Part 20

“The spirit moveth me to tell you how much I admired your speech of last Monday, the rather that I see that the dishes of skim-milk that you are trying to stir to an honorable action are turning sour to your word. The fact is, the leading Republicans not only don’t know enough to go in when it rains, but they quarrel with the man that offers them an umbrella.… I beg you to believe that the editors do not express the real feeling of the Republicans about your speech, as far as I have talked with them. The common people received it gladly; and its great power, eloquence, and exhaustive and unanswerable quality everybody acknowledges, even the enemy. You have done a good service to the country, and a great one to your party, if they have the sense to make use of it.”

Lewis Tappan, the ancient and leading Abolitionist, wrote from New York:--

“The speech is timely and valuable. Everywhere I have heard it highly commended. Still some Republicans dislike it, at this crisis. But the party needs having their attention directed to the moral aspects of the question. May the good Lord protect and bless you, and enable you to feel a consciousness of his presence and inspiration!”

J. Miller M’Kim, an active Abolitionist, who did much for the cause, wrote from Philadelphia:--

“The speech is in great demand here. Twenty-five cents a copy have been offered for the _Herald_ or _Bulletin_ containing it. I am disgusted with the notices of it which have appeared in some of the leading Republican prints. Maugre them all, I say, and all right-minded men will say, it was _judicious_, _well-timed_, and _german to the question before the country_.”

Rev. Parker Pillsbury, the Garrisonian Abolitionist, who thought the Republican party too feeble, wrote from Cumington, Massachusetts:--

“Amid the profusion of epistolary plaudits you will doubtless receive for your late powerful protest against Slavery, a voice humble as mine can be to you only of slight account. And yet I cannot forbear my congratulations at your so far recovered vigor and health, and the cause of Freedom and Humanity, that it still receives the powerful aid and advocacy of your voice and influence. I only regret that a speech of such power as your last must be laid on the altar of Republicanism, while to the leaders of the party your utterances are distasteful, if not absolutely terrific.”

Mrs. Maria Weston Chapman, the courageous Abolitionist, always faithful and intelligent, wrote from Boston:--

“Will you accept my hearty thanks for your speech? Exciting, as it must, a rage of hatred in some, proportionate to the love and gratitude it secures from others, I am sure your life is in danger; but with you, the greater the danger, the greater the courage,--and courage is preservative. No need to bid you be of good cheer: one in your place cannot help being so.”

Rev. George B. Cheever, whose soul was in the Antislavery cause, wrote from New York:--

“I bless you from the bottom of my heart, and praise God for his goodness in sparing you and returning you to your place in the Senate for that great work. It is a mighty blow, struck just at the right time, with a severity, pungency, and hearty earnestness that it does one’s very soul good to witness. God bless you, and keep you, my dear friend and brother!--for you must allow me to use this language, since you have endeared yourself to every lover of freedom and justice, of truth and righteousness, and to every friend of the slave, more than ever; and your noble course might justify even a personal stranger in addressing you thus. You are very dear to us all.”

Rev. William H. Furness, the Unitarian preacher, whose gentle nature was always aroused by Slavery, wrote from Philadelphia:--

“I have just read the telegram of your speech, and I must tell you that I have no words to express my admiration, gratitude, love. It is a grand justification of your non-resignation of your seat. The grace of God is on you,--his special favor, in that you have had the will and the opportunity for so faithful, so noble an utterance. It is a planetary space beyond and above the Republican party.”

In another letter he wrote further:

“I have no words to describe the blessed work you have done. Never for one instant mind the ‘cold-shoulderism’ of the _Tribune_, or the heartlessness around you; but rest assured that you have sent the truth into the inmost being of the Southern men who heard you. They may affect contempt by their silence, or they may rail and foam like Chesnut, but they know that you have spoken the bitter and biting truth without bitterness and without fear, as became a Christian gentleman. I declare to you that I consider that you are paid for the inaction and suffering of the last four years, and so are we. You cannot, no one can, begin to estimate the substantial work that you have done, both in regard to the essential truth, which you have demonstrated, and more to the perfect spirit and manner of the work.”

Rev. O. B. Frothingham, the courageous clergyman and reformer, wrote from New York:--

“Expressing my satisfaction and delight with your recent speech in the Senate, I do not know which most to be thankful for,--the complete restoration of your physical and mental power indicated by it, or the unabated courage it manifests, or the undazzled moral vision it displays in every sentence. To read it is like inhaling a draught of air in midsummer from the cliffs of Nahant or the hills of New Hampshire. It gives a conscience to legislation, and sets us all back upon the everlasting truth and rectitude.”

