In him, in fact, this
creed seems to have been something more than a doctrine imbibed
from teachers, or a result of education. To him it was a
grand intuitive truth, inscribed in blazing letters upon the
tablet of his inner consciousness, to deny which would have
been for him to deny that he himself existed. And along with
the all-controlling love of freedom he possessed a moral sensibility
keenly intense and vivid, a conscientiousness which would
never permit him to swerve by the breadth of a hair from what
he pictured to himself as the path of duty. Thus were combined
in him the characteristics which have in all ages given to
religion her martyrs, and to patriotism her self-sacrificing
heroes."
After speaking of the kindness of Mr. Sumner to the South,
and his spirit of magnanimity, he added:
"It was my misfortune, perhaps my fault, personally never
to have known this eminent philanthropist and statesman.
The impulse was often strong upon me to go to him and offer
him my hand, and my heart with it, and to express to him my
thanks for his kind and considerate course toward the people
with whom I am identified.
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