The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1856-08-05
LIBERTY AND SLAVERY.
,-fa AN GRAFTON:
Delivered at Aliens Prairie, July Ath, 1850
BY EDMUND B. FAIRFIELD,
President Of lIillsdae College.
AN GRAFTON:

MT. fTeStdeM ana Feu0U C1ftzenS.
Long since have the Immortal Fifty-Si
whose names are appended to the Declaratio
of American Independence, slumbered wit
the dead. But the Declaration which ha
made them immortal, still lives. The las
surviving members Of the Committee of Fiv
who drafted the document, and who wer
chiefly responsible for its doctrines and its ex
preston OF them-Thomas Jefferson and Johl
Adams-just thirty years ago to-day, opened
their eyes for the last time upon the light O
this glorious Anniversary, and then CLOSED
them in death.
Scarcely one remains to day of the million
who acted well their part in that memorable
hour, and in the years that followed. Blu,
their works do follow them. No monument
al pile may remain to show where their bones
do rest; but this day is sacred to their mem
ory: and in the heart of every freeman in
every land and in every cline, they have an
imperishable monument to their name and
their fame. MEN DIE; BUT TRUTHS LIVE
FOREVER.
II would be pleasant task on such an oc-
casion as this to recall the heroic deeds and
to recount the manly virtues of the dead
But this would be familiar story, and we
I leave it for your private meditation. Other
topics demand our thoughts, and other words
our utterance to-day. 1t were untimely for
us to garnish the sepulchres of the dead, and
leave the living to perish by our neglect
While vandal hands are applying the torch
to the very temple of Liberty, it were unfit
ting for us to stop to pronounce the eulogy of
its founders, or to build a mausoleum to their
memory. Better that we sound the timely
alarm, and apply our hands to extinguish the
devouring flames.
In the early beginning of our national his
tory there was born into the confederacy,
not only the child of promise, but the son of
the bond woman also Even then the voice
from Heaven spake admonishingy-"Cast out
the bond-woman and her son"-for already
had the imp begun to mock and assume impe-
rious airs. But our fathers heard it not: or
if they did, they needed it not. And for
the crying of the child they had pity, and
spared it. And oh, how bitterly have the
seed of promise-thc heirs of Eberty---rued
the day.
When Liberty was born, the heavens
smiled, and the earth rejoiced: for the child
was beautiful and fair, and blessed of God and
the good; and Gods angels fastened down
10 greet the newborn of the new world with
songs of welcome and hozannas in the highest.
But after that there came another. All! |
may the day perish wherein it was born
Lot not God regard it from above, neither
ct the light shine upon it. Let darkness and
he shadow Of death stain it; let cloud
lwell upon it; let the blackness of the day
errify it; let it not be joined unto the days
# the year; let it not come into the number
f the months.
And with what words shall | describe the
fspring of that day.
~ strive in vain to set its evil forth;
Words that should sufficiently accurse
And execrate such reprobate had need
Come glowing from the lips OF eldest hell"
revolving, and repulsve;
"With a thousand snaky heads,
yed ench with double orbs of garing wrath
nd with ms many tails that twisted out
horrid revolution. tipped with stings:
nd all its mouths, that wide and darkly gaped
nd breathed most poisonous breath, had each sting
orked, and long, and venomous, ind sharp"
Strange that so hideous n monster should
ot have been strangled at its birth stranger
ill that it ehould have become the darling I
the family, and the protege of nation
ut Pope explains it:
''vice is monster of 80 h.deous mien
That to be hated. needs but to be seen;
But seen too often, familiar with her face, ,
Firstwe endure, then pity, then embrace"
And thus Slavery (for this was the bas-
rds name) was spared and cherished. But :
the period Of this Declaration, and eleven = =
'ars later, upon the adoption of the Ameri-
n Constitution, our fathers thought that !,
e vile thing was so decrepid and short-lived, :
at it was unnecessary to put it to death by .
)lence; but that from the effect of inherent y
Institutional weakness and congenital dis /
Sc and an uncongenial climate, 1t must !
eedily expire. So little did they dream
at Governors and Presidents were to become !,
nursing fathers; and Senators and Judges /
nursing mothers, until it should grow to h
rible stature, and, raving in its madness, +
'eaten the very life of liberty itself! They :
oected to see its bones whtcn upon the
Is Of Virginia, and upon the plains of Car
na and Georgia, long before that genera
n should be gathered 10 their fathers
d so they left it; spared its life and still
ives and raves. And thus as oftentimcs-
"The best laid schemes of mice and men :.
Gang oft agley ei
And leave US nought but grief and pain, "A
For promised joy" as
You recollcct in the story of Sinbad the OF
lor, that when he was upon his Fifth Voy- sp
, his vessel was destroyed in a most mar A
ous manner; and by means of single ca
nix he succeeded in reaching an island in
! upon the morning that followed, as he
ked forth among the trees, he met by a
amlct an old man. And now you may
N to Sinbad as he tells his own story, for
as moral to il that is worth the hearing.
So said within myself perhaps this old man
landed upon this island, and is one Of the ship
'ked persons with whom the vessel fell to pieces.
N approached him, and saut ed him, and he re-
ed the salutation without speaking and said to Is
o shekh. what is the reason thy sitting in
place7 Whereupon he shook his head and sigh
Ind made sign TO me with his hand, as though
oud soy. carry upon thy neck, aud transport sla
rom this place TO the other side of the sreamet .b
re lore said within myself will act kindly with ''i
rson, and transport him TO the place to which po
'sireth to CO. perhaps shall obtain for IL re- pre
In heaven. Accordingly I advanced to him, .,.
ook him upon my shoulders, and conveyed him yU
place that he had indicated to me- when said will