The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-04-19

orator instntively perceived and it determined the
character of his discourse.
He faced his audience with tranquil mien, and
beaming aspect that was never dmmed. He spoke,
and in the measured cadence of his quiet voice there
was intense feeling but defamation, passonrte
appeal no superficial and fegned emotion. 1t was
simple colloquy-a gentleman conversng. Uncon-
sciously and surely the and heart charmed
How was it done! All how did Mozart do it; how
Raphael The secret of the roses sweetness of the
birds ecstacy of the sunsets gorythat is the secret
OF genius and of eloquence. What was heard, what
was seen, was the form of noble manhood, the cour-
eous and self possessed tone the flow of modulated
speech sparkling with matchless richness OF lustra-
ton, with apt allusion and happy anecdote and ms
toric parallel, with wit and pitiless
invective, with meodious pathos, with
singing satire, with cracking epigram and
impid humor like the bright rippes that play around
the and steady prov of the resistess ship Like
illuminated Of odors, he gowed with concen-
trated and perfumed fire. The divine energy of his
conviction utterly possessed him, and his
pure and eloquent blood
Spoke in his cheek, and distinctly wrought
That one might almost say his body thought"
Was it Pericles swaying the Athenian multitude!
Was it Apollo breathing the music of the morning
from his lips! 1t was American patriot modern
son of liberty, with soul firm and as true as was
ever consecraed to unselsh duty, pleading with the
American conscience for the chained and speeches.
victims of American inhumanity
How terribly earnest was the anti-slavery contest
this generation little knows But to understand
Of the "" country When When he inc Joined the
Abolitionsts, and for than twenty years after
ward slavery sat supreme in the White House and
ministers and legislatures its ackeys 1t senced the
preacher in the pulpit it muzzled the editor at his
desk and the professor in his lecture room. 1t set
price upon the head of peaceful citizens robbed the
mails and denounced the vital principle of the Decar
alton OF independence as treason. In States whose
laws did not tolerate slavery, slavery ruled the club
and the drawing-room, the factory and the office,
swrggered at the dinnsr table and scourged, with
scoru, cowardy society. II tore the golden rule
| from school-books and from the prayerbo the
pictured benignity of Christ 1t prohibited in the
free States schools for the hated race and hunted
VIII oh tO al
pie to communicate with their representatives seized
territory to extend itsa and confirm its sovereignty
and plotted to steal more to make its empire impreg
nabe, and the free republic of the United States i'm
possible Scholars, divnes, men and women in every
earnest protest They sighed against hurricane.
There had been such protest in the country for two
centures-colonial provisions and restrictions-the
fiery voice of Whitfield in the South-the calm per-
suason of Woolman in the middle colonies-the hero
ism of Hopkins in Rhode Island-the eoquence of Rush
in Pennsylvania. There had been emancipation
societies at the North and at the South-arguments,
and appeals and threats in the congress of the con-
federation-in the constitutional convention-in the
Congress of the Unionthere had been the words and
the will of Washington-the warning of Jefferson
consenting testimony of the revered fathers of the
en pleading awsSa thee
finger of the world steadily pointing in
scorn. But here, after all the protest, and the
buke, and the endeavor the malign power which,
when the constitution formed, had been but the
shrinking Afreet bound in the casket, now towering
and haughtly defyng the conscience of the country
and the moral sentiment of mankind demanded abso-
Lutte control of the republic the price of unonthe
republic, anxious only to submit and to call submis-
sion craftsmanship.
THE VOICE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS.
IT, then the work of the revolution was to be saved
and independent America to become free America,
the first and paramount necessity to the
| country Agitation the duty of the hour. Garri
son was certainly not the first Abol;tionist no
Luther the first Protestant. But Luther brought
all the wandering and separate rays of protest TO
focus, and kindled the contest for religious
freedom. So when Garrison flung full
in the face of slavery the defiance
| of immediate and complete abolition,
slavery nstinctively foreseeng its doom, sprang
feet and joined with the heroism despair, in the
death grapple with Liberty, from which after gen
Grafton Liberty unbruised and victorious 1t is
hard for the survivors of generation, to which
abolitionst was a word suggesting the most odious
| fanaticism furious defamation at nonsenscal
and dangerous, grotesque and sanctimonious play
| ing with fire in powder magazine, to believe that
the of the two representative Abolitionsts will
| be written with sunbeam, as Phillips says of
| Toussaint, high over many an honored name. But
history looking before and after, readjusts conempor
airy judgments OF men and events. In all
| the essential qualities of heroic action, Luther
mailing his challenge to the church. upon the churchs
own door, when the church was supreme IN Europe
| William Tell; in the romantic legend, sereney
scornng to bow to the cap of Gesler, when Geser's
troops held all the market place not nober figures
than Garrison and Phillips, in the hour of the com
pete possession of the country by the power of sav
! erv demanding immediate and unconditional enamel
patton tone of apology, of depreciation or regret
no more becomes American in speaking of the
Abotonists than in speaking of the Sons of Liberty
in the Revolution, and every tribute of honor and
spect which gladly pay TO the ilustrous fathers of
American independence, is paid worthily to their
sons, the pioneers of American freedom. i
/ That freedom was secured indeed by the union of
many forces The abolition movement was moral
agitation. 1t voice crying in the wilderness. As
an Americanmoyement it was reproached for holding
/ aloof from American political method But. in the
order of time the moral awakening precedes political
action Politics are founded on compromise and ex-
pediency and had the abolition leaders paused to
parey with prejudice and interest and personal
| bton, in order to smooth and conciliate, and per
suade their duty would have been undone. When the
alarm bell at night has brought the aroused citizens to
the street they will organize their action But the
ringer of the bell betrays his trust when he to
| startle. To vote was to acknowledge the Consttu-
ton. To acknowledge the Constitution was to offer
:: premium upon slavery by granting more Pc
cation to return innocent to unspeakable degra
dation, and to shoot them down if, with thousand
fold greater than fathers they resisted OPP
preston Could Americans do this2 Could honest
men do this9 Could great country do this and not
learn later by CHASTITY experience the truth
which George Mason proclaimed-that Providence
Furnishes national sins by national calamities? The
Union said Wendell Phillips, with calmness that
enchanted while it appalled, the Union is called the
very ark of the American covenants but has not idola
try of the Union been the chief bulwark of slavery,
and in the words and deeds and spirit of the most We
hement Union saviors who denOunce agitation can
any hope of emancipation be described If then,
under the sacred charter of the Union slavery
has grown to this stupendous height, throwing the
shadow of death the land is not the Union it
exists the foe of liberty, and can We honestly affirm
that it is the sole surviving hope of freedom in the
world2 Long ago the great leaders of parties
hushed their voices and whispered that to speak
of slavery was to endanger the Union, Is not this
enough2 Sons of Otis and OF Adams, of Franklin
and Of Jay are we ready for union upon the ruins of
freedoml Delenda Carthago Delenda Carthage!
THE RALLYING OF THE HOSTS.
Even while he spoke there sprang up around him
the marshaled host of an organized political party
which, raising the Constitution banner of free
DOM marched to the polls to make the Union the eta
del of liberty. He indeed, had rejected the Consttu
ton and the Union the bulwark of slavery But he
and the political host widely differing, had yet