The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1870-08-12


ciety was formed in Boston, the move
ment was inaugurated which, in 1861,
reversed the whole policy of the Gov
eminent, and drove the aristocrats of
despotism from power. Those inter-
vening years constitute period in our
history worthy to be placed in everlast-
| ing remembrance. The advocates of
emancipation and equal rights, as they
accumulated in numbers, organized So
cieties for the dissemination of their
principles and the correction of public
sentiment. They sent out lecturers to
appeal to the people; they published
papers to advocate the cause they Pc
| titioned Congress and State Legislatures
in its behalf.
For years they everywhere met with
vindictive opposition and personal
abuse. Both political parties were con-
trolled in the interests of slavery, and
| the sympathies of all the churches were
in the same direction. VIM. Lloyd Gar
rison, the great apostle of the move
ment, was seized by an Infatuated pop
ulace and dragged with n rope around
his neck through the streets of Boston.
To be prosecuted and mobbed was the
common fate of Abolitionists. Their
meetings were broken up, their proper
| ty destroyed, their halls visited with
the torch of the incendiary, their presses
| demolished, their lives threatened and
| endangered, and in some instances sac
rificed. Meantime, as their principles
acquired popular support, and their
doctrines came to be widely entertained,
and when it became apparent that their
measures were likely to prevail in the
hearts and through the votes of the
masses of the people, federal legislation
and the federal courts were invoked in
| haholf Or oil Tho fInifiUo SloUa
| law of 1850 opened the entire North as
hunting-ground for shareholders, and
punished with felon's doom every one
who, in obedience to the dictates of hui
manitv or the commands of God, should
succor the fleeing victims of oppression.
| Under this law numerous prosecutions
were had, and the best of citizens were
thrown into dungeons. Some of these
| whom see here to-day were among
those who thus suffered for righteous
ness sake, and whose names stand upon
the judicial records of the country as
champions in the great cause, and as in
nocent victims of an act of pro-slav-
| cry Congress in aid of highWaymen.
The army and navy of the country were
| invoked to hunt the fugitive from South
ern oppression. The courts espoused
the unrighteous cause, and the crown
| ing disgrace of the country was reached
when the supreme tribunal of the land
promulgated the brutal doctrine that
persons of the African race had no rights
that white men were bound to respect.
But the band of heroic .Abolitionists
faltered not. Through contumely and
| reproach, in the face of dangers, vio-
| lence and death, they ceased not to pro-
claim the truth, and to demand justice
for the whole country. 1t is easy now
to be loyal to the right. 1t is easy to
accept the doctrine of equality when it
has become the law of the land. But
when to advocate these doctrines was to
invite disaster in business, to be scoffed
at in public assemblies, to be excluded
from the social circle, to be covered
| with opprobium, and subjected to per-
sonal violence, then 10 be an Abolition
list required the highest order of cour-
age and the sternest moral qualities.
To the pioneers and laborers in that
great cause.-The Garrisons, the Butfums,
the Fosters, the Phillipses, the Chases,
the Tappans, the Baileys, the Hales, the
| Lovejoys, the Birneys, the Frederick
Douglases, the Gerritt Smiths, and their
noble compeers and coadjutors, the
world owes a continued acclaim. They
braved every danger, they endured
every reproach, they encountered every
peril, until they revo1utioniZed the SEN
timent and public opinion of the non
| slaveholding States, carried their doc
trines into the politics of the country,
and reaped the fruits of their labor in
beholding the reins of government
transferred to the hands of the friends
of freedom and equal rights. Let their
names be inscribed on the roll of apos-
ties and philanthropists. Let the graft
tude and reverence of mankind stand as
monuments to their faith, their patience
and their unselfish toil-monuments
more enduring than the pyramids, mon
uments which the waves of the ages
shall never overflow.
| When at length, i'll 1861, the friends OF
equal laws and equal rights for all as
sumed the conduct of affairs, the rebel
j lion and civil law was organized in be-
half of despotism and slavery. A
government of confederate traitors was
set up, whose cornerstone was slavery
and whose sword was drawn to dissolve
society and carry man back to barbar-
ism and chaos. How the shock of the
embattled hosts in the great conflict thai
ensued made the earth tremble; how
the lost stars fell away from the politi
cal armament; how the foundations Of
society were shaken how the hearts Of
all men stood waiting, in terror and il
awe, for the result of a contest which
was to determine not only the destiny
of a nation and a race, but was to decide
the hopes of free government and civil
liberty throughout the world all this
and more is the familiar history of the
recent past. When the battle was the
deadliest, when the night was the dark.
est, when the hearts of men grew faint
when victory lowered and hesitated be-
tween the hostile banners, the President
as commander-in-chief of the armies
q ~ l.. L.
lamation of January LIST, 1868, abolished
slavery, and summoned the slaves tt
freedom and liberty. That proclama
ton of the great and good Lincoln, thai
manifesto of justice, that new nadgnC
! chdrtd to an entire race, deserves tC
stand as one of the landmarks of thu
ages. Profoundly reverent in the con
scious greatness of the act he was per
forming, he "invoked in its behalf tn,
considerate judgment of mankind anC
the gracious favor of Almighty God
A great grief is it to us to-day, that thil
beloved of mankind, this commoner o.
: joice in the full fruition of his work
Z Stricken down in the hour of victory
by the hand of the assassin, he filed hi
full measure of more than earthly glory
in the final martyrdom for the country
and the people he loved so well. Su
preme in patriotism and consummate il
craftsmanship, he was devoid of all thu
small abilities of the mere politician
and thoroughly devoted to the cause o
constitutional liberty and the equa
rights of all. He approved himself tn,
chief of no faction, the minister of III
mean ambition; but rising far above al
considerations of personal safety anG
individual ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, of loca
Prejudice and of party trammels, "witl
= charity TO all and malice to none,, h.
administered the government with
christian determination to preserve tn
: Constitution and the Union, and to ex
. tend and perpetuate the blessings O
liberty to all the people and to comm:
generations. Supported and SUSTAINED
! BY the loyal masses of both races, b.
led the nation safely through the Re,
Sea of revolution, and died upon its en-
> trance into the promised land. Hi
i memory is the treasure of every liber
ty-loving heart. His name is the house
: hold word of Europe and America
: Let that great name go down to poster
! ity side by side with that of the Fathe
I of his Country, and in more resplend
: emf light than that of any of those mo