“I have read your splendid speech, and find that I cannot
express in words or with pen my admiration of it. It is one of
_your_ efforts, the results of which will undoubtedly place our
great party one more pace onward, as in every case of the past
you have done. In my opinion it was needed at this time; and
as I have been something of a prophet in days past, perhaps my
sanction may give you courage.”
A considerable number of constituents at Boston, among whom were James
Redpath, Richard J. Hinton, and Loring Moody, friends of Kansas, and
Abolitionists, forwarded the following address, signed by them:--
“Jointly and severally, as men and as citizens, we say, God
bless you, Charles Sumner! Thank God for one man whom no
Barbarism frightens, whom no pusillanimous policy deters from
uttering the truth! Thank Heaven that in our modern Sodom one
just man and fearless was found, who, in the face of despots,
has dared to plead the cause of their victims, and to brand
their tyranny with the titles it has won!
“Go on,--with God, and the slave, and all good men applauding
you. Victory is inevitable, and near at hand.
“With gratitude and love and admiration, your friends,
constituents, and fellow-citizens.”
Dr. Joseph Sargent, the eminent surgeon and strong Republican, wrote
from Worcester, Massachusetts:--
“When I first read your speech, as I did immediately after
its delivery, my blood boiled anew, as after the outrage
which our country’s Barbarism inflicted on you four years
ago. God has punished that crime, in the persons of its more
immediate perpetrators, in his own way. Your speech is the apt
and condign punishment of that portion of the community who
supported them. In its learning, its truth, and its eloquence,
it is worthy of you; while in its comprehensiveness, its
compactness, and its completeness, it has exhausted the whole
subject. If you never say a word more, your record will be
right, and may God bless you!”
Hon. James H. Morton, holding a judicial situation, wrote from
Springfield, Massachusetts:--
“I have long been expecting to hear from you in your regaining
health, and my expectation has been fully realized in the
noble, scorching, withering expression of the true sentiment
of Massachusetts on this subject. Would to God that every
man who entertains the sentiments contained in your speech,
whether of the North or South, had the moral courage boldly to
express them! We should soon see an end of that accursed thing,
Slavery.”
Hon. D. W. Alvord, lawyer and warm Republican, wrote from Greenfield,
Massachusetts:--
“I write to thank you for your recent speech. There is not
elsewhere in the English language so powerful an argument on
the Barbarism of Slavery. In my opinion it is just such a
speech as you were bound to make,--just such a speech as the
honor of Massachusetts required from you. It is such a speech
as few men living but you could make. Hurt the Republican
party, will it? If it will, then the party does not deserve
success.”
Humphrey Stevens, Register of Deeds for Franklin County, Massachusetts,
wrote from Greenfield:--
“I have just read your speech on the Barbarism of Slavery. God
be praised that you did not compromise, and that the prayers
of the good have been answered! Some Republicans may condemn,
but hosts will rejoice that you regard the cause more than
Republicanism.”
Rev. William S. Tyler, the learned Greek Professor, wrote from
Amherst:--
“I cannot refrain from expressing to you the deep, though in
some respects painful, interest with which I have read your
late speech in the United States Senate.
“That your life has been spared, your health in such a measure
restored, and that you were able to begin ‘where you left
off,’ and finish such a faithful and complete exposition
of the monstrous Barbarism--that is the word--of American
Slavery, is just matter of congratulation to the country, and
of thanksgiving to God. The enemies of Freedom and Humanity
will of course gnash their teeth upon you, and timid friends
will question the expediency of such a speech; but when the
passions and prejudices of the hour have passed away, it will
be remembered and honored as one of the truest, greatest, best
utterances of our age.”
Hon. Henry Hubbard, the agent of Massachusetts to visit New Orleans in
behalf of colored seamen imprisoned there, wrote from Pittsfield:--
“I cannot, even at the hazard of offending you, refrain from
expressing the sense of honor and gratitude I feel for your
sending me your immortal and all-conquering speech on the
Kansas Question, showing and proving the unmitigated atrocity
and monstrous deformity of Slavery, maintained in many States
of this confederacy, and threatening all the rest. Boldly,
manfully, faithfully you have ‘done the austere work,’ not
letting, by your laches, ‘Freedom fling away any of her
weapons.’ Oh, no! Freedom stood in all her majesty, and used
all her weapons.”
Henry D. Thoreau, author and man of genius, wrote from Concord,
Massachusetts:--
“Especially I wish to thank you for your speech on the
Barbarism of Slavery, which I hope and suspect commences a new
era in the history of our Congress, when questions of national
importance have come to be considered from a broadly ethical,
and not from a narrowly political point of view alone. It
is refreshing to hear some naked truth, moral or otherwise,
uttered there, which can always take care of itself, when
uttered, and of course belongs to no party. (That was the
whole value of Gerrit Smith’s presence there, methinks, though
he did go to bed early.) Whereas this has only been employed
occasionally to perfume the wheel-grease of party or national
politics.”
Frank B. Sanborn, teacher and earnest man, afterwards an able
journalist, wrote from Concord:--
“Whatever politicians and editors may say, or even think, you
have more endeared yourself to the popular heart by your labors
in the last Session than by all that you have previously done.
Neither the North nor the South can soon forget the faithful
picture held up before us in your speeches.”
Miles Pratt, a business man and active Republican, of Watertown,
Massachusetts, wrote:--
“I am sure I express the sentiments of nine tenths of the
Republicans of this town, when I say that your speech is
received with joy by us all. Strange that such papers as the
_Tribune_ can wish that it had been made at some other time!
We don’t want victory, if at such sacrifice as the _Tribune_
proposes. Let me assure you that such sentiments as you have
uttered are what keep very many men in the Republican ranks.”