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Show 6 Preface. is for the North to act on the aggrcfisi vc, "rcmrmlwring tho 'C in bonds ns bonncl with them,"- as JJat:1yct te remembered America in her hour of trial, and J\mcrica remembered Greece when she struggled for indcpcnd. encc ; or, to bring the illustration nearer home, :-mel to 1nake it more practical, as lfc11ry Ward Bcccltcr remembered J(ansas, when the Southern barbarians were polluting her prairies, and filling her ravines with 1hc corpHcs of N orthcrn men. Agitation is good when it ultirnatcR in action: but not othcrwi ·c. Sarcasm, wit, denunciation, and eloquence, arc excellent preparatives for pikes, swordR, rifles, and revolvers; bnt, of themselves, they yet never liberated a SlaveN ation in thi world, and they never will. Pharaoh can afford to be laughed at, an l cursed, and denounced, with Israelites selling at two thousand dollars a head. It requires Moses, with the plague~:; at his command, to let the opprc sed go free. The Bcechcrs of our age are only useful in proportion as they prepare the way for the John Browns. When they try to oppose the progress of the actors, the preachers arc to be summarily kicked out of the way. That is why I put Mr. Beecher's sern1on on John Brown in the same class of productions as the speeches of Ed ward Everett and Charles O'Conor. When the Freedom of I\."ansas was in danger, 1\fr. Beecher spoke bullets,- sixteen a minute, and half-ounce balls at that ; he truly said that rifles were a moral agency, and that one might as well preach to buffaloes as to Border Ruffian. ; but now, when Slavery is in danger, he deprecates the assault on it, discovers "a right way" and "a wrong way;" and draws distinctions so critical and nice that he who runs may read that this champion of Liberty in Kansas is only a white man after all. Tie has Preface. 7 not yet come out to be a universal man, and to sympathize equally with all men, irrespective of races or conditions of life. I thus introduce the name of Mr. Beecher, bccan c, more than any other n1an I know, he embodies the aY rf!gc prejudice of the N orthcrn States; and is the ablcHt an<l most eloquent exponent of that hypocritical cant ·wltieh tallcs of sympathy for the lave, and, at the same time, extinguishes all cffccti\·c attempts to help him. lie will bless Mosefl, and W a.·hington, and Lafayette, and J o::;hun, ancl then damn John Brown with the fi1intcst praise- if calling a hero a crazy man, and reprcRcnting him as netuate<. l by the bat-~c pas. ion of reYcngc, can, indeed, under ::my circumstanccR, be dcsirrnatcd praise. lie will crow the loudest on the next "glorious Fourth,"- yet Washington fought with carnal weapons, and killed men by the cartload, too. And the same argnmcnt which talks of John Brown's incxpcdi nt and bloody attempt applies cqnally to George Washington's career. ]'or, had the }~evolutionary Fathers waited seventy years, a separation fi·om the Mother Country could have been accomplished without bloodshed. The trength of the colonies would have made a war impos iblc. Y ct they would not wait one year -far less seventy; and l\1r. Beecher justly thinks that they acted rirrhtly. But, for the Slave:;, how Ycry different a policy he snrrgcsts! They mu t wait- only !leaven knows how long. Until "the influence of N ational Freedom will g'radually reach" them ! Until they feel the universal summer of civilization! Until the Southern Christians shall feel a new inspiration! Until "the Pentecost comes," and-" the Slaves will be stirred itp by their own masters/" No )Yonder, then, that, such |