So also the correspondent of the New York Tribune:—
“Senator Sumner concluded his great effort at fifty-five minutes past two, having commenced at one. Diplomats, two Cabinet Ministers, and a much larger number of Congressmen than yesterday were on the floor, while all the galleries and approaches were densely packed with attentive listeners. As the argument of the speaker culminated, he became grandly eloquent, and his elaborate plea, which might rather be denominated an essay than a speech, for negro enfranchisement, unquestionably made a profound impression upon every intelligent listener. At its conclusion the floor and galleries broke forth in applause.”
A few days later, the correspondent of the New York Tribune, after mentioning President Johnson’s interview with the delegation of colored people headed by Frederick Douglass and George T. Downing, wrote:—
“As to Mr. Sumner’s grand vindication of the fundamental principles underlying republicanism, it is unnecessary to repeat what has been said of the immediate effect it produced upon those who listened to it,—of the overcrowded galleries, the silent attention of the Senate, the members of the House who had left their own seats and eagerly thronged the floor of the Senate Chamber.… And even now, since the sound has died away and there has been ample time for searching criticism, you can hear men who are not in the habit of following Mr. Sumner’s views of policy say with heartfelt satisfaction, it was a grand speech, worthy of the Senate, worthy of the cause it defended, worthy of this Republic. I have hardly seen a Republican here who was not as proud of it as if he had made it himself. Even Mr. Sumner’s opponents, the Democrats of the Senate and the House, yielded to it the tribute of their respect. That respect will go all over this country, and even beyond its boundaries; and while no thinking man in this Republic will take it up without feeling the irresistible weight of its logic and the ennobling power of its sentiments, it will abroad do more honor to American republicanism than any public act since the decree of Emancipation.”
The correspondent of the New Orleans Tribune wrote:—
“You will of course give to your readers the great speech of Senator Sumner. His speech is one of the best ever delivered in the Senate, and it was delivered in the greatest of causes,—that of Human Liberty. It differs from the tone so common among so-called ‘Democratic’ orators for years past, both North and South, inasmuch as it contained neither abusive, personal, nor vindictive language. But it was calm, manly, dignified,—full of the subject in hand, treating it with frankness,—alluding to the opposite view with fairness, and even respect, while showing up their errors and weaknesses as one would those of a wayward child. For historical and legal research, critical analysis, and logical argument, it is unsurpassed. Concise, pithy, full of effective and happy illustrations, it was admirably conceived and presented.”
The correspondent of the Richmond Republic, with equal appreciation, but less faith, wrote:—
“In the Senate, the day was devoted to Sumner. He began speaking about one o’clock, and concluded his exhaustive argument in an hour and forty minutes. The burden of the whole of it was the absolute political and civil equality of all men, and his peroration was a loftier flight of majestic eloquence than the Senate has heard since the best days of Clay and Webster. While very few agree with Sumner in the present practicability of his ideas, and still fewer indorse them at all as tenets of political faith, yet there is but one opinion of the speech he has been making for two days,—that, simply as a monument of laborious research and good English, it is unsurpassed. When he concluded to-night, the densely crowded galleries could not be restrained, and burst out into vehement applause; but it was a tribute to the grandly classical language in which his ideas were clothed, and not to the ideas themselves. Charles Sumner may possibly be a patriot, but he is certainly a political philanthropist, and as such there is no probability that he will live to see his tenets practically enforced in the legislation of the country.”
The correspondent of the New York Times wrote:—