Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1861-06-27

prosecute his ftvorite theory. He endured
all things for the sake Of testing the cor
rectness of his inspiration. Without name
or prestige, without ships, or money, or
friends, you recollect how he went from
city to city and from one kingdom TO
another, begging for means to try and
prove whether he or the multitude were
wrong. At length the noble, the generous
minded Isabella Of Spain procured him a
very meagre ontft Of three small ships
With this insufficient preparation he COM
menced his perilous voyage. He spread
his sails to the kindly breeze, weighed an
Choir and away toward the setting sun lie
steered his frail little crafts; the last vision
Of land in the old world had long since
faded from their view Many long and
wearisoine days and nights were appointed
to them. Nothing was now to be seen
anywhere but old ocean and the blue sky
meeting and blending together At the hoi-
zon. His crew began to murmer com
plants, and threats Of matiny were rife
among his men. You also recollect how
Columbus threatened, coaxed, persuaded,
and at last was compelled to stipulate that
if within a given time no signs Of land APP
peared, he would turn back; time rolled on
and as the old navigator beheld undubit-
bic signs of land his emotions alternated
between hope and fear. At length, when
the time was almost expired he bimlef
was walking on the deck Of his gallant
little ship before daylight in the morning
Of October l4th, 1892, the joyful cry Of
land! land land = was heard and
echoed and re echoed bv all the joyful
crew, and when he returned in safety to
the old world and great men and mighty,
and kings and queens, came and paid their
honors and homage at bis feet, think you
that he cared then for all the contempt and
ndicule or that the boys had thrown stones
and dirt at him and called him the crazy
world finder?
In the early part Of the year 1928 there
was presented in the British House of
Commons an example of moral heroism.
not often surpassed if ever parlleled. One
man, single-handed and alone, in the face
Of powerful and opposing government,
and contrary to the judgment and wishes
Of all his friends, rising up unsupported to
strike blow at the root Of British Colonial
Slavery. He had given notice Of his pur-
pose to move on certain day resolution
declaring slavery to be "repugnant to the
principles OF the British Constitution and
Of the Christian Religion" The powerful
West India body with all its terrible array
of monied interests frowned indignantly
upon the proposition.
His political friend and even his anti
slavery associates, infected with similar
fears, entreated and besoueht him to defer
his purpose. They told him the time had
not yet come; but nothing inundated by
the frowns of enemies or entreaties OF
friends, relying on the justice of his cause
and the integrity of bis motives, and con-
yinced that the right time had come, lie
boldly assumed the entire responsibility
aud submitted the motion according to the
notice previously given.
From this moment the abolition of sla-
very in the British colonies became a ques-
ton only Of time. The blow had been
struck, although the motion on division
Of the house was negatiged, yet it was by q
majority SO small that government felt
itself compelled to take some action on the
subject.
We have said that the fatal blow was
given to slavery in that hour, and eonse-
quenty little more than ten years after
this we find the British Parliament after a
most fearful struggle, passing bib which
received the royal signature, which decreed
that slavery should cease throughout the
entire British Empire, and that immortal
beings, gifted with intellectual and moral
faculties, capable of limitless developments
and improvements, should no longer, u..-
der the sanction of British law, be de
graded to the condition of brutes and
| bought and sold as goods and chattels.
That noble, sefsacriicing man was
Thomas Forrell Buxton. His name de-.
serves to be printed in letters Of gold and
appended by angels to the temple Of God.
| His name viii live and be celebrated in
song and story, when the names Of the
/ pEO-oidNCly AClA-1O9uSo VI Sblo 80 GIN
nation, in church and state, shall have
been buried in the interminable depths of
infamy and disgrace. Thomas Forrell
Buxton was little and bit little in adj
vance Of his time. But what red he for
all he had suffered aud endured il this
philanthropic cause, when a few years af-
terward he beheld the sublime spectacle Of
814,660 sable sons and daughters Of AT
RIGA prostrated on their knees as the clock
struck the hour that proclaimed them free
men and free women. 0, yes, when they
arose from their knees and held up their
freed hands heavenward and shouted we
are free, forever free, and PRONOUNCED the
name Of Thomas Fovrell Buxton, what did
that noble statesman care for all the nick
names BY which he had been salnted while
engaged in this glorious battle for human
liberty.
Let us borrow another illustration from
the walks Of the lowIy. We will lay the
scene IN the sunny South on some cotton
plantation in Texas. | see the form and
visage Of humanity; but he is crouching
low at the feet Of tyranny; his back is
all lacerated and bleeding; yet within that