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The senator's house in Washington1 was for the remainder of his life to be his home.
The site was then the most attractive in the city.
It stood on a corner, well exposed to sunlight, looking out on Lafayette Park, and across the park to the Executive Mansion, convenient for reaching the departments and the foreign legations.
Just before Christmas, 1867, he moved into it,—taking the step with some hesitation, partly related to his domestic trouble and partly to the expense of housekeeping, which he feared was beyond his means, but yielding to advice from Mr. Hooper, who was very desirous that he should occupy it. He wrote, December 13, to his friend J. B. Smith: ‘It is a large house for a solitary person.
I am now in the midst of preparation.
This is something of a job for one inexperienced in such things.
I am to examine carpets to-day.’
Smith in Boston and Wormley in Washington, both of the race which he had served, assisted him in purchases of stores, the hire of servants, and other arrangements.
Some furniture came from the old family house, and later arrived from Boston his personal souvenirs, marbles, bronzes, engravings, and books,—‘household companions,’ as he called them.
Gradually the rooms became home-like; but it was some months before the furnishing was completed.
The dinnig-room, library, and drawing-room were below, but he and his guests remained in this story only at meals or for a few moments after.
His time was passed chiefly on the second floor, in a large room in the centre taken for his study, —opening into his bedroom at one end, whence the Executive Mansion was visible, and into the guest chamber at the other.
The walls of each room—even the doors and the hall as well were covered with paintings, engravings, and photographs, many of them having a personal or historical interest.
Bronzes and vases, with here and there a piece of sculpture, filled each nook and niche.
In the study, tables, chairs, shelves, and floor were piled with books and documents, which it was necessary to disturb in order to find a seat for a visitor.2 In one corner, the
1 Now a part of the Arlington Hotel, and let to families.
2 Photographs were taken of the rooms on the first and second story after the senator's death, in 1874. Pictures of some of them may he found in ‘Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper,’ April 22, 1871, March 28, 1874, and in harper's Weekly. April 4, 1874. The interior of the house, the pictures, rare books, and autographs, as well as Sumner's manners and style of living and conversation, have been often described. ‘Recollections of Charles Sumner,’ by A. B. Johnson, Scribner's Magazine. August, 1874, pp. 475– 490; November, 1874. pp. 101-114; June, 1875, pp. 224-229; July. 1875, pp. 297-304; J. W. Forney's ‘Anecdotes of Public Men,’ vol. II. pp. 259, 260; ‘Christian Union,’ April 1, 1874, Springfield Republican, March 17, 1874, by Miss A. L. Dawes (‘Haigha’); Philadelphia Press, Sept. 5, 1871, by Mrs. A. L. Howard; New York Independent, June 1, 1871, and March 26, 1874, and ‘Outlines of Men, Women, and Things,’ pp. 43-45, by Mrs. M C. Ames; New York World, Dec. 11. 1869: Boston Journal, March 23, 1874, by B. P. Poore; Boston Commonwealth, April 4.1868, by C. W. Slack: San Francisco ‘Post,’ March 24, 1874, by R. J. Hinton; Chicago Tribune, March 20, 1871, and March. 1874, by G. A. Townsend (‘Gath’); New York Tribune, April 5, 1891, by Mrs. Janet Chase Hoyt; Chaplin's ‘Life of Sumner,’ pp. 471-479.
Cambridge, MA. Press of John Wilson and Son. 1877.
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