"Let me say seriously, frankly, your reputation as a fearless,
brave, and true man is firmly established,--confidence also in your
discretion and good judgment, as shown in this last debate and in
the management of this whole affair. There is a settled conviction
that you know how to withstand the entreaties or coolness of
friends, when your thoughts are not their thoughts,--that you have
shown great moral and physical courage, united with admirable
ability, in meeting and discomfiting the foes of Freedom, when, in
your opinion, the right time had come."
Professor Edward T. Channing, of Harvard University, whose memory
is dear to a large circle of pupils, wrote to a friend:--
"Sumner has done nobly. He is erect and a man of authority among
the slave holders, dealers, and hunters. He has made an historical
era for the North; for at least one among us has dared to confront
the insolent. He makes cowards of them, or rather shows what
cowards they are at the South. So will it ever be, when the Truth
is bold; though it is rare for a young or old hero in politics
to produce effect so rapidly. Still, and notwithstanding, and
nevertheless, our Whigs would send Apollyon to the Senate as soon
as Sumner, if his term should expire when they are uppermost."
T. C. Connolly, Esq., under date of August 21, reported from Washington
the opinion of Mr. Gales, the very able editor of the _National
Intelligencer_.
"I rejoice in the assurance universally felt here, that your
position in the Senate will be far more pleasant in the future than
it has been in the past. I enjoyed the pleasure of a conversation
with Mr. Gales on this subject a few days since. He introduced
your name, and remarked that the absence of sympathy in your views
could not influence his fair judgment of your worth. He was an
attentive reader of the debates of the Senate, and he had seen
that every step you had taken was a step upward, and that they
who had affected to contemn were at length driven into a tacit
acknowledgment of their very great error. He spoke in particular of
the reproofs you had found it necessary to administer to Senators
around you, and said, that, while they were exceedingly severe and
effective, they were equally just, and unaccompanied by a single
word that could be regarded as incompatible with the place and
presence in which you stood."
Men particularly interested in the Peace Cause united in the prevailing
sentiment.
Of these, Hon. Amasa Walker, afterwards a Representative in Congress
from Massachusetts, wrote:--
"Your reply to the slaveholders is capital, and receives universal
admiration in this quarter. It was just such a flagellation as the
slavocrats deserved, and such a one as they never received before
in the Senate. I think, from what I can observe, that your course
is universally popular, always excepting the mercenary minions of
the Government."