He preferred to attend the United States Military Academy at West Point. Instead, his father enrolled him at Harvard . .
While in college, Charles had a serious social handicap. He had an inability to converse with women. Even as a senior he was too shy to introduce himself to Anna, President John Quincy Adams" youngest daughter. Charles Sumner did have a small circle of friends. They called themselves "The Five of Clubs". The members were Hillard, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Henry R. Cleveland, Cornelius C. Felton, and Charles Sumner . His friends began to worry about his health because Charles became careless as to whether he should live or die. On top of that, his sister Mary had tuberculosis and his brother Henry was coughing up blood which indicated danger. At the end of July in 1844, his mood of depressed loneliness lifted when he learned how worried his friends were about his health . After a short vacation in the Berkshires he was ready to return to his office. .
Howe involved him in his first reform. The reform was over the common schools controversy. Even though he wasn't apart of Howe's 1845 campaign, Charles Sumner thought his ideas had revolutionary implications, of his contemporaries. They were alarmed by his views . In 1848 Charles Sumner joined the Whig party to help form the Free Soil Party . Charles Sumner was later nominated for senator on January 7, 1851 with a vote of eighty four to one. He was elected by the state senate on January 22, 1851. The first session of the 32nd congress assembled on December 1, 1851 . While he was in office, Charles Sumner was brutally attacked by Preston Brooks. The attack kept him out of office for about three years. The assault was one of the big issues in the 1856 presidential election. Charles Sumner was slow to resume an active part in the sectional contest. At the Republican national convention, Charles Sumner was nominated for Vice President.
