Hon. J. Q. A. Griffin, the lawyer and earnest Republican, too early removed from life, wrote from Charlestown:—
“I must thank you for the great gratification I felt in the perusal of your great speech. Twice I have read the whole of it, and many times more various parts. It is small praise to say, what is here on all lips, that it evinces marvellous scholarship, and embraces a sternly logical statement of the whole question between Freedom and Slavery. Its amazing courage and justice will commend it yet more to the thinking men of this and all other countries.”
George Baty Blake, the banker, wrote from Boston:—
“Its unanswerable arguments will stand forever as monuments of manly effort in behalf of an oppressed race,—defending principles, too, which ought to be approved by every Christian man.”
A practical Republican, very active in the party, wrote from Boston:—
“I have read your splendid speech, and find that I cannot express in words or with pen my admiration of it. It is one of your efforts, the results of which will undoubtedly place our great party one more pace onward, as in every case of the past you have done. In my opinion it was needed at this time; and as I have been something of a prophet in days past, perhaps my sanction may give you courage.”
A considerable number of constituents at Boston, among whom were James Redpath, Richard J. Hinton, and Loring Moody, friends of Kansas, and Abolitionists, forwarded the following address, signed by them:—
“Jointly and severally, as men and as citizens, we say, God bless you, Charles Sumner! Thank God for one man whom no Barbarism frightens, whom no pusillanimous policy deters from uttering the truth! Thank Heaven that in our modern Sodom one just man and fearless was found, who, in the face of despots, has dared to plead the cause of their victims, and to brand their tyranny with the titles it has won!
“Go on,—with God, and the slave, and all good men applauding you. Victory is inevitable, and near at hand.