Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and letters of Charles Sumner: volume 4

Sumner on his way from Washington stopped at Philadelphia to call upon Mr. Forney and Thomas Fitzgerald,¹ and in New York, where he dined with Lieber. As soon as he reached Boston he went to Nahant, where he divided his time between Longfellow and Mr. George Abbot James. One day in August, in company with Longfellow and son, Agassiz, James, and a young Japanese prince, he went by invitation of Judge Russell, collector of the port, on a revenue cutter to Minot's Ledge, where they were hoisted up in a chair into the light-house.² The poet saw in his friend traces of the attack of angina pectoris in the winter, and wrote to G. W. Greene: ‘He complains that I walk too fast, and is averse to walking at all.’ Sumner made a brief visit to Mr. Hooper at Cotuit, and was for a day with B. P. Poore at Newbury. On September 23 he assisted at the Bird Club in commemorating the Whig State convention of 1846, in which he was a leader of the Conscience Whigs at the opening of his career. One evening in the autumn he was at Mrs. Sargent's Radical Club, where M. Coquerel, the French clergyman, was received, and where were also Wendell Phillips and James Freeman Clarke. He was glad to entertain with a dinner and a drive Forney and Daniel Dougherty³ on their visit to Boston. The former wrote, after his return to Philadelphia: ‘It was a never-to-beforgotten evening,—one which it would give me rare satisfaction to be permitted to describe in my own volumes;’ and he communicated Dougherty's enthusiasm in recalling the meeting of the three friends in Boston. Sumner appeared twice in the autumn before the people of Boston,—once at the Music Hall to introduce as a lecturer M. Coquerel,⁴ and again at Faneuil Hall, where he spoke briefly for aid to the sufferers by the great fire in Chicago.⁵ The President and people of Hayti recognized his services for their country by the gift of a medal, which, as it was declined in deference to the spirit of a constitutional inhibition,