Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 07 (of 20)Sumner, Charles
History
Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 07 (of 20)
Sumner, Charles
Slavery -- United States; Speeches, addresses, etc., American
“Having just finished the perusal of your late oration in
New York City, I cannot let the opportunity pass of sending
my thanks, and I know therein I speak for Kansas, for the
emphatic opinions and masterly _exposé_ of the cause of,
and remedy for, this most stupendous rebellion. Such things
as you there so eloquently express give the soldiers of
Freedom in Kansas heart and courage in the work of giving
Freedom to all.”
Orestes A. Brownson, whose able and learned pen was so active
on the same line with Mr. Sumner, wrote from Elizabeth, New
Jersey:--
“I have read with great pleasure your discourse on the
‘Origin and Mainspring of the Rebellion.’ It is conclusive,
and powerfully so, and does you infinite credit. I see you
are afraid of some attempt at compromise. I am very much
afraid of it. There must be no compromise. The battle must
be fought out, and we must settle the question once and
forever, whether we are a nation or are not. Everything, I
fear, depends on the vigilance, firmness, and patriotism of
Congress.”
Henry C. Wright, the veteran of Abolition, wrote:--
“I am sixty-four years old. Thirty of those years have been
almost exclusively spent in a war of ideas against Slavery,
as a Garrisonian Abolitionist. _Conquer by suffering!
Victory or death! Resistance to tyrants, obedience to God!_
Such have been the watchwords of the battle. You know what
it has cost those who have waged this war of ideas. But I
felt fully rewarded last evening in seeing that audience
so earnestly listening to such sentiments as fell from
your lips. What a revolution in thought and feeling in
twenty-five years! Never again let man be discouraged in a
conflict between _humanity_ and its _incidents_.”
A citizen of Washington confessed the change in his mind from
this speech.
“I have through all my life been a Democrat, and I confess
I have had no great love for you, or what I thought to be
your principles. But a cardinal principle in my ethics
is, that men should always be ‘open to conviction.’ I am
happy to confess that I have been doubly deceived: first,
in the principles and intentions of the Democratic party;
and, second, in the principles and intentions of the
Republicans,--or Abolitionists, as we call them. A friend
handed me your great oration delivered in New York, and I
am so favorably struck with its logic and patriotism that
I am completely proselyted. Mr. Sumner, I want my children
and my children’s children to know that I am a ‘Sumner
man.’”
These expressions from different parts of the country show the
wakeful sympathy which prevailed.
WELCOME TO FUGITIVE SLAVES.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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