New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-04-30

The completion Of this admirable biography has
been deferred for many years through Na'io"'
causes, chief among which is the "Nhaus','c
nature of the work Mr. Sumner throughput ms
life enjoyed tie intimate friendship OF many
famous men and women AT home ana ao'""'
and maintained a voluminous correspondence WIZ"
them As Mr. Pierce has aimed 10 include III
this memoir the letters and speeches Of the graf
Senator. the labor OF collecting and diseshng
the material has been very great Now that the
work has been done with painstaking care ana
ineNhaustbc p,ticncc. monument such as
Horace describes as more enduring than stone or
brass has been erected in memory OF one oil the
most intellectual men who haye ever sfaecd
American public life. The same refinement OF
taste and accuracy OF Judgment which Mr. sum-
ner displayed in the PREPARATION of his speeches
and in the details Of ordinary correspondence are
consp,cuous in these volumes. 1t is prominently
such a biography as would have met with his
hearty approval and as he of the most
critical Of writers, that is, perhaps, the highest
praise that can be bestowed Upon Mr.. Pierces
work
Tho third volume embraces the most active
ncrod Of Mr. Summers lifc-the fifteen years end
ing with President Lincoln's first election. In order
10 show his environment when he took his place
among the reformcrs and asitators of Ncw-Eng-
land the volume op6is with luminous chapter
on society in Boston. For its Plumbers no Amerl
can city strong IN capital lts oiuer
wealth had come from foreign commerce. ls
later wealth from mills and factories Its pros
perous citizens were men of good stock, enter
prising scf-poiscd and large-minded. Harvard
College difTusal an academic spirit and raised up
scholars and intellectual guides The style OF
living was sober but generous, with furniture i'm
ported from France, with specimens Of art from
al. -<n l-a.l with
Madeira of various vintagcs. Boston merchants
as a class highly conservative; they 'o~k
a harmless pride in their social standing; they
received consideration from the masses something
like that accorded TO an English lord or SQUIRE
and were accustomed to have their own way and
TO resent interference from those who had not ny
family or wealth reached the same position a.
themselves. They were English in thought ana
habit as in blood. and while not wanting IN
patriotism. had little faith in the republican
polity and small confidence in the good sense
and steadness of the people. They re'erenced
alexander Hamilton. hated Jefferson, distrusted
the Adamscs, and rallied around Alexander Ham,
lion as the conservative leader OF the times
There was hut one society at that period 10 which
admission WAS sought, and every one in it knew
every else who in It, II was close and
hard. consolidated, with uniform stamp on all,
and opinion running in grooves-in politics,
Wing: in faith. Unitarian and Episcopaan lis
members were closely connected BY intermarrage
and personal difficulty with one was quickly
taken up by the related families.
Mr.. Sumner, who was familiar with the talk
at dinners and in drawing rooms, wrote In 1872 {:
There are beautiful and generous spirits III
Boston, but the prevailing tone of its society
is provincial toryism. Persons freshly returned
from Europe who have hearts. arc at first dis
turbcd by il, then straightwav adopt II. 80
ciaI pressure was freely brought to bear TO
force conformity in politics and arrest tendencies
TO radicalism, or to opinions or conduct which
were contrary TO the conventional standard
Men of courage who pushed moral principles
into politics were stigmatzed fanatics and
dcmagOgues. Frenchman visiting Boston in
1851 found that the mention of Sumner name
in social life made certain people shiver be
cause he was O Frcc-SOiler and suspected Of
abolitionism though otherwise nothing i'll was
said of him. 1t had been Judge Story's desire
that Sumner should take his place professor
in the law school, but the young agitatOr's
Fourth of july Grafton had shown him to be too
radical in his opinions to suit the conservative
sentiment which then governed the corporation
of Harvard College. After his controversy with
Winthrop he could not enter society without
meeting persons who either cut him directly or
had become unamiable in look or word and he
more and more kept aoof from it. To those
whom he admitted to his innermost life he was
accustomed TO speak sadly of his loneliness.
Mr.. Summers participation in popular agita-
tions intcrfercd seriously with his professional
success as a lawyer. 1t repealed clients who
disagreed with him exciting topics. He bad
fair share of office business and had charge Of
several important patent and insurance cases,
but his professional earnings were not large,
l.. hx..l.
especially Storys works. and by fees for l'c-
lures before lyccums His oratons and speeches
were published in two volumes in 1850. and en-
bodied the chief results Of his career AT that
time lie made many changes and corrections,
not only of the original text, but in successive
proofs until the printers rebclicd against him.
An excess in revision characteristic Of him.
lie continued the alterations in every successive
edition. filling the margins with pen or pencil
marks 40 matter how thorough was the pre-
ccdinc revision, he always discovering a
construction or a word to improve His friends
often submitted their manuscripts first proofs
20 him. and they came back changed that the
authors could hardly identify their own com
positions Those much younger than himself
submitted 20 this rough handling: others rose
m insuirection against his severe canons OF
criticism.
Mr. Summers active interest in reforms, his
prominence in the prson-discipine debate, in Ire
mont Temple his views of the annexation Of Texas
and OF the Mexican War, his controversy with Win
tlrop his Identification with the Free Soil party
in 1913, and his subsequent election TO tine United
States Senate in consequence of the Collapse OF
the Wing party in Massachusetts, under Webster I
leadership, are the chief topics discussed by way
of introduction 10 his years Of public service al
Washington. The political history of the times
is revcwcd comrrchensvely and with lncdty but
always in its biographical relation t. the eradua
evolution of Mr. Summers opinions While he was
a coalition candidate, and repeatedly waited
upon by dissenting Democrats and asked foi
assurances that he would not a2itate the slavery
question, or that he would az least put other ques
ions before it, he refused steadily to make any