“I feel constrained, though entirely unknown to you, to thank you most cordially for the intense pleasure I have enjoyed in the perusal of your great oration on the question of Universal Enfranchisement, as involved in the proposed Constitutional Amendment, looking towards universal suffrage. Its lucid didactic statements, its admirable analysis, its irresistible logic, and its glowing, brilliant eloquence, with its valuable historic instruction and its burning love of freedom and humanity, have both convinced my understanding and captivated my heart.”
Rev. Charles H. Brigham, an accomplished Unitarian clergyman, in a letter describing an exhibition at the University of Michigan, wrote from Ann Arbor:—
“But the most attractive piece on the programme, which brought the house down with the most prolonged and hearty applause, was Number Four [entitled “Charles Sumner”], in which a most glowing and animated tribute was paid to the scholarship, industry, fidelity, patriotism, love of justice, and love of man, of the Senator whom Massachusetts delights to honor. It was a delight, I assure you, to a Massachusetts man, and a friend of yours, to hear, out here in the West, among these ‘Fogies’ and ‘Copperheads,’ such noble words about the old Bay State and her representative man, and to hear the response to them from the great audience.”
Hon. Charles V. Dyer, a Judge under the final treaty with England against the Slave Trade, wrote from Chicago:—
“I am greatly your debtor for your two speeches, in a form for preservation and re-perusal, and any word of mine in regard to their ability or patriotism is quite needless. But I will say that the courage that can face cold looks of friends, cruel animadversions of one’s own party press, and, what is easier, the unceasing abuse and bullyism of the enemies of all good, is so rare that it commands my admiration.”
Jesse W. Fell wrote from Normal, Illinois:—
“I have just finished reading your late speech on Reconstruction, and I cannot forbear dropping you a line to say how much I have been gratified by its perusal. I will not characterize it as under different circumstances I should be tempted to. Suffice it to say, in my poor judgment it is the noblest, ablest effort of your life, and is just the document to send broadcast over the land.”
James H. Alderman wrote from Jacksonville, Illinois:—
“A thousand thanks for your incomparable speech, expounding and defining the true theory of a republican government. Yes, I say a thousand thanks. I have always believed the Constitution was fully adequate for every exigency. Congress, therefore, must of necessity guaranty to every State a republican form of government.”