Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1885-06-19

telling into what depths of degradation
the nation might have sunk if the anti
slavery movement had not come in time
TO save us. Even then it was not too late
to have secured peaceful emancipation
if the North hat only been united in
seeking it. 1t was in the power of the
church and the pulpit, by the moral ana
spiritual forces at their command, to
break every fetter. AS the Rev Albert
Barnes said "There is no power ont OF
the church that could sustain slavery an
hour if it were not sustained in 1t. Not
blow need be struck. Not an unkind
word need be uttered All that
is needful is for each Christian man, and
for every Christian church to stand up III
the majesty of solemn testimony to
free themselves from all connection with
the evil and utter Il calm and deliberate
voice to the world, and the work Will be
done Mr.. Barnes was not the first to
utter this admonition. Other messengers
of truth spake the same words years be-
fore he opened his mouth but they were
spurned even us he was spurned. Church
and State were alike possessed with a
pro-slavery spirit and they Knocked and
derided tue prophets whom Providence
had raised up to preach deliverance to the
captives The shareholders were thereby
encouraged to resist the anti-slavery move
ment, in the belief that the North would
stand by them and they went on from
one step of aggression to another, until
finally they assailed the National flag,
when the flames of civil war burst FORTH,
and We're not eXtinguished until every
fetter and chain was melted. 1t was bet
ter so than that slavery should have been
perpetuated but how much more credit
able to us as n Nation would have been II
peaceful emancipation by the masters
themselves, acting under the persuasive
power of Christian truth
The reader will be glad 10 learn some
thing more than | have thus far told of
Judge Harrington. who and what sort
of man he was will be learned from an
extract of letter, written, at my Solici-
tation, by the Hon. f.. p. Walton of Mont
peler, one of the trustworthy historians
of Vermont
"rheophilus Harrington" says Mr.
Walton, was n judge of the ; lpreme
court of Vermont from December LIST,
1903, until his death, shortly after his re
election III 1873 Ole was emphatcally II
layman, and yet nominally Il lawyer, since
he was admitted to the bar of Rutland
county after he had served three terms as
Il judge of that county court, and about
the time of his election to the supreme
court) AS Il judge he was eminent for
his sterling common sense, his skill IN
detecting the justice of each case, and his
ignorance of and contempt for the qups
and quirks Of the laW-itlias special plead
ing. In an address by the Rev Phineas
White, published in the Rutland Hcrdld,
in 1916, the most that is known of him is
embraced His geneaogy is traced, on
the fathers side, to Connecticut i'll 1886,
and on his mothers, to Plymouth Colony,
in 1920. He came to Vermont, in 1883,
and picked up Il wife on the way settled
at Clarendon Spring, and raised family
of twelve children, eleven of whom were
in the district school together. He was a
farmer, unlearned, rough, uncouth, but Il
great Democrat of the Jefferson school.
Daniel Chapman, "a leading law
yer in Addison county, and a Federalist
said he would have case finely prepared
and argue it with every appearance OF
success, while Judge ii. was apparently
asleep through it all. Now, SAID Chip
man, think | have got him surely but
then the old bear would wake up and kick
Il bigger hole through that case than |
ever saw done IN my life by any other
Judge"
Certainly here is a man whom every
Vermonter and every American should
delight to honor, man of clear moral dis
cernment, who had the courage of his
convictions, and would not prostitute his
power as the magistrate of Il free COM
monwealth TO the base uses of the slave
hunter He was the North star of Aneri-
can Jurisprudence, by whose light, il only
1t had been generally followed, the nation
might have found peaceful way OF eS-
cape from the quagmre of slavery. No
marble is too white, no metal or stone too
enduring for his monument. | appeal to
the sons of Vermont, abroad as well rs at
home, to make speedy provision for the
erection upon the capitol grounds in Mont
pclier, or in some other suitable place, of
IA statue or monumental shaft in honor of
this too long neglected hero.