Charles Sumner, who heard him speak for the first
time, was struck with his "natural eloquence," and described his words
as falling "in fiery rain." Again at a mass meeting for Middlesex
County, held at Concord, to consider the aggressions of the slave-power,
did the words of the pioneer fall "in fiery rain." Apprehensive that the
performance of Massachusetts, when the emergency arose, would fall far
short of her protestations, he exclaimed, "I have nothing to say, sir,
nothing. I am tired of words, tired of hearing strong things said, where
there is no heart to carry them out. When we are prepared to state the
whole truth, and die for it, if necessary--when, like our fathers, we
are prepared to take our ground, and not shrink from it, counting not
our lives dear unto us--when we are prepared to let all earthly hopes go
back to the board--_then_ let us say so; _till_ then, the less we say
the better, in such an emergency as this. 'But who are we, will men
ask.' that talk of such things? 'Are we enough to make a revolution?'
No, sir; but we are enough to _begin_ one, and, once begun, it never can
be turned back. I am for revolution were I utterly alone. I am there
because I _must_ be there. I _must_ cleave to the right. I cannot choose
but obey the voice of God.
" ... Do not tell me of our past Union, and for how many years we have
been one. We were only one while we were ready to hunt, shoot down, and
deliver up the slave, and allow the slave-power to form an oligarchy on
the floor of Congress! The moment we say no to this, the Union
ceases--the Government falls.
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