Rev. A. P. Marvin wrote from Winchendon, Massachusetts:—
“I have just risen from reading in the telegraphic despatch of the noble stand made by you in the Senate last night, by which the admission of Louisiana is staved off for the present. I have often fervently thanked God that you were in your present position, and enabled to do so much to prevent evil and accomplish good,—but never more earnestly than now. I know it must be hard to withstand so many of the supporters of the Administration, but the battle must be fought on the very question involved in this measure. It will not only be wicked and infamous, but suicidal, for us to let the greater part of the rank and file of the Rebels come back and be voters, while we exclude our colored countrymen. I hope strength will be given to you, according to your day; as to your zeal, courage, ability, and prudence, nothing is wanting.”
Rev. George C. Beckwith, Secretary of the American Peace Society, wrote from Boston:—
“I have just been reading, with my wife, some account of your course on the Louisiana question; and we can’t help sending you our thanks for your persistent efforts to avert the very possible evils likely to come from a wrong decision in this case. God grant you success in preventing here a precedent that may lead to irretrievable mischief!”
Rev. George B. Cheever, the constant Abolitionist, wrote from New York:—
“Permit me the pleasure of congratulating you on the firm and noble stand you are maintaining in the Senate for the rights of loyal men in Louisiana, irrespective of color, and for the prerogative of Congress, as well as its obligation, to settle the government of that State as a republican government. Your efforts are so much the more admirable and important as they are opposed by mistaken Senators, such as Trumbull and Doolittle, and by some of our editors, as of the Times. The heart of the country goes with you, not with your opponents. It would be a terrible disaster to have the precedent set of a State readmitted to the Union with the sacrifice of the rights of the blacks. Your resolutions of Saturday, as well as the amendment you proposed, were admirable. The victory will be worth everything, if you can carry something of that kind.”
A. P. Hayden wrote from New York:—
“I cannot let this opportunity pass of thanking you for the manner in which you have stood by the colored people of Louisiana,—almost the only out-and-out Loyalists of that State. I agree with you that any settlement of the question that will not put the ballot into their hands will create mischief that will take a long time to remedy. When I read in this morning’s Tribune of the vote to postpone the Louisiana matter until December, I felt as if a great moral as well as political battle had been won by our side.”
Dr. J. B. Smith, giving expression to the feelings of colored citizens in a letter from Boston, said:—