At the anniversary of the Society speeches were made by Rev.
Dr. Hitchcock, Mayor Opdyke, General Dix, General Burnside,
General Sickles, Senator Hale, Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, and
James T. Brady, Esq. Among the letters read was one from Mr.
Sumner.
SENATE CHAMBER, December 21, 1863.
MY DEAR SIR,--I had counted on partaking of your patriotic,
invigorating, and gratifying festival, where New-Englanders away
from home annually meet for fellowship; but the Senate is in
session, and you know it is not a habit with me to leave my post.
I must put off to another occasion the pleasure I had promised
myself.
Never before, since the Mayflower landed its precious cargo, have
New-Englanders had more reason for pride and gratulation than
now. We are told that a little leaven shall leaven the whole
lump, and that saying is verified. The principles and ideas which
constitute the strength and glory of New England have spread
against opposition and contumely, till at last their influence is
visible in a regenerated country,--tried, it may be, by murderous
conspiracy and rebellion, but aroused and stimulated to the manly
support of Human Rights.
Amid all the sorrows of a conflict without precedent, let us
hold fast to the consolation that it is in simple obedience to
the spirit in which New England was founded that we are now
resisting the bloody efforts to raise a wicked power on the
corner-stone of Human Slavery, and that as New-Englanders we
could not do otherwise.
If such a wicked power can be raised on this continent, the
Mayflower traversed its wintry sea in vain.
We remember, too, that another ship crossed at the same time,
buffeting the same sea. It was a Dutch ship, with twenty slaves,
who were landed at Jamestown, in Virginia, and became the fatal
seed of that Slavery which has threatened to overshadow the
land. Thus the same ocean, in the same year, bore to the Western
Continent the Pilgrim Fathers, consecrated to Human Liberty, and
also a cargo of slaves. In the holds of those two ships were the
germs of the present direful war, and the simple question now
is between the Mayflower and the slave ship. Who that has not
forgotten God can doubt the result? The Mayflower must prevail.
Believe me, with much regard, my dear Sir,
Very faithfully yours,