C. Edwards Lester, Life and public services of Charles Sumner: Born Jan. 6, 1811. Died March 11, 1874.

There were some millions of copies of this speech circulated through America and in Europe by the journals, and in multiplied editions in large pamphlet form, both at home and abroad, to the extent of several hundred thousand copies. In his preface to the English edition of ‘Uncle Tom's Cabin,’ Lord Carlisle associated Mr. Sumner's speech with that work, speaking of ‘the closeness of its logic, and the masculine vigor of its eloquence.’ In a letter to the London Times, Lord Shaftesbury exclaimed, ‘What noble eloquence!’ And the distinguished phrenologist, Mr. Combe, in a letter to a celebrated American, which was soon afterwards published, remarked:—‘I have read every word of this speech, with pleasure and with pain. The pain arose from the subject—the pleasure from sympathy with, and admiration of, the speaker. I have long desired to know the merits of that most cruel and iniquitous enactment, and this speech has made them clear as day.’

The effect of this speech, great as it evidently was at the time, was far greater than could then possibly be conceived. Wherever it was read, it set people to thinking: its appeals to the judgment and reason of citizens could not be resisted: it insensibly colored the thoughts of every thinking man: it gave a new, fresh, and irreversible interpretation of the letter of the Constitution; while it breathed all through its flaming utterances the very soul of the liberty achieved by our fathers. After its delivery, the Free-Soil party was looked upon as the national party. The allegations of sectionalism lost their force: it was slavery that was