Meanwhile all good omens are ours. The work cannot stop. Quickened by the triumph now so near, with a Republican President in power, State after State, quitting the condition of a Territory and spurning Slavery, will be welcomed into our Plural Unit, and, joining hands together, will become a belt of fire girt about the Slave States, within which Slavery must die,--or, happier still, joining hands together, they will become to the Slave States a zone of Freedom, radiant, like the ancient cestus of Beauty, with transforming power. It only remains that we speed these good influences. Others may dwell on the Past as secure; but to my mind, under the laws of a beneficent God, _the Future also is secure_,--on the single condition that we press forward in the work with heart and soul, forgetting self, turning from all temptations of the hour, and, intent only on the cause, “With mean complacence ne’er betray our trust, Nor be so civil as to prove unjust.”[164] OUR CANDIDATES WILL BE ELECTED. LETTER TO THE LINCOLN AND HAMLIN CLUB OF OWEGO, NEW YORK, JULY 30, 1860. BOSTON, July 30, 1860. DEAR SIR,--It is still uncertain whether my engagements here and elsewhere will allow me to visit Tioga County during the present season. But I beg to assure the Republicans there of my sympathy in their generous labors. There is ample reward simply in working for a good cause; but we have before us, also, the assurance that our candidates will be elected. Accept my thanks for the honor of your invitation, and believe me, dear Sir, With much respect, Faithfully yours, CHARLES SUMNER. ISAAC S. CATLIN, Esq. EMANCIPATION IN THE BRITISH WEST INDIES A BLESSING, AND NOT A FAILURE. LETTER TO A PUBLIC MEETING AT FRAMINGHAM, MASSACHUSETTS, JULY 30, 1860. BOSTON, July 30, 1860. MY DEAR SIR,--If I forego the opportunity which you offer me of uniting with the earnest Abolitionists of Massachusetts in celebrating the anniversary of Emancipation in the British Islands of the West Indies, I pray you not to believe me insensible to the magnanimous teachings of that day,--destined, I doubt not, as men advance in virtue, to take its place yet more and more among the great days of History. Nothing shows the desperate mendacity of the partisans of Slavery more than the unfounded persistence with which they call this act “a failure.” If it be a failure, then is virtue a failure, then is justice a failure, then is humanity a failure, then is God himself a failure; for virtue, justice, humanity, and God himself are all represented in this act.