My address was called "The Conspiracy--Its Purpose and Power," and as
far as I know, it was the first time that emancipation was demanded
publicly, as a means of ending the war and saving the nation. The
demand was made in a qualified form, but I renewed it in the December
following in an address that I delivered before the Emancipation
League. This address gave rise to similar or even to severer
criticisms from the same classes. They were never a majority in
Massachusetts, but they had sufficient power to impair the strength of
the state, and in 1862 under the style of the People's Party, they
endangered the election of Governor Andrew.
These criticisms made no impression upon me, for my confidence was
unbounded that emancipation was inevitable and I was willing to wait
for an improved public opinion.
I quote a portion of my remarks at Cambridge, which gave rise to
criticism in some quarters, and provoked hostility among those whose
sympathies were with the South:
"The settlers at Jamestown and Plymouth did not merely found towns or
counties or colonies, or States even; they also founded a great nation,
and upon the idea of its unity.
"Their colonial charters extended from sea to sea. Their origin, their
language, their laws, their civilization, their ideas, and now their
history, constitute us one nation.
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