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not mention to you, I believe.
When Douglas commenced his attack, General Houston cried out to me, “Sumner, don't speak, don't speak!
Leave him to me!”
“Will you take care of him?”
said I. “Yes, if you will leave him to me,” was the General's response.
He said that he was “desirous that Douglas should have no opportunity to sustain his charge that this memorial was the work of the Abolition confederates.”
But notwithstanding these things, I have my regrets that I allowed the debate to close without a few words that would identify me completely with the remonstrants.
At the earliest possible day I shall present the supplementary remonstrances without apology and proudly.
Immediately after the debate of March 14,
Everett made a visit to
Boston for a week.
When the
House Nebraska bill passed the Senate in May, he was again in
Boston, and his absence on account of illness was explained by
Sumner in the Senate.
The same month, while at home, he resigned his seat on account of ill health and domestic circumstances, the resignation to take effect June 1.
This was the end of his public life.
The Free Soilers were unsparing in their censures of his course, and even his Whig supporters had no regrets for his retirement.
1 His distaste for a contest on the slavery question was thought at the time to enter largely into his decision to surrender a post which he had recently taken with high expectations.
2 He was not broken in health, for his subsequent life was full of activity, comprehending long journeys in the delivery of his oration on
Washington, and the production of addresses and papers which fill a large share of his published works.
3 His failure to meet public expectations in contests which attracted universal interest materially strengthened
Sumner's position in
Massachusetts, particularly with those not heretofore his supporters.
Fortunately for his fame,
Mr. Everett survived till nearly the end of the
Civil War, during which, at critical periods, he did great service to the national cause by his example and eloquence.
C. F. Adams wrote, March 17, 1854:—
Your colleague has not bettered himself here by his last movement.
He has entirely verified what I predicted of him to you the year of his election,—
