The daily Argus., 1874-03-14

places. John p. Hale, disowned by party
as disloyal to slavery, used his wit and re-
partee to great eaect. S. p. Chase was
grave, logical and impressive. Seward
was cautious, speculative, polite and able,
without the arts of an orator. Charles
Sumner, the longest spared OF noble
band in the Senate, was, in mental habit
and manner, quite distinct from his COM
rades. With aristocratic tastes, he was
plebian in habit. A lawyer who had earn
ed the praise of Story, and had tri-
umphed on every great battle field of NOR
al encounter, where he had met giants and
inaugurated and nodded the most advanced
legislation of the century, still had no per-
sonal ambition beyond serving his friends,
raising up the degraded, and filing that
place 10 our annals which the purest life,
patriotic deyotions, and the martyr spirit of
the scholar and statesman could give him
title.
1t is % years ago, but it seems very
brief period since / heard him in his law
Office, in the city of Boston, decline being
a candidate for the u. s. Senate in the
place Of Webster, To secure his election,
after consenting to the use Of his name he
did nothing, and refused to modify an
opinion to secure the vote of Caleb Cush-
ing, which was necessary to secure his
election. That was key to his character,
and led to its grand unfolding. To be
voted down did not disturb him, for the
eternal years of God were pledged to eter-
nal justice, which, he maintained, was the
corner stone of every institution worthy of
perpetuation. HIS writings and letters
will make fifty ample volumes, evin-
cling greater industry, more varied learning
and clearer conception of the character
of slavery, the policy of war aud the meth
DDS of reconstruction, and the proper
status Of the freeman, than any modern
statesman. Can an advanced policy or
principle of his be named which the coun-
try has not endorsed or adopted?
His learned opinions on the Trent con-
troversy saved us from foreign war, and
the demand of Sumner hastened the i'm
mortal proclamation of Lincoln. More
than an official diplomat during the sad
years of our war, he had the ear and won
the hearts of the ambassadors of the great
nations. With magnetic presence and rich
conversational powers, have heard him
use FIVE different languages in conversation,
and he was master Of as many more, which
marked him as the scholar of the Ameri
can Senate As a true friend he will be
mourned by millions. The historian Mot
ley he would not see struck down without
a reproof which cost him the chair
manship of the first senatorial committee,
of which he had been the animating soul
for ten years andif this was-with the San
Domingo scheme in part the occasion of
his indictment of Grant, the verdict of the
nation will be that it was provoked Sumner
t was one of Natures noblemen With per-
: sonal attractions in countenance and fea-
r lures, and voice, in early days, of great
! compass and melody, the visitor first
? enquired for the great Commoner who, in
speaking, was readily associated with the
historical names in the revolutions of Eu-
: rope. What time have l, said he ''for
d matrimony here is my enslaved coun
e try, and having reached the age of fifty
Y five years he married widow, in Bea-
con street, Mrs. Hooper, beautiful and
0 accomplished, with whom for year he
e lived without any social scandal, until vi
' per crossed his threshold and led to a
e separation which the wounded husband
never alluded to but with great delicacy
| His dwelling was the hospitable home of the
= noted SdUdns of the world, embelished
: with the rarest paintings and statuary and
, enriched with the choicest volumes The
I poorest laborer and the most lowly black
, man was as welcome to his library for
l counsel as the ambassadors of Kings, and
it was this, with his democracy of ideas
= which contributed to his worldwide fame
D Volumes can only recount his victorious
9 achievements. Denounced for his battle
e flag resolution, which meant real fraterni
e ty, he lived to know that his own State haC
+ retracted its censure and approved hi
e policy, il sympathy with the nation, which
5 would forever Danish hate With the i'm
+ mortal Greeley he joined in a demand fol
e General Amnesty, which is granted by the
: nation, and his spirit now holds compan
ionship with his great co-laborers beyond
e the breath Of slander which poisoned tht
0 air of the living.
' Gone. gone! Noble friend of country
{ and champion of the rights of man
;, There is no noble being in palaces, or lowly
k man in cabins, in all our broad land, thai
did not know Sumner and is not in mourn
?, ing to-day for him.