William Goodell, a prolific writer, a deep thinker, a man of great industry, and whose large eyes indicate immense language, has labored long and faithfully for justice and humanity.
John P. Hale was the first man to make a successful stand in Congress, and he did his work nobly. His free-and-easy manner, his Falstaffian fun, and Cromwellian courage, were always too much for Foote and his Southern associates in the Senate, and in every contest for freedom the New Hampshire Senator came off victorious. Mr. Hale is a large, fat, social man, fine head, pleasing countenance, possessing much pungent wit, irony, and sarcasm; able and eloquent in debate, and has always been a true friend of negro freedom and elevation.
Charles Sumner had made his mark in favor of humanity, and especially in behalf of the colored race, long before the doors of the United States Senate opened to admit him as a member. In the year 1846, he refused to lecture before a New Bedford lyceum, because colored citizens were not allowed to occupy seats in common with the whites. His lectures and speeches all had the ring of the right metal. His career in Congress has been one of unsurpassed brilliancy. His oratorical efforts in the capital of the nation equal anything ever reported from the forums of Rome or Athens. Whatever is designed to promote the welfare and happiness of the human race, Mr. Sumner has the courage to advocate and defend to the last.
In firmness, he may be said to be without a rival on the floor of the Senate, and has at times appeared a little dogged. However, his foresight and sagacity show that he is generally in the right. Mr. Sumner’s efforts in favor of reform have been ably seconded in Congress by his colleague and friend, Henry Wilson, a man of the people, and from the people. Without great educational attainments, modest in his manners, never assuming aristocratic airs, plain, blunt, yet gentlemanly, Mr. Wilson has always carried with him a tremendous influence; and his speeches exhibit great research and much practical common sense. He is a hard worker, and in that kind of industry which is needed on committees, he is doubtless unequalled. As an old-time Whig, a Free-soiler, and a Republican, Mr. Wilson has always been an Abolitionist of the most radical stripe; and in Congress, has done as much for negro emancipation, and the elevation of the blacks, as any living man.
Foremost in his own State, as well as in Congress, for many years, was that good old man, Thaddeus Stevens, an earnest friend of the poor man, whether white or black. Strong in the consciousness of being right, he never shrank from any encounter, and nobody said more in fewer words, or gave to language a sharper bite, than he. On the question of slavery, Mr. Stevens was uncompromisingly the negro’s friend and faithful advocate.
Joshua R. Giddings, next to John Quincy Adams, was the first man, we believe, that really stirred up the House of Representatives in behalf of the slave. Mr. Giddings was a man without fear, entirely devoted to the welfare of mankind; not an orator, in the accepted sense of the term, but an able debater; ready in facts and illustrations, and always to be relied upon when the Southerners attempted to encroach upon freedom. Mr. Giddings never denied, even in the earlier days of the agitation, that he was an Abolitionist.
George W. Julian, of Indiana, entered the halls of Congress as an enemy of negro slavery, and, up to the present time, stands firm to his early convictions.
Thomas Russell began life as a friend of negro emancipation, and wherever his eloquent voice was heard, it gave no uncertain sound on the subject of freedom. The Judge is a special favorite of the colored men of Boston, and richly deserves it; for, as a Collector of Customs, he has given employment to a large number of the proscribed class.
Charles W. Slack, the talented editor of “The Commonwealth,”—the outspoken friend of liberty, whose gentlemanly deportment, polished manners, and sympathetic heart extend to the negro the same cordial welcome in his office that he gives to the white man,—is an old-time Abolitionist. The colored clerk in his Revenue department is prima facie evidence that he has no prejudice against the negro. Both as a speaker and a writer, Mr. Slack did the cause of the slave great service, when it cost something to be a friend to the race.