d conquered. He saw the
promised land of international fellowship and peace, and conquered in his
own breast the evil genius of war. He came back proud that he was an
American, prouder still that he was a man.

The downfall of the Whigs of Massachusetts, brought about by a coalition
of the Free Soil and the Democratic parties, resulted after a contest in
the Legislature lasting fourteen weeks, in the election on April 24, 1851,
of Charles Sumner to the Senate of the United States. He was just forty,
was at the meridian of the intellectual life, in the zenith of bodily
vigor and manly beauty. He attained the splendid position by sheer worth,
unrivalled public service. Never has political office, I venture to
assert, been so utterly unsolicited. He did not lift a finger, scorned to
budge an inch, refused to write a line to influence his election. The
great office came to him by the laws of gravitation and character--to him
the clean of hand, and brave of heart. It was the hour finding the man.

As Sumner entered the Senate the last of its early giants was leaving it
forever. Calhoun had already passed away. Webster was in Millard
Fillmore's cabinet, and Clay was escaping in his own picturesque and
pathetic words, "scarred by spears and worried by wounds to drag his
mutilated body to his lair and lie down and die." The venerable
representative of compromise was making his exit from one door of the
stage, the masterful representative of conscience, his entrance through
the other. Was the coincidence accident or prophecy? Were the bells of
destiny at the moment "ringing in the valiant man and free, the larger
heart, the kindlier hand, and ringing out the darkness of the land"?
Whether accident or prophecy, Sumner's entrance into the Senate was into
the midst of a hostile camp. On either side of the chamber enemies
confronted him. Southern Whigs and southern Democrats hated him. Northern
Whigs and northern democrats likewise hated him. He was without party
affiliation, well nigh friendless. But thanks to the revolution which was
working in the free states, he was not wholly so. For William H. Seward
was already there, and Salmon P. Chase, and John P. Hale, and Hannibal
Hamlin. Under such circumstances it behooved the new champion of freedom
to take no precipitate step.

A smaller man, a leader less wise and less fully equipped might have
blundered at this stage by leaping too hastily with his cause into the
arena of debate.