“Permit me, as a citizen of your native State, and especially
as a colored man, who has faithfully devoted more than twenty
years of his brief life to the elevation of his race, most
sincerely and heartily to thank you for your very masterly
speech in exposition of the monstrous iniquity of American
Slavery. I can assure you that the gratitude of the colored
people of this country towards you, who so eminently deserve
it, is incalculable.”
Ebenezer D. Bassett, a colored professor, afterwards Minister at Hayti,
wrote from Philadelphia:--
“The speech, which I read in the _Herald_, is, it seems to
me, unequalled by anything in the oratory of modern times,
and I venture to predict that future ages will place it, as a
work of art, side by side with the matchless _De Corona_ of
Demosthenes. It is certainly beyond all praise.”
William Still, colored, and with the natural sentiments of his race,
wrote from Philadelphia:--
“In my humble opinion, you have so effectually laid the axe at
the root of the tree that thousands and tens of thousands who
have been indifferent or Proslavery will henceforth work for
the deliverance of the bondman,--will labor to help cut the
tree down. Thus I am greatly encouraged, and devoutly hope and
pray for a better day for my race soon.”
Robert Purvis, an accomplished gentleman, connected by blood with the
colored race, wrote from his home at Byberry, near Philadelphia:--
“Permit me, out of the fulness of my heart, to make to you my
grateful acknowledgments for the most powerfully effective
speech, in my humble opinion, against the ‘Barbarism of
Slavery,’ ever made in this or any other country. Its
_timeliness_, as well as its vital power, stirs within me
the deepest emotions, which, indeed, are poorly expressed in
subscribing myself as being your grateful and admiring friend
and obedient servant.”
H. O. Wagoner testifies to the sentiments of the colored people of
Illinois, in a letter from Chicago:--
“For the great words you have spoken, and the ever-memorable
services which you have just rendered in the Senate of the
United States to the cause of my enslaved and down-trodden
fellow-countrymen, I return you not only my own individual
heartfelt thanks, but I venture to speak in the name and in the
behalf of the seven or eight thousand colored people of the
State of Illinois.… Could the poor slave but know the substance
of that speech, the circumstances under which it was given, in
the very face of the Slave Power,--I say could the slaves be
made to comprehend fully all this, it would thrill their very
souls with emotions of joy unspeakable.”
* * * * *
This collection, which might be extended, is concluded with a voice
from the Land of Slavery. J. R. S. Van Vleet wrote from Richmond:--
“As a citizen of the ‘Old Dominion,’ and a hater of Slavery, I
hereby send to you my unqualified approbation of your manly,
bold, eloquent, and truthful exposition of the great crime
of our common country; and let this come to you as from the
slave-pens of Richmond, in the midst of which these lines are
secretly written, and within which hundreds of human hearts
this moment feel the crushing weight of the ‘Barbarism’ you
have so faithfully illustrated. If these poor slaves were
permitted to give you thanks, their dark and gloomy prisons
for once would be made vocal with praise, and their tears of
sorrowing and bitterness be changed to tears of joy.
“If you knew the deep and secret interest which these people
take in the great battle now waging, you would be stimulated in
your efforts to hasten the day when we white men of Virginia
could unite with the colored slave to celebrate our common
emancipation.…
“Some of the Northern Republicans affect to think that your
speech was ill-timed; but I think it was just in time, and not
a moment too soon. The Southern party demand that the area of
Slavery shall be extended,--that the system shall be protected
by Congressional legislation backed by the whole power of the
Government; is it not, therefore, right and proper that the
people of the Free States should know what that system is which
they are required to perpetuate and protect? You have torn off
its mask and exhibited to them its hideous features, and now
let them say whether they will crush it beneath their feet, or
foster, caress, and protect it.”
William Rabé, Secretary of the Republican Central Committee of
California, wrote from San Francisco:--
“We have republished your speech.… I have the honor to hail
from Mr. Chesnut’s State, but am extremely sorry to be obliged
to disagree with him, and to be obliged to indorse the
reasoning of your speech, notwithstanding, or, in fact, in
consequence of, my having been a planter in South Carolina for
years.… It may not be for me to eulogize you and your speeches;
but that you have created an enthusiasm and opened the door for
free talk on the subject of Slavery no one will deny, and the
effect has already been electric.”
* * * * *
From the press, and from correspondence, it is plain, that, whatever
the efforts or desires of politicians, the question of Slavery had
reached a crisis. Nothing touched the universal heart so strongly, and
the interest extended abroad. For years the South had been growing
passionate for this Barbarism, and determined on its extension. It
now appeared that in the North there was a passion the other way. The
Presidential election turned on Slavery, and nothing else. The precise
point in issue was its limitation by preventing its spread into the
Territories; but this issue, even in its moderate form, involved the
whole character of Slavery, and the supremacy of the Slave Power in the
National Government.
The speeches during the canvass were on this issue. Politicians were
swept into the irresistible current. This appeared in the pressure
upon Mr. Sumner to speak. At the close of the session of Congress,
only a brief period after his exposure of the Barbarism of Slavery,
on the invitation of the Young Men’s Republican Union of New York, he
delivered an address at Cooper Institute, on “The Origin, Necessity,
and Permanence of the Republican Party,” where he presented anew the
argument against Slavery. This was followed by urgent requests to
speak in other places. Hon. Hannibal Hamlin, the Republican candidate
for Vice-President, wrote from Maine: “We want you much, very much.…
Will you come? Don’t say, No.” Hon. William P. Fessenden, learning
that he was coming, wrote: “The news has rejoiced all our hearts.”
Hon. Neal Dow urged: “You may say _all_ that is in your heart, relying
_fully_ upon the entire sympathy of the people.” And John A. Andrew,
who was visiting there, reported: “Your name will draw like a thousand
elephants.” There were other States where there was similar urgency.
A private letter from Thurlow Weed, at Albany, hoping it would be in
Mr. Sumner’s power to visit New York, was followed by a formal letter
from the New York State Republican Central Committee, pressing him to
address the electors of this State, and saying: “The Committee are
very urgent in this request, and hope you will consent to speak for
us as much as possible”; and this was followed by a special appeal
from Simeon Draper, Chairman of the State Committee. A similar call,
with the same urgency, came from Illinois,--and here the agents were
Hon. Elihu B. Washburne, of the Republican Congressional Committee at
Washington, and Hon. N. B. Judd, Chairman of the Illinois Republican
State Committee. In pressing the invitation, the latter said: “We can
promise you such welcome as Western Republicans can give to laborers in
the cause of Freedom”; and then again, in another letter: “The people
expect you, and know that no personal motive or interest induces you
to come,--only a deep conviction of the necessity for the election
of Mr. Lincoln, and the triumph of the principles of which he is the
representative.” Another ardent Republican wrote from Chicago: “A
glorious reception is awaiting you.”
During the canvass, Mr. Sumner spoke several times in Massachusetts,
treating different heads of the Great Question, as will appear in the
course of this volume; but after his address at New York, he did not
speak out of his own State. The appeals from other States attest that
his method was not discarded by the people. As the Rebellion began to
show itself, the Barbarism of Slavery was more and more recognized.