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Those words I am sure cannot be lost; they are words which the young minds among us at least “will not willingly let die.”
my best thanks also are due for your speech at the Whig State convention,1 which I had before read with delight.
I hope that party will understand and appreciate, as they ought, your eloquent admonition to rally round the principles of humanity, freedom, and right, as a standard compared with which all other things shall be held poor and subordinate. . . . Your appeal to the great Senator of Massachusetts gave me a thrill of delight.
Would God he could feel it as he ought!
Rev. N. L. Frothingham wrote May 14, 1847:—
You will not think me, I .hope, transgressing the bounds of a proper reserve if I say that I enjoy everything you write, for its generous spirit, its deep love of humanity, its learned research, and its splendid diction.
Rev. Leonard Woods, D. D., wrote June 17, 1847:—
Let me say, then, there are few young men who come forward into the world with a mind so active and powerful, and furnished with knowledge so extensive and so various, as the mind which you possess; and there are fewer young men still who with such a mind unite the various social and moral qualities which constitute anything like a character of complete excellence.
At this day, especially in a public sphere of action, there are so many adverse influences at work that the formation of such a character is difficult and rare.
My sincere and devout wish is that the son of my beloved classmate may attain to such a character in the highest degree; that he may be adorned with every virtue; that he may rise to eminence in reputation, in goodness, and in usefulness.
In a later letter, dated July 10, in which he approves
Sumner's efforts for peace,
Dr. Woods enjoins his young friend ‘to peruse and re-peruse the best works on ethics and theology,’—as those of
Bishop Butler, Robert Hall, and
Robert Boyle.
Joshua R. Giddings in his first letter to
Sumner, Dec. 13, 1846, wrote of the
Phi Beta Kappa oration:—
I feel constrained to express to you my thanks for that able production.
It is calculated to make men better, to raise the standard of virtue, and to excite an exalted love of virtue.
The approval of your own conscience, the respect of good men, and the blessings of Heaven will reward such efforts.
William H. Seward wrote Dec. 16, 1846 (his first letter to
Sumner), of the same oration and the speech at the Whig convention,—
They have been read with care; and I beg to assure you that I have been surprised, delighted, and instructed, especially by your glowing eulogium on Pickering, Story, Allston, and Channing.
The principles and sentiments
