This movement of Mr. Sumner was followed by a personal incident. General Stone, whose conduct was exposed with severity, took exception to the speech, and addressed him a letter intended to be very insulting. Mr. Sumner made no reply, nor did he utter any complaint in any quarter. A few days later be received notice from Boston that a near relative of the General had threatened to inflict personal violence upon him. Some time afterwards General Stone was taken into custody by military order, and for a long time incarcerated. The hostile press and the General’s friends charged this upon Mr. Sumner, often in most offensive terms, and it was repeated in the face of his constant denial. April 21, 1862, the question of this arrest was considered in the Senate, on motion of Mr. McDougall, of California, when Mr. Sumner spoke briefly. MR. PRESIDENT,--I have no opinion to express on the case of General Stone, for I know nothing about it. Clearly he ought to be confronted with his accusers at an early day, unless, indeed, there be some reason of transcending military character, which, in the present condition of the country, at a moment of war, might render such a trial improper. Of this I do not pretend to judge; nor am I aware of evidence on which the Senate can now act. … I hope I shall be pardoned, if I allude to myself. A most persistent attempt has been made in newspapers to connect me with this arrest, to the extent of according to me and my imagined influence the credit or the discredit of it. This is a mistake. I have been from the beginning an absolute stranger to it. The arrest was made originally without suggestion or hint from me, direct or indirect, and it has been continued without any such suggestion or hint from me. I knew nothing about it at the beginning, and know nothing about it now. There is no intimate friend or family relative of the prisoner more entirely free from all connection with it than myself. EXPULSION OF TRUSTEN POLK, OF MISSOURI. RESOLUTION AND REMARKS IN THE SENATE, DECEMBER 18, 1861. December 18, 1861, Mr. Sumner offered the following resolution, which, on his motion, was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. “_Resolved_, That Trusten Polk, of Missouri, now a traitor to the United States, be expelled, and he hereby is expelled, from the Senate.” Mr. Sumner produced a letter from Mr. Polk, which had found its way into the newspapers, where he says: “Dissolution is now a fact,--not only a fact accomplished, but thrice repeated. Everything here looks like inevitable and final dissolution. Will Missouri hesitate a moment to go with her Southern sisters? I hope not.” Mr. Saulsbury, of Delaware, thought the letter was “not genuine,” and added:--