“God bless you a thousand times for your indomitable
resistance to the admission of Louisiana with her caste
system! This afternoon some forty gentlemen dined at Bird’s
room, and all, _nemine dissentiente_, approved it, and with
full praise.”
Joel P. Bishop, the learned law-writer, and author of a much
used work on Criminal Law, wrote from Boston:--
“Blessings on you! You have done in this Louisiana matter
an excellent work, for which some of your friends thank you
less now than they will by-and-by.”
Hon. Charles W. Slack, an Antislavery journalist, wrote from
Boston:--
“Thanks!--hearty, cordial, continued thanks!--for your
brave and persistent opposition to Louisiana.
“There is a very much larger share of the community who
will sustain you than at first thought may be supposed.
“The idea of negro suffrage in the disloyal States grows
daily in favor and advocacy among business men.”
William S. Robinson, the journalist, known as “Warrington,”
wrote:--
“I cannot sit down to my work this morning, albeit pressed
for time, without giving you the homage of my sincere
admiration and respect for killing Louisiana, at least _pro
tempore_. Thanks! thanks! thanks!”
General William L. Burt, afterwards Postmaster of Boston, who
had served in Louisiana during the Rebellion, wrote:--
“I congratulate you upon your defeat of the Louisiana
Bill. Your action was not only justifiable, but
commendable,--doubly so in view of the fact of your
concession upon the Reconstruction Bill.… The complaints
made by the Administration, or its friends, of the means
you took to prevent the fraud upon you and the people, are
a compliment, first, to your sagacity, and, secondly, to
your skill and ability. You will be vindicated a hundred
times before December.”
Colonel Albert J. Wright, having great influence in the local
politics of Boston, wrote:--
“Something must be done in Boston. Some of your admiring
friends here, who at first, in the midst of the muddle
of telegraphic despatches, had some misgivings in regard
to your action on ‘Reconstruction’ questions before the
Senate, have had their eyes opened, and now feel that you
have rendered a great service to the country in battling
manfully for the rights of humanity,--that you have done
right, and saved us from a new disaster. Of course we must
have a great meeting at the Music Hall, and give you an
ovation: nothing less will satisfy us.”