Sumner's  first  difference  was  with  his  con-
servative friends,  and  especially  with  his  law-
partner,  George  S.  Hillard,  a  brilliant  man  in
his  way,  and  for  an  introductory  address  with-
out a  rival  in  Boston.  Hillard  was  at  heart  as
anti-slavery  as  Sumner,  and  his  wife  had  even
assisted  fugitive  slaves,  but  he  was  swathed  in
the  bands  of  fashionable  society,  and  he  lacked
the  courage  to  break  loose  from  them.  He  ad-
hered to  the  Whigs  and  was  relegated  to  pri-
vate life.  They  parted  without  acrimony,  and
Sumner  never  failed  to  do  his  former  friend  a
service  when  he  found  an  opportunity.
His  difference  with  Felton  was  of  a  more
serious  kind.  Emerson,  perhaps,  judged  Fel-
ton too  severely, — a  man  of  ardent  tempera-
ment who  was  always  in  danger  of  saying  more
than  he  intended.
Sumner's  election  to  the  Senate  was  a  chance


192  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES

in  ten  tlionsand.  It  is  well  known  that  at  first
he  declined  to  be  a  candidate.  He  did  not  think
he  was  fitted  for  the  position,  and  when  Caleb
Cnshing  urged  him  to  court  the  favor  of  for-
tune he  said:  '^I  will  not  leave  my  chair  to
become  United  States  Senator."  Whatever
vanity  there  might  be  in  the  man,  he  was  en-
tirely free  from  the  ambition  for  power  and
place.
There  were  several  prominent  public  men  at
the  time  who  would  have  given  all  they  owned
for  the  position,  but  they  were  set  aside  for  the
man  who  did  not  want  it, — the  bold  jurist  who
dared  to  set  himself  against  the  veteran  states-
men of  his  country.  It  reads  like  a  Bible-tale,
or  the  story  of  Cincinnatus  taken  from  his  plow
to  become  dictator.