Rev. Nathaniel Hall, an excellent clergyman, beloved by all who knew him, wrote from Dorchester, Massachusetts:--

“Nobly you have dared to speak the truth, where to speak the truth, as you well knew, was to imperil life: I do not know in our day a nobler instance of moral bravery. And the speech itself, so clear, so strong, so impregnable in its arguments, so unanswerable in its facts, so unexceptionable in its tone, so free from personalities (save where for truth’s sake and the cause they must have been), so comprehensive, so conclusive, so great, so good, so Christian, so worthy,--yes, of a Christian statesman,--so lifted in tone and character above the utterances of that place,--my soul thanks you for it,--thanks God with added fervor, that he spared your life, and brought you back to your honored seat, and enabled you to such fidelity. It richly pays for these years of waiting.… Whatever a partisan press may say, whatever political opponents and political _friends_ may say, whatever of coolness and mistrust may be expressed, where you had a right to expect sympathy and support, be assured that deep in the hearts of multitudes of all parties you are honored, and will be by increasing numbers. I know it from what I know of human nature in myself. I know that my feelings _must_ be shared. I know that the secret reverence not only of the true-hearted, but of all who have not sunk below the mark where appreciation of true-heartedness is impossible, must be given to him who has stood forth in the intrepidity of a Christian manliness, to declare, in the face and beneath the power of its violators, strong in power and reckless in deed, the eternal law of rectitude and mercy.”

Rev. Convers Francis, the learned professor and stanch Abolitionist, wrote from Harvard University:--

“Thanks, many and most hearty thanks, for that great, very great speech, and for your kindness in sending it to me. What a portraiture of the Barbarism of Slavery! And what a master hand to draw it! Such a picture none but an artist of the highest order could paint. I must tell you, Mr. Sumner, that nothing on this great and fearful subject has ever so filled and satisfied my whole soul. ‘Too severe,’ say some; ‘not good policy to irritate the South.’ I tell them, Not an iota too strong. I would not have a single sentence or word less pungent or forcible, if I could; because every sentence and every word are loaded deep with truth, such truth as I rejoice that somebody is found in our Congress to give utterance to.… You have done great and excellent things before, Mr. Sumner, but this, I must say, seems to me the greatest and most excellent of all. The abundance of facts from the most unquestionable sources, the admirable arrangement, the keen and searching application of the argument, the masterly logic, and the manly eloquence of the speech will make it a document of truth and righteousness for all coming time.”[141]

Rev. John T. Sargent, Abolitionist and faithful reformer, wrote from Boston:--

“Every column of the paper, as I took it up, seemed to gleam on me like the golden lamps of the Apocalypse. How irresistible are your arguments! How pungent, and yet how Christian, your rebuke of this sore iniquity of our time! How sharp and clear goes the sword of your spirit through all the sophistry of your opponents! My soul has been in a glow all through the reading, and over the pathos of parts I have cried as if my heart would break.”

Rev. Frederick Hinckley, Free-Soiler from the start, wrote from Lowell:--

“I write this hasty note to tell you how much I thank you (and I think the heart of New England thanks you, too) for your recent speech on the ‘Barbarism of Slavery,’ in its moral tone and outspoken truthfulness so far above all other Republican speeches in Congress or Convention, carrying us back to the remembrance of the old Free-Soil times, when the party had more moral than political power, and, not expecting success, could speak right out.”

Rev. Beriah Green, one of the most devoted among Abolitionists, wrote from Whitesborough, New York:--

“Such massive, enduring truth! uttered so clearly, definitely, fully! The argument so perspicuous, compact, conclusive! The illustrations so apt, so fresh, so sparkling! The conclusions so weighty, grand, impressive! Every paragraph pervaded, radiant, with scholarly beauty. When did literature, our own or other, ever more willingly, more generously, come, all vigorous and graceful, to the aid of any of her sons?

“I bless God, and thank you, for the deep-toned, comprehensive humanity which pervades, which consecrates and hallows your paragraphs. I found myself, as I moved on step by step through your trains of thought, quickened and encouraged, inspired and refreshed. The impression which the speech as a whole made upon my innermost spirit it is my privilege to cherish and retain. I shall, I trust, be more fraternal in my regards for all my fellows forever, for your brave, manly utterances. Blessings on your head, heart, and estate!”

Rev. Thomas C. Upham, author, professor, and devoted friend of Peace, wrote from Bowdoin College, in Maine:--

“Your history in Congress has been a providential one. I do most fully believe that the hand of God has been in it from the beginning. I thought that the blow which struck you down in the Senate was destined, through the overrulings of Providence, to break the chains of the slave, and I think so still. Allow me to congratulate you, in connection with multitudes of others, on your return to the country and the Senate, and on the utterance of great and true and kind words which will have an influence on the hearts of thinking men throughout the nation.”

