n style. He was much of a student,
and abounded in quotations. In his senatorial days, I once heard a
satirical lady mention him as "the moral flummery member from
Massachusetts, quoting Tibullus!"

The first political speech which I heard from Mr. Sumner was delivered,
if I mistake not, at a schoolhouse in the neighborhood of Boston. I
found his oratory somewhat overloud and emphatic for the small hall and
limited attendance. He had not at that time found his proper audience.
When he was heard, later on, in Faneuil Hall or Tremont Temple, the
ringing roll of his voice was very effective. His gestures were forcible
rather than graceful. In argument he would go over the same ground
several times, always with new amplifications and illustrations of his
subject. There was a dead weight of honesty and conviction in what he
said, and it was this, perhaps, that chiefly gave him his command over
an audience. He had also in a remarkable degree the trait of mastery,
and the ability to present his topic in a large way.

I am not sure whether Sumner's idea of culture was as encyclopaedic as
that of Theodore Parker, but he certainly aspired to be what is now
called "an all-round man," and especially desired to attain
connoisseurship in art. He had not the many-sided power of appreciation
which distinguished Parker, yet a reverence for the beautiful, rather
moral than aesthetic, led him to study with interest the works of the
great masters. In his later years, he never went abroad without bringing
back pictures, engravings, or rare missals. He had little natural
apprehension of music, but used to express his admiration of some
favorite operas, among them Mozart's "Don Giovanni" and Rossini's
"Barbiere di Seviglia." In the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, of
which he was chairman for many years, his acquaintance with foreign
languages was much valued. I remember a line of Tasso which he sometimes
quoted when beautiful hands were spoken of:--

"Dove ne nodo appar, ne vena eccede."

On the other hand, I have heard him say that mathematics always remained
a sealed book to him; and that his professor at Harvard once exclaimed,
"Sumner, I can't whittle a mathematical idea small enough to get it into
your brain."

[Illustration: JULIA WARD HOWE

_From a painting by Joseph Ames in 1847._]

The period between 1851 and the beginning of the civil war found Mr.
Sumner at his post in the Senate of the United States. His position wa