Wendell Phillips, passing the summer in Natick, wrote:—
‘Finding that the “Post” is aggressive, and the “respectable Daily” 1 fearful, I know you did well; and I thank you for the good word you've spoken, though I've not seen nor heard it. Doubtless, it was right-aimed and hit the mark, since the birds flutter. How did the old ‘gray fathers’ look at hearing the first time since our fathers' days a word up to the times? Startled? I dare say. Thanks for having at last redeemed our city oration from being, as usual, a farce!’
George C. Beckwith wrote, July 5, from the office of the American Peace Society in Cornhill Street, referring to the criticisms and misrepresentations of his ‘eloquent and noble oration,’ in the Boston newspapers, and desiring to print an edition, of which a thousand copies were to be sent to editors whose names were on the Society's list.
S. E. Coues, the President of the Society, wrote from Portsmouth, N. H., July 9, warmly congratulating Sumner on ‘the full and triumphant success of the oration which had been reported from various sources,’—‘its strength and eloquence taking captive the audience,’ although ‘encountering deep and long-seated prejudices, and delivered before the military;’ mentioning the eagerness with which the newspaper reports were read in his town, and urging the immediate publication of a large edition, to be circulated in this country and in Europe.
Rev. John Pierpont,—preacher, poet, and always an aggressive reformer,—wrote from Niagara Falls, July 17:—
Permit me to congratulate you upon your success,—if I hear aright, your great success; to congratulate you upon your opportunity; to congratulate you upon your courage. You will live to regard the Fourth of July, 1845, as the red-letter day in the calendar of your life. Don't be disquieted at the jeers, or discouraged at the dark looks, or pushed out of your high-way by the cold shoulders that you may encounter.
Rev. John T. Sargent wrote, July 10, regretting that he was obliged to be absent from the city, so as not to hear ‘your celebrated oration, of which the wisest speak so well;’ and hoping for an immediate edition of his ‘eloquent and bold address, delivered too in the face of an armed audience.’ He added:—
The men are few, allow me to say,—the men are few, even of those who avow the most earnest sympathy with the great matters touched upon by it, who could stand up and say boldly and without flinching just what
