Chapter V: Injuries and Continued Disability of Mr. Sumner (4)

At a meeting in Worcester, Hon. Charles Allen, the eminent Judge, and formerly a Representative in Congress, said:--

“Now, Sir, we have met to express our warm feelings of
indignation--at what? That Charles Sumner has been stricken
down by the hand of a brutal ruffian? No, Sir: that is but
a small portion of the question which is presented for our
consideration at this time. Not by the hand of Brooks of
South Carolina, alone, did he fall; but it was through a
_concerted effort_, which has not been denied in the House
of Representatives, although the question was evaded by Mr.
Brooks, declaring that he had informed no one of the _time_
when it should take place; but he did not deny--and it is well
known in Washington, and will be throughout the country, that
this attack upon Mr. Sumner--that this slaughter of Mr. Sumner,
for such was the purpose--was concerted among Southern men, and
that Brooks was but the base instrument by which the purpose
was to be carried into effect. Sir, we must hold, not Mr.
Brooks responsible alone, but all those who combined with him
to do this foul deed,--all those--and you will find there will
be hosts in another section of the country--who will applaud
the act, and profess to honor the man who was put forward to
perpetrate this deed. And, Sir, if we consider it merely as a
combination of slaveholders against our Senator, and nothing
more, we shall not reach the magnitude of the question open
for our consideration. That blow was not meant for Mr. Sumner
alone. It was meant for the _State_ which he represented. It
was the State of Massachusetts whose honor was outraged by
that act. It was her majesty which was stricken down in the
person of her Senator. It is her body that lies bleeding,
and demands retribution at the hands of her children. Shall
retribution not come? Shall there not be a voice from one end
of Massachusetts to the other, calling aloud for retribution
upon the perpetrator, and the aiders and abettors of that foul
act? [_Loud cries of ‘Yes,’ and applause._]”

The voice of the Young Men of Boston found utterance at a large and enthusiastic meeting of the Mercantile Library Association, held at their rooms, June 6, 1856, when the following preamble and resolutions were unanimously adopted.

“_Whereas_ the Hon. Charles Sumner, Senator in Congress from
this Commonwealth, and an honorary member of this Association,
has been most brutally assaulted in his seat in Congress for
words uttered in debate: Therefore

“_Resolved_, That it is with feelings of profound sorrow and
shame that we are obliged to recognize in this act a _cowardly_
and _base_ assault upon the rights of free speech, and to
regard this indignity, perpetrated upon the person of our
honored and beloved Senator, as an insult to the city of Boston
and its institutions, the State of Massachusetts, and our
common country.

“_Resolved_, That the members of the Mercantile Library
Association of Boston, without distinction of party, most
respectfully tender to the Hon. Charles Sumner their kindest
feelings of sympathy and esteem, and earnestly hope, that, by
the blessing of Divine Providence, he may resume his seat in
Congress, and reiterate those principles of humanity which
every institution, whether political or literary, should most
earnestly espouse.

“_Resolved_, That the Corresponding Secretary of this
Association is hereby requested to furnish the Hon. Charles
Sumner with an appropriate copy of these resolves.”

The sentiments of the medical profession appear in a speech and toast by Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, at the dinner of the Massachusetts Medical Society, at the Revere House, Boston.

“Look into the chamber where our own fellow-citizen, struck
down without warning by the hand of brutal violence, lies
prostrate, and think what fearful issues hang on the skill or
incompetence of those who have his precious life in charge. One
little error, and the _ignis sacer_, the fiery plague of the
wounded, spreads his angry blush over the surface, and fever
and delirium are but the preludes of deadlier symptoms. One
slight neglect, and the brain, oppressed with the products of
disease, grows dreamy, and then drowsy, its fine energies are
palsied, and too soon the heart that filled it with generous
blood is still forever. It took but a little scratch from a
glass, broken at his daughter’s wedding, to snatch from life
the great anatomist and surgeon, Spigelius, almost at the very
age of him for whose recovery we look, not without anxious
solicitude.

“At such a moment as this, more than at any other, we feel
the dignity, the awful responsibility, of the healing art.
Let but that life be sacrificed, and left unavenged, and the
wounds of that defenceless head, like the foul witch’s blow
on her enchanted image, are repeated on the radiant forehead
of Liberty herself, and flaw the golden circlet we had vainly
written with the sacred name of Union!

“‘Dî, prohibete minas! Dî, talem avertite casum!’

“I give you, Mr. President,--

“_The Surgeons of the City of Washington._--God grant them
wisdom! for they are dressing the wounds of a mighty empire,
and of uncounted generations.”

Hon. Josiah Quincy, in the eighty-fifth year of his age, addressed a letter to the Unitarian Festival, in which he said:--

“The hostile irruption of two members of Congress into the
Senate Chamber of the United States, openly armed with deadly
bludgeons, and probably secretly, according to the habits
of their breed, with bowie-knives and revolvers, and there
prostrating on the floor with their bludgeons a Senator of the
United States, sitting peaceably in his seat, unconscious of
danger, and from his position incapable of defence, inflicting
upon him blows, until he sunk senseless under them, and which,
if they do not prove mortal, it was not for want of malignant
intent in the cowardly assassins,--and all this for words
publicly spoken in the Senate, in the course of debate, allowed
by its presiding officer to be spoken, _and exceeding not one
hair’s breadth any line of truth or duty_: this is the fifth,
and the climax, of this series of outrages, unparalleled,
nefarious, and brutal.”

