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Simms, from whom you will hear in a few moments, we had an occasion to visit one of the public buildings in company with Mr. Sumner; and to my astonishment the greatest statesman the sun ever shone upon, walked up between us and locked our arms, and proceeded through the streets and buildings as unconcernedly as if had been in company with his senatorial collegues; he thought no more of asking a black man to dine at his table, than he did of the whitest man on earth.
Mr. Sumner did not live for himself either, he lived to be a blessing to the poor and needy. The last time I saw his majestic brow and stately person was last spring in Washington, at which time I called upon him to pay my respects as I usually did; our conversation soon turned upon the tight, he waged against the President. I told him, that I like thousands of other colored men in the country; loved him, but could not endorse his rabid fight on the President, though I did not doubt, but the President had faults. Well, he said, "that was natural; but if my attack upon the President does no other good, it will drive him to stand by the colored people more firmly, to prove that my predictions were false. But said he, a great many of his pap-fed supporters think they have killed me off, but I am perfectly willing to go down, if the colored people can go up, for I am only living for them now; and I can only hope to see the labors of my life crowned with the passage of the civil rights' bill, then and not till then, can I feel that the cause for which so much blood have been shed is complete." (Great applause.)
How Christ-like these words, how full of righteousness Mr. Sumner felt years ago, that he was to be one of the chief instruments in the hands of God, of crowning this nation with the diadem of justice. In a conversation between him and myself and several others, who called upon him in 1863, he remarked, "that my blood kindled this fire, (meaning the war,) and when it needed recruiting, John Brown gave his to rekindle it, and it will be utterly impossible now to extinguish it with compromises." A great many northern papers at that time was advocating the policy of offering some overtures to the South, and ending further destruction of life on the battle field. But the last humanitarian act, for which the distinguished Senator labored with such indefatigable devotion, as to merit the praise, the love
