AUG. 27, 1852.
Sumner spoke about four hours yesterday; and it was a very finished and able speech, sustaining in every point his high reputation as a jurist and a scholar. It was delivered in a very elegant and finished manner. To speak in full, the 26th of August, 1852, redeemed the 7th of March, 1850.
Webster came into the Senate very early in the speech. He took a seat not far from Sumner, and about eight feet from me; so situated that I must look into his face, or turn my head. I looked at him fascinatingly. I think he felt the magnetism streaming out of me. In about two minutes, his countenance fell: he got up and walked round to the other side of the Senate Chamber, staid a while, and went off. Sumner, during all the time he was there, was in the least solid part of his speech. It was one of his best orations, well studied and well delivered, and will tell on the country, and be a speech for a book and for history.
That drunken Clemens of Alabama jumped up instanter, and said,
"Mr. President, it is proper sometimes to take notice of the ravings of a lunatic; but the yelpings of a puppy are not to be regarded."
Miss Dix's bill has gone over to the next session. She sent for me yesterday afternoon in despair. But she has got an appropriation of a hundred thousand dollars for a hospital in this District; and it is thought that her land-bill can be carried next session. It has passed the House, and, unless some amendments are made to it, will not have to come back here again.
SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 381
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