Winchester journal. [volume] (Winchester, Indiana) 1862-1863, 1863-11-13
THE DAY OF THE PEOPLE.

III Dat Os III fEOILE
You think me fanatic, tonight,
Tor you read history, not with your
eyes but with your prejudices. But
fifty years hence, when Truth gets
hearing, the muse of history will put
for the Greek and Brutus
for the Roman, Hampden for Eng
land, Fayette for France, choose
W ashington as the bright, consum-
mate flower of OR earlier civilization,
aud Fremont the ripe fruit of our
noon day, then, dipping her pen in the
sunlight, will write in the clear blue,
above them all, the name of the sol
dier, the statesman, the martyr
ToUssAIST L OCvERTuRE.
The paragraph above quoted is
from Wendell Phillips Grafton on
Toussaint L Overture, one of the
finest productions OF the genius Of
its author. In all that constitutes
eloquence Of the highest character
there is perhaps no man in America
who sirpasses Mr.. Phillips.
He may be, too, as much a seer as
any of those who attempt to read us
the lesson of the time. His faith
fitness to his best conceptions, his
changed So devotion to Justice and
truth, are the best possible qualif-
cations for an interpreter of the fu-
ture.
Yet we think that even Mr.. Phillips
measures the meaning of the pres
ent and the coming time too much
by the standard of the past.
1t is said that in revising his
speeches for publication in perma-
nent form, the author has changed
the passage which points out the
representative man of our time,
dropping the name of Fremont and
substituting that of John Brown
What is said respecting the immor-
Ia. names OF other ages may be just,
but neither Fremont nor John Brown,
nor any one else living or dead, is
1.-The ripe fruit of our MONDAY SIM
ply because our MONDAY has not
come.
This idea Of a Great Man, of one
who shall be an embo liment of the
genius Of the time, the perfect prod.
uct and representative of the age, is
not the thought for day like ours.
Leadership is thing of the past
Yet these are not degenerate times.
1t is not that we have no great men,
but that We have so many. Among
the soldiers for the Union are tens
Of thousands whose present charac.
ter and acting are as truly heroic and
sublime as were the lives OF any OF
History's heroes. Other thousands
lie in undistinguished graves.
The past comes no more. 1t nour-
ishes the present, but is never re,
produced. The earth sweeps on
ward into n diviner atmosphere.
'.And the individual with,rs, and the world
is more and more"
Elements and relations and pro.
cesses change with the passing Of
the ages. The people were not re-
cognized in the early historic times.
The world knows each period by the
name of some one man whose great.
ness is esteemed the sufficient prod.
uct of the time in which he lived.
But the slow centuries have brough,
us TO the Era OF the People. That
which distinguishes the progress OF
the present time in our own land, is,
that it is a movement in mass, and
from the bottom of society. 1t is
true the masses long for some one tc
lead them, but they must at length
find ont the path for themselves. l,
is not hero that we need but a he
roic people; not great man but
great nation. nation capable of tn,
sublime hero;sm of justice.