Chapter C: B. M. Smith, another lawyer, wrote from Pittsburg

“Will you permit a private in the Republican ranks to thank you
for your great speech on the Barbarism of Slavery? I do not
believe that it was ill-timed, or too severe. It was just what
the occasion and the times called for.”

Rev. N. Warren Everett wrote from Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania:--

“I have just been reading your masterly and unanswerable speech
of the fourth instant with thrills of delight. Massachusetts
can afford to let one of her Senatorial chairs remain vacant,
if we can have such a speech as that once in four years. I feel
like thanking God from the bottom of my heart that you have
been restored to health, and have the nerve, or, as you once
expressed yourself, the ‘backbone,’ to stand as one of God’s
noblemen and give utterance to truth.”

Edward Corner wrote from Columbus, Ohio:--

“It is worth its bulk in gold. I honor the heart and give large
credit to the head that combined to send forth such a document.
If it could but reach the eyes and ears of the South generally,
it would tell upon even that dark and ignorant people; but it
cannot; a few may see it. There is not brass enough, nor yet
iron, nor steel, in the Southern Senators to ward off such a
blow. They will never forget it. There are some weak-kneed
Republicans who wish the speech had been less severe. I believe
in the entire speech. As you undertook to give the truth, why
not tell the whole truth? It is time they were exposed; it is
time to hold up Slavery’s mirror, not only to the South, but
before the world.”

Alanson St. Clair wrote from Muskegon, Michigan:--

“And if my memory is not greatly at fault, you are the first
Member of Congress who has entered the penetralia of the
Pandemonium, and fully exposed the diabolical character of the
system, and the true character of its supporters. Such efforts
are telling.

“The efforts of many noble patriots have been manly,
self-denying, and praiseworthy, and should not be disparaged;
and yet I know of no one who has taken the high moral ground
on this subject which you have from the first. This, during
your whole Senatorial career, has made you the hope of the
reliable Antislavery men in America; and your last effort will
increase not a little their reliance on and their affection for
you. It is a godlike effort, a stunning blow, a blow in the
right direction and upon the right spot, which has inflicted a
fearful, if not a deadly wound.… I pray God that you may live,
and retain your place, to pronounce the funeral oration of
Slavery, and to receive the exultant blessings of the millions
to be set free.”

Nathan C. Meeker wrote from Dongola, Illinois:--

“Notwithstanding what Mr. Greeley said as to its not being
proper at this time, I think it timely, and that Mr. Greeley
is not aware of the great prevalence of Antislavery sentiment,
although he as much as any one has contributed to create it. I
thank you for the bold words, and also for the pleasure I have
received in reading a correct performance, since there are so
many which are hard for me to read. I think your speech will
long be referred to, as embracing all that has been and well
can be said on this question, and forever cause men to wonder
why it was listened to in silence.”

Horace White, the able journalist, afterwards editor of the _Chicago Tribune_, wrote from Chicago:--

“I take pleasure in saying that in my opinion your recent
effort ranks with Demosthenes on the Crown, and with Burke on
Warren Hastings.”

John H. Rolfe wrote from Chicago:--

“Nobly and well have you met the expectations of those who,
like myself, have waited through four years of silence for your
next utterance on the great sin of our times. Highly as I prize
the speech, I think your brief and pointed reply to Senator
Chesnut fully doubles its value, for all practical purposes.”

W. H. Herndon, the able lawyer, associated in business with Abraham Lincoln, wrote from Springfield, Illinois:--

“I have received and read your most philosophic, logical, and
classical speech, made in the Senate of the United States. The
speech is a withering one to Slavery. It is worthy of you, and
you of it. I thank you very, _very_ much for it.… We feel well
out here; are confident of success. We hope the East will do as
well as the West.”

S. M. Booth, journalist, who, spurning the Fugitive Slave Act, helped fugitive slaves, and was sentenced to imprisonment, wrote from “U. S. Custom-House Prison” at Milwaukee:--

“I bless God for the utterance. It is timely and needed at this
juncture. I have no sympathy with that craven policy which
would suppress such a speech, lest it might prejudice the
rights of Kansas or endanger the election of Lincoln.… Your
portrait of Slavery is true; its character and effects are all
you describe it; and the nation needs to have its own sin and
shame mirrored as you have done it. I see, too, the assassins
have since sought your life.… You have struck a mighty blow
at the very _existence_ of Slavery. You have laid the axe at
the root of the tree. We never can reach the evil as long as
we fight on the defensive. But if the doctrines of your speech
are true, it is no longer a question _where_ or _how far_
Slavery shall go, but whether it shall be allowed to go or to
be _anywhere_.… In God’s name let it perish, and the sooner the
better.”

