“I can hardly express to you the intense satisfaction and delight with which I read your great oration delivered in New York. In my humble opinion you have rendered a great service to our country and to humanity. The words of truth and wisdom which you have spoken cannot fail to command the attention and respect of the statesmen of England as well as of this country.” Captain George Ward Nichols, of the United States army, wrote from his station at Milwaukee:-- “I hardly know what to say of this eloquent exposition, so full of righteous indignation, terrible denunciation, exhaustive research, unanswerable argument,--so abundant, so powerful, and so eloquent in the cause of humanity. It seems to me like a timepiece, which, with unfailing faith, I consult to mark the hour in a stormy day, unmindful of the wondrous art and wit which combine this perfect whole. I thank you more than I can say for this noble speech. It is already a part of the history of this momentous time. It is as much a fact as is Gettysburg or Vicksburg.” George Baty Blake, Esq., a banker of Boston, wrote:-- “I have read attentively your speech made in New York, and, let me say, I think it exactly suited to the occasion; and if it finds circulation in Great Britain, it cannot fail to do us much good in our foreign relations. Plain speech with John Bull, and to the point frankly, is what always proves most effective with him, in my experience.” The late James A. Dix, editor of the _Boston Journal_, declared his sympathies:-- “I cannot resist the temptation to express the pleasure which the perusal of your speech on our Foreign Relations has afforded me. I do not think it extravagant to say that it is the ablest speech ever delivered in this country. Certainly it is the ablest of any with which it could appropriately be compared. In the number, value, interest, and importance of its historical facts and precedents, in the apt use of materials derived from laborious research, and in the lucid treatment of the topics discussed, it is unsurpassed.” Major B. Perley Poore, for a long period connected with the press, wrote from his country home:-- “If human gratitude be among the number of our national virtues, the highest honors should contribute to reward you for your address on Foreign Relations, so replete with patriotism, learning, and practical knowledge, knowledge of public law and the practice of nations, a thorough acquaintance with civil government and the great question of Freedom which underlies and overtops everything else. I have read it twice in the small type of the _Journal_.”