“I hope he will do it.”
* * * * *
The first pamphlet edition of this speech contained a note which is
preserved here.
“The following letter, from a venerable citizen, an ornament
of our legislative halls at the beginning of the century, and
now the oldest survivor of all who have ever been members
of Congress, is too valuable in testimony and counsel to be
omitted in this place.
“‘BOSTON, June 5, 1860.
“‘Dear Sir,--I have read a few abstracts from your noble
speech, but must wait for it in a pamphlet form, that I may
read it in such type as eyes in the eighty-ninth year of
their age will permit. But I have read enough to approve,
and rejoice that you have been permitted thus truly, fully,
and faithfully to expose the ‘Barbarism’ of Slavery on
that very floor on which you were so cruelly and brutally
stricken down by the spirit of that Barbarism.
“‘I only hope that in an Appendix you will preserve the
_vera effigies_ of that insect that attempted to sting you.
Remember that the value of amber is increased by the insect
it preserves.
“‘Yours, very truly,
“‘JOSIAH QUINCY.’”