Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 13 (of 20)Sumner, Charles
History
Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 13 (of 20)
Sumner, Charles
Slavery -- United States; Speeches, addresses, etc., American
“Your whole argument is founded upon righteousness and
justice, and cannot be overthrown. What a glorious
record you are making for future generations to peruse
with gladness, and by which record your name is made as
imperishable as the hills of your native State! I hope God
will spare you to finish the good work you are in, and many
years after to reap a slight portion of your reward.”
Nathaniel C. Nash, a merchant devoted to the national cause,
wrote from Boston:--
“The multitude who thronged to the Senate Chamber, together
with the representatives of foreign governments, to listen
to your speech (which I term the New Testament of the
Nineteenth Century), was an exhibition of the world’s
interest in how well or ill you finish the great battle for
human freedom, not for one continent, but for civilized
man.”
Hon. Charles G. Davis, a stanch Antislavery Republican, wrote
from Plymouth:--
“Your course is fully approved here by a majority of
the Republicans, and by all who have opinions. Besides
all this, you will be historically right, now that the
Amendment is defeated.… It is the greatest work of your
life, unless your opposition to Lincoln’s Louisiana scheme
may prove such, if you even succeed in keeping out the
mongrel States.”
Augustine G. Stimson, desiring to express his sympathies as a
constituent, wrote from Boston:--
“Last evening I read your speech from beginning to end,
with an interest that awakened admiration and gratitude.
The Equal Rights of All is the only sure guaranty for the
present and future of mankind.”
William E. Chase, formerly a private in the national army,
wrote from North Uxbridge:--
“Please accept the thanks of a poor private for your noble,
courageous, and Christian efforts in the great cause of
Right, Justice, and Liberty, when Justice is unpopular, and
you are obliged by duty to meet both friend and foe in this
conflict.”
F. W. Pelton wrote from Boston:--
“I desire to thank you for your late noble speech in favor
of legal equality in this country. I read it with deep
interest. Your propositions are sound, and the great lights
of history you marshal up to sustain them impressed me
forcibly.”
William Plumer wrote from Lexington:--
“Please accept my thanks for the copies of your very able
and learned speech on the right of universal suffrage.
Whatever may be the practicability of this principle at
the present time, and however the country or Congress may
settle the question in the future, your arguments are
certainly unanswerable, and will ever remain an enduring
monument of your earnest labors in behalf of the Freedman.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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