At an indignation meeting in the town of Quincy, this venerable citizen spoke as follows.

“The blow struck upon the head of Charles Sumner did not fall
upon him alone. It was a blow purposely aimed at the North. It
was a blow struck at the very Tree of Liberty. It speaks to
us in words not to be mistaken. It says to us that Northern
men shall not be heard in the halls of Congress, except at the
peril of the bowie-knife, the bludgeon, and revolver. Nor is
this any new thing.

“The bludgeon, heretofore only brandished, has at last been
brought down; and now is the time for the North to fight.
Charles Sumner needs not our sympathy: if he dies, his name
will be immortal,--his name will be enrolled with the names of
Warren, Sidney, and Russell; if he lives, he is destined to be
the light of the nation.”

Hon. Edward Everett, at Taunton, opened his “Address on the Character of Washington” by allusion to the assault.

“With the satisfaction which I feel in addressing you at
the present time are mingled the profoundest anxiety and
grief. An irrepressible sadness takes possession of my heart
at the occurrences of the past week, and the most serious
apprehensions force themselves upon me that events are already
in train, with an impulse too mighty to be resisted, which will
cause our beloved country to weep tears of blood through all
her borders for generations to come. The civil war,--for such
it is,--with its horrid train of pillage, fire, and slaughter,
carried on, without the slightest provocation, against the
infant settlements of our brethren on the frontier of the
Union,--the worse than civil war which has for months raged
unrebuked at the capital of the Union, and has at length, by
an act of lawless violence, of which I know no parallel in the
history of Constitutional Government, stained the floor of the
Senate Chamber with the blood of an unarmed, defenceless man,
and he a Senator of Massachusetts,--ah, my friends, these are
events which, for the good name, the peace, the safety of the
country, for the cause of free institutions throughout the
world, it were worth all the gold of California to blot from
the record of the past week. They sicken the heart of the good
citizen, of the patriot, of the Christian; they awaken a gloomy
doubt whether the sacrifices and the sufferings endured by
our fathers, that they might found a purer, higher, and freer
civilization on this Western Continent than the world had yet
seen, have not been endured in vain.”

William H. Hurlbut, of New York, the eminent journalist, wrote thus, under date of June 7, 1856.

“The newspapers, which have for so long kept the millions of
the North as watchers about your bed, now gladden all our
hearts with the news that you are soon to stand again upon
that floor which promises to become as sacred in the annals of
Freedom as is the arena of the Coliseum in the story of our
faith.…

“Nothing, I am sure, could so have touched and roused every
class of Northern society, nothing could so have put the
terrible realities of the issue we _must_ confront before the
most unwilling and the most indifferent minds, as the atrocious
deed which, imbecile as it was atrocious, makes the firmest
enemy of Slavery the perpetual representative alike of Northern
honor and of Northern manhood, and enlists around you, as the
perpetual Senator of Massachusetts, every instinct, passion,
and necessity of Northern civilization.

“It is your rare good fortune to be able to wear the martyr’s
crown into the battle of life, and I really do not see how any
true man can have any words for you but those of congratulation
and of stern exultation. The scoundrelly simpleton who struck
you fled from the recoil of his weapon; but there will be a
fiercer recoil from that blow, and a flowing of blood not so
easily to be stanched.

“I think, if you could have seen the meeting at the Tabernacle,
you would have marked the 22d of May with white in your
calendar: it is marked with _red_ in the calendar of our
country.

“I am going to England in a few weeks, but I hope, before I
go, to hear that you are quite reëstablished in health, and
once more face to face with the lions,--I beg the pardon of the
forest-king,--with the tigers of the Senate House.

“In this season of our national degradation, it will be
something, that, when Englishmen talk to me of their dead
Miltons and Marvells and Hampdens and Sidneys, I can answer
them with a living name, which, like these names, shall never
cease to live.”

Dr. John W. Francis, the eminent physician, of New York, wrote, under date of October 9, 1856:--

“I now write a line or two for the purpose of renewing to you
the sentiments I cherish in your behalf, and my admiration of
your noble patriotism and commanding eloquence. I had read
carefully your classical speeches, and rejoiced that there
was at least one in the Senate who to rich culture added the
graces of finished oratory and the abiding principles of
constitutional freedom. Yes, my dear Sir, I have been for
several months, amidst many cares, absorbed on the consequences
which I inferred must follow the brutal assault which you
received. I almost at once exclaimed, That _blow_ will effect a
revolution in our political relationship; yet I pray God that
the Union may continue intact under its momentous influences.
You have, by your parliamentary demonstrations, evinced the
heroism of the patriots of the earlier days of our Republic;
you have stamped your Senatorial career with the impress of
the loftiest intrepidity and moral courage. You are destined
to occupy an ample page in your country’s history. These
expressions, dear Sir, flow from a full heart and a deep
conviction.”

Governor Banks, in his annual message to the Legislature of Massachusetts, January, 1858, associated the violence in Kansas with that upon Mr. Sumner.

“Nothing but the direct intervention of Federal influence can
force through Congress the Lecompton Constitution; and if the
Government, with the sanction of the people, can force upon
Kansas a Constitution conceived in fraud and violence, it will
be the weightiest blow ever given against free governments.

“Violence and fraud, if successful in this instance, will be
repeated whenever occasion demands it. It will not be limited
to Territories or States. No shrine will be held sacred.
The Senate Chamber of the United States has been already
invaded, and this State was for a time bereft of a part of its
representative power by an act of fearful wrong, committed upon
the most cherished and brilliant of her sons, while in the
performance of constitutional duty.”