Rev. Henry M. Dexter, religious editor, and zealous historian of the Plymouth Pilgrims, wrote:--

“I cannot help feeling, my dear Sir, that you have made the most effective argument which the country has yet listened to on the general subject of the evils of that horrible system under which our nation is reeling like a giant poisoned by an adder. God bless you for your faithfulness, so calm, so dignified, so just, so overwhelming in its logical results, and grant that in ‘the good time coming’ your voice may often be lifted in that Senate House to more appreciative and coöperative auditors!”

Rev. Joseph P. Thompson, the eminent divine and eloquent preacher, wrote from New York:--

“My first duty as a Christian is to thank God that he has restored you to the Senate with physical and mental vigor equal to the great debate in which you have just borne so noble a part. My first duty as a patriot is to thank you for a speech which meets fully, squarely, ably, eloquently, conclusively, the one issue upon which our national welfare now depends. My first duty as a friend is to express the high satisfaction with which I have read the speech throughout, every line and letter of it, and the peculiar pleasure with which I have observed your self-control and avoidance of personalities under provocation, and your fearless and searching exposure of the barbarism and criminality of Slavery under the very eye of its bullying champions and in the very place where you had suffered its deadly malice. I am ashamed of the timid comments, almost deprecating indeed, of the _Tribune_ and _Post_ upon the only speech in the Senate which has reached the core of the question. If the Republican party is to seek success by blinking the real issue of the right or wrong of Slavery, I am prepared to witness its defeat without regret.”

Rev. Thomas T. Stone, the persuasive preacher, and student of Plato, wrote from Bolton, Massachusetts:--

“It is scarcely necessary that I should tell you how much I thank you for your public deeds. I was one who wished your seat in the Senate empty, till either you filled it, or the inevitable doom removed you from the possibility of doing it. May the words which have ennobled it go forth as thunders, arousing souls now deadened by the barbarisms of our country and our age!

“‘Quo bruta tellus et vaga flumina, Quo Styx et invisi horrida Tænari Sedes, Atlanteusque finis Concutitur.’”[142]

Rev. Caleb Stetson, the Liberal clergyman, and early foe of Slavery, wrote from Lexington, Massachusetts:--

“It is the best and completest word that has yet gone forth on the subject. If another as good can be made, it must be by yourself.”

Rev. Rufus P. Stebbins, the Unitarian divine, wrote from Woburn, Massachusetts:--

“I have read your last speech in the Senate on ‘The Barbarism of Slavery’ with admiration and gratitude. As a citizen, a constituent, I thank you from my heart’s core. It was a glorious triumph, such as no Roman consul or general ever won, to stand in your place, after such a long absence, for such a cause, and through four long hours proclaim such holy truth in such distinct language as was never before heard on that floor. It is glory enough for one life.”

Rev. William C. Whitcomb, an earnest clergyman and Abolitionist, wrote from Lynnfield Centre, Massachusetts:--

“A thousand thanks to you for your speech in Congress this week. ’Tis the most thorough, satisfactory, and powerful speech I have ever read on the subject of Slavery, or any subject. ’Twill secure millions of readers, and I trust open the eyes of the nation to the ‘Barbarism of Slavery.’ Ever think of me, and the people to whom I preach, as among your warmest admirers, lovers, and sympathizers.”

Rev. David Root, retired clergyman and Abolitionist, wrote from Cheshire, Connecticut:--

“Though approaching seventy, such is my heartfelt interest in the cause you advocate, that I could cry with joy over the thought that there is at least one member in Congress who is able, and who has the moral courage, to do justice to that great enormity, that atrocious wickedness, that deep and damning crime of Slaveholding. You seem to have embraced in your speech the whole subject, in all its important departments, and with a plainness, directness, pith, force, and pungency worthy of the highest commendation. It should be a permanent and standard document on that subject, and be perpetuated through all coming time, that other generations may look at it and learn to hate Slavery and love Liberty.… Mind not what some timid croakers may say about being ill-timed or calculated to injure our Republican campaign. It is not so. You have given us just the document we needed, going down to the foundation.”

Rev. Edgar Buckingham, an early schoolmate of Mr. Sumner, wrote from his parish at Troy, New York:--

“I congratulate you upon the fidelity and the courage which you have manifested; and though I do not rejoice in all severity, I rejoice always in the severity of truth, and I trust that the leaders of the Republican party will unanimously decide, that, not their expediencies, but God’s opportunity, is always the test of the time in which truth is to be spoken.”

Rev. J. S. Berry wrote from New York:--

“Allow me, though a stranger, to thank you in the name of Humanity for the noble speech on the ‘Barbarism of Slavery’ just delivered by you in the Senate, so just, so truthful, and so _timely_. I bless God that he has so far restored you, and brought you to ‘this hour.’ Thousands of hearts thrill with intense hatred of Slavery, as they read your startling disclosures of its workings; and the prayers of these same thousands, nay, millions, ascend to the Father of us all, that you may be long spared to show up the wickedness and inhumanity of the institution. I rejoice that not alone on political grounds do you attack the system.”

