[170]To Professor Mittermaier, Heidelberg.
Boston, Nov. 30, 1840.my dear friend,—I thank you most sincerely for your very kind letters of the 7th April and the 22d August. It was to me a source of great satisfaction to be able to think that you and your family had not forgotten me. You are inseparably connected in my mind with your great country,—Germany. I remember the pleasant evenings I passed at your house, and now wish that I could enter your doors and speak with you face to face, instead of sending this poor messenger with expressions of friendship and regard. I sympathize with you deeply in the loss of the great Thibaut. I saw him for the last time the evening before I left Heidelberg, in your house. He was then so kind as to write under his head, as engraved, Bin ich es?This autograph I still preserve, and shall cherish as a valuable token of his kindness to me. He was truly a great jurist. I trust Mrs. Mittermaier is well, and your daughter and all your children. From what you write in your last, I feel very anxious in regard to your son, the advocate, with whom I had so much pleasant conversation in English. Pray give him my best wishes for his speedy recovery. Perhaps a sea voyage will do him good. Let him cross the ocean and visit America. I shall be most happy to welcome him in my humble way, and all your friends here will receive him as your representative; and then, knowing him, will value him for his own sake. It was a great pleasure to Story, Pickering, and Cushing to hear of you directly through me. Cushing will write you very soon; so will Pickering. We have all been occupied by the Presidential election which has just taken place, and which was to give us our Grossherzogfor the next four years. Our present President, Van Buren, has lost his re-election. Chancellor Kent is now preparing a fourth edition of his great work, which he will send you. He was very much gratified to know that you take an interest in his labors. Story is now preparing a second edition of his work on the ‘Conflict of Laws,’ very much enlarged. There will be upwards of three hundred pages of new matter. He will send you a copy as soon as it is published. I shall, in a few days, send you a packet containing several juridical tracts which I hope will interest you. Our commissioners for codifying the criminal law are still engaged upon their work. They hope to present a report this winter. I regret that you have been treated so shabbily by your Legislature; I trust, however, that your projetwill not be lost. People in the United States have been so much occupied during the last year with making a President, that they have thought little of juridical questions. Capital punishment has not been discussed. I think it probable that it will be discussed this year. Remember me to the Hepps,1 particularly to Fraulein Julia; and present my affectionate salutations to all your family. I hope your younger
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[170]
1 A lady highly esteemed, who kept a pensionin Heidelberg, and had frequent receptions for friends. Sumner probably lodged at her house. She died not long after the period of this letter. Her daughter Julia became the wife of Professor Hagen, of Heidelberg, afterwards of Berne, and died about 1850.
Cambridge, MA. Press of John Wilson and Son. 1877.
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