The following extract from a poem by Mrs. Julia Ward Howe appeared in the _New York Tribune_ at the time.

“A WOMAN’S WORD FOR THE HOUR.

“While she yet spake, from the heaven God’s thunder had fallen,
And I heard: ‘The crime, not the paltry offender, so stirs us.’
Take heart, thou lone one! a champion leaps to defend thee,
Armed with the loftier issue, the art and the moral,--
Eloquent lips, and the integral heart of Conviction,
Powerful still when the arm of the spoiler has crumbled,--
Doctrine of Right, and the Old-World tradition of Freedom,--
Doctrine of Justice, thank God, no New-England invention,--
Known to the ancients, known to the gods and their poets,
Known to great Tully, whose pillars of perfect marble
Stand in the temple of Truth, his remembrance for ages.
There shall thy record be, Knight of the wronged and the helpless!
There shall thy weapon be kept, with the motto, ‘I hurled it.’
How hast thou hardened the living heart and quick feelings
To stand up and speak the great spirit-dividing sentence,--
To stand, a mark for the thief and assassin to aim at!
More than our envy, more than thy hope, was thy guerdon,
Setting the seal of thy blood to the word of thy courage!
If but the pure of heart in a pure cause should suffer,
SUMNER, the task thou hast chosen was thine for its fitness.
Never was paschal victim more stainlessly offered,--
Never on milder brow gleamed the crown of the martyr.

“Stand thence, a mark for the better and nobler ambition!
For they are holy, the wounds that the Southerner dealt thee:
Count them blessed, and blessed the mother that bore thee.
“Would that the thing I best love, ay, the son of my bosom,
Suffering beside thee, had shared the high deed and its glory!
Shall we bend over those wounds with our tears and our balsams,--
Tears warm with rapture, balsams of costliest clearness?
Take thy deserving, then; wear it for life on thy forehead!
Crowned with those scars, shalt thou enter the just man’s heaven,--
Crowned with those scars, shalt thou stand in the record of heroes!

“If earthly counsel were vain, should the heavens befriend thee!
Sinking Orion, flung far in the wrath of the tyrant,
Calls not in vain on the dumb heart of Nature to help him:
Lo! the deep comes to his aid, and its monsters upbear him;
Hesper stoops over the Ocean her long shining tresses,
Till he is drawn by them up to the zone of her beauty,
And, like fair sisters, the stars close around him forever!”

The wide-spread, spontaneous sentiment of the North found echo in Europe, especially in England. Among various testimonies, the following is selected from the _Morning Star_ of London, June 24, 1856.

“The assault upon Mr. Sumner stands without parallel in the
annals of civilized communities. While sitting at his desk
in the Senate Chamber, quietly engaged in writing, a member
of the other legislative body, the House of Representatives,
deliberately walks up to him, and, taking advantage of his
utterly helpless position, where he could neither escape nor
defend himself, begins to beat him violently upon his bare head
with a heavy cane, until he falls down stunned and insensible,
covered with his own blood, the cowardly ruffian not desisting
even then, when the form of his antagonist lay prostrate and
senseless before him. While this is taking place, a number of
his brother Senators stand round and make no attempt to stay
the arm of the assailant; some of them, indeed, mounted guard
expressly to prevent interference. Such conduct is utterly
inexplicable to us in this country.

…

“If anything could aggravate the inherent brutality of
this act, it is the character of the man upon whom it was
committed. For Mr. Sumner is a gentleman in whom there meets a
combination of qualities adapted in a rare degree to inspire
the affectionate attachment of friends, and to command courtesy
and respect from all generous and honorable opponents: a man
of a chivalrous and heroic spirit, of a refined and sensitive
nature, of a powerful and cultivated intellect disciplined
by hard study and adorned with profound and various learning,
who has led a life of irreproachable purity and active
benevolence,--the favorite pupil of Story, the intimate friend
and disciple of Channing, the chosen associate of the finest
living minds of America, Quincy, Sparks, Longfellow, Goodrich,
Dana, Everett, Bryant, Emerson.

…

“And when the greatest of American orators and statesmen,
Daniel Webster, was stricken down by the hand of death, Mr.
Sumner was the man whom the State of Massachusetts chose from
among her sons, as most worthy to be his successor. And most
nobly has he vindicated the wisdom of their choice. Taking
small interest in the ordinary conflicts of parties, he has
stood forth, from the moment that he entered the Senate, as the
courageous and resolute champion of the slave. His speeches are
elaborate and masterly orations, with perhaps almost too much
of classical stateliness and refinement for the tribune. Over
the hard and dry abstraction of politics he throws the glancing
lights of his fertile and polished fancy, and relieves the
tedium of debate by the rich stores of an elegant and varied
erudition. The speech that brought upon him the recent attack
was perhaps the greatest of all his efforts. It is in every
respect a magnificent production. With a lofty and relentless
logic he tears away the covering veil of sophistry with which
the Southern members had sought to conceal the naked iniquity
of the transactions in Kansas. There are, no doubt, passages of
terrible severity, but not, we think, exceeding the license of
parliamentary debate among ourselves. And the most conclusive
testimony to the power of the orator is afforded by the
desperate extremities to which it reduced his discomfited foes.

