A. B. Johnson, of the Treasury Department, wrote from Washington:—
“I thank you from my heart for that noble speech at Worcester. That trumpet gave forth no uncertain sound. Hints have come up from the West, and intimations, vague, undetermined, from the East, before; but it has been left for you to define, announce, and defend a logical policy, and you have accomplished your task.”
H. Catlin, editor of the True American, wrote from Erie, Pennsylvania:—
“How lamentable that we should make Human Slavery the one sacred thing under the heavens! Everything else must give way,—every other property may be confiscated, every other right suspended,—but Slavery cannot be touched! Our Proslavery education is costing a great deal,—it threatens to cost us our country! Thanks that Senator Sumner so fully appreciates the real issue of the hour, and that, though a Senator, he proclaims it manfully and boldly! The masses of the people are with you.”
A. T. Goodman wrote from Cleveland:—
“Your speech of October 1st is before me, and I have read and read it through and through again, no less than three times. There is something about your speeches that has endeared your name to me, and something in their tone and in their teachings that tells me they are right in their meaning, and right in every point, and are very true.”
Thus, from correspondence, as also from the press, it appears that Mr. Sumner was not alone. Others were glowing in the same cause, and their number increased daily. But the great salvation was postponed. Almost a full year was allowed to elapse before the Proclamation of Emancipation. And what a year, whether for those in the tented field and Rebel prisons, or those others waiting, longing, struggling for Union and Peace through Liberty! Nobody could espouse such a cause, and feel that its triumph was essential to save the country from prolonged bloodshed, without effort and anxiety corresponding in some measure to the transcendent interests involved.
From this time forward Mr. Sumner never missed an opportunity of urging Emancipation, whether in addresses before the people and in the Senate, or in direct personal appeal to the President. In the last he was constant, rarely seeing the President without in some way presenting the all-absorbing question. These volumes will show the continuity of his public efforts.