Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1916-01-07


They easily reasoned themselves
into a belief they desired to main
tain, that duty to the Union requir-
ed that they stop their ears to the
groans of the slave or the pleadings
of his friends. When Alvan Stew
art spoke they felt all the littleness
of their position, but political inter-
est, Iago like, and personal ambition
told them to go with party and de-
cry the fanatics who for sympathy
for the slave would imperil the glor-
ious Union. But no man who listen
ed to the stirring appeal, the lofty
denunciation, the pathos of the story
of the wrongs of the slaves, but felt
in his heart that Alvan Stewart was
right.
| The appeals of Garrison, of Wen
dell Phillips, of Gerritt Smith, of
Myron Holley, and of Alvan Stewart,
whose genius as an orator was the
wonder OF his time, could not be ig-
nored. They kindled flame that
blaze1 all the brighter from perse-
cution. Neither the eloquence of
Webster, the power of party orga-
nization, nor the indurating in
fluence of party prejudice, very
strong in the Yankee nature, could
stand against the new issue. 1t
gained in volume. Alvan Stewart,
against the protest of William Lloyd
/ Garrison and many other able and
brave leaders of the abolition cru
: SADIE, insisted that the question of
slavery should be made a political
issue. He foresaw. as they did not,
that only thus could the subject
ever assume Importance in the pub
lie thought or conscience. This
gifted man was reared in Northern
Vermont. His fathers farm on
which he wrought as a boy, lies to
the westward of Mansfield Noun.
tain, and from his chamber window
the fairest view of that noble pile
was presented. He regarded it all
his life with an emotion akin to
worship, and in his manhood loved
to look upon it and descant upon the
masonry of the Almighty. He had
toiled in the fields of Vermont,
| knew we'll the lives of it's settlers,
their hardships and their sturdy
qualities. He had early in life set
tied IN central New York, then the
West of this latitude, to which so
many young men of New England
went to grow up with the country"
He hal risen to fame as a lawyer
and to moderate affiuence, when his
mind and heart became enlisted in
the movement to promote and or
ganize anti-slavery sentiment. At
the sacrifice of much business and
the friendship of many a. rich and
Liberal client, and Of the popularity
that offered to him high political
honors. he espoused the cause then
in popular odlum and was known
far and near as the Friend of the
Slave"
His annual visits to his sisters in
Northern Vermont were great
events in the mountain region, ard
there he early expounded the doc.
trines which few years later chang
ed the body of staunch Vermont
Wings into a solid phalanx to resist
the domination of the slave power
The mobbing of anti-slavery ora.
tors and advocates was epidemic il
these days. Only three years be
fore this speech by Alvan Stewart
the people of staid order-loving Yer
mont had caught the infection
One eloquent and most genial pio
heer Of the Cause, Samuel J. May
had been mobbed, and in the hall o.
representatives of the state had beer
pelted with stones and eggs. Tn,
; sheriff who was present had declin
ed to interfere. Meetings wer,
broken up, speakers were warned
, to leave town. without any furthe
attempt to hold forth. the ABSURD
doctrines of anti-slavery," and say,
the trouble of using violent meas
: ures to prevent them.
But when men came under tn
! spell of Avian Stewards voice, tn
= spirit of riotism sank. His appeal
e were irresistible, and it is histori
t that after he had made his plea t
= the people and legislators of Yer