“We have no words of commiseration to offer to Mr. Sumner.
God grant only that a life so valuable may be spared, and he
will occupy in the estimation of all men, at home and abroad,
whose judgment he would value, a prouder position than he ever
occupied before. He stood in the vanguard of Freedom, and the
marks of the ruffianly outrage inflicted upon him, which he
will probably bear to the grave, he will wear as more honorable
scars than ever warrior brought from a battle-field.”

This record of opinion at the North, echoed from Europe, may be closed by words from an important journal at New York, _The Courier and Enquirer_, in the summer of 1856.

“The fact is incontestable, that, when the Massachusetts
Senator again crosses the threshold of that Senate Chamber,
Slavery will have to confront the most formidable foe it
ever had to face before the public eye. He will come with
every muscle braced and every sinew strung by the sense of
measureless personal wrong; but infinitely more than that, he
will come armed with the indignation and shielded by the moral
support of the whole North. Hitherto he has figured but in one
character, the assailant of Slavery; henceforth he will be
also the accredited assertor and champion of the most sacred
right of freedom of speech, and as such will command tenfold
greater consideration. His antagonists have affected to despise
him before, and to treat him with scorn. The day for that has
passed. The public man, who has once been the occasion of
such an outburst of sympathy and good-will as has within the
last week sprung from the mouth of millions upon millions of
his countrymen, is no longer a man to be disdained. He has
henceforth position, power, and security, beyond any of his
adversaries. Let his sentiments be what they may, his free
utterance of them hereafter becomes an assured thing, insomuch
as that utterance will serve as the best of all possible tests
of that freedom of debate which has once been outraged in his
person, and which it is the present determination of the North
shall be maintained at all hazards.”

V.

INJURIES AND CONTINUED DISABILITY OF MR. SUMMER.

Senator Butler, in reply to Mr. Sumner, June 12, 1856, remarked on his absence from his seat as follows.

“If I give credence to the testimony of Dr. Boyle, I see no
reason why he should not be present. For anything that appears
in that testimony, if he had been an officer of the Army, and
had not appeared the next day on the battle-field, he would
have deserved to be cashiered.”[152]

This fling was so agreeable to the Senator that he repeated it, with a variation, on the second day of his speech.

“After all that has been said and done, on a _post bellum_
examination, what is it? A fight in the Senate Chamber,
resulting in two flesh wounds, which ought not to have detained
him from the Senate. Being rather a handsome man, perhaps he
would not like to expose himself by making his appearance for
some time; but if he had been in the Army, there was no reason
why he should not go to the field the next day; and he would
deserve to be cashiered, if he did not go.”[153]

After such remarks in open Senate, it was easy for the press in sympathy with Slavery to assert that Mr. Sumner had received no injury, and that his reported disability was a pretence for the benefit of his political party.

At the time of the assault Mr. Sumner was in perfect health, without any weakness or disturbing incident. Having confidence in the native force of his constitution, he looked forward to a very early restoration, thinking that the injuries he had received would yield easily to Nature. His disappointment affords another instance of the extent to which patients are deceived with regard to their true condition, which in his case was revealed tardily. He had hoped to resume his seat in a few days. Months and years passed, leaving him an invalid.

On the healing of the flesh wounds, he found himself still a sufferer from a pressure on the brain, with weakness in the spinal column. The latter became more positive with time. First a guest of F. P. Blair, Esq., at Silver Spring, near Washington, he was able early in July to reach Philadelphia, where he found rest at the house of Rev. William H. Furness. Here he came under the medical care of Dr. Caspar Wister. From Philadelphia he went to Cape May, where he was welcomed by the family of James T. Furness, Esq., at their cottage. Here he was very feeble, so that his kind hosts were alarmed with regard to him. From Cape May he went to Cresson, an elevated place in Pennsylvania, where he stayed with Dr. R. M. Jackson. Once more in Philadelphia at the beginning of September, he was welcomed by his hosts of Cape May, with whom he remained until his return to Boston at the beginning of November. This return was postponed by the advice of his physician, who was unwilling that he should expose himself to the excitement of such an event.

In Boston he was treated by Dr. Marshall S. Perry, in consultation with the venerable physician, Dr. James Jackson. Here he remained several months, most of the time in the house, on his bed. He did not reach Washington until just before the close of the session of Congress, but in season to determine by his vote the fate of the tariff of 1857.[154] On the 4th of March he was sworn as Senator for the second term, and on the 7th of March sailed for Havre in the Steamer Fulton. Still confident in his recuperative force, and underrating his injuries, his object was simply rest and recreation, rather than medical treatment. After some time in Paris, he travelled in France, Switzerland, England, and Scotland, including a stay in London. While in Edinburgh he became acquainted with George Combe, the eminent phrenologist and physiologist, who, taking a strong interest in his case, wrote to Sir James Clark, the Queen’s physician, for his opinion upon it. The two united in advising against an early return to public duties; but Mr. Sumner felt constrained to try himself at Washington. Accordingly he resumed his seat at the beginning of the session, in December, 1857, only to find himself within the circumscriptions of an invalid. Without pretending to take part in business, he sought to be at hand to vote on important questions. At last he was admonished by a succession of relapses that he must make a more serious effort for recovery. On the 22d May, 1858, just two years from his original injuries, he sailed in the steamer Vanderbilt for Havre. His first purpose was to visit Switzerland, and there commence pedestrian exercise in the open air, beginning with a short distance and extending it daily, as the athlete, beginning with the calf, at last carried the ox; but this idea proceeded on a radical misconception of his case, which required repose rather than exercise. A medical friend to whom he communicated this plan warned him against it, saying, curtly, “Then you’ll be a dead man!”

