“I have been so much pleased with your clear, concise,
authoritative, and conclusive vindication of the action of
the Government in the case, and, withal, with the sublime
eloquence with which you proclaim the triumph of American
diplomacy over the long, sullen, and obstinate perverseness
of English rule, that I feel it my duty to ask a few copies
of your speech for distribution among special friends in
Indiana.”
George Ely, of Chicago, wrote from Washington, where he was a
visitor:--
“I had the pleasure of listening to your great speech,
delivered in the Senate of the United States yesterday,
on Maritime Rights. Permit so humble an individual as
myself, and a stranger to you, to congratulate you upon
the unequalled ability of your speech, and the triumphant
vindication you have given to the American doctrine upon
that question. The country will feel proud, in these times
of trouble and doubt, of such an advocate.”
Ellis Yarnall, an excellent citizen, much connected with
England, wrote from Philadelphia:--
“And now that we have had that speech, everything else
that has been said on the subject seems of little worth.
Everywhere I hear the same judgment; so that your friends
may well congratulate you on what is doubtless one of the
most brilliant successes of your life. It seems to me
of the greatest importance that the speech should have
large circulation in England. The _Times_, I fear, will
hardly publish what, from its very moderation and its
statesmanlike dignity, will tell so much for the Americans.
Yet the leading men of all parties will read it, and I
am sure it will greatly help our cause. Your rebuke of
England’s warlike preparations is most timely, and I am
confident good men in England will feel nothing but shame
at the remembrance of the menacing action into which they
were betrayed, in December, 1861, in a controversy on what
you call a question of law.”
These unsought and voluntary expressions of opinion show
that on this occasion, as when demanding Emancipation, Mr.
Sumner was not alone. Weight and numbers were with him. Nobody
better than these volunteers represented the intelligence and
conscience of the country.