Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1863-01-07
CITY AND COUNTY.

LECTURE OF GEORGE W. CURTIs.-The
lecture before the Mechanics Association was
delivered, last evening, to one of the largest
audiences Of the season, notwithstanding the
rain. Subject-"The American Doctrine Of
Liberty" Mr.. Curtis said while the horizon
murmured, while all ears and hearts were
straining to catch the news of victory, he
| would not decline the quesrrun OIL
| unfairly to our lips, what are we fighting for,
and why is our grief over the young dead re-
turning to us so lofty and resigned? He then,
with great force of argument and freshness and
elegance Of expression, aimed to show that
the cause of the government was so precious
because its foundation is the grand, original
doctrine Of human liberty-urging some of
the ways in which it had been practically
thwarted and denied. Public opinion had
| been the enemy OF liberty of thought and
speech. Private and public indignation had
been the fortunes with which it has dashed the
man who has set himself against national sins
with honest plainness Of thought and speech
| SO also it had coerced religious liberty, and
| the government itself
He spoke at length upon the general scope
of the doctrine, and other forms of popular
infdelity, and concluded with an eloquent plea
for justice to the slave. In all the history
| of civilization there was no spectacle
SO humiliating as the conduct Of this nation
! pledged to human liberty--toward one unhap-
| Ply race. Their only offence is that we have
injured them The only excuse that we urge
| is that they submit. AT the South a servile
| people, degraded often out of manhood, they
are treated with the same familiarity, but more
contemptuous, with which the Arab treats his
horse. AT the North, of insignificant mum.
bers, they are held in that pitifu scorn which
paralyzes energy and hope They are not a
nomadic race. They did not wish to be here.
They would net have come If they had not
been stolen for our profit. Do we say that
they show no desire of liberty-that we would
respect their manhood if they would rise and
strike US to the heart-but that time and sub
mission to slavery prove them fit only for
slaves? True, SO far, but if these four mil
lion men were of less mild and flexible race
than, by the grace of God, they are then, as
the slaves of Rome closed in death grapple
with the empire, nor relaxed their hold until a
million lives were lost, so these slaves of ours
would have long since hewed their way to
nG6uOII3 VI lut IodllpSOH WOulu nave
grasped the pillars of the social temple and
dragged us all down to ruin.
But since, notwithstanding their heroic
traits, they are so soft race, we thought
people which could not help itself would be
forever unavenged. For many bright year
we hardy sons of a Saxon race had seen our
borders charging and our numbers increas-
ing-had seen the whole continent shining
with our splendid statistics. In all these gilt
tering years, you and | had not found the cot
ton harsh to the touch nor the sugar bitter to
the taste, though we knew that all that sweet
ness and sottness grew in the ruin of a race.
Our very birth-throe was justice, and we were
unjust; our very breath was human rights,
and we destroyed them; our very life
liberty, and we denied it, Like Belshazzar,
the nation sat feasting, and if for an evanes-
cent moment we had cast a timorous glance
at the awful writing on the wall, the feast
was so splendid that our eyes were daZzled.
We sought excuses: 1T is state mat
ter,a local law, an institution doomed to perish
before the advance of civilization" And even
while the words were trembling on our lips,
it suddenly lowered before us hideous, over
powerlng presence, insolently declaring itself
the supreme law of the land. 1t laid its hand
on you and me, would have put its foot upon
us very soon, and henceforth declared that in
America the doctrine of liberty was lie.
These slaves have not grasped the sword. You
have not so much as seen the little finger of
the first slave crooked with such intent. But
how awful is their vengeance. They sit dis
mayed and uncertain, while civil war shakes
its fiery torch across the land, dropping blood
in its hideous path, stabbing TO the heart and
dragging our young and brave and beautiful
down to CHASTITY death; while through the
merry storm OF wrath the voice of God cries
10 our shrinking hearts, as to covering Cain
IN tne garden, ''Where is Abel, thy brother
! BY the lurid light of this war we read our