At Paris he first enjoyed the advice of Dr. George Hayward, the eminent surgeon of Boston, but soon afterward came under the care of that remarkable physiologist and specialist, Dr. Brown-Séquard, who, after a most careful diagnosis, reported that the blows on the head had taken effect, by _contre-coups_, in the spine, producing disturbance in the spinal cord. To Mr. Sumner’s instant inquiry as to the remedy, the Doctor replied, “Fire.” The resolution of the former was taken at once, and he asked, “When can you apply it?” “To-morrow, if you please,” said the Doctor. “Why not this afternoon?” said the patient; and that afternoon it was done by the _moxa_, which was followed by other applications, being seven in number, always without chloroform, which Mr. Sumner declined to take. This was in June. During this painful treatment he found solace in the study of engravings, to which he devoted himself, according to the limitations of his health, with daily assiduity.

Some time in August he left Paris for the baths of Aix, in Savoy, famous from antiquity, where he underwent still another treatment by hot and cold _douches_. Then traversing Switzerland, he entered Germany by Venice and Trieste, visiting Vienna, Berlin, and Munich. Reaching Paris in November, he was arrested in his proposed return to the Senate by a medical conference, in which Dr. Brown-Séquard, Dr. George Hayward, and the eminent French practitioner, Dr. Trousseau, took part, all uniting against it. Leaving the excitements of Paris, he passed the ensuing winter at Montpellier, in the South of France. Here he led a retired life, being cupped on the spine daily, and passing as many as eighteen hours out of the twenty-four on the bed or sofa, finding recreation in reading, and, so far as he could, in the public lectures at the college on history and literature. Taking advantage of his improved condition in the spring, he made a hurried visit to Italy, and then reported himself to Dr. Brown-Séquard at Paris, who pronounced him well. To the various treatments already mentioned he added sea-baths at Havre during the following August. At the opening of Congress in December, 1859, he was in his seat, with a certain consciousness of restored health, although admonished to enter upon work slowly.

Contemporary reports in newspapers and letters illustrate the condition of Mr. Sumner at the time, and something of his frame of mind.

A correspondent of the Boston _Telegraph and Chronicle_, under date of February 20, 1857, shows his occupations at the time he was struck down.

“It was my good fortune to be a frequent caller upon Mr. Sumner
during his residence here. I always found him studiously
devoted to the duties of his office. He was one of the most
active, hard-working men in Congress. Down to the 22d day
of May, 1856, when he was so brutally assailed by the agent
of the Slave Oligarchy, he had never been out of his seat a
single day. It was in this spirit of fidelity that he always
discharged his duties. If I may be pardoned in the exhibition
of a little selfishness, I will acknowledge that it was in
part the discovery of the fact that Mr. Sumner kept a better
run of all the public business before Congress than most other
members, that induced me, as a member of the press, to make
more frequent calls upon him than perhaps I should otherwise
have done. He was particularly well posted on all questions
of foreign affairs, from the reception of Kossuth down to the
important part that he took in the Sound Dues of Denmark;
he was always enlightened on all propositions of general
legislation, touching the judiciary, commerce, patents, the
tariff, and everything concerning the great interests of
Massachusetts.

“At the time he was disabled, the Journal of the Senate will
show a large number of special propositions introduced by
him, among which was the proposition he has brought forward
annually for the revision and consolidation of the Statutes
of the United States, which must yet prevail; also for cheap
ocean postage, another annual proposition; also for post-office
orders, as a mode of transfer of money in small sums for
the accommodation of the poor,--an idea recently adopted by
the House Committee on Post-Offices and Post-Roads; several
propositions of amendment of Patent Law, particularly one to
take off the heavy fees on foreign patents, in order to pave
the way for a similar reduction abroad; a bill altering the
Commercial Law, so as to relieve ship-owners of liability in
the case of fire under certain circumstances; a bill amending
the Law of Copyright; a bill providing for the regulation
of passengers coming into the United States; also a whole
group of bills for the improvement of the rivers and harbors
of Massachusetts, for the building of a Court-House and
Post-Office at Boston, &c., &c.

“None, except those who have had experience in Washington, and
have had an inside view of the practical life of a Congressman,
can form a correct idea of the vast amount of labor performed
by them which does not appear before the public. Mr. Sumner’s
correspondence was one of the largest in the Senate,--not
confined to Massachusetts, but coming from every part of the
country. He neglected nothing.”

While Mr. Sumner was at Cresson, Mrs. Swisshelm, who saw him there, wrote a long letter on his condition, addressed to the _New York Tribune_, under date of August 23, 1856, which contained the following.

“He has all the impatience of ordinary men in illness, or in
the prospect of restraint, and assures everybody that he is
doing very well, feels very well, is quite strong, and will
surely be able to go to Washington in two weeks. Mr. Burlingame
assures me, with tears in his eyes, that this is what he always
said. Ever since his injury he has been going to be quite well
in two weeks; but when he rises from his chair, he takes hold
of the table. His gait, at a first glance, appears that of a
man of ninety years of age; but, watching him awhile, I felt
that it was the very kind of step one takes when creeping
through a darkened chamber under the influence of a paroxysm
of nervous headache; but he says, with a kind of lofty,
incredulous scorn, that his head does not ache! Sometimes he
feels a _pressure_ on the top of his head, and it appears
to hurt him when he walks; but he will be ready to go to
Washington in two weeks.

