in the matter, would be prepared to say that they wished slavery to be
utterly extinguished. [Loud cheers.]

PROFESSOR STOWE then rose, and was greeted with loud cheers. He begged
to read the following note from Mrs. Stowe, in acknowledgment of the
honor:--

"I accept these congratulations and honors, and this offering, which it
has pleased Scotland to bestow on me, not for any thing which I have
said or done, not as in any sense acknowledging that they are or can be
deserved, but with heartfelt, humble gratitude to God, as tokens of
mercy to a cause most sacred and most oppressed. In the name of a people
despised and rejected of men--in the name of men of sorrows acquainted
with grief, from whom the faces of all the great and powerful of the
earth have been hid--in the name of oppressed and suffering humanity, I
thank you. The offering given is the dearer to me, and the more hopeful,
that it is literally the penny offering, given by thousands on
thousands, a penny at a time. When, in travelling through your country,
aged men and women have met me with such fervent blessings, little
children gathered round me with such loving eyes--when honest hands,
hard with toil, have been stretched forth with such hearty welcome--when
I have seen how really it has come from the depths of the hearts of the
common people, and know, as I truly do, what prayers are going up with
it from the humblest homes of Scotland, I am encouraged. I believe it is
God who inspires this feeling, and I believe God never inspired it in
vain. I feel an assurance that the Lord hath looked down from heaven to
hear the groaning of the prisoner, and according to the greatness of his
power, to loose those that are appointed to die. In the human view,
nothing can be more hopeless than this cause; all the wealth, and all
the power, and all the worldly influence is against it. But here in