I have the honor to be, dear Sir, Your faithful servant, CHARLES SUMNER. _The Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution of the United States,--the two immortal title-deeds of American liberties._ Defenders of the Constitution, let us not forget the principles of the Declaration, but, for the equal support of both, in the spirit of our fathers, without compromise, and with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. HON. JOHN P. BIGELOW, &c., &c. * * * * * POSITION OF THE AMERICAN LAWYER. LETTER TO THE SECRETARY OF THE STORY ASSOCIATION, JULY 15, 1851. BOSTON, July 15, 1851. DEAR SIR,--As a faithful pupil of the Law School, and an attached friend, during life, of the founder, whose illustrious name your Association bears, I feel a thrill at every act or word which does them honor. And since I may not be able to be present at your festival, I venture to send congratulations on the happy auspices of the day, and--mindful that I address a professional assembly--to inclose a sentiment commemorating the dignity and the duties of the American Lawyer. A brief personal experience will properly introduce it. Some years ago, while at Heidelberg, in Germany, it was my fortune to see much of Thibaut and Mittermaier, both jurists of eminent fame: the first--now dead--renowned for learning in the Roman Law, and for early and constant support of a just scheme for the reduction of the unwritten law to the certainty of a written text; and the other, who is still spared, the greatest living master of Criminal Law, and of the various systems of Foreign Jurisprudence. Next after the aristocracy of birth, they were unquestionably at that moment among the most conspicuous men of Germany. In the course of a long conversation, chiefly on matters of juridical interest, in the freedom of social intercourse at dinner, one of them asked with regard to the position of the American Lawyer, and both seemed earnest for my answer. I promptly replied: "No person is his superior. His position, Gentlemen, if you will pardon me for saying it, is what yours would be in Germany, if there were no aristocracy of birth." Both seemed penetrated by this allusion, and, looking each other in the face, exclaimed at once, in apparent consciousness of their true rank: "That is very high indeed!" The sentiment which I now submit was suggested by this incident. I have the honor to be, dear Sir, Very faithfully yours, CHARLES SUMNER.