“I cannot refrain from expressing to you the personal obligation I feel for your last great speech. Its wise candor and its steadfast adherence to the landmarks of maritime freedom cannot fail to make a profound impression upon the liberal minds of Europe; while disclaiming the thought of her dishonor, you have lifted the Republic to the heights of a beneficent victory.” Hon. B. C. Clark, merchant, and Consul for Hayti, wrote from Boston:-- “Your speech on the Mason and Slidell matter has won, most justly, golden opinions from all sorts of people. The affair has been put to rest, but simply on legal grounds.… The Trent will tell more terribly upon England than the ghost of Cæsar upon Brutus at Philippi.” Hon. George T. Bigelow, Chief Justice of Massachusetts, wrote from Boston:-- “I have read your speech on the Trent affair with very great pleasure. It is an admirable exposition of the doctrine which England has so long held on the subject of neutral rights; and while it demonstrates that the act of Captain Wilkes might have been justified on English practice and precedents, it places in the most clear light that it was inconsistent with the position which our Government has always occupied on the subject of search and seizure. The tone of the speech is so quiet and dignified, that it will have the effect, I think, of a severe rebuke on the hasty and unjustifiable conduct of the English Cabinet in demanding a reparation and a surrender of the captives with warlike menaces and preparations. “The prevailing sentiment here, especially among those who have not heretofore been inclined to speak your praise, is one of commendation of your speech. I am rejoiced that you have been able, while vindicating the course of the Administration in making the surrender of Mason and Slidell, to add so much to your reputation as a statesman.” Hon. Theophilus Parsons, the eminent law-writer and law-professor, wrote from Cambridge:-- “I have read and studied your speech, and am really unwilling to repeat to you what I have said in commendation of it to others. “This question may be considered after the fashion of a lawyer, or a politician, or a statesman. “You have viewed it as a statesman, and, in my understanding of the word, that includes the other two, and elevates them both. “The affair has given rise to no paper so entirely satisfactory to me, nor to one calculated, in my judgment, to be so truly and permanently useful.” Hon. Emory Washburn, Professor at the Law School, and former Governor of Massachusetts, wrote:--