“DEAR SIR,--At a large and enthusiastic meeting of the colored citizens of this city, held in the Philadelphia Institute this evening, the undersigned were charged with the duty of conveying to you, in behalf of twenty-five thousand disfranchised Americans here, their most heartfelt gratitude for the noble, fearless, patriotic stand taken by you at the opening of the present Congress. No day of our lives seems brighter than that upon which the foremost champion of Freedom boldly directs the attention of the nation to a series of clear, sound, statesmanlike measures looking to the complete enfranchisement of America. “We speak but faintly, though truthfully, when we say that four millions of Americans will ever cherish with the warmest gratitude of their hearts, and hand down as a precious legacy to their children, the name of Charles Sumner,--Charles Sumner, who has at all times and under all circumstances, even when friends faltered and foes exulted, stood firm, unflinching, immovable, _uncompromising_, on the rock of Justice and Liberty. “God bless the Christian gentleman and scholar, the ablest of American statesmen! God bless the noble, spotless man, Charles Sumner! is the fervent prayer of four millions of disfranchised Americans, not less than of “Yours, admiringly and sincerely, “EBENEZER D. BASSETT,[1] ISAIAH C. WEAR, NATHANIEL W. DEPEE.” Parker Pillsbury, the devoted Abolitionist, wrote at once from the office of the _Antislavery Standard_, in New York:-- “No need of many words to-day. Your openings yesterday were sublime,--a genuine Apocalypse! God grant it be but the key-note to the grandest oratorio ever performed by less than the morning stars and all the sons of God shouting together!” Rev. Joshua Leavitt, an editor of the New York _Independent_, and a constant Abolitionist of great practical sense, wrote from New York:-- “We look to you to forbear when necessary, and to dare when the time is right.” William Lloyd Garrison, an honored leader in the long warfare with Slavery, who had just returned from a lecture tour in the West as far as the Mississippi, wrote from Boston:-- “I have found but one opinion, whether the test was made publicly or privately, in regard to that _questio vexata_, Reconstruction,--and that is, that not one of the revolted States should be admitted into the Union without being put under a longer probation.… Thanks for your prompt action and untiring vigilance in this matter, in the series of resolutions presented by you to the Senate.” William E. Walker wrote from Trenton, New Jersey:--