Litchfield enquirer., 1879-07-10

1 tied gOltlng-all enforced on him by the doc
 tor as the best medicine-have put an end to l the old bankers somnambulistic rambles.- ] Ct0m5er's Journal.
 THE HOUR AND THE MAN. | No careful student of history can fall to be 1 struck by the fact that in every crisis of hu- | man affairs men have been raised up with ] special qualifications for the work that needed 1 to be done at that particular time. The hour l strikes for the achievement of a great reform, and 10 a man appears upon the stage, com
 missioned and equipped of God for the task
 He gives the key mote for rallying thousands
 he sounds the charge against an iniouitous in-
 stitution, mighty in aspect, and ripening for 1 destruction. He calls nation to repentance 1 for it's crimes against humanity, and warns it | of the Divine retributiOns for sin. Such men are the prophets of God in their generation
 misrepresented, persecuted, maligned, and
 sometimes slain but always honored of God and sure at last to be honored of men. What catalogue of such men, ''of whom the world
 was not worthy" might be culled from the pages of history-men whose bloody footsteps
 are the waymarks of human progress, and to l whom, under God we owe what is most valu-
 able in our civilization, and most beneficent in ! the application of Christianity to society and l it's institutions.
 One of the greatest of all this host, the
 prophet of one of the grandest reforms that the
 world has ever witnessed, has just gone to his grave, crowned with immortal bays and wept by the good of all the earth. The name of Will
 liam Lleyd Garrison, for almost generation
 least out as evil," has become at last the syn
 onym of all that is noblest and grandest in hu-
 man character, and l am sure that its luster
 will grow brighter and brighter with the lapse of time.
 Mir. Garrison began his great work of sum-
 morning this nation to break the letters of the slaves almost fifty years ago and he pursued 1 it unfiinchingly and consistently until his pur-
 pose was achieved. His work was marred by
 no false step, nc forgetfulness of great princi- ples, no mean ambition, no eXaltatiOn of self
 at the expense of truth, and no compromise
 with the powers of evil. He started right. In
 other words, he planted himself intelligently and squarely upon Gods law of eternal justice and humanity, and So had no mistakes to cor rect, no steps to retrace. It is not any clearer | to me that Moses was commissioned to lead l the children of Israel out of the house of bon dage, that Eh jah was sent of God to rebuke ! the iniquity of Ahab, or that Jesusof Nazareth l q speak with reverence) came into the world to ''bear witness to. the truth than it is that
 Mir. Garrison was raised up by Divine Provi-
 dence to deliver this republic from the sin and
 crime of slavery. The circumstances of his
 appearance were remarkable. The nation was
 fast asleep, and heard not the rumblings of the earthquake that threatened her destruction. The state was morally paralyzed the pulpit
 was dumb; the church needed not the cry of l the slave. Commerce, greedy of gain, piled
 her hoards by the unpaid toll of the bondman.
 Judgment was turned away backward; Justice
 stood afar off; Truth was fallen in the street;
 and Equity could not enter. The hands of the people were defled with blood, their fingers
 with iniquity; their lips spoke lies; their ! tongues muttered preverseness Men talked of slavery in that day (when they talked at alb with an incoherence like that of Bedlam, with moral blindness and perverseness like
 that of S0dom and Gomorrah. That in this
 hour of thick darkness voice was heard plead ing, trumpet.tongued, for immediate emanci-
 patton, as the duty of every master and the right of every slave, seems to us now one of the most signal illustrations of the immanence of God in human affairs. must believe that
 that voice, crying in the wilderness and calling the people to repentance, was divinely inspir- ed-not, indeed, in miraculous but certainly in a providential sense It spoke of Gods out ragged law of justice and love. It pleaded for
 the inalienable rights of man. It rebuked a
 sin that was preying upon the nation life.
 In short, Mir. Garrison in the order of Di- vine Providence, wasthe man for that hour. No prophet ever spoke from more solemn sense of dutWto God and man, or with aclearer apprehension of the meaning and scope of his mission; and certainly no one ever consecrat- ed himself more unselfishly or unreservedly to
 his work. May not also say that no one was
 ever called to grander or noblcr task than
 that which he undertook? His chief qualifi- cations for that task were a qlickened moral sense that no sophstry could deceive, judg-
 ment that comprehended in it's grasp every
 aspect of the great question, a courage that knew no fear, and a consecratien to the Divine Will so unqualified as to exclude every mean
 ambition, every selfish suggestion. His moth- CT was woman Ot rare and noble character,
 and it seems probable that it was from her that
 he inherited those special traits that fitted him for his work.
 My acquaintance with MT. Garrison began in the autumn of 1880, soon after his release
 by Arthur Tappan from the Baltimore jail, and
 my intimacy with him continued to the close
 of hls life. I was closely associated with him
 in the ''Day of Small Things the memory of
 which Lowell has embalmed in lines that will
 cheer the heart of every persecuted reformer
 for centuries to come. l often saw his bed
 resting upon the floor of the s'obscure hole'
 described by Harrison Gray Otis, and more.
 than once shared with him and his partner
 their frugal meal in that same ..hole." The
 memory of those days can never be obliterated
 from my mind. MT. Garrison was then in his
 twenty sixth year, young man of a noble
 presence and most engaging manners. His face bore the stamp of rare nobility, and was radiant with sacred enthusiasm. His con
 versation was instructive, and no one could lis
 ten to him without being convinced ot his deep sincerity and earnestness. That printing office, ''unfurnitured and mean," as Lowell
 says, was the scene of many interviews of
 memorable character. Those who called were, for the most part. obscure men but oc-
 casionally some eminent citizen, who had seen
 stray copy of the Li6eratOr, had the curiosi-
 ty to seek the acquaintance of the young edi-
 tor and to hear from his own lips an exposi- tion of his principles and plans, There met for the first time John G. Whittier, the Quak- CT poet, then scarcely known to fame, and lis tened with rapt attention to his conversation to his conversation with the anti-slave:y re- former. The two men were in finest harmo- ny; and Whittier's eyes, glowing like coals of fire, foretold the songs of freedom which af-
 terward stirred the hearts of the people and cheered those who were struggling in an un- popular but righteous cause. Mir. Garrison l received all visitors with courtesy, explaining | to them his purposes and plans and inviting | their cooperation. Some were won to the | cause, while others went away impressed, but
 doubtful. The hours of daylight consumed 1 in these conversations often made it necessary for him to toll at the case or with his pen to a
 late hour at night, in order to get his paper out | on time. But he made no complaint.
 The LiberGt0r stung the South to madness ; and during the first year MT. Garrison received from that quarter, through .the mails, many \ : l. l Anai0