CRESSON, ALLEGHANY MOUNTAINS, PA.,
September 4, 1856.
DEAR SIR,--Were I well, I should regard your letter as a summons.
But I am still in the hands of physicians, by whom I am carefully
warned against all public effort. Most reluctantly, at this
period of our country’s trial, do I submit.
Accept for the Convention which will assemble at Providence my
best wishes. Let it apply itself with earnestness, diligence,
and singleness of purpose to the rescue of our fair land from
the tyranny which now degrades it. Here is room for all,--the
aged and the young, the Conservative and the Reformer. Surely,
Rhode Island, if not utterly disloyal to herself, if not utterly
disloyal to New England civilization, if not utterly disloyal to
the Republic of which she constitutes a part, will rise up as one
man and insist that Kansas shall be secured to Liberty, and that
the Slave Oligarchy shall be driven from its usurped foothold in
the National Government. At all events, this State, first planted
by the Author of Religious Freedom, will see that Human Rights do
not suffer through the votes of her children.
Believe me, my dear Sir, faithfully yours,