“The splendid oration which he delivered at New York
on the 10th inst., though full of a strange injustice
towards ourselves, ought not to lessen our love for the
man, and will increase our admiration of the orator and
philanthropist; but, if there was any idea that Mr. Sumner
could reason clearly as well as feel rightly and speak
eloquently, that idea will be dissipated. All the multitude
of eloquent and burning words which he pours forth
against Slavery will here find ready echo; and even when
he enters on accusations against this country, as having
‘intermeddled on the side of Slavery,’ it will be felt
that he speaks in the spirit, not of a mean and jealous
enemy, but of a high-minded, though mistaken friend. But no
non-American man can fail to perceive that there is a grand
mistake lying at the root of all the complaints he makes
against us: he would have Great Britain in her national
capacity to deal with American affairs according to moral
sentiments as distinguished from political rules, and he
condemns her for doing what he did himself and is doing
still.… He tries, indeed, to make a difference between the
hypothetical Confederate States and all other Slave States,
including the late United States. They will, he says, form
a ‘_new_’ Slave Power. He forgets, that, though the Power
may be new, the Slavery will be old.”