…

“Mr. Burlingame came on Friday evening, about six o’clock, in
company with a gentleman and lady from Philadelphia. He had
not before seen Mr. Sumner since the Brooks challenge, and we
all sat together until after eleven o’clock,--there was so
much to be told, and said, and explained. Without any personal
resemblance, these two appeared together like father and son;
but I could give no idea of their interview, even so much of
it as the sacredness of private conversation would permit to
be made public, in less than a column, and Mr. Sumner crowds
everything from my thoughts just now. When his friends left, he
had no disposition to retire, and when he did, slept but one
hour.

…

“Those mistaken friends of his who would fain see Brooks killed
or maimed would greatly distress him, if any such killing or
maiming were done by their agency. He shudders at the thought
that Burlingame might have shot him, and appears to feel
about as much resentment against him as I should feel toward
a tile which had fallen upon my head. I could not discern the
slightest symptom of chagrin or mortification,--no sense of the
dishonor which so many attach to the blow unrevenged.

“I asked him if he would have defended himself, if it had been
possible?

“‘Most certainly,’ was the prompt reply, ‘to the best of my
ability, and the last extremity.’

“To Dr. Jackson’s suggestion, that the same principle which
permitted him to defend himself, when attacked, should induce
him to punish the offence, he promptly explained the difference
between self-defence and revenge. He appears to have no idea,
however remote, of personal enmity in the matter,--but if
he was only able to deliver one more speech! His brain is
throbbing with pent thunderbolts,--and if he could only get
into the citadel of his foes, and hurl them hissing into their
faces! Kansas, Kansas and her wrongs, if he could but fight her
battles! He does not appear as if he knew how to be afraid, or
could learn, if he tried for a lifetime. There is a lion look
about him, and a courage which could not stoop to assault so
frail a thing as a human body.”

A correspondent of the _Springfield Republican_, after describing a visit to Mr. Sumner, reports, under date of February 8, 1857:--

“I ventured after a time to speak to him of the outrage from
whose effects came this sad weakness, and to express a wonder
which I have always felt that serious commotions did not follow
it. ‘Oh, no,’ he said. ‘It was little, in comparison with daily
occurrences. The poorest slave is in danger of worse outrages
every moment of his life.’”

A correspondent of the _Boston Traveller_ reports, under date of February 20, 1858:--

“Much interest is felt, I find, among our friends in
Massachusetts and elsewhere, to know the nature of Mr. Sumner’s
feelings toward the person who inflicted upon him so great a
calamity, taking from him nearly two years of active life, and
putting in jeopardy both his life and reason. Sharing this
feeling, I have endeavored to learn the Senator’s sentiments
on the subject. Yet I have never heard him utter one word from
which I could even found a conjecture of them, though the
matter has been referred to by myself, and by others in my
hearing, in the course of conversation. Moreover, I have heard
his private secretary, who was his nurse and watcher during
the long, sultry days and nights of his illness in Washington,
remark that he had never heard the Senator speak of the assault
or the assailant, or in any way express any feeling on the
subject. But I presume, however, that the feelings of Mr.
Sumner are justly excited against the cruel Slave Power, which
originally instigated and has since sanctioned the assault.”

Mr. Sumner was constantly wrestling with his disability, and impatient under the necessary constraint. He longed to be at work. Here friends exerted an adverse pressure.

Wendell Phillips wrote from Nahant, under date of July 13, 1856:--

“The rumor is, on all sides, that you purpose returning as soon
as possible to your seat. Allow me, as a most near friend,
careful alike of you and the cause, to urge you not to attempt
taking your seat again this session. No such step is necessary.
Every one here recognizes most fully and heartily your fearless
devotion. Every one is more than ready, anxious, to wait till
confirmed health and strength make it, not an effort, but a
pleasure, for you to return to your place. The only fear is
lest you be tempted to hurry back before your strength is
fully restored. Nothing you can do will shut the mouths of
journals whose trade is lying and abuse. It is fair to say,
and a hopeful sign of the times also, that these cavils fall
to the ground utterly ineffectual and harmless. At least their
only result is indignation. Let this session go by. Be sure
Massachusetts will give you six more years to work in. You have
done more than your share in this session’s fight,--enough to
satisfy the most impatient spirit. Come home and rest. Come
home to recruit for years and a crisis when we shall need you
even more than now,--when your voice will be worth more, far
more, than even now. The most ardent wish of all who love you
is that you _consider yourself_: in so doing _now_ you best
serve the cause.”

Hon. Schuyler Colfax wrote from Washington, under date of July 21, 1856:--

“We miss you here very much, and, as I pass your recent
lodgings, I often regret that I cannot run up and bore you
with a few minutes’ talk; but I think, and such is the general
feeling of all your friends, that you ought not to think of
resuming your seat this session. The weather and the excitement
will both be against you, if you do.

“Besides, next December you can resume that expressively
vacant seat with the proud consciousness that the wand of the
Oligarchy is broken,--or, if a different fortune is reserved
for us, which I pray God to avert, to head the forlorn hope
which is then to battle for the Right against the Furies which
the triumph of the Wrong will let loose on us all. But you know
best, and I will not presume to advise.

