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very amiable; and seventh, a man whose decorum of character and whose talents have done and are doing more than those of any other man in the Senate to arrest the gradual decline of that body in the estimation of the country, in itself a service which those who feel the important role the Senate ought to play in our constitutional system know how to appreciate.
Mr. Bigelow added in 1886 the following memorandum to complete what he had said twenty-five years before:—
Though a man of strong feeling, Mr. Sumner was distinguished for the marvellous control which he always exerted over his passions.
In this respect he had an advantage over most of the conspicuous public men of his time.
He never seemed to entertain—at least I never saw him exhibit—any resentment.
When the names of his political assailants were mentioned in his presence, he took his revenge with a smile.
No statesman of his time so completely and effectively expressed the antislavery sentiment of the free States.
He was fond of applause,—rather too fond of it; but he sought only such applause as he thought he deserved.
His ends were always of the best.
His name is not associated, so far as I can recollect, with any public effort which did not have for its end the welfare of his country, by means entirely consistent with the highest standards of dignity and honor.
It would have been well, I think, if Sumner had held some important executive or administrative office,—that of governor of Massachusetts, or a member of the Cabinet at Washington, for example,—that he might have familiarized himself with the difficulties which every servant of fifth millions of masters, be he ever so pure and wise, must always encounter in trying to have his own way.
Sumner had comprehensive intelligence, which always sought to throw on the question in hand all the light of history and philosophy.
Among American statesmen, those whom he most resembled in this respect are
Jefferson,
Edward Livingston, and
John Quincy Adams.
He never valued his own opinion so highly that he was not ready to sit at the feet of the masters of science.
He was always prone to test public questions, not by apparent and transient exigencies, but by principles permanent and fundamental.
It was for this reason that during the
Civil War and reconstruction period he consulted so often
Dr. Lieber, a publicist, living apart from political management, whose knowledge and counsels other public men would not have thought worth seeking.
Sumner believed it to be the statesman's part to lead the people, and not merely to follow them.
He recognized, indeed, that measures and policies, in order to prevail, must have the support of public opinion; but he did not in advance
