The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1896-03-22

y
WILLIAM II. FURNEss
Taken on his ninety.s econd birthday.
preached two congregations out Of the First
Unitarian Church of Philadelphia, severing
tics of friendship which we're SO dear to the be-
loved preacher and teacher. There is a world
Of romance suggested in going over these old
sermons and in rejecting on the life which is
behind them, covering as It did ninety-four
years of our country's most e%ventful history.
DR.. Furness brought to the despised anti
slavery cause a rare personal combination: the
moral culture OF generations: the training of
q great university; social position. and, its
necessary incident. sufficient income to place
him beyond financial considerations; O nature
averse to combativeness, yet firm in courage.
and, withal, a devotion to the principle OF
democratic liberty unaffected by the embitter-
ments of adverse personal experience. In 1925
he came from Boston. that centre of freedoms
agitation, and took his position here, on the
outer edge of free territory, in a community
bound to the slave power by the strongest COM
mercial. ecclesiastical, and social ties. From
this exposed position, and, looking right out
on the slave land itself. he denounced the in
i~quitous institution and warned his fellow citi-
zens of the wrath which was to come.
His culture was many sided. perennial. His
comprehensive sweep brought men and their
affairs and conditions into proper relation
ships. One Of the most interesting recollec-
tions of student life at the University of Penn
sylvania Is the sight of the venerable Furness,
then eighty-ive years of age, listening to the
Sbakespearean lectures'of his eminent son, An
admiring. appreciative, and severe critic. This
comprehensive. enduring quality Of his culture
forbade any approach on his part to being q
mere advocate. He was infinitely more than
that. He had no special plea for any one class,
no special denunciation of any other. If he
advanced the cause of abolition IL was on the
plea that our institutions demanded universal
freedom, and that, falling short of this, our
Government failed in its mission among the
nations of the world. If he struck at the slave
owner It was not the Individual he sought to
attack. 1t was because he hated oppression
and because he was at war with a system. He
felt deeply his mission to speak out for hu-
mainly. 1t made no difference In his mind
whether the cause was that Of the black man
or the red man or the yellow man, the white
man, the male man or the female man: he
spoke for the universal man. In closing q
Thanksgiving discourse in 1915 he said:
THE example of this country is now exert
ing an influence upon the Old World, and prin-
c~ipalities and thrones are trembling to their
foundations; and across the Atlantic there Is
pouring hither one continuous tide Of emiera-
LlOn lTOm tuo Oppressive INSTITUTIONS OF Eu-
rope. But is 1t not plain that this country
does not exert so great an influence as 1t might.
as It ought. as 1t must2 And tho reason why
1t does not is equally obvious. 1t Is because
the solemn declaration that we have made be-
fore God and all the world of the great princi-
pies of human right and civil liberty remains
in great part a dead letter with us; because our
soil is deilled by tho presence of three millions
of slaves, and we are thus guilty of an incon-
sistency which should crimson the cheeks of
every man and woman of US with intolerable
shame. ! pray you, brethren, not for my sake,
but for your own, for the love of God and man,
hear mt patiently. I will speak nothing but
tho truth, the truth which will remain the
truth, even though l and all men should fall
silent forever. / have said that the influence
of our free institutions is neutralized by our
shameful inconsistency. l refer to the fact,
for the sake of one remark.
1--WE are continually tainted with this in
consistency by people on the other side of the
water. From Great Britain. particularly. and
British travellers come words of bitter denun-
citation of American slavery. And we resent
these denunciations, and hurl them back.
Look to your own Slaves We cry to the Eng
lish, look to your own poor, starving and dying
at the gates of your palaces! Look at that
frightful mass of want and misery which
burthens your own soil. and to which nothing
on this side OF the water, no, not even among
our black slaves, is TO be compared. See your
paupers struggling and fighting in your aims.
houses for carrion which the dogs reject! Look
at homo and don't talk TO us!' But plausible
as this retort sounds. Is II not plain that the
DOOR and oppressed of Ireland and England.
and all foreign lands, have the deepest interest
In our consistency, in our 1delity2
And they may we'll cry out to us, and de-
nounce our viola ton of our own principles, and
seek 10 goad and madden us on TO the discharge
OF our solemn duty. For when they turn their
sick and longing eyes this way, and fix them
on the bright side OF our institutions, and cry
us freedom like hers Then their oppressors
may curl their lips in contempt and reply
M ,Iss' A AmfCiSs! Of z s pIrstsy la FinS OF fr resSdSm tS sass,
shouting Independence at the top of their voices
with their feet all the while on the necks Of
libertyr o., any friends, II we hold our peace
much longer, the very stones IN the streets
win cry out! l tell you we are holding back
the sacred cause OF human freedom and hap.
piness all over the world, by our failure 70
carry out our own protessed prlniipies; We
sion, and strengthening the arm Of the oppres.
sOr everywhere. And they, who are pleading
side OF tho Atlantic, may well shrek their de-
nunciations IN our ears. We are jnstifyinR
the doubts Of those who question the practi-
cability Of free Institutions, and who are Civ
ing their support TO those forms OF government,
under which the ma ses lie groanins"
tional duties and responsibilities and the fine
spirit OF deliberation of his utterances, impress
me at this half century, OF distance with the
penetrating quality of his prophecy, This Is
AN eXhortation delivered years before tho no
AS sure MS a man is born unto trouble. as
the sparks ~ upward, so surely Is that nation
doomed 70 lesi s9Gn 4 Sra as OF t5pHsls as now
upon n compromise OF the rights OF man, upon
concession TO oppression and wrong. we have