As Sumner entered the Senate the last of its early giants was leaving it forever. Calhoun had already passed away. Webster was in Millard Fillmore's cabinet, and Clay was escaping in his own picturesque and pathetic words, "scarred by spears and worried by wounds to drag his mutilated body to his lair and lie down and die." The venerable representative of compromise was making his exit from one door of the stage, the masterful representative of conscience, his entrance through the other. Was the coincidence accident or prophecy? Were the bells of destiny at the moment "ringing in the valiant man and free, the larger heart, the kindlier hand, and ringing out the darkness of the land"? Whether accident or prophecy, Sumner's entrance into the Senate was into the midst of a hostile camp. On either side of the chamber enemies confronted him. Southern Whigs and southern Democrats hated him. Northern Whigs and northern democrats likewise hated him. He was without party affiliation, well nigh friendless. But thanks to the revolution which was working in the free states, he was not wholly so. For William H. Seward was already there, and Salmon P. Chase, and John P. Hale, and Hannibal Hamlin. Under such circumstances it behooved the new champion of freedom to take no precipitate step. A smaller man, a leader less wise and less fully equipped might have blundered at this stage by leaping too hastily with his cause into the arena of debate. Sumner did nothing of the kind. His self-poise and self-control for nine months was simply admirable. "Endurance is the crowning quality," says Lowell, "And patience all the passion of great hearts." Certainly during those trying months they were Sumner's, the endurance and the patience. First the blade, he had to familiarize himself with the routine and rules of the Senate; then the ear, he had to study the personnel of the Senate--and lastly the full corn in the ear, he had to master himself and the situation. Four times he essayed his strength on subjects inferior to the one which he was carrying in his heart as mothers carry their unborn babes. Each trial of his parlimentary wings raised him in the estimation of friends and foes. His welcome to Kossuth, and his tribute to Robert Rantoul proved him to be an accomplished orator. His speech on the Public Land Question evinced him besides strong in history, argument and law.