Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, always on the watch-tower, wrote from Brooklyn, New York:--
“Although I do not think with you on the specific change in the Amendment which you advocate, I cannot forbear expressing my thanks for your noble speech, which has the merit of rising far above the occasion and object for which it was uttered, and covering a ground which will abide after all temporary questions of special legislation have passed away.
“I wish that your oration might be in every school library in the Union. May your life be prolonged, and every year add some new jewel to the crown of fame, that, when you go to a higher sphere, men will place upon your name!”
Rev. A. P. Putnam, Unitarian clergyman, also wrote from Brooklyn, New York:--
“I bless God for the firm and lofty stand you have taken, and the people will yet see, if they do not now see, that it is the only wise and sure one for Union- and Freedom-loving men to take. Would that all loyal men, especially the great Union party, could see it to be their duty and their interest to meet boldly and grandly the issue which the President seems determined to force upon them!”
Rev. F. C. Ewer, anxious against compromise, wrote from New York:--
“I am but one of thousands whom you little think of as watching you with anxiety, and to whom your present firm position has given great cheer and comfort. Of course there are many who have always stood with you, and who must be sources of encouragement; but we are new recruits, who have had enough of ‘compromise,’ and who see no hope of permanent peace ahead except under a thorough adjusting of the Constitution to the principles of the Declaration of Independence.”
James P. Lee and fourteen others united in a letter from Herkimer, New York:--
“In this centre of the Empire State there are not a few who would express their thanks to you personally, if they could, but more especially to God, our Heavenly Father, for having endowed you, as Joshua of old, with the determination to lead His oppressed people to the promised land, ‘a land flowing with milk and honey’ (not with disgrace), after their Moses had been taken from them.”
F. Hawley wrote with much feeling, from Cazenovia, New York:--