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

At last he was to enter on a life for which he had expressed a longing more than twenty years before; indeed, earlier than that he had failed in a suit in which his whole heart was enlisted. In a letter to Howe, August 16, 1844, already partly given,¹ after referring to his recent illness and a former unhappiness which had unmanned him, he wrote: ‘If I had been called away, it would have been with the regret that I never had enjoyed the choicest experience of life,—that no lips responsive to my own had ever said to me, “I love you.” ’ With what sentiments and expectations he entered on the new relation appears in the notes announcing his engagement or accepting congratulations. He wrote to Lieber, September 22:—

I wish you to know directly from myself that I am engaged to be married. I am not sure if you have ever met the beautiful lady of twenty-eight, who sometime this latter season presided at Mr. Hooper's house in Washington. I hope you will meet her this winter, if not before, at mine. Tell this to Mrs. Lieber from me. I write this gayly, and yet I cannot withhold from an early friend the solicitude which I feel at this great change in my life. I am an idealist, and I now hope to live my idea; but I cannot forget that I am on the earth, where there is so much of disappointment and sorrow. But I have said enough. Good-by!

The following correspondence was with the eminent historian:

Newport, Sept. 15, 1866.

My dear Sumner—Though you may think I come tardily, like the lame son of the Israelitish king, yet you must receive with a true welcome my heartfelt congratulations on the impending change which is to make of the rest of your life a romance of untold happiness. Love in very young folks is so natural that it is no more observable than the blending of two drops of dew into one, or the mixing of two tears, or the junction of two tiny brooks, or anything else that may be charming but is commonplace and not noteworthy; but when a man of mature years, of high endowments, of the most varied culture, a robust nature, hardened by conflicts, treading the paths of ambition with energy and daring, is touched by the tender passion, love gains majesty as well as gentleness. To feel the passion of love in its full force, the subject of it needs to have the ripened experience of an active and unblemished character, the strength of a powerful, complete, and undecaying manhood.

To the lady in whom your affections have found a home I had the pleasure of being presented a few years ago; but I do not know her well enough to justify my writing to her directly; so I must claim of you to be the bearer of my regard, and to charge her to include me henceforward among her friends, having so many years been included among yours. I hope your marriage will prove not only fraught with blessings for you and for her, but an omen