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

[577] in politics, religious faith, sectional traits, or personal likings, there was accord in the belief that one life and character stood unassailable,—the life and character of Charles Sumner. He might have this fault or that; he might overdo in some things or fall short in others; but he had, as all men felt, upheld in the Senate for well-nigh a generation a lofty standard of fidelity, dignity, and unblemished virtue.¹ Such a career is a capital which the American people know how to value.

It would have been natural for Sumner to expect when he came home in August to see some averted faces among the people he had left eleven months before with a deliverance which grated on their feelings; but these he did not see. As he walked the streets of his native city, citizens whom he had known and others whom he had not known stopped him to inquire eagerly for his health and to express their warmest interest in him. This cordiality was most noticeable among men of mercantile pursuits, who as a class had never been much attracted by his devotion to the uplifting of the African race. Their friendly greetings in the clubs have already been mentioned. At no time had he felt so sensibly the warm breath of popular favor, always grateful to a public man. It was everywhere the talk that he would be elected for a fifth term by the Legislature to be chosen a year later. This public feeling found expression in the newspapers, and if there was dissent anywhere it was cherished in perfect silence. The repeal of the legislative censure was already assured. As things then looked, he was to receive the unanimous support of the people, again nominated by the Republicans and voted for by the Democrats,—not standing so much now the leader of a party as the first citizen of the Commonwealth. In the contest, if there had been one, the voice of his old colleague, now Vice-President, would have been heard in his behalf,—not with youthful vigor as in 1851, but still potent and inspiring. If in any quarter opposition had developed,—and this would have come only under stimulus from Washington,—the members of the Legislature would have been chosen with sole reference