Volume 6 — INVITATION TO DINNER BY AMERICAN MERCHANTS IN PARIS.

Letter to the American Merchants at Paris, April 20, 1857.

The following correspondence, with its brief introduction, is copied from Galignani’s Messenger at Paris.

“Senator Sumner, of Massachusetts.—This distinguished American statesman and orator has been tendered a public dinner by the American merchants residing at Paris, in the following complimentary terms.

“Paris, April 28, 1857.

“Dear Sir,—The American merchants residing in Paris, desirous of expressing their high regard and admiration for your noble independence and distinguished services as a Senator of the United States, respectfully invite you to meet them at a public dinner, to be given at such a time during your sojourn in Paris as may be most convenient to yourself.

“Though well aware that you are habitually accustomed to decline all similar requests, we earnestly hope you will yield to our wishes.

“As citizens of the great Republic, representing many States, and all actively engaged in commercial life, we tender you this tribute, as an evidence of our appreciation of your elevated patriotism, unbending integrity, and spotless honor.

“With the highest esteem, we have the honor to be your friends and fellow-citizens.

“John Munroe,

B. G. Wainwright,

Elliot C. Cowdin,

Samuel P. Holmes,

A. P. Montant,

Thomas N. Dale,

G. F. T. Reed,

James W. Tucker,

George T. Richards,

A. K. P. Cooper,

George Milne,

C. L. Sharpsteen,

Henry Woods,

W. Endicott, Jr.,

John C. Martin,

Walter H. Lewis,

George L. Todd,

David Lane,

V. Mumford Moore,

J. H. Deming,

Jos. D. B. Curtis.”

To this invitation Mr. Sumner returned the following reply.

Hôtel de la Paix, Rue de la Paix, April 30, 1857.

GENTLEMEN,—I have been honored by your communication of the 28th April, where, after referring to my services as Senator of the United States, in language generous beyond the ordinary experience of political life, you are pleased to invite me, in the name of the American merchants residing in Paris, to a public dinner, at such time as may be most convenient to myself.

The voice of hospitality is pleasant in a strange land. But the hospitality which you offer is enhanced by the character and number of those who unite in it, among whom I recognize well-known names, intimately associated with the commerce of my country in one of its most important outposts.

There is one aspect in which your invitation is especially grateful. It is this. If I have been able to do anything not unworthy of your approbation, it is because I never failed, whether in majorities or minorities, against all obloquy, and at every hazard, to uphold those principles of Liberty which, just in proportion as they prevail under our Constitution, make us an example to the nations. And since my public course cannot be unknown to you, I am permitted to infer that the public testimony with which you now honor me is offered in some measure to those principles,—dearer to me than any personal distinction,—with which I am proud to know that my name is associated.

The invitation you send me, coming from such a source, couched in terms so flattering, and possessing such an import, presents a temptation difficult to resist. But I am admonished by the state of my health, which is yet far from its natural vigor, that I must not listen to it, except to express my gratitude. In making this excuse, let me fortify myself by the confession that I left home mainly to withdraw from the excitements of public life, and particularly from all public speaking, in the assurance that by such withdrawal, accompanied by that relaxation which is found in change of pursuit, my convalescence would be completed. The good physician under whose advice I have acted would not admit that by crossing the sea I had been able at once to alter all the conditions under which his advice was given.

I cannot turn coldly from the opportunity you offer me. My heart overflows with best wishes for yourselves individually, and also for the commerce which you conduct, mingled with aspirations that your influence may always add to the welfare and just renown of our country. As American merchants at Paris, you are representatives of the United States on a foreign mission, without diplomatic salary or diplomatic privilege. But it belongs to the felicity of your position that what you do well for yourselves will be well for your country, and, more than any diplomacy, will contribute to strengthen the friendly ties of two powerful nations. Pardon the allusion, when I add that you are the daily industrious workmen in that mighty loom whose frame stands on the coasts of opposite continents, whose threads are Atlantic voyages, whose colors are the various enterprises and activities of a beneficent commerce, and whose well-wrought product is a radiant, speaking tissue,—more beautiful to the mind’s eye than any fabric of rarest French skill, more marvellous than any tapestry woven for kings,—where every color mingles with every thread in completest harmony and on the grandest scale, to display the triumphs and the blessings of Peace.

Accept the assurance of the sincere regard with which I have the honor to be, Gentlemen,

Your faithful servant and fellow-citizen,

Charles Sumner.

To John Munroe,

B. G. Wainwright,

Elliot C. Cowdin, Esqrs.,

and others, American merchants at Paris.

The vigilant spirit of Slavery did not fail to note this correspondence. Immediately upon its appearance, a well-known Virginian, the reputed owner of large plantations in right of his wife, and long resident in Paris, addressed a letter to Galignani’s Messenger, in which he undertook to set forth what he called Mr. Sumner’s mission in Europe. Here is a specimen.

“That mission, certainly ‘without any diplomatic privilege,’ but peradventure not without perquisites, is to initiate, and, if the exigencies of the cotton market and manufacture do not forbid it, to organize, a systematic agitation in this and the British capital against the Southern States of the Confederacy, and that ‘peculiar institution’ of theirs, so tenderly nursed of yore, and transmitted to them by dear Old Mother England, and which in very modern times has been not less cherished and sustained by the ‘enterprise and activity’ on the coast of Africa of some of her Puritanical progeny in the New World. Under these circumstances can any such subdolous plea as that put forward excuse these ‘American merchants’ from lending themselves to such agencies and influences? If they were sordid and self-seeking adventurers, in pursuit of political capital, rather than the honorable rewards of a liberal and enlightened trade, one could understand, or rather would not marvel at, this pseudo-patriotic partisanship, this unfraternal display of their sectional colors in a foreign land.”

Thus was the invalid in search of health pursued by the same malign spirit from which he had originally suffered.