The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1891-10-15

roll on in its moral sublimity, gathering
fresh strength with every decade, score
and century until it break on the
farthermost shores of time, and its
rebounding waves shall sweep back
into the unmeasured region beyond,
into the golden-paved City of Light
GO where Sabbaths never end
With no color, either of approval or
disapproval, but as simple fact for
illustration, l mention the circle drawn
by William Lloyd Garrison in his in
terest for the freedom of American
slaves. AT the age OF "a, in the city
of Boston, he was editing paper
which he called The Liberator. His
quarters were the attic high up in
a building, the floor of which was
his only bed. He had become con-
| vinced that the practice of slavery
was wrong. And whether he was
correct or incorrect it matters not
now; suffice it for the illustration that
he boldly drew circle whose widening
perplexities are growing more and more
complicated every day of our history.
And his bold venture in the mainte-
nance of what he thought right will
be part of the history of the emanci-
patton of American slaves. He was
imprisoned, but such was his earnest
ness that he wrote upon his prison walls,
Conhne me as a prisoner but bind
me not as slave. Punish me as a
criminal /; but hold me not as chattle.
Torture me as man but drive me
not. as a beast. Doubt my sanity;
but acknowledge my Immortality"
And in the face ofa maddened nation,
he took for the motto Of his paper,
"I will be as harsh as truth and as un-
compromising as justice. I am tn
earnest and I zviX be heard" And
he zvas heard.
He was heard in the mutterings
of discor tent expressed on either side
of the Mason and Dixon line. He was
heard in the bugle-blast and the drum
beat that called to arms the noble men
of the then two great sections of this
country, but whose dividing lines are
now blotted out forever. He was
heard in the sad farewells that were
given all over this land when the noble
men, whose only manipulation of arms
had been the swing of the ak and the
sweep of the scythe, and whose only
drill had been their lifelong tread at
the plow handles, fell into ranks after
the strange sound of fife and drum
and took their first step in that willing
march to death in defense of their
homes and the homes of their friends.
He was heard in the roar of the can
non and the crack of the musketry,
where in bloody conflict the earth
drank up the best blood of the nation.
And his circle was barely complete
when the gallant sons of the South
waded through the smoke and fire of
a hundred battlehelds to the end of
it all, and then waded back through
tears and blood from the mournful
scenes Of historic Appomattox, to find
their homes lighted with flames, their
palaces smouldering ruins, and the
proud, fair land Of their birth barren
desert of waste and want. And yet,
through it all, out of it all, over it all,
and in spite of it all, what nation, and
in what unity, are we held to-day! One
hundred years ago when George Wash
ington took the oath of office as first
President of the United States, we
were thirteen in number with popu-
ton less than four millions. Two
years ago when Benjamin Harrison
took the oath of office as twenty-third
President, we were forty-two in num-
Der with population of more than
sixty millions. We stand to-day with
this record of a hundred years in the
proud confidence of our power and
achievements, the foremost nation of
the world.
And no sentiment is more highly
applauded in any part of this great
country than that we are, in the high
est sense, a united people. No foreign
power, either openly or clandestinely,
dare lay a feathers weight of harm
against the person or privilege of
any American citizen, hailing from
any spot from Maine to California,
from Lakes to Cult, or from ocean to
ocean. Truly we are great people,
inhabiting a great country, enjoying
a great prosperity, and knowing no
East, no West, no North, no South.
And much of our greatness has been
attained unto during the last twenty
five years. We have achieved more
every way during this quarter ofa CEN
tury than during any like period in
our whole history. But with the grain
have grown the tares. Our great and
gratifying prosperity has come to US.
to US of the South, not be-
cause there have been no difficulties
and disadvantages, but in spite Of
them. Viewed as one grand whole,
we seem great and prosperous people,
and we are. But when viewed part
by part through the microscope of
pure and simple justice, there are blots
and rots that spoil the beauty and
mar the symmetry of our otherwise
proud and glorious development.
And so the time has come for
another new circle to be drawn. The
which for years has been
bearing heavily upon the shoulders of
the million masses of American
soyereigns by reason of trusts, unequal
taxation, evil powers of money, ignor
ance of their true condition, and the
unscrupulous practices of wicked men,
has at last become intolerable. And
such rattling of the dry bones from
the grave-yards of discomfort on our
hill-tops and in our valleys, has not
stirred American freemen many times