Not by the arts of intrigue, or the juggling tricks of diplomacy; not by undermining rivals or sacrificing public interests for the gratification of classes or individuals. But he has acquired it, first, by the exercise of an intuitive sagacity which, leaving all book learning at an immeasurable distance behind, has always enabled him to adopt the right remedy at the right time, and to conquer soonest when the men of forms and office thought him most near to ruin and despair. Next, by a moral courage, which knew no fear when the public good beckoned him to go on. Last, and chiefest, he has acquired it by an open honesty of purpose, which knew no concealments; by a straightforwardness of action, which disdained the forms of office, and the arts of intrigue; by a disinterestedness of motive, which knew no selfish or sordid calculation; a devotedness of patriotism, which staked everything personal on the issue of every measure which the public welfare required him to adopt. By these qualities, and these means, he has acquired his prodigious popularity and his transcendent influence over the public mind; and if there are any who envy that influence and popularity, let them envy also, and emulate, if they can, the qualities and means by which they were acquired. . . Sir, I think it right, in approaching the termination of his great question, to present this faint and rapid sketch of the brilliant, beneficent, and glorious administration of President Jackson. It is not for me to attempt to do it justice; it is not for ordinary men to attempt its history. . The contempo raries of such events are not the hands to describe them. Time must first do its office must silence the passions, remove the actors, develop consequences, and canonize all that is sacred to honor, patriotism, and glory. In after ages the historic genius of our America shall produce the writers which the subject demands men far removed from the contests of this day, who will know how to estimate this great epoch, and how to acquire an immortality for their own names by painting, with a master's hand, the immortal events of the patriot President's life. And now, Sir, I finish the task which, three years ago, I imposed on myself. Solitary and alone, and amidst the jeers and taunts of my opponents, I put this ball in motion. The people have taken it up, and rolled it forward, and I am no longer anything but a unit in the vast mass which now propels it. In the name of that mass I speak. I demand the execution of the edict of the people; I demand the expurgation of that sentence which the voice of a few senators, and the power of their confederate, the Bank of the United States, have caused to be placed on the journal of the Senate; and which the voice of millions of freemen has ordered to be expunged from it. HERE was an accomplished orator. SUMNER'S Harvard graduation, admission to the bar at twenty-three, and three years' pursuance of legal science in Europe gave him—with his classical and historical lore and oratorical power- - a grand foundation. But he liked practicing law less than expounding it, lecturing to Harvard law-students, editing and contributing to legal periodicals, etc., and he was sought for public orations. His most famous early address was on "The True Grandeur of Nations" (July 4, 1845), when our government was in contention both with Mexico and Great Britain, and the warspirit was abroad. He declared war against war, showing a higher plane for the nations. This spirited and scholarly address made great impression, both here and abroad. It was published several times, notably in 1870, enlarged by SUMNER with further illustrations, notes, etc. In this form it is well worth study in our "strenuous" day, and may be found in SUMNER'S "Life and Works" and in a separate issue, both published by LOTHROP, LEE, AND SHEPARD CO., Boston. Such appeal to the ethical was characteristic. It led to SUMNER'S reluctantly entering politics, in advocacy of the antislavery sentiment. In 1848 defeated as Free-soil candidate for Congress, his high character, learning, and eloquence made him WEBSTER'S successor as senator from Massachusetts in 1851. Here he remained until his death in 1874. SUMNER'S Confidence in his own uprightness and opinions made him intolerant; his passionate hatred of slavery incited him to exasperating vehemence. During the Kansas agitation in 1856, after one of his invectives, he was assaulted, sitting in the Senate Chamber, by PRESTON S. BROOKS of South Carolina, and was three years recovering from it— if, indeed, he ever did. This aroused indignation throughout the North, and doubtless served SUMNER'S causes effectively. After the war and emancipation, SUMNER'S peculiarities increased, in disagreements with the Republican leaders and with nearly everybody. His advocacy of GREELEY'S Democratic Presidential candidacy in 1872 severed him from his old associates. But he was a great man scholar, thinker, legislator, orator, of sterling integrity and noble ideals; a potential element in that era of turbulent conflict and majestic outcome. THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS In accordance with uninterrupted usage, on this Sabbath of the Nation, we have put aside our daily cares, and seized a respite from the never-ending toils of life, to meet in gladness and congratulation, mindful of the blessings transmitted from the Past, mindful also, I trust, of our duties to the Present and the Future. All hearts turn first to the Fathers of the Republic. Their venerable forms rise before us, in the procession of successive generations. They come from the frozen rock of Plymouth, from the wasted bands of Raleigh, from the heavenly companionship of Penn, from the anxious councils of the Revolution, from all those fields of sacrifice, where, in obedience to the spirit of their age, they sealed their devotion to duty with their blood. . . . Honor to the memory of our fathers! May the turf lie lightly on their sacred graves! Not in words only, but in deeds also, let us testify our reverence for their name, imitating what in them was lofty, pure, and good, learning from them to bear hardship and privation. May we, who now reap in strength what they sowed in weakness, augment the inheri |