“I wrote you hastily my congratulations and thanks on your last
powerful effort, the effect of which I think will be stupendous
and permanent, giving a vigor to the cause, and a definiteness
to the opinion of the North, and an example of pluck more
powerful in its persuasive influence than a thousand essays.”
Hon. Gerrit Smith, always champion of the slave, wrote from his home at
Peterborough, New York:--
“I have this day read your speech as it appeared in the _New
York Times_ of the 5th. God be praised for the proof it affords
that you are yourself again,--ay, more than yourself! I say
more,--for, though the ‘Crime against Kansas’ _was_ the speech
of your life, this _is_ the speech of your life. This eclipses
that. It is far more instructive, and will be far more useful,
and it is not at all inferior to the other in vigor or rhetoric.
“The slaveholders will all read this speech, and will all be
profited by its clear, certain, and convincing truths. The
candid among them will not dislike you for it; not a few of
them will, at least in their hearts, thank and honor you for
it. Would that they all might see that there is no wrong, no
malice whatever, in your heart! Would that they all might see
that you do not hate the slaveholder, but pity him as the
victim of a false education!…
“I have read the editorial of the _Times_ on your speech. It is
more than unjust, it is wicked. Nor has the _Tribune_, so far
as I have seen, any praises for you. But this is their way, or
rather one of their ways, for promoting the interests of your
Republican party.”