“Senator Sumner concluded his great effort at fifty-five
minutes past two, having commenced at one. Diplomats,
two Cabinet Ministers, and a much larger number of
Congressmen than yesterday were on the floor, while
all the galleries and approaches were densely packed
with attentive listeners. As the argument of the speaker
culminated, he became grandly eloquent, and his elaborate
plea, which might rather be denominated an essay than a
speech, for negro enfranchisement, unquestionably made a
profound impression upon every intelligent listener. At its
conclusion the floor and galleries broke forth in applause.”
A few days later, the correspondent of the New York _Tribune_,
after mentioning President Johnson’s interview with the
delegation of colored people headed by Frederick Douglass and
George T. Downing, wrote:--
“As to Mr. Sumner’s grand vindication of the fundamental
principles underlying republicanism, it is unnecessary
to repeat what has been said of the immediate effect it
produced upon those who listened to it,--of the overcrowded
galleries, the silent attention of the Senate, the members
of the House who had left their own seats and eagerly
thronged the floor of the Senate Chamber.… And even now,
since the sound has died away and there has been ample time
for searching criticism, you can hear men who are not in
the habit of following Mr. Sumner’s views of policy say
with heartfelt satisfaction, it was a grand speech, worthy
of the Senate, worthy of the cause it defended, worthy of
this Republic. I have hardly seen a Republican here who was
not as proud of it as if he had made it himself. Even Mr.
Sumner’s opponents, the Democrats of the Senate and the
House, yielded to it the tribute of their respect. That
respect will go all over this country, and even beyond its
boundaries; and while no thinking man in this Republic will
take it up without feeling the irresistible weight of its
logic and the ennobling power of its sentiments, it will
abroad do more honor to American republicanism than any
public act since the decree of Emancipation.”