Hon. A. A. Sargent, delegate from California to the Chicago Convention which nominated Abraham Lincoln as President, and afterwards Representative in Congress from California, wrote from Newburyport, Massachusetts:--

“You go back of mere political distinctions to lay bare the sin
and barbarousness of a hoary iniquity, falsely assuming to be a
form of Civilization. You have taken up a train of thought, and
pursued it well, which I have long wished to have developed,
and filled a void in the system of declared truths upon which
Republicanism is based, too long neglected. Your speech stirred
my heart with feelings of pride for the representative of my
native State.”

Hon. Neal Dow, eminent in the cause of Temperance, and afterwards a general in the War, wrote from Portland, Maine:--

“You will be glad to know that among all thoughtful men of our
side your speech is commended without a qualification. There
is no sympathy with the cowardice of the mere politicians, in
the fear that it may excite the bad passions of the South, and
provoke them to do some dreadful thing. I think the general
wish is that _the whole truth_ should be boldly spoken, and
that the crisis, whatever it may be, may come soon. The
indications now are that the South will have an opportunity to
make up its mind what it will do about it.”

John Neal, the veteran of American literature, wrote from the same city:--

“I have just finished the reading of your great and conclusive
speech upon the ‘Barbarism of Slavery,’ and I have only to say
that I go with you heart and soul, and that I concur entirely
in the opinion expressed by the venerable Josiah Quincy of your
argument.

“Your manliness, your Christian forbearance, your plainness
of speech, and your unexaggerating truthfulness are all of a
piece, and I desire to thank you in the name of this whole
generation for what you have done and suffered and said.”

Hon. James S. Pike, also of Maine, for many years a journalist, afterwards Minister of the United States at The Hague, wrote from Cape May:--

“I think you have got hold of a heavy sledge, and hit between
the horns at every lick. The style of treatment will do as much
towards bringing the beast upon his knees as any other, and the
duty is peculiarly appropriate at your hands. I am very sure
you are right, and feel prompted to say so.”

Hon. John Appleton, the learned jurist, and Chief Justice of Maine, wrote from Bangor:--

“I owe you thanks for your able and unanswerable speech, which
came in my absence. More truth was never condensed in one
speech. But woe to those by whom it so becomes the truth!”

Hon. Moses Emery, an eminent citizen, wrote from Saco, Maine:--

“Permit me to say I have read it through twice, and parts of
it many times, and that I consider it the most glorious and
most needed speech ever made in the United States. I rejoice
that you have been spared to make it. But be on your guard. The
Demon of Slavery will be revenged, if possible.”

Thomas H. Talbot, a lawyer, who argued well against the Fugitive Slave Act, wrote from Portland, Maine:--

“I rejoice at your determination to tell the whole truth,
so much needed now, when many acting with you either do not
perceive it or are willing to withhold it, for reasons of
false, fleeting policy. So far you seem not seriously to have
been molested; and yet that you have really achieved freedom of
speech in Washington upon that subject, and to the extent of
your speech, seems almost too much to hope for at present.”

Hon. Woodbury Davis, an earnest Republican, afterwards Justice of the Supreme Court of Maine, wrote from Portland:--

“Your friends here were alarmed on Sunday evening by a rumor
that you had been attacked again by Southern ruffians. I felt
thankful yesterday morning, when the despatches were published,
to learn that it was no worse. I do not believe there is
another man in the world for whose personal safety so much real
prayer ascends to Heaven.…

“Allow me, as one of the people, though not one of your
immediate constituents, to thank you for your great speech. In
these times, when there is a tendency to _let down_ the great
principles of Universal Liberty in order to gain a temporary
triumph, it was so refreshing to have them so nobly and
faithfully advocated in the great forum of the nation, that
I felt truly grateful to you, and to Him who has preserved
you for such a service. If Slavery is to be restricted, it
is because of its own inherent wrong, _wheresoever_ and upon
_whomsoever_ it rests. And if wrong, we are bound not only to
resist its extension, but by whatever powers we have to seek
its extinction.”

Professor Benjamin Silliman, distinguished in science and venerable in years, wrote from Yale College:--

“It is a terrible indictment, and supported by such an array
of facts, that, having now gone to the jury, there can be no
doubt as to the verdict, and a verdict without appeal, except
to violence,--against which, as regards yourself personally,
I trust you will exercise a ceaseless, although not a timid
vigilance.”

