I note and value your warning. My case is less menacing than the Vice-President's. I have latterly done my eleven hours work a day. Wilson's work on his book will bring death or worse. I agree with you on the bankrupt law. Mr. Tremain2 has lost as a legislator by the ill-considered haste with which, without the support of the committee, He rushed through the repeal. Baez has3 from the beginning been a mercenary, looking out for himself, and a usurper sustained for years by the navy of the United States, illicitly employed at immense cost. Millions! Read my sketch of him, and see how it is verified
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audience gave cheer upon cheer.’
These demonstrations were not merely formal and customary, but they were sincere expressions of respect and gratitude.1 Sumner himself saw how genuine they were, and was deeply moved.
In the few weeks of life that remained they were a solace, and a sign to him of the final judgment of mankind on his career.
He lodged at Mr. Cowdin's during his four days in the city.
In conversation with the family he recurred several times to the warmth and enthusiasm of his reception.
Indeed, the exhilaration of spirits which came from his visit had, as his physician observed, a visible effect on his health for weeks to come.
He exposure, however, resulted in a hard cough, which kept him awake at night and brought his host to his chamber with the offer of remedies.
He wrote from Washington, December 26, to Mr. Cowdin: ‘Major Poore dined with me last evening, and I dine to-night at the French legation; so that I shall be kept in the line of French souvenirs, so pleasant in your beautiful home.
Washington looks more like a village than ever before.
My protracted visit has made me feel the grandeur of New York, to say nothing of the elegant hospitality there.’
Sumner wrote to F. W. Bird, December 26:—
1 Chauncey M. Depew, in a eulogy on General Sherman at Albany, March 29, 1892, stated that ‘at a notable gathering in New York’ (meaning the New England dinner at Delmonico's) Sumner attacked General Grant as a failure in civil affairs, covertly alluding to him in remarks on Miles Standish, and was replied to by General Sherman. The statement has no basis of fact. Sumner did not then or at any other time after November, 1872. make the slightest reference in public to General Grant. Nothing in the language of either Sumner or General Sherman justified the imputation. No one present, as General James Grant Wilson, one of the guests, certifies, suspected Sumner to have intended any such personal reference. It is surprising that Mr. Depew, who in the election of 1872 was himself bitterly personal against General Grant, should have put such a construction on the senator's speech. The passage of Mr. Depew's eulogy referred to was the subject of criticism in a communication to the New York Evening Post, May 7, 1892.
2 Lyman Tremain of New York. The bill of repeal, which passed the House, Dec. 15, 1873, was not acted on in the Senate. A later Congress, however, repealed the Bankruptcy Act.
3 Again in the United States to promote the annexation of San Domingo.
Cambridge, MA. Press of John Wilson and Son. 1877.
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