Weekly Trinity journal. [volume] (Weaverville, Calif.) 1857-1972, 1868-03-21

the savage implements of the InquisiIion. APP
preaching the broken-dowr slave-pen, we recoll
at the ineffacabie stains of human blood and
then seeing the exultant multitude of the Freed
men coming up from the cruel land of Pharaohs,
walking and leaping and praising God, with
their broken fetters cla1kng like the chains on
the Red Sea chariots, we enquire: What mas
wrought this wonderful TRANSFORMATION in the
moral, physical and political III sfSnditi0n of our
Going back over the waste Of ekirty years, we
come to the place where the Apostles of Free
dom had bulded their original altar. The Or
ganizaton of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery
Society was the first practical step towards the
extinction of Slavery, and resulted in its final
overthrow. Their first labors were followed by
odium, contempt and revilement ; they were rid
iculed, hated and despsed, as all the great re-
formers have been But, under the inspiration
of Truth and Justice, those heroic men and wo-
men kept on in the vanguard of Freedoms con-
ouering march The held meetings. they es-
tablished printing-presses they read lectures
and declaimed from the pulpit; and each stood
over against the accursed institution, like the
propetic Jonah under the walls of Nineyah, cry
ing g Yet forty years, and slavery shall be
oyerthrown p And so heir orators and poets
and evangelists thundered and sang and prayed,
until the resolute Genius of Freedom took hold
upon the driving-wheels aud creaking springs OF
the Tribune printing press, which began to dig at
the roots OF Slavery with the Jury OF an AJAX,
and the hundred arms of Briarius.
In looking for the first actor in the grand
drama of the war, we have to go back further
than 1861 The war-spirit broke out in Kansas,
which was the first actual battle-ground of Free
dom and it is POLITICALLY said that the grain
grows stronger and taller, and that the corn
waves its golden tassels with greater luxuriance
where the ground was baptized with martyrs
blood.
| uo-o 1od;os and gentlemen 1et me call Won
attention to one of the strangest characters OF
modern times | mean Captain John Brown,
who was the first great actor in the subhmest
tragedy of the latter ages wish that we could
| have another hour to tell you OF him OF the
ss marching SOUL" Through the ignorance and
slavish subserviency of Democratic newspapers,
the true character of that remarkable man is but
little understood. They say that he was a IA
natic, dreamer a mailman but there never
lived another of cooler judgment, or more ra-
tional forethought and practical common sense
in the affairs of life. What they call fanaticlsm
was only a reckless devotion to the one great
idea of his existence-the universal liberty OF
men, His visions were the immediate realities
of the future; and with perfect knowledge OF
the consequences, he deliberately blew into life
and cast the flaming brand which the free winds
| took up and swept kissing and roaring round
the circumference of the heavens, until it had
become great and devouring confiagration.
|
when, with less than twenty men he made war
on the whole might of the Slavery empire? Was
the Able Fouchet dreaming when he preached
his fiery gospel in Notre Dame until the people
gave three cheers for Jesus Christ and opened
the purple floods of the Revolution Was Char
lotte Corday dreaming when with her own white,
delicate hand, she struck the dagger into the
heart of the bloody pander to the guillotine? Is
the Genius of Ireland dreaming when she strikes
again for liberty, only to fall with her bare and
bleeding bosom upon the scatfold? Is the guard
ian angel of indomitable Poland mad when she
still uplfts her crippled and quivering wing over
Warsaw's lost champion!
Let us not mistake the impulses of lofty and
unselfish heroism for the shadowy thoughts and
distorted visions that belong to the phenomena
of the night John Brown was one of those
strange, mysterious beings, ordained by an in
scrutable Providence to go before and prepare
the way for the march of great reforms He was
the solitary herald who stood out upon the grey
walls of the twilight, and foretold the rising of
the ful-orbed sun of Freedom. His execution
sent cold tremor through the Northern heart.
The winds at once began to grieve among the
sombre branches of the Northern Pine and at
the first signal of war the Puritans sprang like
thirsty lions upon his executioners, and left
many CORY ripple upon the placid bosom OF the
Potomac. All around the place of his immola-
ton is one vast cemetery back and forth over
that sanguinary valley ebbed and flowed the
| red-crested tide of war; and we may suppose
that when the thunders of Antetam smote
against the Potomac cliffs, and when the tat
tered veterans of the Lost Cause" were scam
pering down the Shenandoah before the sweep
| ing Sheridan, that indomitable soul, clad in
ghostly armor, marched along the crest of the
Blue Ridge, keeping time with the awful pulsng
of the cannon, and waving the palms OF victory
| And that the most terrible warrior that ever
pursued the routed enemies of Freedom. 1t
marched before the fiery Sherman when he swept
track of desolaton from Atlanta to the sea.
1t strobe before Sheridan when he yet
% twenty miles away" 1t circumscribed Charles
ton and Savannah with flaming brand 1t
walked before the black regiments when they
| filed into fallen Richmond and it will march at
the heels of Andrew johnson when jeering
populace drive him down to the political hells,
while General Grant is borne to his place amid
the acclamations of a victorious and exultant
people.
But we must part from the first prominent
actor in the Irrepressible Conflict and leave him
to march his restless rounds on the causeways OF
the air. 1t is true that he transgressed the law,
and perished lawfully upon the scaffold but
revolutions are impossible without some such
transg-essor, and many a deathless hero has
mounted from the gibbet to the ramparts OF
fame. That strange old man, at one time simple
and gentle child, at another as fierce the
swooping eagle, was himself the vanguard OF
Freedoms advancing host. He was the one who
came early in the morning, e'er the twilight had
/ whitened the heavens with its silvery bronze,
and rolled away the great stone, when immortal
Freedom came forth revived and glorious, and
ascended to her glttering throne in the skies,
while, as in the drama of Pentecost, cloven
tongues of fire came down and rested upon her
apostles. And one of them spake these words,
in the language Of Samson Agonistis:
ayor hound aud r,ode vour snort of HIM Philistia!
You set your sons him to fout and Jeer;
| You loaded down his limbs with heavy fetters-
Your mdest mercy was cruel sneer,
| One man among thousand who defed you-
| One man from whom his awful strength had NED
You brought him out to lash him WIN your 'ehsoae
/ Ten thousand curses one hoary heaa-
You thought his eyes blind and sealed forever
/ Eecause Won scared them that cruel day;
4 You drew a longer breath Of exutation,
| Because your conquerors power was torn away;
i O. fools His arms round your temple pillars!
/ o. foolsi His strength divine begins to wake
| Hark, how the rooftree treembes from its center!
Hark how the rafters bend and swerye and shakeW
/ And now her standard has been reset on the
eclip.ic of nations, loftier and more beautiful
than before. Full in the sight of all the people