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John G. Whittier to a personal friend—
The dear and noble Sumner! My heart is too full for words, and in deepest sympathy of sorrow I reach out my hands to thee, who loved him so well. He has died as he wished to, at his post of duty, and when the heart of his beloved Massachusetts was turned towards him with more than the old-time love and reverence. God's peace be with him.
The Chicago Times—
The death of Charles Sumner has taken away another of the very few Americans who have done honor to the name of statesmen. There is not left in the public councils his equal in political learning, in integrity, in high devotion to whatever he believed to be right. Though untrusted by time-serving partisans, he stood head and shoulders above them all, both in intellectual greatness, and in devotion to principle.
The Chicago Tribune—
No man has ever graced the American Senate, who will be remembered longer, or more gratefully than he. He walked on a higher plane than Mr. Seward. He went deeper into the merits of the anti-slavery cause than Mr. Chase. He was the most inflexible man of his time, as well as the most polished and erudite of his contemporaries. His industry was even more vast than his learning. His personal purity was so far above reproach that he was never even accused of dishonor.
The Chicago Inter-Ocean—
He was a just man, pure in private and in public life. His faults were transient, and his virtues constitute a permanent legacy to the people of the country he served with distinguished ability and unsullied honor.
The Cincinnati Commercial—
Mr. Sumner was a man of great dignity of manner. He had an imposing address, a leonine head, a sonorous voice. To the scholar he united the wisdom of the sage, and to the reformer the discretion of the statesman.
The Cincinnati Gazette—
Charles Sumner is an honor to the American name, and an example for future generations of young Americans who aspire to be statesmen. He has shown them a way to honor and fame through the highest paths
