“So I, being melted to my inmost soul By this thy noble plaint for Freedom’s sake, Do grieve that ocean-tides between us roll, And that I ne’er can see thee strive to break The shackles, e’en more harsh than those that bind The slave-born limbs,--the shackles of the mind. “Go on, brave heart! and faint not, though thy way Be rough and rude, and torn with many a thorn: All England would thee hail, if some white day Thou, harassed by thy country’s bitter scorn, Shouldst seek our friendly shore, and rest awhile Thy wearied soul in this our happy Isle. “L. W. F. “WOLVERHAMPTON, ENGLAND.” This speech took its place in foreign bibliography. French writers who discussed American Slavery cited it, among whom was that excellent ally of our country, M. Édouard Laboulaye, who wrote always with equal knowledge and friendship. After quoting the famous words by which Wesley describes and blasts Slavery, he gives a definition from this speech. “The Americans of the North, who calculate even to the beatings of the heart, have summed up this multifold crime in five axioms. It is, say they, man become the property of his fellow-man, marriage abolished, paternity destroyed, intelligence systematically stifled, labor forced and unpaid,--in other terms, tyranny, confiscation, and robbery. Such are the essential vices of Slavery, vices independent of the goodness or the wickedness of the master, vices irremediable,--for to correct them is to acknowledge that the Slave has some rights, it is to make a man of him, it is to commence emancipation. Such, without exaggeration and without declamation, is the ‘Barbarism of Slavery,’ as the eloquent Senator of Massachusetts has justly called it.” The able Frenchman then adds in a note:-- “Mr. Sumner is the Senator who was struck down in the Senate Chamber by a colleague from the South, for which the assailant received a cane of honor, awarded by his admirers at the South. The welcome which Mr. Sumner in turn received in England and France, where he came to reëstablish his health, must have proved to him how much on the Old Continent are still esteemed courage and talent put forth in the service of humanity.”[140] CORRESPONDENCE. The testimony of correspondents was in harmony with the Antislavery press. Both in character and number, their letters were of singular authority. They show the sentiments of good men, and the extent to which the country was absorbed by the question of Slavery, although politicians sought to put it out of sight. And since this discussion, culminated in war, they throw light on the origin of that terrible conflict, and therefore belong to history. Brief extracts are given from a portion of the letters within reach.