Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1879-10-16
to find him there, wreaked its vengeance
on the poor helpless negro population of
the city! These were

to find him there, wreaked its ven geance
on the poor helpless negro population of
the cityl These were
GOOD OLD DEMOCRATIC DAYS.
There was no republican party to molest
or make afraid. We all remember how.
IN 1880, Geo. Thompson, the great English
phllanthropist, who had been mobbed at
| Old Plymouth, was also prevented by a
mob from addressing an assembly of thir-
ty ladies in the city of Boston, and forced
10 leave the country-ard that when the
moo failed to find him, it seized VIM.
Lioya Garrison, put rope around his
neck, dragged him through Wilson Lane
| 10 State street, where he would have been
| Torn pleceneal, but that he was rescued
and lodged for protection under the roof
OF that symbolic tempted of American
| freedom, the common Jail! And this, Mr..
| wilson tells us, was a mob-not gathered
from the purlieus of Boston, but from the
counting houses of State street. and the
| parlors or Beacon street! This was the
same ladies' anti.slavery society, which
the gifted Harriet Martineau blessed with
her approval and sraced with her distin-
guished presence, and for which she was
Immediately tabooed by the best society
of Boston,!
On the same day the Utica convention
was broken up, and the action of the mob
was so outrageous that Gerret Smith, o
son OF fortune. and, as he proved to be, a
son OF thunder, was converted by it, and
thencetorth laid the wealth of his fortune
and the wealth ofhi manhood and couI.
age on the altar of human fresdemi (Ap-
plause.) This was
A GOOD DAY FCB M0Bs,
for On this very same day Montpelier
signalized her devotion to oppression
and wong by mobbirg Samuel J. May,
and the president Of tbs bank and twen-
tyfive of her principal citizens ordered
him to leave. Who can forget, and vet
who can fully realize that as late as the
18th day of May, 1888, that beautiful
temple in Philadelphia, known as Penn
sylvania Hall, costing $4,000, and dedi-
Gated to free thought and free speech,
was burned to the ground by mob!
And then, as if to be consistent with
what was to follow, in later years, and
further to satiate its vengence, it burned
the asylum known as "Sheltcr for
Colored Orphans"
Mr.. Chairman, and fellow citizens,
well might this country then, well may
this country TO-DAY heed that Pers an
proverb, which says, beware of the
cries of the orphan, for his cries reach
the throne of the Almighty"
1t could not be otherwise than that
accursed mob spirit should claim its
martyr. 1t found him at last, when on
the 7th ef November, 1887, Elijah p
Lovejoy, at North Alton, fell riddled
with bullats and weltering in his own
blood. Then Old Faneuil Hall closed
her doors, and said that no remonstrancc
must be heard within her walls. And
then it was that new Boston rose out Of
the seal The old temple of liberty was
forced to open her doors and when the
roaring mob shook her from foundation
to turret, Tor the first time, Wendell Phil
lips, young unknown lawyer, rose and
without moments warning to anybody
hurled his fiery darts hither and thither
into the boiling mass. The mos, aston
ished and dazed for the moment, broke
forth in indescribable rage, and with
clenched fists yelled, shrieked, Missed,
"Take it backi" "Take it back!" Pale,
impassioned, inspired, he hurled the de-
fiance into their teeth, ~ will never take
it backI" And by the majesty Of his
power and the might Of his intellect he
COWCu tldG IIOD III Il
He did not take it back. And whatever
thought or action, God bless his noble
soul. Applause. He never has taken
it hack from that day to this. [Applause.l
Right there began new era in Ameri-
can politics. The way was opened which
seventeen years later made the formation
of the republican party necessity. Men
like Orestes A. Bronson, Edmund Quin-
cy, VIM. E. Charming, Ralph Waldo
Emerson, Henry Wilson, Charles Sum-
ner and hundreds of others girded on
their armor, and while they differed as
widely as men could as to means and
methods, On one thing they were all
united, and that was that come what
would, from the free soil of the north
this hellish spirit of human slavery
should be driven out. 1t might live ua
molested under municipal laws if it
could, but under the broad eges Of the
federal constitution, from that time forth
liberty not slavery must dominate.
[Great applause.l The die was cast and
the result was inevitable. True, slavery,
both in the south and in the north,
straightened it's lines and strcng gthened
its defences. 1t demanded new guaran-
ties, which sycophantic politicians and
corrupt commercial interests were only
too eager to grant; but it was this
LAST TURN OF THE WINCH
that broke the spring. The conscience
of the. nation reacted and the party whose
twenty fifth anniversary we celebrate here
to-day sprang full panoplied into lite and
power. Tremendous applause)
Reviewing now its career, retreading
the rugged paths over which it has
passed recasting the great war cloud un.
der which, through toll and tears, and
blood and sacrifice, it marched by faith
alone-tell me, men of Ohio, tell me, men of
Michigan, tell me, men of Wisconsin and
the northwest, if it ever gained anything
by trucking compromise or ignoble sur
render? (Cheers.) Look over the con
tests Of the past: note the men who have
borno its banner through the thick of the
fight and planted it again on the heights
of victory; tell me to-day, were they men
Of conviction, or were they men of con-
trivances Did they reTact, apologize,
shift and readjust their issues, year by
year, Or did they follow their conyic-
tions like the polar star Of destiny, let
ting it lead them whittier it would !?
When the flame of rebellion broke over
the land, OF what avail, then, were your
Crittenden Compromise, your grand COM
mittecs, your peace conventions, your mis-
cradle and sycophantic offers Of surren-
der? Two diverse civilizations, nurtured
under the same constitution and laws,