Rev. Daniel Foster, pastor, Abolitionist, and pioneer in Kansas, wrote from the town of Sumner there:--

“I rise from the perusal of your speech on the ‘Barbarism of Slavery’ with such feelings of affection and reverence for you that I must give my feelings and emotion vent by a word of thanks to you. I was grievously disappointed in ----’s speech. Yours fully satisfies me, it is so thorough, exhaustive, forcible, and withal so lofty and noble and patriotic in its spirit.”

T. Dwight Thacher, journalist, and Kansas pioneer, wrote from Lawrence:--

“Allow me, though an entire stranger, to express my thanks for the delivery of your recent great speech in the Senate of the United States. You may rest assured that the true, radical, Free State men of Kansas have no kind of sympathy with those who are so solicitous lest that speech should have injured our prospects for admission. We have learned the Slave Power well enough to know that its schemes of injustice toward us are not the offspring of sudden and transient excitements, but are the deep and well-settled purpose of years. And for one I would rather that we should remain out of the Union forever than that a single utterance in favor of Freedom should be suppressed in the Senate.”

H. R. Helper, of North Carolina, afterwards Consul at Buenos Ayres, author of the work entitled “The Impending Crisis,” wrote from New York:--

“I am in ecstasies with your speech of yesterday. Every word is put just where it was most needed. One such speech at intervals of even four years is worth incomparably more than a _Globe_ of ordinary debate every day.”

Theodore Tilton, the eloquent lecturer and journalist, sent this good word from New York:--

“I hasten to offer you my congratulations, not merely as a personal friend, but as a citizen, for your vindication of Liberty. Since the Senate began its sessions, no speech has been made on the floor which has satisfied me except this. I am glad that you have been neither intimidated to silence nor hallucinated by ‘expediency’ into speaking only half the truth.”

Francis H. Upton, lawyer, and author of the work on “The Law of Nations affecting Commerce during War,” wrote from New York:--

“Thank God that you are yet stanch and strong, and in all things fit for the fight that is before us. I have no sympathy with those who prate of the _impolicy_ of your present utterance, and also suggest the possibility of its influencing Senators to obstruct or postpone the admission of Kansas. It seems to me that he is but an ill observer of the signs of the times, and has not his finger upon the nation’s pulse, who fails to perceive that the day of soft words and bated breath and candy-tongued conciliation is gone, and gone forever. Slavery has seen its last triumph, and henceforth should receive no quarter.”

Hon. William Curtis Noyes, the eminent lawyer and exemplary citizen, wrote from New York:--

“I thank you cordially for your speech on the ‘Barbarism of Slavery’; and I thank you still more for having delivered it in the Senate, where you had a right to speak, and were bound to speak upon that subject first of all upon your restoration to health. Allow me also to congratulate you on that event, so auspicious to yourself and your country.”

Hon. John Bigelow, the able journalist, and afterwards Minister to France, wrote from New York:--

“I have not found an opportunity until to-day of reading your speech about the Barbarism of Slavery. It is the best arranged and by far the most complete exposure of the horrid rite of Slavery to be found within the same compass in any language, so far as known.”

Hon. Hiram Barney, for many years an Abolitionist, Collector of the Port of New York under President Lincoln, wrote from New York:--

“I was mortified to see in some of our Republican papers unkind criticisms on the expediency of such a speech at this time. In my judgment it is the best speech you have ever made. It was made at the best moment practicable to make it, and it would have been a wrong to the country and the cause to have withheld it. Moreover, it was made by the right man in the right place. It is the most valuable Antislavery document that I have ever seen.”

Thomas Hicks, the artist, wrote from New York:--

“I have just read your speech. It is solid with fact, eloquence, and courage,--right in matter, place, and time.”

Alfred Willard, a strong Republican, wrote from New York:--

“The South Carolina Senator spoke truly, in saying your speech was ‘characteristic.’ It was so indeed, not only of yourself, but glorious old Massachusetts, whose happy fortune it is that her Senators dare speak boldly for Truth and Freedom. Sir, you spoke yesterday not for yourself alone; thousands, ay, millions, of American citizens will sympathize to their hearts’ core with every word so fearlessly spoken. As your speech was ‘characteristic,’ so also was the brief South Carolina response.… Your speech will serve admirably, not only as a powerful and able argument for Freedom, but as a campaign document in the coming contest.”

Professor Charles D. Cleveland, the accomplished teacher and early Abolitionist, wrote from Philadelphia:--

“Many, many heartfelt thanks to you, my dear friend, for your noble speech. It takes the only true ground,--the essential barbarism and sinfulness of Slavery. The few lines in reply to the infamous remarks of Chesnut were admirable, just the thing, and I hope his remarks and yours will go with the speech in its pamphlet form. What would I have given to hear it!”