“The Republican Senators gave excellent attention to the speech. Some of them, who are understood to hold very moderate and conservative opinions, expressed a strong admiration of the speech. One of them called it ‘a mighty effort’; another said it was ‘the greatest speech of the age’; another said ‘it was an unanswerable refutation of the doctrines which Senators from Slave States had repeatedly advanced and debated in favor of the justice and policy of Slavery, and It was a good work.’ …
“Mr. Sumner was called upon last evening by some of the leading citizens of Kansas, some of whom are to hold official positions upon its admission, who thanked him for his speech, and assured him that their cause would rather be advanced than injured by it. Their course puts to shame the timidity of some persons who were opposed to its delivery, fearing lest it would defeat the admission of Kansas,—just as if the Proslavery Democracy, in their treatment of that question, are to be governed by any consideration except their own party interests and the demands of Slavery. It is time that the Republican party pursued its own course, without asking the counsel or permission of its adversaries.”
An occasional correspondent of the Chatauque Democrat, New York, gave a familiar sketch of the scene.
“Mr. Breckinridge remained all the time, and sat with an open book in his hands, pretending to read; but his eyes wandered from the page, and, with a frown upon his brow, he finally gazed at the speaker till he closed. Jeff Davis pretended to be reading the Globe, but it was plain to be seen by the heading of the paper that it was upside down. Wigfall seemed in torment. He listened respectfully awhile, and then glided silently around from one Senator to another, and conferred in whispers. He seemed to be hatching mischief; but the grave shake of the head of the older Senators doubtless kept this uneasy, restless desperado quiet. Hunter sat like a rock, immovable, and listened respectfully to the whole. Not a muscle moved upon his placid face to denote what was going on in his mind. Toombs heard the most of it quietly, and with as much of a don’t-care look as his evil passions would permit. Near the close, ‘Sheep’s-Gray’ Mason came in and took his seat, and commenced writing a letter. He evidently intended to show the galleries that Sumner was too small for him to notice. But he soon found a seat in a distant part of the Hall, and an easy position, where he sat gloomily scowling upon the orator till he sat down. When the speech was about half through, Keitt, the accomplice of Brooks in his attempted assassination of Mr. Sumner, came in and took a seat near Senator Hammond. For a while he sat gazing about the galleries, evidently to notice the dramatic effect of his presence upon the audience there. But few seemed to notice him. By degrees he began to pay attention to the speech.… Curry, of Alabama, and Lamar, of Mississippi, members of the other House, though Southerners of the straitest sect, could not conceal their delight at the oratory and classic and scholarly feast before them. They are scholars and orators themselves, and could appreciate an intellectual treat, though the sentiments were ever so obnoxious.
“On the Republican side breathless attention prevailed. Those who immediately surrounded the Senator were Mr. Wilson, Senator Bingham, John Hickman, Preston King, and Solomon Foot. Mr. Seward sat in his usual seat, and scarcely moved during the delivery of the great speech.”
As the speech was read, the conflict of opinion began to show itself. Democrats were all against it; Republicans were divided.
The New York Tribune, in an editorial notice, said:—
“We have said that Mr. Sumner’s was doubtless a strong and forcible speech; and yet we wish he had made it on some other bill than that providing for the admission of Kansas.”
A Boston paper, in a letter from Washington, contained the following reply to the New York Tribune.
“And speaking of Kansas, I may here say that a number of leading Kansas men have called on Mr. Sumner to assure him that the Tribune’s idea, that his speech injured the prospect of the admission of their State, never found lodgement in their minds. They thank him for it, and assure him, that, of their own knowledge, the fate of the bill was decided before he took the floor.”