Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-06-06

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pulse that bid him serve the slave! Well, he
is only another instance, only one, added to
the great roll Of the Washingtons and the
lIampdens, whose root is not ability, but
character; that influence which, like the
great Masters Of Judea, spreading through
the centuries, exhibits the great truth that
the world suffers its grandest changes not by
genius, but by the more potent control of
character. 1t was an earncstness that would
take no denial, that consumed opposition in
the intensity of it's convictions, that knew
nothing but right. As friend after friend
gathered slowly, one by one to his side, in
that very meeting Of dozen, it was his com
pelling hand, his utter unwiingness to tenn
per or qualify the utterance that finally dcdi-
Gated the first organized movement. the
Massachusetts, auti-slavery society, to the
doctrine of immediate emancipation. He
seems to have understood THAT boy without
experience-he seems to have understood by
instinct that righteousness is the only thing
that will finally compel submission that one
is always n majority with God He seems to
have known it at the very outset, taught of
God, the herald and champion, God-endowed
and God sent to arouse a nation
And then look at the unquailng courage
with which he faced the successive obstacles
that confronted him! Modest, believing at
the outset that America could not be as cor
rupt as She seemed to exhibit herself he
waits at the door of the churches. kneels to
leading clcrgymen, beseeches a voice from
the sanctuary Il consccrated protest from the
pulpit. To his utter amazement, confound-
ed, he learns, by probing it, that the church
can give him no help, but on the contrary,
surges into the movement in opposition. Sc
rene, this boy in his youth and conviction,
astounded, perhaps, by the unexpected reve-
lation, simply turns his footsteps and an
nounces "a church, a Christianity that keeps
peace with the oppressor is no Christianity"
and goes on his way to supplement the reli-
gious element which the church had gotten
into alliance with sin by deeper religious
faith by q grandor Christian education. Sets
himself 10 work. that solitary evangelist, to
make Christians of fifteen millions of people,
| am not exaggcrating. You know. older
men, who can go back to that period, | know,
that when one, kindred to a voice that you
have heard to-day whose pathway Garrison's
bloody feet had made easier for his treading,
in the few years that preceded his coalition,
when he uttered in pulpit in Boston Il few
strong words, injected in the course Of n SER
mon, his venerable father Of between 20 and
50 years was met the next morning and his
hand SHAKEN bya sympathizing friend. Col
onel, you have my sympathy. / cannot tell
you how much | pity you" what" said
the brusque old man, what is your pity 2"
well, / hear that your son went crazy at
Kings chapel yesterday Such was the ut
ter indifference. Bloody steps had then
smoothed the pathway for years for other
men to tread but insanity was the only kind
hearted excuse that partial friends could find
for sympathy with such madman.
Well, if anything strikes one more promi-
ncntly than another in this career to your
astonishment, younger men, you may say
it is the plain, sober, unmixed common sense.
the robust English element which underlay
Cromwell which explains Hampden, which
gives the color that distinguishes lGiOin Eng
land from 1890 in France. Plain, robust.
well-balanced common sense. No erratic mis-
take; no enthusiasm that got beyond the
feeling of earth, rising unsupported in the
air no mistake Of method; no miscalcula-
tion Of time; no unmeasured confidence in
forces; no miscalculation of opposition.
Whoever mistook, Garrison seldom inistook.
Fewer mistakes in that long agitation of 30 |
years can be charged to his account than to
any American. Erratc as men supposed him.
intemperate in utterance, mad in Judgment
an enthusiast gone crazy, the moment you
sat down at his side, patient in explanation,
clear in statement, sound in judgment, meas
urlng carefully every step, calculating every
assault, measuring the force to meet it, never !
anticipating events, always patient. waiting |
until the time ripened. Fit for a great lead |
er. Gull if you please, from the statesmen
who obeyed him, whom he either whipped |
into submission, or summoned into existence,
Gull from among them the man whose career, |
fairly examined, exhibits fewer miscalcula-
tions, and fewer mistakes than that career
which is just ended
know what | claim. As Mr. Weld has |
said, am speaking to-day to men that judge |
by their ears, by the reports heard, 10y the |
rumors that they have gathered. History, |
30 years hence, dispelling your prejudices,
will do justice to the grand sweep of the or
bit which, as my friend said, to-day we are
hardly in a condition to measure As Cole |
ridge AYERS The true haters of tomorrow
will give the right name to the true haters of |
to-day, for even such men the stream of time
bears onward" l do not fear that, if my
words are remembered by the next genera |
ton, they will be thought unsupported or ex-
travagant. When history touches the sources |
of New England character and northern life, |
when men begin to open up and examine the |
hidden springs that make the foundation and |
have effected the changes in American life |
within the last half century, they will remem-
Der Parker, that Jupiter of the pulpit; they |
will remember the grand, potent, unmeasur- |
ed influence that came to us from the secu- |
sion Of Concord they will do justice to the |
mastery craftsmanship which presided for |
part of his life over the efforts of Webster. |
but they will recognize that there was only |
one man north of Mason and DiXon's line |
who met squarely, with an absolute logic, the |
impregnable position of John c. Calhoun, |
only one brave far-sighted, keen, logical in
tellect, that discerned that there were two |
moral tools in the universe, right and wrong; |
that when one was asserted, only subterfuge |
and evasion would be sure to confront moth |
ing but defeat.
Here lie the brain and the heart here lies |
the godly-gifted, statesmanlike intellect, log- |
cal as Jonathan Edwards, brave as Luther
who confronted the logic of South Carolina
with an assertion direct and broad enough to
make an issue and necossitate a conflict of two
civilizations. 1t is true, as New Orleans COM
plains to-day in her journals, that that man
brought upon America everything that can
be called the disaster of the last 20 years
and it is equally true that if you seek through
the hidden causes and unheeded events for
the hand that wrote emancipation on the stat
ute book and on the flag it lies still there to-
day.
dare not enter that home There is only
one other marked and, as it seems to me,
unprecedented, element in this catalogue of
qualities. His was the happiest life that l
ever witnessed. No need for pity. There
need no tear fall over his life. No man gath
cred into his bosom fuller sheaf of blessing,
delight and joy. In his 20 years, there were
not arrows enough in the whole quiver of the
church or state to wound him. As Guizot
said once from the heights of the tribune,
Gentlemen, you cannot get high enough to
reach the level of my content" So Garrison,
from the serene level of his daily life, from
the faith that never falterod, was able to say
to American hate, "You cannot reach up to
the level that can affect my home mood, my
daily existence" have seen him intimately
for score of years, when raining on his
head was the hate of the community, when
in every possible form of expression maligni-
ty let him know that it wished him all sorts
Of harm. never saw him unhappy; l never
saw the hour that gloom poisoned his exist
ence; never saw the moment that serene,
overhowing, abounding faith in the rectitude
of his motive, in the certainty of his success
did not lift him above all possibility of being