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a later day, succeeded in defeating the confirmation of E. Rockwood Hoar as a justice of the Supreme Court,—an accomplished jurist, eminently fitted to adorn that tribunal.
Mr. Edmunds has won deserved distinction for his wisdom and fidelity as a legislator; but his treatment of these two New England public men will never be placed among his meritorious services.
Unlike the Vermont senator, Trumbull forgot the heats of former conflicts, and stood manfully by his old antagonist.
One who had formerly led in that body, ever high-minded and jealous of the dignity of the Senate, impatient indeed with Sumner when their peculiarities clashed, but having full faith in his fidelity and honor, was no loner there.
Had Fessenden lived, the removal of Stunner would not have been carried,—indeed, would not have been attempted.1
Cameron, who succeeded Sumner, was by general opinion unfitted for the duties of the chairman; hardly a senator was less fitted.
It is to his credit that he did not seek the place, and came to it with regret.
He took no part in the struggle, which, as he said, was painful to him. Once, when he was absent in Russia, Sumner had defended him in executive session; and whatever were Cameron's faults, he never forgot a favor, and was never false to a friend.
Their relations continued most friendly, and on Sumner's last day in the Senate they parted with a mutual ‘God bless you!’2 Cameron lived to a great are, and to the end was always ready to testify to Sumner's fidelity and honor.
There was joy at the Executive Mansion and the state department, and the San Domingo adventurers were in ecstasies.
To Conkling and Carpenter had come the opportunity for which they had long been waiting, and to Edmunds one which he had been craving since the debate on the San Domingo commission.
But other senators, who had been reluctant instruments of injustice, were not content with what they had done.
They knew how their subserviency would be regarded by living men, and
1 Fessenden's most intimate friend in the Senate (Grimes of Iowa) wrote from Switzerland to F. A. Pike, Jan. 10, 1871: ‘Was there ever anything so absurd, so wicked indeed, as the attempt to force the country to accept San Domingo against its will? I have no great admiration for Sumner, but I glory in his pluck, and I wish I were able to be in Washington to fight by his side.’ （Salter's ‘Life of J. W. Grimes,’ pp. 382, 383.) Mr. Grimes died in February, 1872; but he signified by a letter, afterwards published, his opposition to the President's re-election. Another public man, though while in office altogether unfriendly to Sumner, condemned the removal. Hugh McCulloch's ‘Men and Measures of Half a Century,’ p. 353.
2 Cameron in the Senate, April 28, 1874. Congressional Globe, p. 3434.
Cambridge, MA. Press of John Wilson and Son. 1877.
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