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contemplation of negroes in bondage.
1 Sumner, in sending a daguerreotype of one of the children to
Boston, suggested that it be exhibited, as an illustration of slavery, among members of the Legislature, where bills for the protection of personal liberty were pending.
He wrote: ‘Let a hard-hearted Hunker look at it and be softened!
Such is slavery!
There it is Should such things be allowed to continue in
Washington, under the shadow of the
Capitol?’
Mr. Andrew wrote, March 10:
After all the negotiation with the two contending parties in their behalf, and all the anxieties, disappointments, and delays of two or three years of effort, with the husband and father constantly calling on me, and relying on my encouragement and aid in raising his funds, keeping up his hopes, and looking out for the protection of his family in any way I could, you may be assured that I contemplated the happy and complete establishment of this poor family restored to each other, not now as slaves, but in full freedom and peace, with more thankfulness than I can tell.
For all your constant kindness to them while in Washington, and your attention and aid to me, I need not say that I am heartily grateful.
In January, 1855,
Sumner was made an honorary member of the
Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics' Association.
The election was one of the indications of the gradual change of public sentiment.
A friend,
A. G. Browne, wrote:—
My belief is that one short year since, had your name been proposed, so strong were the prejudices against you, that I fear you could not have been voted in. The fear of such a result deterred me from proposing your name.
Lydia Maria Child wrote, February 12, with thanks for flowerseeds which had come by post, and added:—
But far above all things do I thank you for the true nobility of talent and character which you manifest in your public career.
You once wrote to me that my writings had done somewhat to interest you on the subject of slavery.
I lay that up as a precious reward for my efforts.
Wentworth Higginson says the same.
In desponding states of mind, when my writings seem to me so very imperfect, and all the efforts of my life so miserably fragmentary, a pleasant voice sings in the inner chamber of my soul, ‘But you have not lived in vain; Charles Sumner and Wentworth Higginson are working gloriously for humanity, each in his own way, and they both say you have done something to urge them onward.’
As soon as
Sumner arrived home from
Washington, at the close of the session in March, 1855, he began the preparation
