Storey : Charles Sumner 1 5 7 for what he regarded as good policy or good morals ; gifted with great fitness for party leadership and exercising his leadership for noble ends ; a statesman in the highest sense of the word, who sought his country's honor and welfare, and largely helped to save her in the dire agony of her long struggle with slavery and what slavery caused. The shadows — foibles, weaknesses, or whatever else — on such a life and character might be much deeper than critics of Seward have ever claimed, with- out greatly darkening its beauty and fame. jIr. Bancroft's handsome volumes are adorned by two fine portraits of Seward — one, we suppose, taken at the age of about 40, the other dating about i860. The latter is familiar to all. We never look upon it without recalling Macaulay's reference to Lord Eliot's portrait of John Hampden — "the intellectual forehead, the mild penetration of the eye, and the inflexible resolution expressed by the lines of the mouth." We cannot possibly admire Mr. Bancroft's literary style ; but we can, in conclusion, award him the high praise of not making his work what a few months ago in the pages of this Review' he commended in another biographer — "a zealous and successful defence and eulogy " of the subject of his biography. Daniel H. Chamberlain. Cliarlcs Suiiuicr. By Moorfield Storey. [American Statesmen Series.] (Boston and New York : Houghton, Mifflin and Co. 1900. Pp. iv, 466.) Mr. Storey's Life of Sumner is both a thoughtful and a sympathetic narrative of the statesman's career. Its general characterization of his mental and moral traits is accurate, pointing out his deficiencies as well as his excellencies, his faults as well as his virtues. Whilst giving Sumner full credit for his sincere and powerful advocacy of the radical principles of the anti-slavery reform, he does not conceal the fact that the orator was less successful in commanding the assent of his associates in public life than in carrying along with him the applause of the constituency which he represented. The very confidence in assertion of a high stan- dard of right and in the deduction of present duty from it, which gives power to the platform orator, grew, in his case, into an apparent assump- tion of infallibility which sometimes offended his equals in the Senate. The practical duties of legislation made them impatient of arguments which often ignored the limitations which are met in applying sweep- ing maxims to the every-day affairs of life. The tone of the un- compromising prophet who warns and denounces, who declares the right with an assurance of certainty, chafes and irritates when debatable ground is reached. An ipse dixit is then a challenge and a provocation. The eloquence which had been inspiring whilst all were on common ground becomes wearisome when the common purpose has been attained, and men are urged in the name of consistency and of fundamental right to adopt measures which they instinctively feel are perilous. ' IV. 745-
