Volume 12 — THE LATE RICHARD COBDEN.

Letter to Mrs. Cobden, covering Resolutions of the Republican State Convention of Massachusetts, October 5, 1865.

The letter of Mr. Sumner first appeared in the London papers.

Boston, October 5, 1865.

MY DEAR MADAM,—I have been charged by the State Convention of the Republicans of Massachusetts, over which I had the honor of presiding, to communicate to you resolutions unanimously adopted by them, expressing their grateful regard for the memory of your late husband, and their sympathy in your bereavement.[256]

Knowing Mr. Cobden personally, as I did for many years, and corresponding with him on public questions, I confess a sense of personal loss beyond even that of my fellow-citizens. He was the good friend of my country, and he was my own private friend. Therefore, in making this communication, I desire to express my own individual grief.

His lamented death has caused a chasm not only in his own home and country, but here in the United States. We all miss him and mourn him. He was a wise and good man. An Englishman by birth, his heart and all his faculties were given to mankind, knowing well that the welfare and true glory of his own great country were best assured by such a dedication.

Hoping that you may be consoled in your sorrow, and that your children may be blessed in life, I ask you to accept the respect with which I have the honor to be, dear Madam,

Your very faithful servant,

Charles Sumner.

The following reply was received from Mrs. Cobden.

Dunford, Midhurst, December 27, 1865.

My dear Mr. Sumner,—On behalf of myself and my children, I beg most kindly to thank you, and the members of the Republican State Convention of Massachusetts, for the resolutions, passed by them, of sympathy with us in our terrible bereavement.

These resolutions are rendered more valuable by the letter from yourself which accompanies them.

The expressions of sympathy and condolence which have reached us from public bodies and private individuals, in your and other countries, have been deeply grateful to my stricken heart; for they assure me of the wide-spread appreciation of the efforts of my beloved husband to promote the cause of international prosperity and peace.

From America they are especially grateful; for his sympathy with the cause of liberty to the slave was undoubted and intense. And it was on his way to Parliament, to speak on the Canadian question in its relation to the American Union, that he contracted the illness which ended his dear and noble life.

Pray accept the kindest remembrances of myself and children, and believe me to remain,

My dear Mr. Sumner,

Yours very sincerely,

C. A. Cobden.