Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1849-09-15
From the Cleveland True Democrat.
True Greatness.

A new spirit has %ariseni and unless we mis-
take it, a new measurement Of true greatness
Will be made by the People.
n1tretoiore' and now to a great extent, the
polllical heroes of the age have been parli-
sans, ana nave spoken, on a large scale, very
much as actors do in the theatre. They wear
The buskin on The forum. Around them par-
tlsans and opponents are gathered, and hur.
ran and hiss go up to stimulate or condemn.
he consequence is, that political leaders
Statesman, are nearly all overrated, not only as
to the positive power they possess, but as to
the positive good they do.
lhInk' reader, for one moment of the hun
dreds oil famous great ones you know, or re-
member, and tell us of one great deed-one
real benehcent act they have done. Excep-
tons, glorious and great, exist. But The
many, The mass of Statesmen, have been
dead lnstrumenis-passive tools of Party or
neutrality-suspicious. Of Government when
out OF Office, and defenders of it when in.
Do we speak too stronglyl Take, then, by
way OF Illustration, the age when CHATHAM
hgured-or later, when PITT. and BURKE,
and Fox, and that Industrious galaxy " of
mental power fOurished in England, and ask,
in all their lives, and with all their influence,
what one act they did, at all calculated 10 up.
hold human liberty-what one policy they
created, or followed, at all tending to advance
Humanity. A little enlargement of Liberty
OF Speech, and a favorable change in the
Law of Libel, are all that can be named!
Yet school-boy and maiden, poet and schol-
ar, sing their praises and sweep forth their
names, as if they were the hallowed of earth!
Nay, he who doubts their claims, or denies
their superiority, will be heralded forth, most
likely, as a foolish sneerer or captions fault
finder. But why should one rule be applied
to The individual man, and another TO the false
Statesman? IL the citizen of wealth and
power be chilled by %avarice, and crushed by
a h~earlless selhshness-will he, while living,
feel the love of society, or when dead, com
mand It's respect No display in the one
case-no rich cenotaph in the other-nah
make men thus false to themselves and their
God. The world must be better for a man
having lived in it, or else the world will not
hurTah for him when alive, or cherish him
when dead. So should it be with Statesmen,
and he is alike untrue TO Duty and Right who
would Judge them by any other rule.
The truth is, there is nothing creaiire-
nothing Notwithstanding great-in the
character Of the masses Of Statesmen, living
OF dead. The doors of good have been, as
they are, outside Of The Forum, and The Leg
~islative Hall. The creators of Social Reform
are the unknown and untitled. 1t was a peas
ant heart and arm, in Judea, heaven born,
that struck first a, wrong and sin, and it has
been peasant hearts and arms ever since, that
have been the true workers for man. Name,
if you can, reader, the leaders or Statesmen
of any nation who have Tisked popularity or
place for Right. Mention, if you are able, a
large party, in all political history, that has
forgotten success, and nodden nnder-foot the
very thought of spoil, as it labored earnestly.
feaTlessly, for man. They have yielded, only,
when they could not help yielding. They
have granted justice, when justice could be