“I have just read ——’s speech. He stands up to the mark well, for a politician; but we want one who believes a Man is greater than a President, and who would not lift his finger to obtain the best office in the gift of our nation, to raise this question above the political slough into its true position. Charles O’Conor, in his late speech in New York, affirmed, that, ‘if Slavery were not a wise and beneficent institution for the black as well as the white, it could not be defended.’ We want you to take up the gauntlet that he has thrown down so defiantly.”
A letter from William H. Brooks, of Cambridgeport, unconsciously harmonized with Mr. Stearns.
“Feeling that our nation is now in the very throes of her deliverance, and I trust her prompt deliverance, from bondage to her, not Thirty, but Three Hundred Thousand Tyrants, may I frankly say, that, if not inconsistent with your health and safety, which are on no consideration to be perilled, you could aid more than any single person, or score of them, in effectually accomplishing the great triumph.… The unseen forces of public opinion are gathering and forming for the great November conflict. Your long, enforced, and martyr silence will give a depth of impression and moving power and ten thousand echoes to your words beyond their accustomed might.”
Something about the menace of violence after this speech, with illustrations of its reception at the time, is postponed to an Appendix.
Kansas was not admitted as a State into the Union until January 29, 1861, after the slaveholding Senators had withdrawn to organize the Rebellion, when the bill on which the present speech was made became a law.
SPEECH.
