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Show 16 depend on the baker. The baker says, "I have not much flour." -"Very well," he says, " I am going to procure it for you." So he puts in the seed, and raises the harvest. Sometimes he must take the land wild, and even cut down the forest, and scare off the wild beasts. After he has done that preliminary work, he ha::; to put in the antislavery seed, raise the antislavery corn, and then get the public baker to make the bread with which to feed the foremost of the political Reformers,- men like Seward, Hale, Sumner, and Wilson. They do all that is possible in their present position, with such a constituenc.y behind them: they will do more and better soon as the people command; nay,they will not wait for orders,- soon as the people allow them. These men are not likely to prove false to their trust. They urge the people forward. So much for the Business. Now look at the Businessmen. I. Look first at the Political part of the antislavery forces. 1. There is the Republican party. That is a direct force for antislavery; but, as the antislavery idea and sentiment are not very wide-spread, the ablest members of the Republican party are forced to leave their special business as politicians, and go into the elementary work of the non-political reformers. Accordingly, Mr. Wilson stumped all Massachusetts last year,- yes, all the North; not working for purpose purely political, but for a, purpose purely antislavery,- to excite the antislavery Sentiment, to produce an antislavery Idea. And Mr. Sumner has had to do that work, even in our city of Boston. Yet New England is further advanced in antislavery than any other part of America. The superiority of the Puritan stock shows its.elf everywhere; I mean its moral superiority. Look at thls platform: how many persons here are of New-England origin! If an antislavery meeting was held at San Fran- 17 cisco or New Orleans, it would be still the same; the platform would be Yankee. It is the foot of New Enaland 5 which stands on that platform. It is to tread slavery down. But, notwithstanding New England is the most antislavery portion of the whole land, these political men, whose business ought to be only tb organize the antislavery ideas, and give expression to antislavery sentiments in the Senate or House of Representatives, are forced to abandon that work from time to time, to go about amongst the people, and produce the antislavery sentiment and idea itself. Let us not be very harsh in criticizing these men, remembering that they are not so well supported behind as we could all wish they were. This Republican party has some exceedingly able men. As a Massachusetts man, in another State, I am not expected to say any thing in praise of Mr. Sumner or Mr. Wilson or Mr. Banks. It wou~d be hardly decorous for a Massachusetts man, out of his own State, to speak in praise of those men. And they need no praise from my lips. And, as a New-England man, I think it is not necessary for me to praise Mr. Hale or Mr. Foote, Mr. Colla mer, Mr. Fessenden, or any other eminent political men of New England. But, as a New Englander and a Massachusetts man, you will allow me to say a word in praise of one who has no drop of Puritan blood in his veins; who was never in New England but twice,- the first time to attend a cattle-show, and the last to stand on Plym~uth Rock, on Forefathers' Day, and, in the bosom of the sons and daughters of the Puritans, to awaken the antislavery sentiment, and kindle the antislavery idea. I am speaking of your own Senator Seward. As I cannot be accused of State • pride or of sectional vanity .in praising him, let me say, that, in all the United States, there is not at this day a politician so able, so far-sighted, so cautious, so wise, so discriminating, and apparently so gifted with power to organize ideas 3 |