The papers are all
ringing with Sumner, Sumner! and the guns thundering out their triumph;
meanwhile the hero of the strife is sitting quietly here, more saddened than
exalted. Palfrey dined with us. I went to my Don Quixote at college, leaving
the two Free Soilers sitting over their nuts and wine.1
_______________
1 Sumner's first use of a senator's frank was
upon documents to promote Palfrey's re-election to Congress. With his large
correspondence, he valued the privilege, and parted with it reluctantly when it
was finally discontinued in 1870. He wrote a public letter urging Palfrey's
election ("Commonwealth," May 22, 1851), but it did not avail.
SOURCE: Edward L.
Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 245-6
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