There can be no better name for the beginning than John G. Whittier, the poet, who wrote from his home at Amesbury, Massachusetts:-- “I have just finished reading _the_ speech. It is all that I could wish for. It takes the dreadful question out of the region of party and expediency, and holds it up in the clear sun-blaze of truth and reason, in all its deformity, and with the blackness of the pit clinging about it. In the light of that speech the civilized world will now see American Slavery as it is. There is something really awful in its Rhadamanthine severity of justice; but it was needed. “It especially rejoices thy personal friends to see in the speech such confirmation of thy complete restoration to health and strength of body and mind. It was the task of a giant.” Frederick Douglass, once a slave, wrote from Rochester, New York:-- “I wish I could tell you how deeply grateful I am to you, and to God, for the speech you have now been able to make in the United States Senate. You spoke to the Senate and the nation, but you have a nobler and a mightier audience. The civilized world will hear you, and rejoice at the tremendous exposure of the meanness, brutality, blood-guiltiness, hell-black iniquity, and barbarism of American Slavery. As one who has felt the horrors of this stupendous violation of all human rights, I venture thus far to trespass upon your time and attention. My heart is full, Sir, and I could pour out my feelings at length, but I know how precious is your time. I shall print every word of your speech.” Hon. S. P. Chase, afterwards Chief Justice of the United States, wrote from Columbus, Ohio:-- “Your great speech came to me, under your frank, this morning. I had read it all--in the _Bulletin_ of Philadelphia, in the _Times_ of New York, and in the _Globe_--before I received the pamphlet copy. It is gratifying to know that the _New York Herald_ also prints it, and that, through various channels of publication, it will reach every corner of the land, ‘_cogens omnes ante thronum_.’ ‘_C’est presqu’un discours antique_,’ said a French gentleman to me last Saturday. I say, ‘_C’est bien plus._’” Hon. Francis Gillette, an Abolitionist, and formerly Senator of the United States from Connecticut, wrote from Hartford:-- “I cannot tell you how pleased I am with your late speech on the ‘Barbarism of Slavery.’ It makes a lustrum in the Senate, and an era in the history of the Antislavery cause. But I am afraid the bloodthirsty barbarians are intent on assassinating you. Look out for them, and when they apologize to you with the pretension of drunkenness, understand them to mean they are drunk with rage. Do not believe them.” Hon. Carl Schurz, the German orator, afterwards Senator of the United States from Missouri, wrote from Milwaukee, Wisconsin:--