“I thank you for that noble speech, … so logical, so
happily illustrated, so full of earnestness and soul, and
withal so convincing. I rejoice that there is one in our
highest councils who feels as you do on the subject, and
who has the ability and the courage to make such a speech.”
Rev. Patrick V. Moyce, a priest of the Roman Catholic Church,
wrote from Northampton:--
“I am often reading your admirable speech of March 7th,
and so much am I impressed with the justice of the
principles it inculcates with so much classical ability and
statesmanly wisdom and foresight, that I cannot possibly
deny myself the honor of taking this method of testifying
to you my heartfelt congratulations. You are the one man
among many who seems to have studied the present exigencies
of your noble country, and to have judged aright the
requirements of the age you and we all live in at present.
The benevolent qualities of heart which distinguish you in
this great speech are in perfect keeping with the towering
majesty of your well-cultivated intellect. Go on. Lead
and triumph, and accept the blessing and prayers of a
Roman Catholic priest, who begs to subscribe himself, with
profound esteem and high consideration, your most humble
and devoted servant.”
The New England Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
meeting at Chicopee, Massachusetts, March 28th, adopted a
resolution, officially communicated to Mr. Sumner, which, after
declaring approbation of both Houses of Congress, proceeds:--
“Especially do we offer our sympathies and prayers for our
own honored Senators, one of whom has endured in the past,
with a martyr’s fortitude, the barbarous assaults upon his
person of the champion of Slavery, and has lately been
called to endure an equally unjustifiable assault upon his
reputation by the present Chief Magistrate of the United
States.”
[OUT OF MASSACHUSETTS.]
Hon. Israel Washburn, Collector of the port of Portland,
formerly Governor of Maine and a distinguished Representative
in Congress, wrote from Portland:--
“When I obtained Wilson’s bill, which prohibited the denial
by the States of _civil_ rights to persons on account of
color or race, I wrote him to inquire why he had not said
also _political_. The authority is certainly as clear for
the latter as for the former. So, when, last evening, I
read your resolution and speech, I was strengthened and
rejoiced. Your positions are impregnable, and your speech,
I think, the greatest of your life. We must stand there, or
not at all.”