“You do not need that I should thank you for your speech. I confess I considered the risk to your health and life so great that I hoped you would keep silent. But I thank God you have gone through it, for now we may rest assured your health is established. But how I dreaded the test! I rejoice especially that you have placed yourself where the next step logically is, Slavery has no rights, no recognition (except as an existing fact), and no political existence under the Constitution. Then comes the end. And you are to be the leader in that final fight.”
George L. Stearns, so faithful as Abolitionist, who did so much for the organization of colored troops during the War, wrote from Boston:—
“I cannot wait until I have finished your speech to tell you how perfectly it meets my most sanguine expectations. It is the morning star that heralds the coming day when the vile institution shall only live in the history of the Past. Your word will become the battle-cry in the coming conflict, showing that it is indeed irrepressible, and will not be put down, even when the leaders in the fight fall back in terror.”
Hon. James M. Stone, afterwards Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and a reformer, wrote from Charlestown:—
“I am delighted with your admirable speech on the ‘Barbarism of Slavery,’ and I desire to unite with the millions of the freemen of the country in tendering you thanks for this effort to arouse the attention of the people to the terrible evils of Slavery. The power of your facts and logic is unanswerable and irresistible. The speech comes just at the right time, too; for there was great danger of too much forgetfulness of the great fundamental principle of Human Freedom, without which the Republican party would never have obtained its present power and prospects for the future, and without which it will surely and speedily go to destruction.”
William I. Bowditch, the well-known conveyancer, and among the strictest of Abolitionists, wrote from Boston:—
“As to the speech, the more I think of it, the heavier I think the blow was which you have given. And I am glad to find you yourself again.”
Nathaniel I. Bowditch, author, as well as eminent conveyancer, remarkable also for goodness and moral principle, wrote from Brookline:—
“I had not the least conception of the immense differences effected by Freedom and Slavery. Your statistics were truly astonishing. Some of my visitors, friendly in the main to the Republican cause, have expressed their doubts as to the expediency of your speech,—considering that its effect must be to exasperate the slaveholders; but when I find that Bell, nominated by the Union party, actually eulogized Slavery as the corner-stone of the material prosperity of the country, I think that it is well that the true picture should be held up to their inspection, however repulsive it may be. As in some homely picture of the Dutch school, such as that of The Dentist pulling out a Tooth, the subject may be distasteful, but all must acknowledge the skill of the artist, so I think no one can deny the thoroughness of your researches or the ability with which you have presented their results. Even your opponents cannot fail to acknowledge the manly and fearless tone of your remarks.”