The notable speeches of the second day's sessions were by Henry Ward Beecher, just returned from his English1 triumphs, Senator Wilson of Massachusetts, whom the2 Convention greeted with especial warmth for his part in abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia, and Frederick Douglass, who gave a graphic account of his recent interview with Mr. Lincoln, and paid an eloquent tribute to the President, who had won his entire respect and confidence. Mr. Beecher, who had not been wont to speak at the meetings of the Garrisonian abolitionists, said, in his brief remarks:
I am thankful for the privilege of looking on so many noble3 and revered faces, and so many young and enthusiastic persons, united together by so sacred a bond as that which unites you. I feel, not that I agree with you in everything, but that I am heart and soul with you in the main end. Toward that end we may take different paths, very likely, but when we come together at the end, we shall all be there. It is the end that crowns the beginning, rather than the beginning the end. I therefore feel that I am honored in being permitted to stand before you this morning, to utter these few words of sympathy and of greeting. Your cause is dear to you—just as dear to me. Your names, honored among yourselves, will never lack some wreaths, if I may be permitted to pluck any to place upon them. I thank God that he called you into existence. An uncanonical Church you are, a Church without ordination, but, in my judgment, a Church of the very best and most apostolic kind, held together by the cohesion of a rule of faith, and an interior principle.
