His power in debate was only equalled by his wisdom in council.
It was said of him by one whose fame as a great public teacher
equals his own: 'His weight was like the falling of a planet,
his discretion the return of its due and perfect curve.'
"Then comes Rufus Choate, next to Webster himself the foremost
forensic orator of modern times, against whose imperial eloquence
no human understanding, either on the Bench or in the jury
box, seemed to be proof. Following them is he who still lives
in his honored age, with his intellectual powers unshattered,
the foremost citizen of his native Commonwealth, the accomplished
and eloquent Winthrop. Next comes Rantoul, who died when
his foot had scarcely crossed the threshold of the Senate
Chamber, whose great hope was equal to the greatest of memories.
Next is the figure of the apostle of liberty, Charles Sumner,
the echo of whose voice still seems to linger in the arches
of the Capitol. To those of us who remember him, he seems,
as Disraeli said of Richard Cobden, 'still sitting, still
debating, still legislating' in the Senate Chamber.
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