“Your speech of October 1st is before me, and I have read
and read it through and through again, no less than three
times. There is something about your speeches that has
endeared your name to me, and something in their tone and
in their teachings that tells me they are right in their
meaning, and right in every point, and are very true.”
Thus, from correspondence, as also from the press, it appears
that Mr. Sumner was not alone. Others were glowing in the
same cause, and their number increased daily. But the great
salvation was postponed. Almost a full year was allowed to
elapse before the Proclamation of Emancipation. And what a
year, whether for those in the tented field and Rebel prisons,
or those others waiting, longing, struggling for Union and
Peace through Liberty! Nobody could espouse such a cause, and
feel that its triumph was essential to save the country from
prolonged bloodshed, without effort and anxiety corresponding
in some measure to the transcendent interests involved.
From this time forward Mr. Sumner never missed an opportunity
of urging Emancipation, whether in addresses before the
people and in the Senate, or in direct personal appeal to the
President. In the last he was constant, rarely seeing the
President without in some way presenting the all-absorbing
question. These volumes will show the continuity of his public
efforts.