“I was glad to hear the report of your Philadelphia physician,
which relieved the forebodings which I fear were preying on
you; and it confirms what an eminent physician wrote me, that
the action of the absorbent vessels would relieve you slowly,
if you would abstain from all excitement and give them the
opportunity.”

Rev. William H. Furness, of Philadelphia, wrote, under date of August 15, 1856:--

“Dr. Wister says, ‘For God’s sake don’t let Mr. Sumner think
of leaving the mountains till the 1st or 15th of September.’ I
find that yesterday, when we were jogging down the gorge, it
was oppressively hot here, and only last night came there a
slight change. Dr. Wister is most _positive_ and _earnest_ in
his _opinion_ that you should _remain_ where you are. You will
lose everything, if you quit that invigorating mountain air,
and run the hazard of being an invalid for months to come. ‘It
would be the extreme of folly,’ he says, ‘to turn your back
upon your present place.’”

The venerable Josiah Quincy wrote from Quincy, under date of August 22, 1856:--

“I entreat you, my dear friend, not to think or act on public
affairs until your health is _firmly_ restored. You have time
enough before you to perfect your duty to your country, which
you have already so gloriously commenced. History will avenge
you on your adversary, which not all the votes of all the
slave-holders between the tropics can save from an infamy as
lasting as the history of our country.

“God bless you, and preserve you, and soon restore you to
health, to your friends, and your country!”

Wendell Phillips, under date of August 23, 1856, renewed his appeal:--

“I have talked with men of all parties, (on _your_ case there
is but _one_ party worth naming,) and without a dissentient
voice they deplore your anxiety to return this session to
Washington. No man but urges me to write and make you _feel_
that you have struck _the_ blow already, and that now our
interests and that of the cause, as well as your own, and our
hearts, too, demand of you to ‘stand and wait.’ I know you can
make speeches worth dying for; but let me tell you, just now
to the nation’s heart your empty chair can make a more fervent
appeal than even you. The canvass goes well, the ‘idea’ grows.
We thank God that he has given us such texts: now make our
gratitude unalloyed by building up your strength in silence and
quiet for that fiercer struggle yet which lies before us all.

“I conjure you, as you love Freedom, save yourself: we need you
more in the future than now. You are not the best judge.”

Hon. William H. Seward wrote from Auburn, under date of September 24, 1856:--

“I wish that I could convince you that it is neither necessary
for the public nor would it be useful in any way to yourself to
speak in this canvass, even if you should find yourself able.
It belongs to others to do that work. You have suffered enough,
even if you had done nothing; and yet what you have suffered is
only a consequence of having done more than any other.

…

“I believe with you that we shall succeed in this election, and
I earnestly hope for it. It is time that Freedom should have
a decided triumph in order to commend itself to a vacillating
people.”

By such letters was Mr. Sumner somewhat soothed in the seclusion which had become a necessity.

The same spirit animated his friends to the end, following him to Europe, and watching with sympathy the severe medical treatment adopted. Without their countenance he would not have ventured to remain so long absent from his duties. He would have resigned, or have resumed them at any hazard.

In one of his letters, received in Europe, Mr. Chase wrote as follows, under date of June 16, 1858.

“We learn from the newspapers that you have submitted yourself
to a most trying operation, and that the physicians give good
hope of most beneficial results. Most earnestly do I hope,
in common with many thousand friends of human liberty and
progress, that their best anticipations may be fully realized.
I am anxious to hear your voice once more in the Senate, _mirum
spargens sonum_. I want to see the Oligarchs and Serviles once
more cowering under your rebukes of despotism and servility.

“It is amazing to see to what depths of baseness some of the
partisan presses in the interest of the Oligarchy will descend.
Not content with half vindications of the assassination
attempted upon you, several have had the infinite meanness to
represent you as playing a part all the while you have been
suffering from the effects of the assault. When will men learn
decency?

“Oh, if you shall be only able to take your seat again next
winter in your full vigor! There is no one who hates the wrong
of Slavery in its principle as you do: I should except Durkee.”

Mr. Wilson wrote as follows, under date of October 19, 1858.

“We are all anxious about you. Get well, if possible, and do
not trouble yourself about your duties as a Senator. Do not
attempt to take your seat, unless your health will allow you
to do it. The session will be a short one, and we can get on
without you. Take time, if you require it, and let the next
session go. Our friends will stand by you, if you do not feel
able to take your seat next session. I feel confident that
our friends desire above all things that you shall be able to
keep your seat, and they will be pleased to have you adopt the
course most conducive to the recovery of your health. If your
health will be improved by continuing in Europe for months
longer, pray take the time. This is my advice to you. I hope,
however, you will be able to return to your home and your seat
this winter, with health and vigor, able to engage once more in
the battles for the great cause for which you have suffered so
much and so long.”

Sustained by this testimony, and that of other friends, Mr. Sumner submitted to the medical advice which postponed return to his public duties.

* * * * *

The authentic diagnosis of the case in its early stages is here preserved.

“CASE OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER.[155]

“Read before the Boston Society for Medical Improvement, December 15, 1856.

“BY MARSHALL S. PERRY, M. D., OF BOSTON.

“The assault was made upon Mr. Sumner in the Senate of the United States, on Thursday, May 22d. The first blow produced insensibility. It is not certain how many blows he received: they were many. He bled profusely, and fell insensible on the floor. When he was removed to the anteroom, it was thought he could not survive. His wounds were dressed by Dr. Boyle. He had two gashes on the back of the head, one above each ear, about two or two and a half inches in length. These gashes went through the scalp to the bone, which was laid bare, but it is supposed not fractured. Besides these, he had bruises on the face, on the back of each hand, and on the arms.

