"You showed what is the real backbone of a gentleman, considered in
the higher moral or philosophical point of view, by far superior to
what your assailers conceive or are able to imagine in their vulgar
or low conceptions."
Rev. William H. Furness, the distinguished divine and devoted
Abolitionist, wrote:--
"I congratulate you upon having been blackguarded and denounced. It
has redounded to your honor. It has proved a rare success. I think
you should thank God for placing you, in his wise Providence, in a
position which, utterly hateful as it must be to you (fighting with
wild beasts at Ephesus), proves to furnish occasion for the heroic
element. I can dimly surmise how much it costs you to stand there;
but I doubt not the experience you are having testifies that it
will pay the cost, and a great deal more. I may be mistaken, but,
from all I have learned of your position in the Senate, things look
as if those Southern men, after trying to steal your sting away by
all sorts of courtliness and courtesy, and trying in vain, have
turned upon you like rabid dogs, with the intent to tear you in
pieces. They have not done it, nor will they."