The Cecil Whig., 1879-06-14
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON.

I.fFUtHv IOS HIS well sad tnat HAD
i Mr.. Garrison been killed in the early days
r of his great contest, he would have been the
| Stephen of emancipation: hut happily for
l himself for his country, and for mankind,
he lived to be its Simeon. In the ripeness
I of years lie has departed in peace, his eyes
4 having seen the salvation. No American
Z of his time was more sincerely hated, SLAM
I dered, and opposed; none is sure.: great
I and pure renown. Thirty years ago the
= most respectable public opinion would have
said of his death by mob violence, as the
Massachusetts Attorney General said of
, Lovcjoy i'll Faneul Hall, " He died as the
fool dieth" But " nen at last he closed his
eyes serenely among his children, it was
with universe, and tender veneration that
the news Was told and heard. When the
authorities of Savannah requested those Of
Boston to suppress his inccndiary journal,
the courtly Mayor of Boston replied that
the delinquent was found i'll an obscure
of 4 negro boy, and that nothing need be
feared from any thing so socontemptible. But
the State of Georgia Indignantly set price
upon his head; his name was :: reproach:
'Society" abhorrcd him and his abolition
agitation: the Church denounced him: Con-
gress refused to consider abolition petitions:
the Po>tmaster-ienera robbed the mails to
throw out the literature that flowed from
Garrson's inspirations; Great cities We're
exasperated; mobs burned churhes and
halls: the Garrisonians were pitiessly hunt
ed, abused, imprisoned, murdered: the con-
tcmptible printerin the obscure room, print
ing his paper with the aid of negro boy,
WAS the impulse of movement under
which the country rocked and reeed and
strobe forward to civil war: and the leaders
words We're the indomitable spirit of his
followers: /" | will not equivocate, will not
excuse, | will not retreat single inch, and
| will be heard" He did not equivocate,
nor excuse, nor retreat. and he was heard.
His country heard: the world heard: men
and God heard: and because he did not ex-
cuse, nor equivocate, nor retreat, he died
blessed of all men in a land without slave.
Americans of any party or section would
be unworthy their country and its charac-
ter if they did not heartily admire the un-
quailing and sublime courage of this Ameri-
can. In the purely moral sphere of argu-
ment and appeal, denouncing the Constitu-
ton because, in his judgment, it did equiv
ocate, and the church because, rs he thought,
it did excuse, and political parties because,
to his view, they did retreat Garrison, like
Charles Sumner in politics, embodied that
n1n ,f ,Is
ton upon which the final, terrible, accumu-
lated onset of slavery was effectually bro
ken. To complain of Garrison's "tone'
and manner and '' method " is to COM
plain of Paul and Luther 1t is to regret
that the inconoclast does not spare the idol.
The American civilization of liberty, of
education, of the free press and of free
speech, would have lacked rirility if its
irrepressible conflict with the denial of hui
man rights had not produced so aggressive
and uncompromising n spirit as GarrisonS.
His is much more incisivc and masculine
historical figure than that of Wilberforcc,
or of Clarllson, of Franville Sharp No
man in history ever more bravey under
took a more tremendous task, and certainly
ment of his labors We speak of "his"
task and /" his labors not as if he We're
actually alone, nor us if the great moral
movement which he symbolized depended
upon his life for its own. But he was,
nevertheless, the incarnation of the impulse.
His life was wholly and absolutely conse-
Grated to the work. His will led to it. 1t
took its name from him, and his associates
gladly and proudly called themselves Gar
risonians There was no selt-seeking i'll his
action. There was no kind of assumption.
He was officially president of the American
Antislavcry Society because he was really
its sold and leader. Others We're more
learned, more eloquent, more witty: but he
was the cause. He gladly and warmly
recognized every service to it. He was
always untiring and industrious, and always
poor Garrison was one of Mr. Lincoln's
"plain people" and like Lincoln he showed
that such "plain people are the truest
Americans.
1t is career which may be well ponderel
by all young Americans. None i'll our his
tory is more cordial to the qualities in our
national character which most need to be
tostered. That calm courage, that invinci-
Bile independence, which
"daret to be
In the right with two or three
and would have stood absolutely alone with
the same cheerful equanimity-theSe are
what we need most in a country governed
by maioritieS, and where agreement with
the majority is the high-road to place and
preferment. 1t was n simple character and
Il simple career. Fidelity to conviction, an
overpowering conscience, and unconquerable
will, a perfect courage, an equable temper
ance, frugality, and the happy chance OF
birth at time and in a country where the
paramount interest was moral question
which at once took possession of his mind
and conscience-these are the elements of
the extraordinary life which has just closed.
| The Young American may learn from 1t that
independencc and moral tenacity are not
without rewards, also. besides those of
satisfied conscience. 1t would have been
abSured to suggest to Harrison Gray otis,
the Mayor of Boston, elegant, accomplished,
eloquent, that the poor printer whom lc tie
picted in the obscure room, aided by negro
boy would be an illustrious and historic
American; or to Edward Everett, the Gov
ernor of Massachusetts, who thought that
The LiJegator ought to bc indicted, that its
editor would be remembered with the Wash
inuton whom Everett so gratefully celc-
brate,l Massachusetts, will not forget her
later Otis and her accomplished Everett,
but she will remember her Garrison with
| the elder Otis and Samuel Adams. His
position in history is unique, because, al
| though of immense political influence, it it
| that of a moral returmer, and not of Il States
man. Mr.. Garrison was Il non-resistant,
| and he did not vote. 1t is often said that
he would have accomplished nothing upon
| his own principles, because voting is the
only way of making opinion effective. The
| reply to this is the fact. He did not vote,
and would not Vote hut the voting turned
at last upon his principles and his views
| became the policy of the most powerful and
patriotic party in American history. Pure,
unseltish, heroic, devoted, triumphant, he is
one of the most emininet of representative
Americans.
! =" For what am l., =" he said in 4 cOnvo-
| .St.. ,..I'