“Thanks be to our Heavenly Father, dear Sir, that there are no Brookses in Congress this year, to raise their canes over any man’s head. Now, Sir, my prayer is, that God may give you strength to do your duty this year, as no other man in or out of Congress can do it; for no other man has shown up the barbarism of Slavery like yourself. Sir, when but a few days ago you asked the reading of Carl Schurz’s report, and it was not granted, my blood started with such a rush in my veins that I could hardly contain myself. ‘What!’ said I, ‘has it come to this, after the loss of so many of the most valuable lives of our dear countrymen, so much of blood and treasure?’” Thomas D. Hoxsey wrote from Paterson, New Jersey:-- “You have to fight your old battle over again, and I only hope and trust that you may have the physical health to stand firm where your late speeches place you.” Colonel Wentworth Higginson, who served so well at the head of colored troops, and does such honor to American literature, in a letter from Newport, Rhode Island, thanking Mr. Sumner for speeches, added, “especially that one word _whitewashing_, which was the best speech of all.” * * * * * These brief utterances illustrate the sentiment beginning to prevail. The issue with the President, already foreseen, had come. ENFRANCHISEMENT AND PROTECTION OF FREEDMEN. ACTUAL CONDITION OF THE REBEL STATES. SPEECH IN THE SENATE, ON A BILL TO MAINTAIN FREEDOM IN THOSE STATES, DECEMBER 20, 1865. On the day after the “whitewashing” incident, Mr. Sumner seized an opportunity of setting forth the actual condition of the States lately in rebellion, and the duty of Congress with regard to them. He took the floor on a bill, introduced by his colleague, Mr. Wilson, “to maintain the freedom of the inhabitants in the States declared in insurrection and rebellion by the Proclamation of the President of the first of July, 1862,” and spoke as follows.