C. Edwards Lester, Life and public services of Charles Sumner: Born Jan. 6, 1811. Died March 11, 1874.

---

Ix.

The cortege reached the Sumner burial lot just as the sun was going down. Reverently and by tender hands the casket was placed by the side of the grave. At the foot stood Ralph Waldo Emerson, Dr. Holmes, and Vice-President Wilson, and around them gathered the members of the Washington delegation. At the head, was a beautiful cross of ivy, and sheaves of ripened wheat, with spring violets. Outside the reserved space, were clustered thousands who had gathered to witness this scene of worship and love. All stood bowed and uncovered when the brief services began. After Chaplain Sunderland had recited the Lord's Prayer, a choir of forty gentlemen from the Apollo Club sang that inimitable ode of Horace, Integer vitoe. While this solemn music was rising, two ladies, the only mourners of their sex within the enclosure, stepped forward and placed upon the coffin, already laden with floral tributes of rarest beauty, an exquisite wreath, and a cross.¹

Rev. Henry W. Foote pronounced the words, ‘I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me, Write:— From henceforth blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, for so saith the Spirit. They have rested from their labors, and their works do follow them.’ And as the dust began to fall upon all there was mortal left of [537] the great sleeper, the bereaved multitude slowly left the City of the Dead. The ashes of the Statesman had at last found their congenial resting-place, by the side of those of his beloved mother.