Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and letters of Charles Sumner: volume 4

[599] then fell asleep, and woke a few minutes later, only to pass through one more convulsion. He died thirteen minutes before three. Johnson and Dr. Lincoln were supporting him in the final moment. Downing was holding his right hand, and Judge Hoar, who having gone out had returned just in time, took his left. There was only a single gasp, a sign from the physician that all was over, and a brief stillness broken by Judge Hoar who still held the dead senator's hand, saying, as he laid it down (Schurz entering at the moment), ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! enter thou into the joy of thy Lord!’

The tidings of Sumner's illness, announced on Wednesday morning, with the certainty of death at hand, was a shock to his associates in public life who had seen him in his seat the day before. The Senate, meeting at noon, adjourned on Sherman's motion immediately after the prayer, which referred to the senator as yesterday in the chamber with all the presence of his manly form, now prostrate and lying close to the edge of the dark river. The House continued its business, which was interrupted by the reading of telegrams stating his condition; and when the one announcing his death came, it adjourned. In both houses members lingered in conversation on the event. All that was possible was done to pay respect to his memory. The nation, by the action of the two houses the next day, took charge of the body to bear it to Massachusetts, and as soon as that duty was performed they adjourned. Conkling referred to ‘the vacant chair long Held by a senator of distinguished eminence, and one of the most illustrious of Americans,’ and ‘joined in sincerity and respect’ to pay tribute to ‘the long and remarkable life now closed.’¹ Anthony, always most happy on such occasions, said:—

It is an event which needs not to be announced, for its dark shadow rests gloomily upon this chamber, and not only upon the Senate and the capital, but upon the whole country; and the intelligence of which, borne on the mysterious wires that underlie the seas, has been already carried to the remotest lands, and has aroused profoundest sympathy wherever humanity weeps for a friend, wherever liberty deplores an advocate. The oldest member of this body in continuous service, he who yesterday was the oldest, beloved for the graces and the virtues of his personal character, admired for his genius and his accomplishments, reverenced for the fidelity with which he adhered to his convictions, illustrious for his services to the republic and to the world, has