The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1874-06-16
MODERN EMANCIPATION.
JULIAN,S SPEECH.

JULIAN'S SPEECH.
AT THE ABoLITIoNIsTs RE-UNIoN-LABoR-
THE TARIFF-THE CURRENCY-woNANs SUI
FRAGE-THE OLD PARTIES.
At Wednesdays session of the abolitionist
reunion, George w. Julian delivered an adj
dress of which extracts are here given: The
anti-slavery veterans assembled here to-day
have greater task to perform than that
OF rehearsing the deeds of other days and in
dulging in grateful recollections. African
slavery has been abolished, and so far, the
past is secure; but other vital questions are
to be met, and other great reforms are to be
accomplished. American patriotism aud
philanthropy, have at this moment as wide
field for their operations as at any previous
time in our history, and the promise of as
rich harvest of results to those who labor
In faith. What are the lessons of the anti
slavery conflict? What moral do they pre-
sent, in facing the solemn duties and respon-
sibilities of the present and the future?
What light do they throw upon the path
way of progress, and what resolves should
they kindle in the hearts of men who have
borne the banner OF reform TO a world-ia-
nous victory, and are soon TO hand IL over
to their children? My friends, we shall fail
in great duty if we are not prompted by this
occasion seriously to ponder these questions.
The most important and impressive gen.
eral lesson of the abolition movement is the
almightiness of truth. No man can over
estimate the value of this lesson a per-
ennisl fountain of courage and inspiration
in every field of reform The anti-slavery
cause was sown in weakness. mot many
wise men after the flesh, not many mighty,
not many NOBLE" gave it their countenance.
Its early champions were generally obscure,
simple minded. supplemented men and
women, whose love of justice was passion
so unquenchable, and whose hearts were so
patty, that the world branded them as ia
natics. They were compelled to face mobs,
violence, persecution, aud DEATH and were
always misunderstood or misrepresented;
but they never faltered. Reputa-
ton, honors, property, worldly ease,
We're all freely laid upon the altar,
in their resolve to vindicate the rights of
man and the freedom of speech To follow
these apostles and martyrs was to fOrsake all
the prizes of worldly life which prudence or
ambition could value or covet. 1t was to
take up the heaviest cross yet fashioned by
this century as the test of christian charac-
ter and heroism. And yet they succeeded.
They were the educators of the nation, the
prophecies of its deliverance. They sue
ceeded because the failure of men thus de-
voted to a great and holy cause was morally
impossible. They broke in pieces great pO-
litical and ecclesiastical organizations. They
compelled the better type of men of all par
ties to join them, or defer to their wishes.
They forced the Shareholder himself to be-
come powerful ally. by driving him into
extreme measures of
DEFENSE OR AGGRESSION.
They gradually lifted the church out of the
foul slough of politics and compromise, and
put it on its good behavior. Even dough-
faces were sometimes harnessed to the car of
freedom and compelled to do service. When
civil war came these abolitionists utterly re-
fused to allow the conscience of the quarrel
to be put out of sight. They demanded the
abrogation of all laws which gave slavery
support. They demanded the arming of the
negroes as soldiers, and that slavery, as the
guilty cause Of the war, and the grand oh
stacle to peace, should be the constant point
of attack. Aud the moral power which they
welded compelled the government to COM
ply with these demands, and thus to sweep
the cause forever from the land. What a
pregnant lesson tor the reformer in the gen.
erations to come! How it rebukes the
coward and time-server, and pleads
with our young men TO plant their
feet on the rock of principle! Where now
are the heaps OF lower law sermons and
CHASTITY metaphysics that loaded down the
mail, twenty odd years ago? They have
been Missed from the civilized world. Where
are the doctors of divinity who gave them
selves up to the Rraceless work of defending
slavery as q divine institution9 They are
mercifully forgotten, or remembered only 70
be despised. Where are the public men who
in years gone by bent their craven backs
under the shareholders lash, and fourished
| for a season as ringleaders of the tribe of
ldoughfaces? They have gone to judgment,
and their names are not fit to be spoken.
And William Lloyd Garrison, who in 1881
| had a price put upon his head by the state OF
Georgia, and in 1885, with rope around his
neck, was chased through the streets
tof Boston by a mob of five thou.
sand gentlemen of property and
1 standing" is now honored by the world
as the finest specimen of a sturdy, moral hero
4 which the country has produced: while no
name in our history, not even that of the
father OF his country, will be so honored IN
the ages to come, or SO reverently spoken
the legacy of such lives! They lend new
4 edge and gliding to virtue. They give us q
u new baptism of faith in humanity. They
pour a fresh tide of life into the moral drear-
mess of our politics, and urge us to more
constant and courageous endeavers in the
work of reform. They are the beautiful
embroidery of truth. courage. and manli
ness Must a man wear the collar OF a par
y ticular master before he can be counted Z
slave? Is rot the principle of slavery in
volved in all conditions of extreme depend
ence? The slave of society, of
BAD LAWS AND INHUMAN CUSTOMS,
may have no better master than the slave o
the plantation. I trust need not argue thii
point before an audience of anti-slavery
men. You know that our laws of property
were originally founded on conquest anC
violence, and that they still bear the marks
of their beginning. You know that thu
true mission of government is the protec
ton of the weak against the powerful, anC
that instead of taking pains to temper thu