The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1860-04-10

| The Latest Modern Improvement-The
| Honeas OF Maxtyrdsm Below Actual
Cost.
We are accustomed to speak somewhat boast
| fully of the progress of the nineteenth century
over and above all other periods in the worlds
| history, in the material sciences and the fine
arts. We have steam electricity, fast printing
presses Great Easterns, Atlantic telegraphs,
| and many more evidences of the truth of our
! assertions. But, with all the attention that we
pay to such Developments of progress in the
| exact sciences, we frequently overlook some of
the minor improvements of the day. Thus the
way to fame in any profession or vocation
was once an exceedingly hard road to travel
as full of ruts and holes as some of our New
York streets, and winding up to q hill as mac
| cessible as the Hottest summit Of the Sierra
| Nevada. Now it Is as smooth and easy as a
walk in the Central Park. For examples, look
at the latest editions of martyrs which have
been issued from the abolition press The
quartette includes Mr.. Frank B. Sanborn, of
Massachusetts,, two young ladies, and Mr..
Thaddeus Hyatt-the first named saint
country schoolmaster, the last dealer in
| headlights for sidewalks, and peddler of
photographs. These philosophers, together
with Wendell Phillips, W. II. Seward, Hon.
Massa Greeley, W. l.. Garrison, Fred Douglass,
| DR. Howe Henry Ward Beecher, Henry c.
| Wright, Senator Doolittle, Rev. DR.. Cheever,
| Representatives Blake of Ohio, and Lovejoy
Of Illinois, and many others, are devoted in their
faith for the Almighty Niger and are, of course,
ready to 90 to the gallows for his sake. Other
wise they would not be martyrs, even in ex-
| pectancy. Sanborn, Hyatt and the two young
lsdies have already been in mortal peril.
| Hyatt is condemned to durance vile by cruel
| Senate, quite under the thumb of Caesar, who
sits in the gilded salons Of the White House,
| giving dinners to the diplomatic corps, while
| Saint Thaddeus depends for his subsistence
upon the myrmidoms of despotism, who will
| not allow him more than one bottle Of cham
payne per diem.
The case Of Sanborn was still more appall-
| ing. He was arrested in his robe de chambre,
| (did Nero ever order anything more brutal
than tbatO, handcuffed, and generally
| knocked about. When the minions of the
Senate attempted to force the holy man into a
carrisge, one of the female saints, inspired by
happy thought, stood in the doorway and ex-
tended her crinoline so as to effectually stop
the entrance, while the other feminine saint
whipped up the horses. When the first saint
was informed by the brutal officer that
she would do well to get out of the coach, as
the horses might run away and she might be
killed, che replied that "she didn't care if she
was" There may be something equal to that
in Fox or Butler, but we fail to see it.
Regard, too, the awful way in which Wen
dell Phillips suffers, compelled as he is, to 60
continually about the country, delivering the
same speeches over and over again, for hun
| dred dollars per night and expenses paid; or
| Mr.. Seward, with his seat in the Senate,
and his dinners of seventeen courses, with
| six different kinds Of wine;" or Lovejoy, who
will be one day eaten up by the truculent
Pryor, chiefest of niger drivers; or Beecher,
condemned to preach for five thousand dollars
per annum, with as much more for lectures; or
Brother Garrison, who has been sufferer for
the faith these thirty years, and has made ra-
| Their good thing of it; or Fred Douglass, who,
| an exile from his native country, is condemned
to be everlastingly petted by the antique dow
ayers of Exeter Hall; or Henry c. Wright, who
is compelled to retail books which are alleged
| to be of rather questionable character, while
preaching the faith that is in him.
This division of the worshippers of the Al
| mighty Niger would come, according to the
definition of the fathers of the Catholic church,
| under the head of confessors-good men who
gave their whole lives up to the propagation
of the faith, but did not achieve the full
glories of martyrdom. Of course they
| stood ready to 60 cheerfully to the test
! of FIRE, sword and faggot; to suffer as
did Saint Andrew, Saint Peter, and Saint
Stephen to be slain as were the early Christians,
some with the sword, some burned with fire,
some scourged with whips, or stabbed with
forks; some cruci6ed or hanged; some fayed
alive; many of them suffered and survived the
most horrible tortures, and accounted it great
glory so to do. We fear that the same faith
does not inspire the confessors of faith in the
Almighty Niger. We much fear that Seward,
Sanborn, Hyatt, Phillips & Co. would shirk the
horrors of martyrdom, proper, and be quite
contented to remain in the ranks of the con-
fessors.
As for the martyrs proper, the new religion
makes very poor show. In the old times
enthusiastic Christians rather courted and en-
braced death for the sake of their religion. In
the early days of the church, preachers of the
new dispensation went boldly into the strong
holds of the heather, and exhorted against Ju-
piter and all Olympus in their own temples
Their mission was to the sinners, not to those
who had already been brought to sense of
their errors. So they almost courted death,
and coveted the torture. And SO on down
to the seventeenth century, Catholics and
Protestants both, all over Europe, went