Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1850-07-27
elections.
SPEECH OF PARKER PILLSUURY ,
AT THE NEW ENGLAND A. S. CONVENTION.

bA lIOh VI AhhLh iAbbbbthh
AT THE NEW ENGLAND A. s. CONVENTION.
Mn. President: Boston has seen very
many great days since her history first began,
but never probably greater day than this.
1t was n great day when the first blood was
shed in State street, at the Boston Massa-
cre.' That blood was the sowing of the
dragons teeth; the harvest was the Ameri
can Revolution. II was q great day for Bos-
ton when n cargo of tea went overheard into
the harbor, in indignant defiance of the un-
Just demand of British power.
Boston bore conspicuous part in the
Revolution of 1776. / predict a no less
honorable part will be enacted by her in the
revolution of the present day, revolution
that is designed to eclipse that of 1776 with
all its brave and bloody scenes. And had
we all our ancestors love of liberty, instead
of covering ourselves with roproach and
shame by clamoring and kissing down a
meeting like this, we should he making for
ourselves n most honorable place in the his
tory of our age and nation; for we might
act part that should bathc the sunset of
our existence in haos of rcsplendent glory.
And apprehend, that were We all able TO APP
preciate the enterprise in which we are engag-
cd, bad we all capacity sufficient to grasp the
sublime scenes through which we are now
passing, I'm which some of us are trying to
act an humble part,) there would be no oc-
casion to call in the police to keep order in
a meeting of this description. But it is be-
cause we have been so educated, we have
so long been trained under the religious and
political influences that have scourged aud
cursed our country and our age, that we
find ourselves-some of us-at this time, so
sunk, so degraded in tho scale of being,
that il becomes necessary TO call in police
force, with authority 10 keep men in order
who are capable of good behavior, only as
the staff of the police officer is held IN Ter
rorem over their heads.
Now, think it not very complimentary to
the hundred churches Of Boston and to the
many schools, that it requires police force
10 keep order in an Anti-Slavery meeting.-
il is because we have not been trained to
act well our part in the scenes through
which we are now passing-scencs which
are giving grandeur and glory to the age in
which we live-scenes which ere long will
eclipse the brightest or bloodiest days of the
American Revolution. | think if were
one of the one hundred clergymen of Bos-
ton, and it required police force to keep
order in such meeting MS this, would
resign my position, and ask the citizens TO
call in some more efficient instrumentality
for the mental and moral culture of the peo-
pie.
We are here to add our mite to the great
est revolution which the age has witnessed.
The days of I776 were indeed great days,
but the glory of this latter revolution shall
exceed the glory of the former.
| suppose that in that day, among those
who are born of women, greater did not
arise than George Washington. Notwilh-
standing, think he who is least in this dis
pensation, if fully baptized with its spirit, is
greater than Washington, and will be re-
membered when the deeds of Washington,
and all the brightest and most transcendant
scenes OF that dispensation shall have been
forgotten. Nor is this any reproach to them.
God forbid that should stand here to pluck
one single laurel from the wreaths that en-
twined the brows of the great men who act
ed in that dread drama. But the time had
not come then for men TO appreciate liberty.
The subject of human rights had not then
been reduced to a science. Men only saw
liberty 'as trees walking They planted
their Liberty Trees and there was almost
MS much liberty in those trees, rooted iii the
rocky earth, us men were capable of ap-
preciating for one another, at that earlier
period.
But the time has come when the eyes of
4he generations are beginning TO be unsllin-
5ged from the scales that darkened the vision
of that day. Now we understand the science
of human rights hetter. Now we are car
Tying on revolution that shall realize all
that was written in the Declaration of Inde-
pendence. We are not making a revolu-
tionary war only for the liberty of holding
slaves. We shall not wade through seas OF
blood, and expend hundreds Of millions OF
treasure, only to purchase for ourselves the
liberty to enslave the children of our poor
neighbors. That dispensation is passing
away, and new and brighter is dawning
upon the world. l only wish the present
race We're to man capable of approcating
the sublimity and the grandeur of the scenes
through which we are now passing. i sun
pose you think, you who just now were his
sing and bowling, that, had you lived in the
days of rs, You would have been patriots,
you would have been the friends of Ameri-
can liberty. beg to inform you that you
possess and exhibit the spirit of the tories OF
that time. Cheers and groans. l beg you
TO understand that they disposed of such as
you in that day, by tying them up to the