AS COMMISSIONER TO SANTO DOMINGO -1871 485 



proved himself, as State senator, as Governor of New 

 York, as United States senator, and now as Secretary of 

 State, a man of the highest character and capacity. 



The friends of the administration claimed that it had 

 become impossible for it to have any relations with Sena 

 tor Siimner ; that he delayed, and indeed suppressed, trea 

 ties of the greatest importance; that his egotism had be 

 come so colossal that he practically assumed to himself 

 the entire conduct of foreign affairs ; and the whole matter 

 reached a climax when, in a large social gathering, Mr. 

 Fish meeting Senator Sumner and extending his hand to 

 him, the latter deliberately rejected the courtesy and coldly 

 turned away. 



Greatly admiring all these men, and deeply regretting 

 their divisions, which seemed sure to prove most injuri 

 ous to the Republican party and to the country, I wrote to 

 Mr. Gerrit Smith, urging him to come at once to Washing 

 ton and, as the lifelong friend of Senator Sumner and the 

 devoted supporter of General Grant, to use his great pow 

 ers in bringing them together. He came and did his best ; 

 but a few days afterward he said to me : &quot; It is impossible ; 

 it is a breach which can never be healed. 



Mr. Sumner s speeches I had always greatly admired, 

 and his plea for international peace, delivered before I 

 was fairly out of my boyhood, had made a deep im 

 pression upon me. Still greater was the effect of his 

 speeches against the extension of slavery. It is true 

 that these speeches had little direct influence upon the 

 Senate; but they certainly had an immense effect upon 

 the country, and this effect was increased by the assault 

 upon him by Preston Brooks of South Carolina, which 

 nearly cost him his life, and from which he suffered 

 physically as long as he lived. His influence was ex 

 ercised not only in the Senate, but in his own house. In his 

 library he discussed, in a very interesting way, the main 

 questions of the time ; and at his dinner-table one met in 

 teresting men from all parts of the world. At one of his 

 dinners I had an opportunity to observe one of the diffi- 



