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have three men of equal fame as orators with
Webster,
Calhoun, and
Clay ever contended with each other in our national Senate.
The love of travel was with
Sumner an inherited passion, which his brothers also shared.
The journey to
Washington now accomplished in seventeen hours, in a railway carriage furnished like a drawing-room by day and provided with couches at night, is at once an easy and a commonplace experience.
It was then made only by stage-coach and steamboat, except a short railway ride from
Amboy to
Bordentown (thirty-seven miles), and another from the
Delaware River to the head of the
Elk (sixteen and a half). With the dispatch of these days
Sumner would, by the time he then reached
Hartford, have been some hours at his journey's end.
At
Washington he passed a month, occupying a room in the house of
Mrs. Eliza Peyton, at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and Four-and-a-half Street.
Among her guests were several members of Congress and other persons of distinction; most worthy of note among them was
Dr. Francis Lieber, between whom and
Sumner a long intimacy now began.
1 Mrs. Peyton recalls the tall youth from
Boston, sitting with the guests who gathered at the fireside in the large parlor.
Dr. John B. Blake, a fellow-boarder, still living in
Washington, remembers him as modest and deferential, attracting attention by his remarkable attainments and manly presence, and receiving from the judges unusual civilities.
Dr. Blake went so far at the time as to predict for him the highest judicial station, unless he should be diverted by literary tastes.
2
The commendation of
Judge Story opened to him the best social opportunities.
He dined with the judges; made the acquaintance of
Henry Wheaton; and ‘dined repeatedly with
Horace Binney, and received many marks of friendly attention from him.’
3 Richard Peters of
Philadelphia, the official reporter of the decisions of the Supreme Court,—whom he had previously