Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-10-10

Mr.. George Ticknor Curtis; Laughter; and
he followed Claiming and Garrison little
way, then turned doughface in the wake of
Douglas and Davis Applause and few mss,
eSl. at first with Algernon Sidney, tmy blood
boils yet as / think how l used TO declaim it., J
he declared the best legacy he could leave his
children was free speech and the example of
using it: then of Preston S. Brooks and Le-
gree he took lessons in smothering discussion
and hunting slaves. In 1920, when the world
was asleep, he rebuked the slave trade; in
1850, when the battle was hottest, he let Ever
EFT omit from his works all the best anti-slavery
| utterances
Sir Robert Peel was just like him. He
Changed every opinion violated, $50 says one
of the Reviews every pledge, broke up every
| party, and deserted every colleague he ever
| had, yet his sun went down in glory. Why!
Because his step was ever onward he lived
to learn. Every change was sacrifice, and
he could truly use, in 1929, the glorious Latin
Webster borrowed of him, Vera pro gratis, -
81 tell you unwelcome truth" But Webster'S
steps, crab-like, were backwards. Applause
and hisses Because you have your predJu-
dices, shall there be no history written lie
moved by compulsion or calculation, not by
conviction. He sunk from free trade to tar
iff; from Chief Justice Marshall to Mr.. George
Ticknor Curtis; from Garrison to Douglas ;
from Algernon Sydney to the slave overseers
| read in this one of the dangers of our form
of government AS De Tocqueville says so
wisely, "The weakness of democracy is, that
unless guarded, itmerges in despotism." Such
a life is the first step, and half dozer Is the
Niagara carrying us over.
WEBSTER AND THE STATUE.
Half the discourse was devoted to Mr.. Web.
ster, the Webster statue, and Mr.. Everetts
eulogy. Here is one passage ;-
Blame me not that / again open the record
Mr.. Chairman His injudicious friends will
not let him die. Indeed, the heavy yoke he
laid on innocent and friendess victims trets
and curses them yet too keenly to allow him
to be forgotten. He reaps only what he SOW
ed. In the Talmud, the Jews have story
that Og, King of Bashan, lifted once great
rock, to hurl it on the armies OF Judah. God
followed it in the middle, letting it slip over
the giants neck, there to rest while he lived.
This man lifted the fugitive slave bill to hurl,
as at Syracuse, on the trembling and hunted
slave, and God has hung it like milestone,
about his neck furevermore. (Applause.)
While the echoes of Everetts periods still in-
gered in our streets, as / stood with the fresh
printed sheet of his eulogy in my hand, there
came to me a man, successful after eight at
tempts, in flying from bondage. Week after
week he had been in the woods, half-starved,
seeking in vain shelter. For weeks he had
pinned in dungeons, waiting the slow step of his
master. AT last God blessed his eighth effort
and he stood in Boston, on his glad way from
the vulture of the States to the safe refuge of
English law. He showed me his broad bosom
SCARED all over with the branding -irof, his
back one mass of record how often the lash
had tortured him for his noble efforts to get
Id aAI H. Il
ing euogy dropped from my nerveless hand,
and | thanked God that statue and eulogy both
were only horrid nightmare, and that there
were still roofs in Boston safe shelter for these
heroic children of Gods right hand. PRO
longed cheering.
But you and |, Mr.. Chairman, were born in
Massachusetts, and we cannot but remember
that the character of the State is marked by
the character of those it crowns. Daniel
Webster said on Bunker Hill, in one of his
most glorious bursts Of eloquence-"That mo-
tioness shaft will be the most powerful of
speakers. Its speech will be of civil and re-
ligious liberty. 1t will speak of patriotism and
of courage. 1t will speak of the moral i'm
proyement and elevation of mankind Decrep.
it old age will lean against its base, and ingen-
nous youth gather around it, speak to each
other of the glorious events with which it is
connected, and exclaim, thank God, /, also, am
an Americana 1t is a glorious lesson, and
the noble old shaft tells it daily.
But when ingenious youth stand at his pc
destal, what shall they saya "Consummate
jurist! Alas, that your latest effort was to
sheer at Higher Law! Most able and elo-
quent advocate! could you find no other cause
to plead than that OF our lowest instincts
against our highest and hottest sentiments
Alas, that your last and ablest argument was
the duty of hunting slaves Sagacious states
man Fated to die not very old, and yet live
long enough to see all the plans Of your man.
hood become obsolete ideas, except those you
have abandoned! Surely you were great
party leader! for you found the Wing party
strong, spent life in its service, and died proph-
esyng its humiliation; found it decent, at
least in profession, left it despicable in utter
shamelessness; found it the natural ally of
free labor and free speech, stirred it to contest
with its rival in servile bidding for southern
fellowship, and left it despcable for the at
tempt, and still more despicabe and ridiculous
for its failure. The curses of the poor have
blighted your laurels. You were mourned in
ceiled houses and the marts of trade; but the
dwellers in slave huts and fugitives along the
highway thanked God, when you died, that