The homage paid you, dear sir, is sincere, for it has its sources in the just sentiments and irrepressible affections of a free people, their love of truth, their admiration of wisdom, their reverence for virtue, and their gratitude for beneficence.
Seward reflects on the genuine respect and admiration a leader receives from the public.
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The recital of heroic actions loses its chief value, if we cannot discover the principles in which they were born.
Stoicism, that had no charity for error, never converted any human society to virtue; Christianity, that remembers the true nature of man, has encompassed a large portion of the globe.
The perils of the enterprize are already passed--its difficulties have already been removed--when it shall have been accomplished it will be justly regarded as the last noble effort which rendered the Republic imperishable.
For the rest, the work of emancipation abides the action, whether it be slow or fast, of the moral sense of the American people.
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