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Mr. Seward himself wrote also from
Auburn, September 22:
Your speech is an admirable, a great, a very great one.
That is my opinion; and every one around me, of all sorts, confesses it.
The reformers were gladdened.
Burritt, toiling in
England for ‘ocean penny postage,’ ‘wept with joy and admiration while reading the magnificent speech.’
William Jay pronounced it ‘worthy of the gentleman, the lawyer, and the
Christian.’
His son John, as soon as he read the telegraphic report, wrote, ‘I regard it as a triumph both for yourself and the cause of freedom;’ and a few days later, reading the revised copy, declared it ‘a noble and unanswerable argument.’
James G. Birney, the
Liberty candidate of 1844, expressed his ‘great gratification,’ and anticipated ‘the powerful effect it would produce on the country.’
William I. Bowditch, the Abolitionist (his brother Henry, the eminent physician, writing in a similar vein), wrote:—
I have read your speech with delight and profit.
Worthy as it is of yourself, it is also worthy of the noble cause which inspired it. It abounds with new illustrations of old points, and offers many new and important facts which have not been introduced into the discussion.
The system has never received such a telling blow in any speech which I have read.
The parallel between the Stamp Act and the Fugitive Slave law, and the argument on the unconstitutionality of the latter, are unanswerable.
Theodore Parker wrote, Sept. 6, 1852:—
You have made a grand speech,—well researched, well arranged, well written, and I doubt not as well delivered.
It was worth while to go to Congress and make such a speech.
I think you never did anything better as a work of art, never anything more timely.
This so far as you are concerned will elevate you in the esteem of good men, American as well as European, as a man, an orator, and a statesman.
You have now done what I have all along said you would do, though I lamented you did not do it long ago.
Wendell Phillips, though differing on some points, wrote, September 3:—
I have read your masterly speech with envious admiration.
It is admirable, both as a masterly argument and a noble testimony, and will endear you to thousands.
Wilson called the speech ‘glorious,’ and said, ‘How proud I am that God gave me the power to aid in placing you in ’
