Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-06-06
MenhcII phiIIin- on Gnrrison.
[From his Address at Garrisons Funeral In the Fir
Chnrch ht Ko1bnry. Mass.. MAY 2slh.l


Church at Ro1bury, Mass May 2sthl
The youngest of the great names that will
be compared with his was between 80 and TO
when his first anti-slnvory word was uttered.
This man was in Jail for his opinions when
he was Just 23 He had confronted nation
in the very bloom Of his youth. 1t could be
said of him more than of any other American
in our day, and more than of any great lead
or that | chance now to remember in any
epoch, that he did not need circumstances,
outside influence some great pregnant event
to press him into service, to provoke him
into thought, to kindlc him into enthusiasm.
! His moral nature is as marvellous as the intel
| lect of Pascal II seemed TO be born fully
| equipped. When think Of the mere dates,
when think that ut some - years of age,
while Christianity aud statesmnnship, the
experience, the genius Of the land, We're wan
dering in the desert, aghast, amazed and
cOnfoundcd over great evil, this boy sound
cd. found, invented the talisman, "Immedi-
ate, unconditional emancipation on the soil. "
| You may say lac borrowed it-truc enough
from the lips of woman on the other side
Of the Atlantic but he was the only Ameri-
can, just on the verge of life, whose nature
seemed so perfectly open TO the truth that it
answered to the far-oh bugle note, and wrote
it instantly rs N guide to the people.
Young men, you have no conception Of the
miracle Of the insight for it is not given to
! you to remember with any yyidncsS the
! blackuoss OF the darkness of ignorance and
! Indifference that bruuded over what was called
the moral element Of the American people
! When think OF him, as Melancthon said Of
Luther "day 10y day grows the wonder fresh
| at the RrEenes, Of the moral and intellectual
| life that God gave him ut the very opening
| Then you hear that boys lips announcing the
| stat, smaniikc solution written in words of
| light that absolutely blinded the pcoplo-thc
! great Goi-given solution Of whnt had CON
founded the people, blinded the churches
| and made statesmen dumb. With equal sin
| gle-hearted devotion, in words that have been
so often quoted few years afterward, with
those dungeon doors behind him, be enters
on his career. | marvel again at the instinc-
| tive sagacity. Archimedes said "Gve me
| something to stand on and | will move the
| world" O'Connell leaned back on three mil
| lions of Irishmen, all aflame with sympathy.
| Cobdens hands were held up by the whole
manufacturing interests of Great Britain
his hands were full of the wealth Of the mid
| die classes Of the country, and behind him,
| in fair proportions, stood the religious con
yictions of England. Marvellous as was their
agitation, as you gaze upon il in its success
sive stages and analyze it, you are astonished
at what they invented for tools And yet
this boy stood alone, utterly alone, at first.
There was no sympathy anywhere his hands
were empty. No matter if he starved on
bread and water, he could command the use
Of types, that was all. Trade endeavorcd to
crush him; the intellectual life Of America
| disowned him.
My friend Weld has said the church was
one thick cloud looming over him in the
| darkness. Ont Of it Numbered and lightcned
a maliguity that could not find words to ex-
press its hate. At that moment, boy. with
neither training nor experience! Whence
| came that instructive knowledgey Where did
he get that sound common sense? Whence
did he summon that almost unerring sagacity
which started agitation on an unknown field
never committing an error, provoking year
by year additional enthusiasm gathering as
he advanced helper after helper to his side
| marvel at the miraculous boy. You must
remember that all these years it was an i'm
mature youth, who never had had training,
any administrative experience, never had any
thing but an ambition to launch himself into
the columns of the press. lie had no means.
Where he got whence he summoned, how he
created the elements which changed 1924 into
1881, tLtt even made America mob him in
every great city, is a marvel which none but
older men than | can adequately analyze and
explain. lie said 10 "a friend who rcmon-
stratcd with him on the energy of his utter
whelmed with icebergs. What language can
| choose sufficiently hot to melt single soul
into sympathy Wen, that dungeon Of 1924,
that universal apathy, that deafness Of soul,
that contempt ofintcllect, in 10 years he chang
changed the whole country afame. He made
every single home, Pre- IS, pulpit, and Senate
chamber debating society, with his right
and wrong for the subject. Fastened on that
daily life was IL malignant attention and criti-
cism, such as no American has ever endured.
l will not call il Il criticism Of hate that is
not strong enough. Maliguity searched him
with candles from the moment that he uttered
that Godgiyen solution Of the problem to the
moment when he took the hand of the nation
and wrote out the statute that made it law.
Malignity searched these 80 years with can
dies, and yet it is on record that even that
never lisped suspicion Of, much less
charge-ncyer lisped n suspicion of anything
mean, dishonorable, dishonest No man, how
ever mad with hate, however impetuous in
assault, ever dared to hint that there could
be a touch on his escutcheon, unutterably
bright, without a stain.
Now if you will contemplate this boy enter
ing the arena, confronting a nation and all
its forces, utterly poor, with no sympathy
from any quarter, conducting wide o-spread
and profound agitation for 10, 20, 80 years.
amid the hate of everything strong in Ameri-
can life, and the contempt otherwise of every
thing influential and no STAIN not the slight
est shadow of one rests on his escutcheon
Summon me the public men, the men who
have put their hands to the helm of the vessel
of state since 1889, and of whom can that b.
said, although love and admiration, that al
most eliminated in worship, attended the
steps of some of them. Then look at the
work he did My friends have spoken of his
influence. What American ever held his
hand so long and so powerfully on the helm
of social, intellectual and moral America
There have been giants in our day Great
men God has granted in widely different
spheres earnest men, men whom public ad-
miration lifted early into glad power | shall
venture TO name some of them. Perhaps you
will say it is not usual on an occasion like
this, but long waiting truth needs TO be ut
tered in an hour when the great example is
still absolutely indispensable TO inspire the
effort, to guide the motive, TO cheer the hope
of the nation not yet in the promised land.
I want to show you the vast breadth and
depth that this mans name signifies. We
have had Webster in the Senate; We have
had Lyman Beecher in the pulpit we have
had Calhoun at the head of a section We
have had a great philosopher Mt Concord with
his inspiration that penetrated the young
mind of the northern states. They are the
four men that history perhaps will mention
somewhere near the great force whose closing
in this scene We commemorate to-day. And
yet, if any one remembers, not the made
quate means merely at this mans control,
not the bitter hate simply that he confronted,
not the vast work that he must be allowed to
have done measured by the opposition he
encountered and the strength he held in his
hands, but dismissing all those considerations,
measuring nothing but the breadth and depth
of his hold, his grasp on American character,
social change, general progress, what mans
signet has been set SO deep, planted so for
ever on the thoughts of his epochl Trace
home intelligently, trace home to their sources
the changes that have come over us in 30
years, social, political, intellectual and relig-
ious, and you win find close at the sources of
the Mississippi this boy with hisproclamation
The great party that put on record the stat
ute of freedom was made up of the men whose
conscience he quickened and whose intellect