St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1889-12-12
PEACHAM.
Death of oliver Johnson.

Oliver Johnson, the veteran abOh-
ZIONIST and editor, died at his home
in Brooklyn on Tuesday afternoon,
Dec. 10. Mr.. Johnson was born in
Peacham, Dec. II, 1909. His boy
hood was spent on the home farm.
When at the age of sixteen he was
in the office of the Vermont Watch
man at Montpelier, of which Ezekiel
P. Walton was then proprietor. He
met William Lloyd Garrison in 1880,
and while listening to Garrison's elo
| quence in behalf of the abolition of
slavery, became an ardent disciple of
the cause. In 1881 he began on his
own account the publication of the
| Christian Soldier in Boston, and the
| following year was one of the twelve
who organized the abolition party.
| In 1910 he took charge of the Anti
| Slavery Standard. He had been an
editor on the New York Tribune, the
Christian Union and Evening Post.
Mr.. Johnson's brother Leonard is
still living in Peacham and Mrs. E.
| w. Clark is a niece.
Harper's Weekly of November 80
had very appropriate notice of Mr..
| Johnson from which these extracts
are taken: His name is not gener-
ally familiar, but he is the last sur
| vivor of a historic body of twelve
| men who organized the abolition
movement which ended in the consti-
tutional prohibition of slavery. The
only one of the twelve names which
is really known beyond very small
circle is that of Garrison, who is
| among the most famous of Ameri-
cans The almost universal and in
dignant hatred of the abolitionists,
the mob fury to which they were
subject, and the eXecrat tons with
which they were pursued, make one
of the extraordinary chapters in the
history of the country. Yet they are
as worthy of honor as the earlier
revolutionary sons of liberty. They
demanded immediate and unrecom-
pensed emancipation, but relied
wholly upon peaceful means, and
gave no countenance to violence or
instruction. Their movement was
a moral appeal to the American con-
science Garrison and his adherents
refused even to vote, for they would
not acknowledge constitution
which recognized slavery. This posi-
ton led to a break in the original
body, resulting in the liberty party,
and then by union of anti-slavery
wings and democrats, the free-soil
party, and finally the republican
party. These were all conscience
parties, and they all sprang from the
steady and uncompromising abOli
ton denunciation of the crime of
slavery, and of what they held to be
the criminal participation in it of the
free states under the constitution.
Like the Puritans, who were the pro-
genitors of colonial America and the
republic, the abolitionists were the
fathers of the modern American union
of freedom. Both of them were rep
resentatives of a resist1ess move
ment"
Maud Miller is teaching at South
Peacham this winter.
Peacham academy opens the Win
ter term with nearly 20 students.
Ben Darling gave his foot a bad
cut with an axe while chopp1ng on
Mack's mountain Monday.
[From an Occasional Correspondent
Rev. Mr.. Williams, pastor of the
Congregationalist church, warned
his people from the pulpit last Sun
day of the dangers now threa tening
the homes of Vermont. The liquor
power is now working through
some of the most influential news
papers in the state to persuade Yer
monters that license is better than
prohibition. 1t rests with the men of
Vermont to say whether saloons or
homes shall be protected by Vermont
laws. VIII they like Maine prove
themselves faithful stewards of home
and society, or like some other New
England states license the devil of
alcohol to do his worst here? Now
is the time for all who comprehend
the danger to warn his neighbor.
PASSUNPSIC.