The Buchanan County guardian. (Independence, Buchanan County, Iowa) 1858-1864, 1859-12-22

SOIWIu anu THIuIpSs
was very much pleased and amuse,
on Tuesday evening, in Mr.. Beecher'
Church, in watching that wonderful fac
of Mr.. Corwin, as he sat by the side o
Wendell Phillips, during his lecture OF
"The Lessons of the Hour" as he was
speaking his own ultra thoughts, in his
own beautiful and eloquent way.
There were two men, in the fullness o
manhood-with ripe experience, anc
large observation, and varied and won
derful and great requirements, and both
eminent American citizens-the one
born and reared " in the Groves of the
Academy" and whose teachers from ear
ly life were sages and philosophers, and
whose /" walk and talk" through life has
been with men of rarest culture, and
with poets and historians-a man of rare
learning and most persuasive eloquence
who has been justly styled, him of the
golden tongue"-the other man born in
the wilds of the far West, of pioneer pa.
rents-whose early years were those OF
hardy toil-whose teachers were nature
the "dim old woods the fields
the streams-the sky-the storm cloud
old books Of history-elementary text
books of law-the constitutional Homer
and Shakespeare, and Burns and Milton
the orations of Cicero and Demosthe-
nes-Tacitus and Caesars Commentaries
and the Bible, without teachers and with
out schools-yet hard student on his
own hook" cleaning from every quarter
food for thought" and riches for the
mind-working his way by the native
energies of his own intellect, from +" life's
lowly vale," up to its highest honors and
widest renown-and these two men, met
for the first time, yet each were known
to the other AS each has made his mark
in his country's history, and will live for
aye on its recorded page. Phillips took
his standpoint on the Rock of Truth and
Eternal Right, and struck his blows
against all laws and constitutions which
ignore the God-given Rights of Man.
Human laws and human constitutions are
nothing with him if they ignore man.
With him "MAN is more sacred than
Constitutions" From this elevation he
hurled jayelin and spear at unjust laws
and iron statues, nor living men, escaped
his honeyed invective and his terrible de-
nunciations. Corwin sat beside the elo-
quent and accomplished "arch- traitor"
now charmed with the classic beauty
of his periods-delighted with the ready
wit. and pleased with the elegance of the
speech of the most gifted fanatic he ever
heard. But when our good old Consti-
tuition was denounced as covenant with
helP'-when Webster and Clay were
charged with getting up the Mexican
war;" Corwin shook his head, and his
tace looked darker than ever, and he
seemed like god made wroth," and
ready to demolish with his own fiery ell
oquence, the orator, who, without fear or
remorse, and without feeling "by your
leave, Sir" pitched into every human
wrong, and spared not the dead, and
seemed to kill the living by the fierceness
of his Indignation. In his mind John
Brown was one of the greatest heroes a
noble martyr for the Right, and deserv-
ing Of golden statue.
Wendell Phillips is accomplished, but
he is entirely impracticable. In the pre-
sent imperfect state Of human nature,
laws and constitutions are necessary for
our protection and guidance, and they
cannot be violated nor disregarded with
impunity. We must obey them, or take
the penalty Of our disobedience--eve If
that penalty be death.
Mr.. Phillips said, "the age of bullets
is past" The lesson at Harper's Ferry
does not thus teach. Would that the
age of bullets was past. 1t is true that
thought is more powerful than cannon,
but men will give more heed to cannon
than to thought, occasionally, and bullets
help men to think.
We have only to '' work and wait" and
all will be well. There's good time
coming" if men will only wait for it to
come.
John Brown may hang on the gallows
The old mans insane enterprise may end
in death on the scaffold; but is it more
criminal to steal Africans from Africa,
or to run Africans from Virginia? Peo-
pie will think-and that is very unsafe
kind Of property that can think, and
plan. and execute.-[ Correspondents
Cleveland Leader. ed} a