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Show 84 got up for effect, a product of calculation, not a swell of the heart. I confide in them the less, the more they lllcrease. I fear, that their resort to political action will impair their singleness of purpose and th~ir .mo~al power. I distrust the system of association and ag1tatwn m a cause like this. But, because I see among them somewhat to fear and blame, must I shut my eyes on more which I ought to commend ? Must not men of pure and lofty aims be honored because like every thin" human, they are not free from fault'? I resp~ct the Abolitionists for maintaining great principles with courage and fervor, amidst scorn and v_iolence. Can men have a higher claim to respect? In the1r body, amidst prejudiced, narrow-minded, conceited, self-seeking members such as are found in all associations, there is a large pr~portion of uncompromising, singlehearted friends of truth, right, and freedom ; and such men are securities against the adoption of criminal ends or criminal means. In their front rank, perhaps at their head, is Gerrit Smith; a man worthy of all honor for his overflowing munificence, for his calm yet invincible moral courage, for his Christian libe~·ality embracing men of every sect and name, and for his deep, active, inexhaustible sympathy with the sinful, suffering, and oppressed. In their ranks may also be found our common friend, Charles Follen, that genuine man, that heroic spirit, whose love of freedom unites, in rare harmony, the old Roman force with Christian love, in whom we see the generous, rash enthusiasm of his youth, tempered by time and trial into a roost sweet and \Vinning virtue. I could name others, honored and dear. I do not, for the sake of such, shut my eyes on the defects of the association ; but that it should be selected for outrage and persecution is a monstrous wrong, against which solemn testi· mony ought to be bome. There is one consolation attending persecution. It often exalts the spirit of the sufferer, and often covers with honor 85 those whom it had destined to shame. " ' ho made Socrates the most venerable name of antiquity ? The men who mixed for him the cup of hemlock, and drove him as a criminal from the world which he had enlightened. Providence teaches us the doctrine of retribution very touchingly in the fact, that future ages guard with peculiar reverence the memories of men, who, in their own times, were contemned, abhorred, hunted like wild beasts, and destroyed by fire or sword, for their fidelity to truth. That the Abolitionists have grown strong under outrage, we know ; and in this I should rejoice, were their cause evnr so bad ; be· cause persecution must be worse, and its defeat must be a good. I wish that persecution, if not checked by principle, may be stayed, by seeing that it fights against itself, and builds up those whom it toils to destroy. How long the Abolitionists will be remembered I know not · but as long as they live in history, they will '~ear as a cro~vn th'e sufferings which they have so firmly bome. Posterity will be JUst to them ; nor can I doubt, what doom posterity will pro~ounce on the mobs or single men, who have labored to stlence them by brutal force. I should be glad to see them exchanging their array of affiliated societies for less conspicuous and artificial means of action. But let them not do. this from s.ubserviency to opinion, or in opposition to thetr sense of nght. Let them yield nothinu to fear Let them never be false to that great cause, which the; have fought for so manfully, Freedom of Speech. Let them never give countenance to the doctrine, which an tyrants hold, that material power, physical pain, is mightier than the convictions of Reason, than the principle of Duty, than the. Love of God and mankind. Sooner may they pine and pensh m pnsons, sooner bleed or be strangled uy the execut10ner, than surrender their deliberate principles to lawless violence. In the remarks now made on the recent outrage at 8 |