The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1843-08-17

f the Eruption of a foreign foe, making an
5 ally of the slave, and guarantying him
4 his freedom as a consideration of his arm.
ed assistance, nor by the outbreak of in.
r surrection, attended with confagration,
rapine and slaughter, but by the force Of
moral and religious sentiment, melting
the hearts of the men and women of Eng
land, and so melting withal the slave'schain.
A great moral victory-a grand triumph
of the Gospel of Peace. How much the
more glorious that it was the result of a
free impulse-that it was bloodless.
Yet it must not be supposed that the
public opinion, which impelled to the abo.
lition of slavery in the British West In
dies, was a thing of sudden and spontane-
Gus growth. Doubtless the ordinary spread
of the influences Of Christianity in Eng.
land did much towards the growth of this
opinion, and this rather by a genial prep
aration of the public conscience for the
reception and nurture of the good seed of
anti-slavery truth sown therein. But it
was only by specific efforts to this end, by
setting before the people of England the
horrible cruelties, the fragrant ~iniquities
of the system, its deep stain upon. their
national honor, and its burning disgrace
TO the Christian name. that the sympathies
of all England became aroused as the
sympathies of one man, and her great
heart beat as with a single impulse, that
the slave should be free. DO you ask,
what Prince of the blood or noble Duke,
Archbishop or Bishop, or other titled dig
nltary it was who first set this ball in
motion? Nay, it was none such, but a
few simple minded and right feeling men,
"men of one idea." and a few "silly
women" who thought they tasted a bitter
ness in the sugar that was wet by a slaves
tears. They began preaching and pray
ing and petitioning Parliament. and SO
they hid their little leaven in the meas.
ure of meal until it leavened The whole
lump.
The name Of the reformers of mankind
is not Legion. They are men of zone
idea" but that idea a grea, one. A mind
capable of apprehending a truth, a heart
ready TO receive it, and courage to an
nounce and maintain it, constitute the
compound lever w~herewith TO move the |
moral world. But titles, dignities, honors,
public consideration, are apt TO render the
mind dull to apprehend the beauties of a
radical and revolutionary truth, TO make
the heart selfish and exclusive, too careful
of its own quiet to receive it, and to en-
feeble the soul to a cowardly shrinking
from the scott, the sneer the bitter iibe,
or the half pity which ever meet the re-
former. Look not among such for the
reformer - not among mere politicians,
pensioned or s%alaried men, those in church
or stale whose honors or whose livings
depend upon the maintenance of existing
parties or organizations--"the fat, sleek
headed men, and such as sleep O. nights"
These are the dead fish which swim nice
ly down stream, but the current is never
rufled by their motion. What "pestilent
fellows" in their day were Peter and
Paul, and Luther, and stout old John
Knox, and George Fox who went about
the land testifying against "steeple hous-
es;" and, in more modern times. Clark
son, Wilberforce, Elizabeth Heyrick,
Garrison. And yet each one of these
has lighted in his generation a beacon,
which will burn and glow forever. W.
do well not TO "despise tho day of small
things" Doubtless the enquiry was often
made Of the original abolitionists Of Eng
land, ~ the sneering tone oft isno stranger
to the ears of the American abolitionist,)
i" Where now with your Quixotic philan-
thropy? What are you going to do 3"
Little does such querist appreciate the
power Of truth, faithfully portrayed, to
arouse the public mind, and the power of
that aroused mind to reform and renovate
the Institutions of society for the way
lies open to that people, who are conscious
of the evil that Expresses them, and have
right good will TO free themselves from it.
Let him who doubts this turn his eye to
the anti-slavery movement in England