“Your speech and vote on the Blaine Amendment ought to
produce a thrill of life and joy and hope through every
spinal column that supports a loyal soul. We can’t afford
any of the old nonsense. We took our sable friends into our
boat when it was _bulleting_; and if we allow them to be
thrown overboard by the traitors now it is _balloting_, we
sink, in short.”
George Bemis, the eminent lawyer and publicist, wrote from
Boston:--
“I think that you may justly rank it among your greatest
efforts, and that it will go into history as the great
statement of the Freedman’s claim to participate in the
government of the country of which he makes part. The
general student of governmental law and civil polity
will also constantly refer to it as a new and important
development of the connection between representation and
executive sovereignty, and as a powerful _exposé_ of the
true basis of republican institutions. You have done a
great service to the colored race, to the science of
statesmanship, and to your country, all at once.”
Hon. Charles P. Huntington, for some time an able Judge of the
Superior Court, wrote from Boston:--
“If your opposition does not just now reflect the feeling
of New England Republicans, it anticipates their sober
judgment. Theoretically, at least, it deprives the black
race of representation, and punishes them for acts of
legislation in which they have no voice.”
Hon. Theophilus P. Chandler, able lawyer and Assistant
Treasurer, wrote from the United States Treasury, Boston:--
“Eloquent, exhaustive, unanswerable.”
Hon. George B. Loring, afterwards Chairman of the State
Committee of the Republican party in Massachusetts, and
President of the Massachusetts Senate, wrote from Salem:--
“Your masterly speech will one day be reached by Congress
and the people,--I trust, in your day and mine. The best
minds believe in it; the best hearts take courage from it.”
Hon. E. L. Pierce, afterwards Secretary of the Board of
Charities in Massachusetts, wrote from Boston:--
“I read last evening, at one session, your last speech in
the Senate. It is a noble one, and right in all respects.
One passage near the close reminds me of the famous
passages of Curran and Brougham about Freedom. I agree with
you about the proposed Amendment.”
Thomas Sherwin, head master of the Boston High School, father
of General Sherwin, and a tutor of Mr. Sumner at Harvard
College, wrote from Dedham:--
“Allow me, as an old friend, to congratulate you and to
thank you for your noble speech in the Senate on the 5th.
I obtained it last evening, and read the whole before I
slept. In humanity of sentiment, in true patriotism, in
completeness of argument, in fulness of illustration, you
have left nothing to be desired.
“This Reconstruction is, indeed, a momentous affair, and I
feel a greater doubt of its just determination than I felt
for that of arms while the war raged.”
Rev. John T. Sargent, always swift to sympathize with Mr.
Sumner, wrote from Boston:--
“It is emphatically _the_ speech of the time and crisis,
absorbing, superseding, and transcending every other. God
bless you for these timely words! They ought to be widely
circulated, and reprinted in every corner of our land,
East, West, North, and South.”
Rev. George C. Beckwith, Congregational clergyman, and
Secretary of the American Peace Society, wrote from Boston:--
“Nothing but the constant feeling that you are constantly
overtasked has kept me from writing you on several
occasions. I will only just say now, that I owe you a
thousand thanks for the great and noble services you
are rendering. God give you strength and life and full
opportunity to complete your work!”
Rev. R. S. Storrs, the eminent Congregational clergyman, wrote
from Braintree:--
“I am sure that I express but the common sentiment of
the people all about me, when I say that your own course
meets with more than a hearty approval, even admiration
and gratitude. May God give you wisdom and firmness equal
to the emergency, and crown your arduous labors with the
success they deserve!”
E. E. Williamson, one of the earnest men of Massachusetts,
wrote from Boston:--
“Your whole argument is founded upon righteousness and
justice, and cannot be overthrown. What a glorious
record you are making for future generations to peruse
with gladness, and by which record your name is made as
imperishable as the hills of your native State! I hope God
will spare you to finish the good work you are in, and many
years after to reap a slight portion of your reward.”
Nathaniel C. Nash, a merchant devoted to the national cause,
wrote from Boston:--
“The multitude who thronged to the Senate Chamber, together
with the representatives of foreign governments, to listen
to your speech (which I term the New Testament of the
Nineteenth Century), was an exhibition of the world’s
interest in how well or ill you finish the great battle for
human freedom, not for one continent, but for civilized
man.”
Hon. Charles G. Davis, a stanch Antislavery Republican, wrote
from Plymouth:--
“Your course is fully approved here by a majority of
the Republicans, and by all who have opinions. Besides
all this, you will be historically right, now that the
Amendment is defeated.… It is the greatest work of your
life, unless your opposition to Lincoln’s Louisiana scheme
may prove such, if you even succeed in keeping out the
mongrel States.”
Augustine G. Stimson, desiring to express his sympathies as a
constituent, wrote from Boston:--
“Last evening I read your speech from beginning to end,
with an interest that awakened admiration and gratitude.
The Equal Rights of All is the only sure guaranty for the
present and future of mankind.”
William E. Chase, formerly a private in the national army,
wrote from North Uxbridge:--
“Please accept the thanks of a poor private for your noble,
courageous, and Christian efforts in the great cause of
Right, Justice, and Liberty, when Justice is unpopular, and
you are obliged by duty to meet both friend and foe in this
conflict.”