's course had warmly commended him
to a large and ever increasing constituency, but had brought down upon
him the anger of Mr. Webster's political supporters. My husband's
sympathies were entirely with the class then derided as "a band of
disturbers of the public peace, enemies of law and order." I deeply
regretted the discords of the time, and would have had all people good
friends, however diverse in political persuasion. As this could not be,
I felt constrained to cast in my lot with those who protested against
the new assumptions of the slave power. The social ostracism which
visited Charles Sumner never fell upon Dr. Howe. This may have been
because the active life of the latter lay without the domain of
politics, but also, I must think, because the services which he
continually rendered to the community compelled from all who knew him,
not only respect, but also cordial good-will.

I did not then, or at any time, make any willful breach with the society
to which I was naturally related. It did, however, much annoy me to hear
those spoken of with contempt and invective who, I was persuaded, were
only far in advance of the conscience of the time. I suppose that I
sometimes repelled the attacks made upon them with a certain heat of
temper, to avoid which I ought to have remembered Talleyrand's famous
admonition, "Surtout point de zele." Better, perhaps, would it have been
to rest in the happy prophecy which assures us that "Wisdom is justified
of all her children." Ordinary society is apt to class the varieties of
individuals under certain stereotyped heads, and I have no doubt that it
held me at this time to be a seeker after novelties, and one disposed to
offer a premium for heresies of every kind. Yet I must say that I was
never made painfully aware of the existence of such a feeling. There was
always a leaven of good sense and good sentiment even in the worldly
world of Boston, and as time went on I became the recipient of much
kindness, and the happy possessor of a circle of substantial friends.

* * * * *

Shortly after my return to Boston, my husband spoke to me of a new
acquaintance,--a Polish nobleman, Adam Gurowski by name,--concerning
whom he related the following circumstances. Count Gurowski had been
implicated in one of the later Polish insurrections. In order to keep
his large estates from confiscation he had made them over to his younger
brother, upon the explicit cond