compass as that of Wendell Phillips or Henry Clay, both of whom he somewhat resembled in his general style of oratory. One of his biographers has given this account of his appearance at the age of twenty-two: "He was tall and gaunt, weighing only one hundred and twenty pounds; his hair was dark brown, his eyes hazel and inflamed by excessive use; his face sharpfeatured; his teeth gleaming with whiteness; his complexion dark and not clear; his visage and person not attractive to the eye, and far unlike his presence in later life, when, with full proportions and classic features, he arrested attention in the Senate and on the street. . . . His voice was strong, clear, and sonorous; his countenance was lighted up with expression, and his genial smile won friends upon an introduction. His spirits were buoyant in company, and his laugh was loud and hearty." I have said that he was careful in his attire. This habit stuck to him through life, and even when he was an undergraduate of Harvard he refused to conform to the rules of dress prescribed by the faculty, and persisted in wearing a buff-colored waistcoat, for which he received an "admonition for illegal dress." As to his height, an amusing incident is related by B. P. Poore, who says: "On Lincoln's arrival in Washington, shortly before his inauguration, in 1861, he met Sumner for the first time. Lincoln said: Sumner declined to stand up with me back to back to see which was the taller man, and made a fine speech about this being the time for uniting our fronts against the

enemy and not our backs; but I guess he was afraid to measure them. He is a good piece of a man. I had never had much to do with bishops where I lived, but do you know Sumner is my idea of a bishop.'" As a matter of fact, it may be said here that Sumner and Lincoln were very nearly the same height; Lincoln was six feet four inches.

The first impression that most people gained of Sumner, even in his earlier years in Boston, long before he had acquired great fame as an orator and a statesman, was not altogether favorable. He impressed one with his egotism and profound self-admiration. He always delighted to talk of the celebrated people he met, and of the attentions lavished upon him, and to air his erudition and his learning, of which he certainly possessed a great store. His accomplished biographer and literary executor, Edward L. Pierce, has this to say of him: "It pleased him to know the effect of his orations, and to let others know it also. This habit, which developed when he took the platform in Boston, remained with him to the end. There was always in it, as well in middle life as in youth, something spontaneous, artless, childlike, the natural expression of a frank nature, with no purpose to exalt himself or depreciate others. Tact would have imposed greater reserve, for the habit repelled many, particularly those who had the ambition without the power to do what he could do. People who are clever, without breadth or strength, are disposed to harp upon such a limitation, overlook

ing altogether the talents and service which may accompany it. . . This quality or habit of Sumner, whatever he had of it, was harmless. It led him to no distorted view of men and things; to no underestimate of other men's powers; to no disparagement of their work, and no disregard of their opinions and counsels. Jealousy and envy were no part of his nature. He praised generously, even lavishly, not only those younger than himself or inferior in position, but those also who were his peers in office or his rivals for fame." Whittier doubtless had this defect in mind when, after his death, he wrote of Sumner thus:

The charge that he was a tuft-hunter or seeker after titled folk was often made unjustly against him, but it so happens that in this country of ours a titled foreigner is likely to be a person of distinction whose acquaintance would be desirable to any person. Being at the White House one day during Lincoln's administration, the President asked me if, on arriving at the Capitol, whither I was going, I would say to Senator Sumner that he (the President) would be glad if

the Senator would call to see him later in the day, if entirely convenient. I sought out Mr. Sumner and delivered the message, whereupon, in his most magnificent manner, he said: "Let me see. I have an engagement to take luncheon with the Marquis de Chambrun, and later to dine with the British Minister. Yes, yes, I think I will go; I think I will go. Pray tell the President so." There was no need for Senator Sumner to tell an unimportant person like myself what his engagements with great people were; and he knew very well that I should not see the President again that day.

Before Sumner was elected to the Senate he passed several years abroad. He was then at an impressionable age-twenty-seven yearsand his long residence abroad (some two years. and three or four months) gave him a certain air of foreign distinction which to sensitive critics was exceedingly offensive. While abroad he met many desirable acquaintances, and he said in a letter to a friend at home: "I now hardly call to mind a person in England that I cared to see whom I have not met under circumstances the most agreeable and flattering to myself." His rare intelligence on topics interesting to Englishmen, their politics, history, law, literature, authorship, and public men commended him to the best people in England. It is possible that his brilliant social successes abroad and his thoroughly enjoyable residence there made him somewhat disaffected toward the comparatively raw culture of

his own land. On his return from abroad he went into the practice of law, the details of which were to him exceedingly irksome, and he could not refrain from confessing to his intimate friends that he had little heart for the drudgery

Crawford.

of a law office. "Sometimes," says Mr. Pierce, "at this period he recurred unwisely to his foreign life or letters in conversation with clients or lawyers who knew or cared little about such things, a habit likely to repel those who were intent only on the business in hand, and to make them feel that his mind was not enough on what