Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-06-01

same flag, a national family covered by
the same parental roof, divided against
itself as another has said sin the very
structure of it's domestic life, in the
nature of it's avocations, in the econ
omy of its labor and in the very tone
of it's thought and aspirations" f.;
Between these two opposing family
factions the question of slavery came
And 1 want to emphasize the fact
which every close student of history
knows, that the South was opposed to
the North and the North was opposed
to the South before the North was
opposed to slavery. The South was
not unlike the North because slavery
was there, but slavery was there be-
cause the South was unlike the North
Next to his family a mans heart is
in his property; the southerner's prop
erty was in his slaves. The northern
er had no property in slaves, so his
sympathy cost him nothing. The
highly cultivated sensibilities of the
north cpntrasted the. slow and slug
giSh morals of the south. But even
here the doctrine of compromise would
not give way to the ultimate justice of
abolition. But through all the periods
of the worlds history the occasion has
raised up the man. There was an
Abraham. a Moses and a Martin Luth-
err. How the light of such names
shines out through all the ages,
What a debt of gratitude we owe to
the few men who stood up even in old
Massachusetts, amid mobs and mis-
siles. and taught the North to abhor
the institution of slavery! In,L1S35
VIM. Lloyd Garrison was nrobbed in
the city of Boston. Talk about cour-
age! We honor the memories of the
great generals of the North who
brought to a successful close the blood
lest civil war the word had ever known.
But flom 1881 to 1861 VIM. Lloyd Gar
rison, with no epaulets upon his
shoulders, no drum to beat save the
beat of his own honest heart to give
him inspiration, with no officers to her
aid his coming, stood up in his home
in Boston and fought his friends. No
man hath greater courage than this.
While Clay, Webster, Choate and Ev-
erett We're compromising and postpon-
ing he was looking into the future and
forcing the issue which meant the SAL
walton of his country. He was not a
politician; he was a statesman.
To the aid of this man came the great
orator and scholar Wendell Phillips
Hand in hand they went about teach
ing the damning influence of slavery.
They Were Kissed out of large cities
and not with derision i'm little ones
But tireless and undaunted they la
bored to bring back their countrymen
to the idea that this nation was es-
tablishcd as the home of the free and
oppressed, and that there was no free
dom while a single human being,
guilty of no crime, wore the shackles
Of slavery.
Time wore on. The streams of free
thought We're rising higher and high
er, approaching nearer and nearer to
the fountains of liberty But there
was cloud rising above the horizon.
The slavery question as legal issue
was before the court that Chief JUS
tice Marshall has made renowned
throughout the English speaking
world. But John Marshall was dead.
In 1857 the bred Scott decision was
Many felt that the death
blow to liberty had been struck by the
supreme court of the United States.
Not so the farseeing and loyal lead
ers of that seemingly lost cause. They
saw as men see who study the work.
ings OF great principles. The supreme
court had focused the light that it
would nave diffiused. The great masses
of the people saw as statesmen had
foreseen, that the policy of slavery
FLASHED with the principle of freedom
There was mighty uprising of public
indignation throughout the north am
the very decision which sent bred
Scott back to his masters lash broke
the shackles from his limbs. Poor
bred Scott, hunted halfway across
continent, was but the focus point
where the darkness of slavery met the
light of liberty.
A crisis was at hand. The pusillani-
nous policy of President Buchanan had
the government in dignity
abroad and in the power of self-pres-
ervation at home. The time demanded
a statesman. a politician and a leader
Of men. The Republican convention of
1860 met in Chicago 1t was the con-
vention of party. but the heart of the
Union was beating there. They went
into the back woods of Illinois and