up and down through my three rooms rather than write; but I could not help writing these grateful words at once.
There is a trumpet blast in the resolutions, and yet a blast as that of a herald followed by the person of America.
Sumner wrote to
Mr. Jay, March 2:—
My resolutions were discussed in committee three days, two hours each day. The first day, all was confusion; and Mr. Garrett Davis said he would not sanction anything which had slavery in it. I despaired; but at last, after some modifications, chiefly with regard to slavery as the origin and mainspring of the rebellion, the resolutions were unanimously adopted.
I was surprised at the result; it seemed as if the millennium was at hand.
Seward came to me to-day and expressed the desire that I should press them to a vote, which I hope to do to-night.
The President, I understand, is pleased with
