With pleasure I learn that the Governor will preside at your earliest public meeting. But this is only according to the just rule of life. Kindred to honors are duties; and the head of a Christian Commonwealth should be the head of this Christian charity, while every citizen should range in place, and our beloved Massachusetts, by the contributions, voices, and votes of her unanimous children, should become one united, compact, all-embracing Kansas Relief Society, at once an overflowing fountain of beneficence and an irresistible example to the country. For myself, I would rather a thousand times serve this cause, even in the humblest capacity, than be a Governor indifferent to its appeals.
All that can be given is needed; and whoso gives bestows upon a missionary enterprise, which, in the footsteps of Liberty, will carry peace, civilization, Christianity, the Bible, and all blessings of earth and heaven. To such a charity every person must give; if in no other way, the man who has two coats must sell one, and let Kansas have the other. But, while encouraging this effort, candor compels the confession that all your contributions will be of small account, unless a President and Congress are chosen who shall give their sympathies to Freedom rather than to Slavery. Only in this way can the rod of the oppressor be broken. A vote for such men will be a contribution to Kansas.
Present my thanks to your associates, and accept for yourself the assurance of my special gratitude for that constant devotion to human freedom by which you have been distinguished.
Ever faithfully yours,
Charles Sumner.
Dr. W. F. Channing.