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hostile to
Sumner were quick to copy criticisms from this quarter, but said nothing when the men were free.
Sumner wrote to
Henry Wilson, April 29:—
I notice the attack on me in the “Liberator.”
If need be, I shall show backbone in resisting the pressure even of friends.
Had I uttered a word for Drayton and Sayres in the Senate, I should have dealt a blow at them which they well understood.
At present nothing can be done for them in the Senate.
I have presented their case to the President, and am sanguine in believing that they will be pardoned.
But of this not a word at present.
Dr. Howe, rejoicing over the release of
Drayton and
Sayres, wrote:—
God bless you for your truly noble and courageous course!
Follow it up to the end, however, without caring for blessing or cursing.
Such things do my very heart good, and make me love you, if possible, more than ever.
Wendell Phillips wrote:—
I congratulate you most sincerely on the happy issue of your efforts for Drayton and Sayres.
You have earned your honors.
Sumner wrote to
John Bigelow, February 3:
I am won very much by Houston's conversation.1 With him the antislavery interest would stand better than with any man who seems now among possibilities.
He is really against slavery, and has no prejudice against Free Soilers.
In other respects he is candid, liberal, and honorable.
I have been astonished to find myself so much of his inclining.
To
Theodore Parker, February 6:—
I have yours of 25th of January proposing to me to write an article on Judge Story in the Westminster Review.
As a filial service I should be glad to do this; but how can I?
I rarely go to bed before one or two o'clock, and then I leave work undone which ought to be done.
To
John Bigelow, February 8:—
Pardon me if I say frankly you have done injustice to Story.2 I admire him as a jurist, but with a discrimination between his titles to regard for his judgments and his books.
The former I have always thought unique in variety, learning, point, usefulness, and amount.
I love his memory, but I cannot sympathize with much of his politics.
Even you will find much to praise in the accumulated expression of his Northern sentiments against doughfaces
