“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:--