im seemed to be chiefly because he was
a friend of General Butler. I combated the argument as well
as I could. The whole conversation was exceedingly quiet
and friendly on both sides until we turned the corner by Mr.
Sumner's house, when the President, with great emphasis, and
shaking his closed fist toward Sumner's house, said: "I shall
not withdraw the nomination. That man who lives up there
has abused me in a way which I never suffered from any other
man living." I did not, of course, press the President further.
But I told him I regretted very much the misunderstanding
between him and Mr. Sumner, and took my leave. It was evident
that in some way the President connected this nomination with
the controversy between himself and Sumner.

I have always lamented, in common with all the friends and
lovers of both these great men, that they should have so misunderstood
each other; yet it was not unnatural. They were both honest,
fearless, patriotic, and brave. Yet never were two honest,
fearless, patriotic, and brave men more unlike each other.
The training, the mental characteristics, the field of service,
the capacities, the virtues, the foibles of each tended to
make him underestimate and misunderstand the other. The man
of war, and the man of peace; the man whose duty it was to
win battles and conduct campaigns, and the man who trusted
to the prevalence of ideas in a remote future; the man who
wielded executive power, and the man who in a fierce contest
with executive power had sought to extend the privileges,
power, and authority of the Senate; the man who adhered tenaciously
to his friends though good and evil report, and the man whose
friendships were such that evil report of personal dishonor
never dared assail them; the man of little taste for letters,
and the man of vast and varied learning; the man of blunt,
plain ways, and the man of courtly manners; the man of few
words, and the man who ever deemed himself sitting in a lofty
pulpit with a mighty sounding board, with a whole widespread
people for a congregation--how could they understand each
other? Grant cared little for speech-making. It sometimes
seemed as if Sumner thought the Rebellion itself was put down
by speeches in the Senate, and that the war was an unfortunate
and most annoying, though trifling disturbance, as if a fire-
engine had passed by. Sumner did injustice to Grant; Grant
did injustice to Sumner. The judgment of each was warpe