This letter, after enjoying an extensive circulation in the newspapers, was preserved as a political document in McPherson’s “Political History of the Rebellion.”[74] It first appeared in the _Boston Journal_,[75] with the caption, “Senator Sumner and the President,” and with these introductory words:-- “We are permitted to publish the following private letter from Hon. Charles Sumner, in reply to a letter addressed to him by a personal friend. Senator Sumner’s hearty indorsement will not be without its influence upon those who are impatient at what they term the Proslavery policy of the President. At the same time there is nothing in this indorsement which should shake the confidence of conservative men in his wisdom and prudence.… It is something to obtain from one who may be regarded as a representative of this class so handsome a tribute to the purity of the President’s motives, and so hearty an indorsement of the correctness of his convictions and sympathies.” SENATE CHAMBER, June 5, 1862. MY DEAR SIR,--Your criticism of the President is hasty. I am confident, if you knew him as I do, you would not make it. The President cannot be held responsible for the misfeasance of subordinates, unless adopted, or at least tolerated, by him. And I am sure nothing unjust or ungenerous will be tolerated, much less adopted, by him. I am happy to let you know that he has no sympathy with Stanly in his absurd wickedness, closing the schools, nor, again, in his other act of turning our camps into a hunting-ground for slaves. He repudiates both, positively. The latter point has occupied much of his thought, and the newspapers do not go too far in recording his repeated declarations, which I have often heard from his own lips, that slaves finding their way within the national lines are never to be reënslaved. This is his conviction, expressed without reserve.