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they thought in such a presence.
I rejoice that in you, sir, the city of Boston, and still more the cause of humanity, had an advocate and an orator so superior to all temporizing motives.
In the same spirit
Rev. Samuel J. May wrote from
Syracuse, N. Y., July 22, expressing gratitude that
Sumner, ‘according to report, had improved his opportunity so well;’ and the hope ‘that he would not be disconcerted by the expressions of displeasure from pseudo-patriots and spurious Christians.’
Mrs. Eliza Lee Follen,—widow of the German patriot,
Charles Follen, herself an American lady, devoted like her husband to the anti-slavery cause,—wrote, July 15, expressing the joy of one ‘who had watched him with a hopeful heart for many years,’ and now saw him ‘disdaining to flatter the people, and speaking to them as an honest, courageous man rebuking their sins;’ thus ‘redeeming the generous promise of his youth, and acting from the faith that “fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil.”
’
Sumner revised the manuscript of the oration, adding several notes of considerable length.
While engaged in preparing it for the printer and correcting proofs, he passed much of his time at
Cambridge, with
Felton, whose house gave ready access to the
College library, and who assisted in verifying the classical references.
The latter wrote playfully to
Longfellow:—
‘You have no idea what an arsenal of peace my house has become; Lives of
William Penn, sermons on war, tracts of the American Peace Society, journals, anti-every thing, Scriptural arguments, estimates of the cost of navies and armies, besides a great many smaller arms,—the pistols, hand-grenades, cutlasses, and so forth of the
Peace Establishment,—are arranged in every part of the house, upstairs, downstairs, in the attics and in the cellars;’ to which
Sumner added a postscript, that
Felton had a
vivid imagination and great play of style.
The first city edition was published, August 9.
1 The newspapers of the country widely copied extracts from the oration, often filling one or two columns.
The mercantile and conservative
