“We have republished your speech.… I have the honor to hail from Mr. Chesnut’s State, but am extremely sorry to be obliged to disagree with him, and to be obliged to indorse the reasoning of your speech, notwithstanding, or, in fact, in consequence of, my having been a planter in South Carolina for years.… It may not be for me to eulogize you and your speeches; but that you have created an enthusiasm and opened the door for free talk on the subject of Slavery no one will deny, and the effect has already been electric.”From the press, and from correspondence, it is plain, that, whatever the efforts or desires of politicians, the question of Slavery had reached a crisis. Nothing touched the universal heart so strongly, and the interest extended abroad. For years the South had been growing passionate for this Barbarism, and determined on its extension. It now appeared that in the North there was a passion the other way. The Presidential election turned on Slavery, and nothing else. The precise point in issue was its limitation by preventing its spread into the Territories; but this issue, even in its moderate form, involved the whole character of Slavery, and the supremacy of the Slave Power in the National Government.The speeches during the canvass were on this issue. Politicians were swept into the irresistible current. This appeared in the pressure uponMr. Sumner to speak. At the close of the session of Congress, only a brief period after his exposure of the Barbarism of Slavery, on the invitation of the Young Men’s Republican Union of New York, he delivered an address at Cooper Institute, on “The Origin, Necessity, and Permanence of the Republican Party,” where he presented anew the argument against Slavery. This was followed by urgent requests to speak in other places. Hon. Hannibal Hamlin, the Republican candidate for Vice-President, wrote from Maine: “We want you much, very much.… Will you come? Don’t say, No.” Hon. William P. Fessenden, learning that he was coming, wrote: “The news has rejoiced all our hearts.” Hon. Neal Dow urged: “You may sayallthat is in your heart, relyingfullyupon the entire sympathy of the people.” And John A. Andrew, who was visiting there, reported: “Your name will draw like a thousand elephants.” There were other States where there was similar urgency. A private letter from Thurlow Weed, at Albany, hoping it would be in Mr. Sumner’s power to visit New York, was followed by a formal letter from the New York State Republican Central Committee, pressing him to address the electors of this State, and saying: “The Committee are very urgent in this request, and hope you will consent to speak for us as much as possible”; and this was followed by a special appeal from Simeon Draper, Chairman of the State Committee. A similar call, with the same urgency, came from Illinois,—and here the agents were Hon. Elihu B. Washburne, of the Republican Congressional Committee at Washington, and Hon. N. B. Judd, Chairman of the Illinois Republican State Committee. In pressing the invitation, the latter said: “We can promise you such welcome as Western Republicans can give to laborers in the cause of Freedom”; and then again, in another letter: “The people expect you, and know that no personal motive or interest induces you to come,—only a deep conviction of the necessity for the election of Mr. Lincoln, and the triumph of the principles of which he is the representative.” Another ardent Republican wrote from Chicago: “A glorious reception is awaiting you.”During the canvass, Mr. Sumner spoke several times in Massachusetts, treating different heads of the Great Question, as will appear in the course of this volume; but after his address at New York, he did not speak out of his own State. The appeals from other States attest that his method was not discarded by the people. As the Rebellion began to show itself, the Barbarism of Slavery was more and more recognized.
“We have republished your speech.… I have the honor to hail from Mr. Chesnut’s State, but am extremely sorry to be obliged to disagree with him, and to be obliged to indorse the reasoning of your speech, notwithstanding, or, in fact, in consequence of, my having been a planter in South Carolina for years.… It may not be for me to eulogize you and your speeches; but that you have created an enthusiasm and opened the door for free talk on the subject of Slavery no one will deny, and the effect has already been electric.”
“We have republished your speech.… I have the honor to hail from Mr. Chesnut’s State, but am extremely sorry to be obliged to disagree with him, and to be obliged to indorse the reasoning of your speech, notwithstanding, or, in fact, in consequence of, my having been a planter in South Carolina for years.… It may not be for me to eulogize you and your speeches; but that you have created an enthusiasm and opened the door for free talk on the subject of Slavery no one will deny, and the effect has already been electric.”
From the press, and from correspondence, it is plain, that, whatever the efforts or desires of politicians, the question of Slavery had reached a crisis. Nothing touched the universal heart so strongly, and the interest extended abroad. For years the South had been growing passionate for this Barbarism, and determined on its extension. It now appeared that in the North there was a passion the other way. The Presidential election turned on Slavery, and nothing else. The precise point in issue was its limitation by preventing its spread into the Territories; but this issue, even in its moderate form, involved the whole character of Slavery, and the supremacy of the Slave Power in the National Government.
The speeches during the canvass were on this issue. Politicians were swept into the irresistible current. This appeared in the pressure uponMr. Sumner to speak. At the close of the session of Congress, only a brief period after his exposure of the Barbarism of Slavery, on the invitation of the Young Men’s Republican Union of New York, he delivered an address at Cooper Institute, on “The Origin, Necessity, and Permanence of the Republican Party,” where he presented anew the argument against Slavery. This was followed by urgent requests to speak in other places. Hon. Hannibal Hamlin, the Republican candidate for Vice-President, wrote from Maine: “We want you much, very much.… Will you come? Don’t say, No.” Hon. William P. Fessenden, learning that he was coming, wrote: “The news has rejoiced all our hearts.” Hon. Neal Dow urged: “You may sayallthat is in your heart, relyingfullyupon the entire sympathy of the people.” And John A. Andrew, who was visiting there, reported: “Your name will draw like a thousand elephants.” There were other States where there was similar urgency. A private letter from Thurlow Weed, at Albany, hoping it would be in Mr. Sumner’s power to visit New York, was followed by a formal letter from the New York State Republican Central Committee, pressing him to address the electors of this State, and saying: “The Committee are very urgent in this request, and hope you will consent to speak for us as much as possible”; and this was followed by a special appeal from Simeon Draper, Chairman of the State Committee. A similar call, with the same urgency, came from Illinois,—and here the agents were Hon. Elihu B. Washburne, of the Republican Congressional Committee at Washington, and Hon. N. B. Judd, Chairman of the Illinois Republican State Committee. In pressing the invitation, the latter said: “We can promise you such welcome as Western Republicans can give to laborers in the cause of Freedom”; and then again, in another letter: “The people expect you, and know that no personal motive or interest induces you to come,—only a deep conviction of the necessity for the election of Mr. Lincoln, and the triumph of the principles of which he is the representative.” Another ardent Republican wrote from Chicago: “A glorious reception is awaiting you.”
During the canvass, Mr. Sumner spoke several times in Massachusetts, treating different heads of the Great Question, as will appear in the course of this volume; but after his address at New York, he did not speak out of his own State. The appeals from other States attest that his method was not discarded by the people. As the Rebellion began to show itself, the Barbarism of Slavery was more and more recognized.