SIR,--Impressed with the magnitude and importance of the service
to the Constitution and the Union which you have rendered by your
recent speech in the Senate of the United States on the subject of
slavery, we desire to express to you our deep obligation for what
this speech has done and is doing to enlighten the public mind, and
to bring the present crisis in our national affairs to a fortunate
and peaceful termination. As citizens of the United States, we wish
to thank you for recalling us to our duties under the Constitution,
and for the broad, national, and patriotic views which you have
sent with the weight of your great authority, and with the power of
your unanswerable reasoning into every corner of the Union.
It is, permit us to say, sir, no common good which you have thus
done for the country. In a time of almost unprecedented excitement,
when the minds of men have been bewildered by an apparent conflict
of duties, and when multitudes have been unable to find solid
ground on which to rest with security and peace, you have pointed
out to a whole people the path of duty, have convinced the
understanding and touched the conscience of a nation. You have met
this great exigency as a patriot and a statesman, and although the
debt of gratitude which the people of this country owe to you was
large before, you have increased it by a peculiar service, which is
felt throughout the land.
We desire, therefore, to express to you our entire concurrence
in the sentiments of your speech, and our heartfelt thanks for
the inestimable aid it has afforded towards the preservation and
perpetuation of the Union. For this purpose, we respectfully
present to you this, our Address of thanks and congratulation, in
reference to this most interesting and important occasion in your
public life.
We have the honor to be, with the highest respect,
Your obedient servants,
T. H. PERKINS,
CHARLES C. PARSONS,
THOMAS B. WALES,
CALEB LORING,
WM. APPLETON,
JAMES SAVAGE,
CHARLES P. CURTIS,
CHARLES JACKSON,
GEORGE TICKNOR,
BENJ. R. CURTIS,
RUFUS CHOATE,
JOSIAH BRADLEE,
EDWARD G. LORING,
THOMAS B. CURTIS,
FRANCIS J. OLIVER,
J. A. LOWELL,
J. W. PAGE,
THOMAS C. AMORY,
BENJ. LORING,
GILES LODGE,
WM. P. MASON,
WM. STURGIS,
W. H. PRESCOTT,
SAMUEL T. ARMSTRONG,
SAMUEL A. ELIOT,
JAMES JACKSON,
MOSES STUART,[S]
LEONARD WOODS,[S]
RALPH EMERSON,[S]
JARED SPARKS,[T]
C. C. FELTON,[U]
And over seven hundred others.