Resolved, That Massachusetts, with all her heart and soul and mind and strength, will support the President of the United States in the prosecution of this war to the entire and final suppression of this Rebellion.Mr. Griffin replied; and, although he should vote for the resolution just read, yet he wished the position of Massachusetts to be more broadly expressed. He concluded with offering a resolution, the substance of which was, thanking Senators Sumner and Wilson for the faithful manner in which they had discharged their duties, and recommending Mr. Sumner for reelection to the Senate. Mr. Davis, of Plymouth, said that this was a war of ideas, of barbarism against civilization, involving the principles of civil liberty on one hand, and the principles of damnation on the other. He wanted an expression of opinion on the general policy of the war. ‘We haven't,’ he said, ‘a press in Boston to speak for us. There are some country papers which speak for us, but they are kept down by the subscription-lists of Boston.’ He favored the appointment of a Committee on Resolutions, which, after some further discussion, was carried; and the resolutions offered by Mr. Dana and Mr. Griffin were referred to the committee. A letter from Mr. Sumner was read, regretting his inability to accept an invitation to be present at the convention. He said he should show plainly ‘how to hamstring this Rebellion, and to conquer a peace. To this single practical purpose all theories, prepossessions, and aims should yield. So absorbing at this moment is this question, that nothing is practical which does not directly tend to its final settlement.’ We infer that Mr. Sumner's mode of hamstringing the Rebellion was to declare freedom to the slaves, and to put arms in the hands of colored soldiers. ‘All else is blood-stained vanity.’ He referred to the action of General Butler in Louisiana, in organizing a negro
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hoped they would be short, declaring a hearty support of the State and national Governments for the suppression of the Rebellion; and concluded by offering the following, which some one had handed him:—
1868. E. P. DUtton and Co. Boston,.
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