Cyrus R. Sanborn wrote from Rochester, New Hampshire:--

“After the many anxious inquiries during your long absence in a
foreign land, your return to the Senate has been a topic of not
much less interest. Upon the question often being asked, ‘Shall
we again hear from Mr. Sumner on the question of Slavery?’
as often it would be answered either in the affirmative or
negative. Not too late, just at _the_ time, you have answered
the whole question in your recent elaborate speech. Happy and
delighted are freemen that the bludgeon and threats have not
daunted your courage and freedom of speech upon the great
question of Slavery.”

John A. Andrew, afterwards the great Governor of Massachusetts, wrote from Boston:--

“Among the numerous congratulatory letters which your recent
brilliant Senatorial effort is doubtless bringing to you, I
doubt not you will derive some pleasure in being remembered at
No. 4, Court Street.

“‘The Philosopher’[143] and myself, as you know, always read
you promptly and carefully. In this recent triumphant success
I recognize the ‘wonted fires’ which have now these dozen
years illumined our heavens. And I rejoice at the evidence of
confirmed physical vigor which is assured by your encounter of
the fatigues and excitement of such an intellectual exercise.
May you live a thousand years!”

Hon. Francis W. Bird, one of the ablest and honestest politicians in Massachusetts, for many years an Abolitionist, and of peculiar influence, wrote from East Walpole:--

“You do not need that I should thank you for your speech. I
confess I considered the risk to your health and life so great
that I hoped you would keep silent. But I thank God you have
gone through it, for now we may rest assured your health is
established. But how I dreaded the test! I rejoice especially
that you have placed yourself where the next step logically is,
Slavery has no rights, no recognition (except as an existing
fact), and no political existence under the Constitution. Then
comes the end. And you are to be the leader in that final
fight.”

George L. Stearns, so faithful as Abolitionist, who did so much for the organization of colored troops during the War, wrote from Boston:--

“I cannot wait until I have finished your speech to tell you
how perfectly it meets my most sanguine expectations. It is
the morning star that heralds the coming day when the vile
institution shall only live in the history of the Past. Your
word will become the battle-cry in the coming conflict, showing
that it is indeed irrepressible, and will not be put down, even
when the leaders in the fight fall back in terror.”

Hon. James M. Stone, afterwards Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and a reformer, wrote from Charlestown:--

“I am delighted with your admirable speech on the ‘Barbarism
of Slavery,’ and I desire to unite with the millions of the
freemen of the country in tendering you thanks for this effort
to arouse the attention of the people to the terrible evils of
Slavery. The power of your facts and logic is unanswerable and
irresistible. The speech comes just at the right time, too;
for there was great danger of too much forgetfulness of the
great fundamental principle of Human Freedom, without which the
Republican party would never have obtained its present power
and prospects for the future, and without which it will surely
and speedily go to destruction.”

William I. Bowditch, the well-known conveyancer, and among the strictest of Abolitionists, wrote from Boston:--

“As to the speech, the more I think of it, the heavier I think
the blow was which you have given. And I am glad to find you
yourself again.”

Nathaniel I. Bowditch, author, as well as eminent conveyancer, remarkable also for goodness and moral principle, wrote from Brookline:--

“I had not the least conception of the immense differences
effected by Freedom and Slavery. Your statistics were truly
astonishing. Some of my visitors, friendly in the main to
the Republican cause, have expressed their doubts as to the
expediency of your speech,--considering that its effect must
be to exasperate the slaveholders; but when I find that Bell,
nominated by the Union party, actually eulogized Slavery as
the corner-stone of the material prosperity of the country,
I think that it is well that the true picture should be held
up to their inspection, however repulsive it may be. As in
some homely picture of the Dutch school, such as that of _The
Dentist pulling out a Tooth_, the subject may be distasteful,
but all must acknowledge the skill of the artist, so I think
no one can deny the thoroughness of your researches or the
ability with which you have presented their results. Even your
opponents cannot fail to acknowledge the manly and fearless
tone of your remarks.”

George Livermore, a Boston merchant, who loved books, and was always true to his convictions, wrote from Boston:--

“I have waited almost a fortnight since the first reading
of your speech, and have read it again and again, before
saying anything about it. I have heard the various remarks of
many persons whom I have met, and have read the contradictory
criticisms of politicians, philanthropists, and religionists.
But the first thoughts and the first impressions on reading the
speech have been strengthened by reflection. I could then find
no words of my own so suitable to express my views respecting
it as the words of the wise man of Israel, and I said more
than once to my nearest friends, ‘Here are _apples of gold in
pictures of silver_.’ For if ever words were _fitly spoken_, it
was when you so bravely, truly, and eloquently lifted up your
voice in the Senate, and shamed the ‘Barbarism of Slavery.’ I
thank you for it.”

