Hon. George B. Loring, afterwards Chairman of the State Committee of the Republican party in Massachusetts, and President of the Massachusetts Senate, wrote from Salem:-- “Your masterly speech will one day be reached by Congress and the people,--I trust, in your day and mine. The best minds believe in it; the best hearts take courage from it.” Hon. E. L. Pierce, afterwards Secretary of the Board of Charities in Massachusetts, wrote from Boston:-- “I read last evening, at one session, your last speech in the Senate. It is a noble one, and right in all respects. One passage near the close reminds me of the famous passages of Curran and Brougham about Freedom. I agree with you about the proposed Amendment.” Thomas Sherwin, head master of the Boston High School, father of General Sherwin, and a tutor of Mr. Sumner at Harvard College, wrote from Dedham:-- “Allow me, as an old friend, to congratulate you and to thank you for your noble speech in the Senate on the 5th. I obtained it last evening, and read the whole before I slept. In humanity of sentiment, in true patriotism, in completeness of argument, in fulness of illustration, you have left nothing to be desired. “This Reconstruction is, indeed, a momentous affair, and I feel a greater doubt of its just determination than I felt for that of arms while the war raged.” Rev. John T. Sargent, always swift to sympathize with Mr. Sumner, wrote from Boston:-- “It is emphatically _the_ speech of the time and crisis, absorbing, superseding, and transcending every other. God bless you for these timely words! They ought to be widely circulated, and reprinted in every corner of our land, East, West, North, and South.” Rev. George C. Beckwith, Congregational clergyman, and Secretary of the American Peace Society, wrote from Boston:-- “Nothing but the constant feeling that you are constantly overtasked has kept me from writing you on several occasions. I will only just say now, that I owe you a thousand thanks for the great and noble services you are rendering. God give you strength and life and full opportunity to complete your work!” Rev. R. S. Storrs, the eminent Congregational clergyman, wrote from Braintree:-- “I am sure that I express but the common sentiment of the people all about me, when I say that your own course meets with more than a hearty approval, even admiration and gratitude. May God give you wisdom and firmness equal to the emergency, and crown your arduous labors with the success they deserve!” E. E. Williamson, one of the earnest men of Massachusetts, wrote from Boston:--