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

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Chapter 21: Germany.—October, 1839, to March, 1840.—Age, 28-29.

Leaving Milan Oct. 6, Sumner reached Santa Maria at midnight, bade farewell to Italy the next morning at sunrise, as he stood on the frontier line, and reached Innsbruck on the morning of the ninth. After a week at Munich, he went to Passau, thence in a small boat down the Danube to Linz, and by carriage from Linz to Vienna, where he arrived on the twenty-fifth. Here he remained a month, in the course of which he was received by Prince Metternich in his salon. Thence, after brief pauses at Prague, Dresden, and Leipsic,¹ he visited Berlin, where he remained five weeks. Here he saw much of society, and conversed with the celebrated savans,Humboldt, Savigny,² Ranke, and Raumer. Mr. Wheaton, the American Minister, was absent from his post, but Sumner formed a lasting friendship with the Secretary of Legation, Theodore S. Fay.³

Fay wrote to Sumner from Berlin, Jan. 14, 1840, warm with affection: ‘Your departure,’ he said, ‘has thrown a shade over our little circle and haunts. The Hotel de Rome looks desolate, and the crowded rooms of——are stupider than ever. Many persons spoke of your p. p. c. cards with very complimentary expressions of regret; but none of them like me has lost a faithful ally and a sympathizing companion.’

Leaving Berlin, Jan. 9, 1840, he went by the way of Leipsic, Weimar, Gotha, and Frankfort to Heidelberg, where he remained five weeks, enjoying the society of its celebrated professors,