Charles W. Slack, able editor, and ever earnest against Slavery, wrote from Boston:--

“If the truth must be suppressed, if every honest aspiration
must be crushed, if everything manly and heroic is to be tamed
down, to win a Presidential contest, better be without the
success, I say, than purchase it at such a sacrifice. Again I
thank you, over and over again.

“Let me say that I know the newspapers don’t represent the
current tone of the Republicans in this community, even where
bold and brave utterances heretofore have not been popular.”

William S. Robinson, for many years Clerk of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and able journalist, who uttered what he thought, wrote from Boston:--

“I suppose that you are not disappointed that timid
Republicanism in some quarters objects to the time and occasion
of your speech. Of course its real objection is to the speech
itself. But I assure you that the Antislavery men gladly
welcome it. I regard it as your best speech, and as calculated
to do immense good.”

J. P. Blanchard, clear-headed, and vowed against Slavery and War, wrote from Boston:--

“I need hardly say that I share in the high admiration and
satisfaction with which it is received by all intelligent
persons here, except those few who have sold their souls for
office, or who have not yet awoke from the political sleep of
half a century. I esteem it especially, not so much for its
great research and ability, which were expected, as because it
discusses the true fundamental question of the wrong as well as
evil of holding property in man, which, though the real issue
between the parties, has hitherto been too much slurred over on
both sides.”

Seth Webb, Jr., appointed by President Lincoln Consul at Port-au-Prince, Hayti, a Republican of the best quality, and always Antislavery, wrote from his home in Scituate, Massachusetts:--

“I have read it with care. It is magnificent, and I am glad on
every account that it was made. It was all needed,--needed now
and from you. It not only expresses my own opinions fully, but
in it you have written on the walls of Eternity the adamantine
convictions of Massachusetts.

“That there are some timeserving and tremulous men and presses
in our ranks who treat the speech coolly only shows that
Republican leaders do not understand Republicanism, and that it
is a mighty work to regenerate a nation.

“The strength of the Republican party lies in the fearless
utterance of its opinions; its weakness, in the suppression of
them. A timid policy will be our ruin; a bold one wins friends
and awes enemies.”

Hon. Amasa Walker, afterwards Representative in Congress, writer on Currency and Political Economy, and enlisted against Slavery and War, wrote from his home at North Brookfield, Massachusetts:--

“I do think it excellent and well-timed, just what you ought to
say, and no more,--but what no other man in the Senate would
have dared to say.”

Hon. Willard Phillips, for many years Judge of Probate in Boston, and author of the excellent work on the Law of Insurance, wrote from Boston:--

“I was not a little chagrined and mortified by ----’s notice
of it, as I expressed to him in a note the moment I had read
his leader respecting it. Brutality, no less than vice, is a
monster, and whoever paints it fair, or wishes others to, by
the false character he gives betrays his own true character.
I have great faith in plain-spoken truth; and the railing and
gnashing of teeth in anger by the Southern preservers of the
Union, and what John Randolph denominated as the white slaves
of the North, who second them, is a plain confession of the
truth as you have spoken it.”

Hon. Albert G. Browne, prominent in the politics of Massachusetts, and ever foe to Slavery, wrote from Boston:--

“No poor words of mine can convey to you my admiration and
hearty approbation of your speech. I greatly err in judgment,
if it is not by universal consent considered your best effort
in this direction. To my mind it is exhaustive of the subject.”

Daniel Henshaw, a venerable citizen, once a journalist and always a reformer, wrote from Boston:--

“I have read your speech on the Barbarism of Slavery
attentively, having devoted seven hours thereto yesterday, and
I cannot refrain from offering you my humble thanks, although
words cannot express my feelings on the subject. You know
something of my views on Slavery. For thirty years I have
considered it the leading and most important subject before the
nation.”

Charles M. Ellis, the lawyer, and always against Slavery, wrote from Boston:--

“Especially allow me to thank you for the discourse of the
Barbarism of Slavery; for it shows you _well_ again, and
leading on the good fight. It is needed now, when men at the
South seek to justify the thing,--needed, I think, more than
anything,--and leaves little to be done in that direction.”

Warren Sawyer, a merchant and active Republican, wrote from Boston:--

“I have looked over the newspaper reports, and have thanked God
your life was spared to prepare such a masterly production, so
full of facts, so happily arranged, so glowingly knit together,
and that you were able in strength to stand up in the Senate
and deliver it.

“To my mind, the speech will do much good; it was needed. The
great mass of the people have become, or are becoming, what is
now called conservative on the Slavery Question; they forget,
amid their business and their many calls, the horrors, the
crime, and the Barbarism of Slavery.”