In conclusion, it is but justice to human nature in general and to New England in particular, to say that the poets of New England, true to a divine inspiration always honored Garrison, even in his days of deepest darkness and rebuke. Longfellow, Russell, Lowell, Whittier and Emerson, came out boldly with Anti-Slavery poems. They were the wise men, star-led, who brought to the stable and the manger of the infant cause, the gold, frankincense and myrrh. It was a great opportunity, and they had grace given them to use it, and not all the fame they had won otherwise, honors them so much as those tributes to humanity and liberty which they bestowed in the hour of her utmost need.
We will conclude this sketch by a letter from Mr. Garrison, which best shows the spirit in which he regards the result of the great conflict.
For your very appreciative and congratulatory letter on the "marvellous work of the Lord," which the Liberator marks as finished, I proffer you my heartfelt thanks, and join with you in a song of thanksgiving to Him, who, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm has set free the captive millions in our land.
"The instrumentalities which the God of the oppressed has used for the overthrow of the slave system, have been as multifarious and extraordinary as that system has been brutal and iniquitous. Every thing that has been done, whether to break the yoke or to rivet it more strongly, has been needed to bring about the great result. The very madness of the South has worked as effectively anti-slavery-wise as the most strenuous efforts of the abolitionists.
"The outlawry of all Northern men of known hostility to slavery--the numberless pro-slavery mobs and lynchings, her defiant and awful defence of the traffic in human flesh, her increasing rigor and cruelties towards the slaves, and finally her horrible treason and rebellion to secure her independence as a vast slaveholding empire, through all time, all mightily helped to defeat her impious purpose and to hasten the year of jubilee. Thus it is that
God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform; He plants his footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm.
Mr. Sumner an Instance of Free State High Culture--The "Brahmin Caste" of New England--The Sumner Ancestry; a Kentish Family --Governor Increase Sumner; His Revolutionary Patriotism--His Stately Presence; "a Governor that can Walk"--Charles Sumner's Father--Mr. Sumner's Education, Legal and Literary Studies --Tendency to Ideal Perfection--Sumner and the Whigs-- Abolitionism Social Death--Sumner's Opposition to the Mexican War--His Peace Principles--Sumner opposes Slavery Within the Constitution, as Garrison Outside of it--Anti-Slavery and the Whigs--The Political Abolitionist Platform--Webster asked in vain to Oppose Slavery--Sumner's Rebuke of Winthrop--Joins the Free Soil Party--Succeeds Webster in the Senate--Great Speech against the Fugitive Slave Law--The Constitution a Charter of Liberty--Slavery not in the Constitution--First Speech after the Brooks Assault--Consistency as to Reconstruction.
