“Congratulating you, Sir, and our country, that the day now
seems not far distant when America is to fulfil the destiny
assigned to her, and be throughout all her borders a land
of freemen without slaves, and honoring you for the labor
you have so well performed in the past and in the present,
I have to express the gratification with which I listened
to your true words on Wednesday last in this city, and to
subscribe myself as one who heard you at Plymouth,[239] and
who always hears you when opportunity offers.”
Richard J. Hinton, the courageous and liberal journalist, was
moved to write from Kansas:--
“Having just finished the perusal of your late oration in
New York City, I cannot let the opportunity pass of sending
my thanks, and I know therein I speak for Kansas, for the
emphatic opinions and masterly _exposé_ of the cause of,
and remedy for, this most stupendous rebellion. Such things
as you there so eloquently express give the soldiers of
Freedom in Kansas heart and courage in the work of giving
Freedom to all.”
Orestes A. Brownson, whose able and learned pen was so active
on the same line with Mr. Sumner, wrote from Elizabeth, New
Jersey:--
“I have read with great pleasure your discourse on the
‘Origin and Mainspring of the Rebellion.’ It is conclusive,
and powerfully so, and does you infinite credit. I see you
are afraid of some attempt at compromise. I am very much
afraid of it. There must be no compromise. The battle must
be fought out, and we must settle the question once and
forever, whether we are a nation or are not. Everything, I
fear, depends on the vigilance, firmness, and patriotism of
Congress.”