The speech strengthened Sumner’s political hand as he positioned himself, rather than Seward, as the nation’s most astute foreign policy thinker. “I heard Sumner’s speech. It is the best thing for his popularity,” Richard Dana wrote to Charles Francis Adams Sr. “It was the first opportunity he has had to speak without offending half the nation.” Lincoln no doubt appreciated Sumner’s public support; Seward probably didn’t. Centrists were impressed that Sumner could act so reasonably. “I have considered Mr. Sumner a doctrinaire,” one foreign diplomat confessed. “Henceforth I recognize him as a
...more
