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Show 330 J an1es Freeman Clarke. bustering against Cuba, invnding l{nnsas from i'Ii ~sonl'i, invading .1\Ii=- ouri from Kan~a.s, following Peter the Ilermit to Palestine, or following other ,John Brown ~ into Virginia. I do not believe in the~e cru -ades, any of them. I think them all bnd. and. wrong. But woe to the man by whom the offence cometh. A better result than this will be the swift depletion of the border States of their Slaves, and the turning of them into the ranks of the Free. The Governor of Virginia already announces that no laves can be kept ncar the border who wi~h to c cape. And one rea~ on why no Slaves joined in this insurrection is, no doubt, that most of' those who wi~hcd Freedom had already gone away. If the blow J~ad been struek further sout h, it might have had a different effect on the Slave population. There is a sad day before us. We shall be obliged to wait in silence, knowing that the soul of this hero is departing from the scaffold to the invi il>lc world. But as the moth·e sanctifies the action, so it al o glorifies the doom. The man will go to hi death in the same great spirit in which he has thus fiu· spoken anu lived. Could his life be pared, I ·hould be grateful; if not, I must remember Thnt whether on the scaffold high, Or in tho battle's van, The fittc:;t pluco for man to tlie Is where he dies for man. One lessson let us not fail to gather. The only thing of much worth in life is the spirit in which a man acts. Not what we do, but the nzotive of the action, is the great thing. Since thi affray, nnd the deaths at Harper's Fcny, there h;s been a violent and extensive conflict at the poll. at Baltimore, and perhaps as many men killed. But who thinks of that? 'Vho cares for it? 'Vho knows any thing about it? The motive was ignoble, a mere political squabble; and they who were killed died like dogs. But here the motive was noble, J arnes Fret man Clarke. 331 and they who were shot down, fighting for it, fell like martyr', and Jie soiled with no unbecoming dust. The time arc dark, nnd m:ty become da rker. I do not expect much from political partie , or fi·om popular elect io n~. But I have faith in the Divine Pro,·idence-faith in the coming Kingdom of Je ·us Christ- faith that Ilc, the 1\Ia::;ter, shall yet come to reign in hearts grateful for his love, and in minds submisi'ive to his will. And, returning from the contemplation of these events, marching by us in the steady progre s of history, to our own private life and duty, let u.' imitate the conscience and the devotion to right of all the, e heroic soul~, and seck also for the faith in n Divine Lo,·e which shall sweeten the har ~ h rebuke with charity, and warm our souls with a hope full of everla ting peace and joy. Condemning all violence, bloocbhed, and war, 1 t us overcome evil with good, and, whenever we ·peak the Truth, sp •ak it also in Love. • |