“From the time of the attack until the Monday following, no serious symptoms manifested themselves, except some pain and soreness in the head, and nervousness. Tuesday morning he had more pain, and in the afternoon he was quite feverish. During the night the pain became very violent, and when I saw him, early on Wednesday, for the first time professionally, he had a high fever, pulse 104, intense pain in the head, eyes suffused, and extreme nervousness. The scalp above the right ear was inflamed, having the appearance of erysipelas. This inflammation extended to the glands of the neck, which were swollen and tender to the touch. On examination, it was found that pus had formed under the scalp, which escaped readily on opening the wound, which had been closed over with collodion by Dr. Boyle. Mr. Sumner had suffered so much during the last ten hours, that he had become very much exhausted. He was put under the influence of opium, the wound was poulticed, and perfect rest enjoined. For three days he was in a critical situation. The local inflammation, the danger of poison from the absorption of pus, and the extreme nervous exhaustion made it a formidable case. At the end, however, of this time, he appeared to be out of immediate danger.

“The wound on the left side of the head healed by first intention. It was several weeks before that on the right side closed over. During this time he was very weak, had some fever, especially when excited, and was confined mostly to his bed. He did not at that time complain of much pain in his head, but, as the wound healed after several weeks, he had neuralgic pain in the back of the head, coming on in paroxysms. As these passed away, he had a feeling of oppressive weight or pressure of the brain, which was increased when excited or engaged in conversation. He described it as “a fifty-six pounds weight” upon his head. At the same time he lost flesh and strength, his appetite was irregular, and his nights wakeful,--sometimes lying awake all night, or, when sleeping, disturbed. He had also increased sensibility of the spinal cord, and a sense of weakness in the small of the back. These were developed by walking, and every step he took seemed to produce a shock upon the brain. His walk was irregular and uncertain, and after slight efforts he would lose almost entire control of the lower extremities.

“In this condition he was advised by Dr. Lindsly, of Washington, to remove from that place to some more quiet spot. He accordingly came to Philadelphia, and there called upon Dr. Wister for advice. Mountain air and complete seclusion were recommended; but Mr. Sumner undertook first to try the sea air, and went to Cape May. Here he was very weak, so that he was unable to bathe, and he finally left without any sensible improvement. On the recommendation of Dr. Wister, he went to Cresson, in the Alleghany Mountains. While there he was in the family of Dr. R. M. Jackson, and under his medical direction.

“The following letters, received from Drs. Wister and Jackson, describe Mr. Sumner’s condition while under their care.

“‘PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 14, 1856.

“‘DR. M. S. PERRY:--

“‘DEAR SIR,--It gives me much pleasure to reply to your note of
inquiry concerning the health of Mr. Sumner.

“‘You are perfectly aware of the condition of Mr. Sumner when
he reached this city on the 9th of July,--a condition of
extreme nervous exhaustion, his circulation feeble, and in fact
every vital power alarmingly sunken. At that time his steps
were feeble and tottering, as in extreme old age; he complained
of constant pain in the back and lower extremities,--in the
latter it was a tired and weary sensation; and he had a sense
of constriction and pressure about the head. At that time his
pulse was quick and small, appetite languid, and his sleep
broken, disturbed, and unrefreshing. All the above conditions
were heightened by exertion, either mental or physical. I could
find no evidence of organic disease. I understood Mr. Sumner to
be in that state of extreme nervous exhaustion from which men
are months, and at times even years, in being fully restored.

“‘Mr. Sumner has done eminently well. His present state is
but a shadow of that above described; and although none of
the features of the past are lost, they are only evident when
imprudent exertion, mental or physical, shall call them up.
Within the limits of exertion of an ordinary retired gentleman,
Mr. Sumner improves daily, and all his powers improve, with a
steady progress towards perfect health. Indiscretion brings on
morbid wakefulness, and, in the recurring outline of his former
condition, admonishes him, that, though recovering, he is still
in risk.

“‘With much respect, truly yours,

“‘CASPAR WISTER.’

“LETTER FROM DR. JACKSON.[156]

“‘You ask for a brief report of the case of the Hon. Charles
Sumner, as it came under my observation during his visit and
stay on the Alleghany Mountain in Pennsylvania. Mr. Sumner came
to Cresson on the 3d of August last. On his arrival, he had the
appearance of a man who had been sick for a long time, and was
still extremely unwell. Careful observations and examinations
of the case, for some time, revealed the following appearances
and symptoms.

“‘The lips were pale, showing a watery condition of the
blood, evinced also by general pallor of the countenance
and flabbiness of the solids. The action of the heart and
arteries was weak, the pulse being slow and languid. On the
surface of the head the integuments showed a slight redness
around the cicatrices of the recently healed cuts,--also some
morbid sensibility on pressure. Efforts at walking gave a
tottering and uncertain gait, as if from partial paralysis (say
threatened paraplegia),--the steps being short and unsteady,
the muscles evidently not under the complete control of the
will, the limbs even giving way partially. The slightest
exertion was followed by lassitude quite disproportioned to the
efforts. His nights were frequently passed in a state of morbid
wakefulness and general uneasiness. The action of the brain was
always followed by a sense of weight and dull throbbing pain in
the head. This result invariably followed even the slightest
mental effort of writing a common letter of business.