The first major formative experience for him was a trip to Washington, D.C., in March 1834, when he was twenty-three, upon the invitation of Judge Story. Currently in the country’s capital to hear arguments at the Supreme Court, Story wanted his protégé to see firsthand the happenings of the U.S. government and to groom Sumner for his future as a leading scholar of American law. Almost as soon as he arrived, Sumner hated the city.
