“Why can’t the golden chance be clutched to say to the
whole South, ‘Good!--you rebel,--you are no longer
slaveholders, nor can you ever be again.’ How it would
ring round the world, and transcendently through Heaven!
One would think that Abraham Lincoln would be fired at the
thought of the unrivalled fame that would succeed the act.
Has he not thought of immortality? Or does he wait for
Congress to take away the glory from him, or an accident to
take away the opportunity?”
Lyman S. Hapgood, paymaster in the army, and a good Republican,
wrote from Washington:--
“I have just been reading your speech which was made to
the Massachusetts Republicans, at their State Convention,
on the first instant; and the policy therein so fully
declared, which, in your opinion, it is the duty of the
National Government to pursue, agrees so completely with
my own views of our country’s difficulties, and her only
way of permanent and successful escape, that I could not
refrain from expressing to you my gratitude, as a citizen
of the good old Commonwealth, that she has one son, at
least, who, regardless of all personal misrepresentations
from political enemies or professed friends, has the moral
courage to stand up, upon all occasions and under all
circumstances, and proclaim what he sincerely believes to
be the true and just policy for the Government to adopt.”
A. B. Johnson, of the Treasury Department, wrote from
Washington:--
“I thank you from my heart for that noble speech at
Worcester. That trumpet gave forth no uncertain sound.
Hints have come up from the West, and intimations, vague,
undetermined, from the East, before; but it has been left
for you to define, announce, and defend a logical policy,
and you have accomplished your task.”
H. Catlin, editor of the _True American_, wrote from Erie,
Pennsylvania:--
“How lamentable that we should make Human Slavery the one
sacred thing under the heavens! Everything else must give
way,--every other property may be confiscated, every other
right suspended,--but _Slavery_ cannot be touched! Our
Proslavery education is costing a great deal,--it threatens
to cost us our country! Thanks that Senator Sumner so fully
appreciates the real issue of the hour, and that, _though a
Senator_, he proclaims it manfully and boldly! The masses
of the people are with you.”