Litchfield enquirer., 1879-06-05
GARRISON.


 veteran aboltionist, has drawn forth many elo- quent tributes to the character and services of of that wonderful American agitator, none of which, however, equal the noble oration of that grand old survivor of the anti-slavery ad; vance ce-guard-Wendell Phillips The life and career of Garrison is the most wonderful in- stance on record in American history of the controlling power of right over wrong. This obscure young printer began his life-work with two months imprisonment in Maryland jail for denouncing the interstate slave trade as domestic piracy" It was the opening gblund- CT of Slavery in it's contest with Abolitionism No doubt Henry Clay felt this when he offer ed to pay Garrisons fine. Arthur Tappan had indeed, been before him in advancing the mon- ey necessary for the release of the prisoner, but the generous offer of the Kentucky slave holder showes how much true chivalry there was in the old South, as yet unheated in con- test of such unprecedented bitterness, and of such vital importance to them.
 From Maryland, Garrison went to Boston and began the publication of 'THE LIBERIA TOR" Here he met spirit scarcely less in- | tolerant than that which he had left behind him in Maryland. Daniel Webster, the cham- | pion of the Constitution, and Lyman Beecher, | the champion of orthodoxy, ignored the new gospel Garrison had come to preach. | Once a respectable Boston mob led him through their streets with a rope about his neck; at another time he would have been lynched but for the protection of jail. The worst city of the South is today more tolerant of the Republicansm which threatens thelr property with confiscation, New York is today more tolerant of the Con- munism which denounces all property as rob- bery, than was the Boston of half century since of a theory which affected no property in Massachusetts, or within hundreds of miles of Massachusetts, and which that state had countenanced so far as to free all the slaves within her own boundaries. So greatly has Aboltionism enlarged, throughout the whole country, the practical tolerance of opinions generally supposed to be pernicious to society.
 Persecution did not bend the purpose of the great agitator; t.only raised him up friends. All the weight of Webster, the eminence of Everett, the persuasivenass of Choate, crying, "Hush!" could not prevail against the elo- quence of Garrison, of Parker, of Phillips de- nouncing the giant sin. A single generation saw all New England, and most of the North, revolutioniZed. The orthodox children of the orthodox Beecher, fighting against slavery, had captured the pulplts which had once re- sounded with defences of the "peculiar sys- tem," and had turned their artillery against the enemy; Sumner, succeeding but not fol- lowing Webster, was fighting Garrison's bat ties on the floor of the Senate.
 Now, however, the men whose steadfast ad- herence to one just principle had reused the anti slavery spirit to political action generally gave place to the supper race of politicians who or ganized Republicanism into winning politi- cal force. Garrisons great work had been ac- complished. His fervent, cumulative temper, his lrreclaimable independence of thought and action unfitted him for any place in the dis ciplined ranks of political partisanshp. Though he could lead all men, he could follow no man. He fought nobly throughout, but always as a scout at the front, or on the flank of the main army, never in subordination to any commander.
 We wish to call attention to the fact that the anti-slavery men were among the first not ed independents" of American politics Even after their ideas had begun to be popular, and tha tu hod It's allies, not it's subordnates. The closing raid of Old John Brown into Virginia was a distinctive Abolition movement, in defiance of Republicanism no less than of Democracy. No career better indicates the position held by the 'agitator," the independent" in Ameri- can politics, than that of Garrison. He never held an office not even the most insignificant, as reward for his life devotion and his ines timable services to what became a popular and q winning cause It is only the political partisan-hodng with slight variation the creed of his sect-that is in the line of promotion in American politics. The ''in- dependent who expects anything more sub- stan,ial than the respect of his fellow citizens will find himself egregiously mistaken. The greatest of the old Abolitionists, Garrison, Parker, Phillips, Emerson, Greeley, received no political prcierment. They have been held in high estimation by the American people, but they have always been distrusted by polit- ical parties, even by the one their efforts had made possible. Neither Republicanism nor Democracy ever trusted Horace Greeley, not because he was not honest, earnest, full of the love of high and noble things, but because, through all his seeming partisanship, they could always discern the independent" Conser- vatism-and nothing is more conservative than American party politcs-ceuld never forgive the rampant radicalism of the old Tribune.
 Though one cannot but feel that gross in- justce-a peculiarly American injustice-has been done the old anti-slavery leaders, by people now Abolitionists themselves, in the persistent exclusion from office of the very men through whose teachings they had become such, this ingratitude is not without it's uses. It secures Independence from degenerating- as partisanship so often does-into mere self ishness The American who declares his po- l'litical independence has abundant warning Though his peculiar views prove correct and become ultimately popular, he must rest satls- fled, as Emerson. Parker, Garrison and Phillips have done-but as Horace Greeley never quite could do-with the simple consciousness of having deserved we'll of his country.
 At Washington, Monday night, the Demo cratic caucus committee held prolonged ses- ssion, till two o'clock in the morning. It was finally agreed to pass the general legislative bill; but seperate bill is to be sent to the President making special appropriations for courts, and denying any funds for payment of fees of supervisors and for arrests at elections.