Letters of Lydia Maria Child, with a biographical introduction by John G. Whittier and an appendix by Wendell Phillips.

LETTERS. 207
Still great and good in every change,
Magtnificent and mild,
As if a seraph's godlike power
Dwelt in a little child.
TO CHARLES SUMNER.
WAYLAND, 1870.
DEAR AND HONORED MR. SUMNER, - If I were to
write to you every time the spirit moves me to thank
you for some good thing you have done, you would
have a very voluminous correspondence. I lay the
flattering unction to my soul that I am a very enlightened statesman, and my reasons for forming
such a high opinion of myself are, that whenever I
arrive at conclusions on any subjects which have occupied my mind, you are always sure to indorse my
views. Many a time, after reading your speeches or
debates aloud, I have exclaimed, " There it is again!
You see Mr. Sumner says just what I have been hoping and expecting he would say." I differ from you
often enough, however, to prove that my soul is my
own.
In your speech you say, "The oppressiveness of a
tax is not to be measured by the insensibility of the
people on whose shoulders it is laid. It is a curiosity
of depotism that the people are too often unconscious
of their slavery, as they are also unconscious of bad
laws. A wise and just government measures its duties, not by what the people will bear without a murmur, but by what is most for their welfare."
My dear Mr. Sumner, is not the same remark applicable to the assertion that the elective franchise
ought not to be bestowed on women until the major.ty of them demand it? I have been often urged to