Knoxville Whig and chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1875-1882, 1875-03-10

larger in history than any which has
taken place for eighteen centuries.
! No man Of this defendants fame has
ever been called upon to answer such
| charge in court of justice. What
a spectacle has been presented in this
City of Churches. Every day for eight
weeks this aged man, who has been a
large and various contributor to the
literature of our English tongue, and
who never wrote a word that was not
inspired by the love of God, of nature
and of his fellow-meu who has moved
with sublimest eloquence greater null
titudes than any living orator and
who never spoke save for justice, truth
and virtue; who has convinced, rescu-
ed, instructed and cOmiorted unuum-
bered thousands Of erring, struggling,
suffering souls, counting his own life,
fortune aud reputation as nothing, IL
by their risk or sacrifice he could save
the humble aud the weak. This man,
whose fame encircles the earth and
whose name is honored and beloved
wherever Christianity bears sway, has
been dragged by malignant conspira-
tors into this Court to answer the vile
and odious charge which the evidence
| of long time outside of these walls,
no less than the evidence produced
within them, brands indelibly as lie.
| Day 10y day he passed along our
| streets with hi5Nbrave and true wife to
meet the unmerited indignity of this
arraignment. Strong men have been
touched with mingled pity and wrath
at the sight, and women have turned
aside to weep. 1t is an outrage which
posterity will avenge. This fair city
will yet boast among her proudest
monuments the statue of him who
conferred upon her such glory and re-
ceived within her gates such tortures.
| All who had part in this crowning
drama of his life will be remembered
with execration or praise. Those who
| falsely accused, those who weakly
doubled, those who cowardly forsook
him, those who were swift to believe
evil on the one side and on the other,
those who steadfastly trusted and
those, gentlemen of the jury, who Just
ly judged. Yes, gentlemen, by the
judgment which you here pronounce
you will, yourselves, be judged at the
tribunal of after ages. What you do
here will never die. When these
scenes shall have passed away, when
lie who presides over this trial shall
rest in the silent slumbers of the dead,
when the sea you occupy shall be
filled by your children or your chill
dren's children, strangers from distant
climes will come to view the place from
which was given back to the world,
free from cloud or passing shado~. the
name of Henry Ward Brechrr. Even
when centuries shall have rolled "A q uy,
when these marble wall. shall ue all
crumbled aud drcayed, this trial will
be remembered, with it, ull-apsorhing
intcre-i. MOu. eloquent Iuui, the
words uG IlIo dctrudaIr, more, iu,pir.
iug thrU his d,'d> ~ magn4uImity,
morr powerful amonG m-u lhuu the
wA ut all his
LIFE "F USEFULNESS AID VIItTUE
vii br the ie,ltal uf hj- gprruc iaith
aud lmrruce under dire affection aud
deadly assault. Heroes are admired,
hut !, Is The mauArs vino are briuved.
No the triumphant pruceSsiur aud The
loud hos Inna, bur The cross, th,. thurn
crown, the sepulrhr- c"uqu+r the
world, and since the huurut the Divine
Sufferer no follower II ChIi,t has borne
the cross in vain. Gem iemen. do you
believe in Coo? ? Then you viii recog-
nize to-day wuat the generations 10
come will ~ clearly see, what rh- day
Of revelation viii hlazp furth in letters
of immoral liyhr-thr work OF Gods
approval upon this His faith al, up
right, suffering servant, " hom He hath
hitherto guided, sustained ami blessed /;
whom, in the hour of tribulation, He
hath not forsaken, and whom, by all
the truth OF His eternal promise and
all the resources "f His almighty pow
er, II" will sur. rr~cue and reward /;
for "th0Ggh n"nd Join in hand, the
wicked shall "a be unpunished, but
the seed Of the rl, hteous shall he de-
v--pd ~