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Show 88 Theodore Parker. RoME, December 2!, 1859. "'\VnAT a stormy time you nrc hnsing in America! Your ·adle was rocked iu the Revolution, and now in your old Cl l · 1. • • a ere you see tl1 e storm of another Revo ut10n ucgmnmg: none 1 ° 1 nd , .. ]1e1·c 1't "hall end. Y csterday, the telc!!raj)h ~nows w 1en a ' '"' ... ._, brou<rht us the expected intelligence tlmL the Slave holder ' had 1w ncr° C ap t am· John Brown 1· Of course I knew from t l1e mo-men~ of his capture what his fate would be; the logic of Sla very I· S ;'::. tronror er tha< n the intelle•c •t •o r personal •w ill• of any n1an, an d 1't be·<u ·s •a ll Southern po•l itiCians al•o n~• w1th 1t. No martyr who e tragic story i ' writ m the C~n·1 stwn book~ ever bore him~clf more heroically than Captam Brown; fo1· he was not only n. martyr,- any bully can be tbnt,- but a! 'O a SAINT -wi1ich no bully can eYer be. None eYer fell in a more rirrhtC'ou. cau:;c:- it hns a great future, too, which he has Itclp~d bring ncare1· and make more certain. I confess I am urpriscd to find love for the man, admiration for his conduct, and sympathy with his object, so wide-spread jn the North, especially in New England, and more parti cularly in dear, good, old Bo·ton! Think of the Old South on the arne platform with Emerson and Phillips t Think of ermons like "'\Vbcelock' -, Newhall'::), Freeman Clarke':', and Cheever's Thank~giYing sermon at N cw York- an Orthodox minister of such bulk putting John Brown before 1\Io,c ! The Ne'v York lfera.ld had an extract from 's sermon. It was such as none but a mean soul could preach on ~ uch an occasion ; but we must remember that it taxes a mean man as much to be mean and little, as it does a noble one to be grand and generou.. Every mini ' ter must bear ermon after his kind ; " for of a thorn men do not gather fig , nor of a bramble-bush gather they gmpcs." I rather think the Curtises did not fire a hundred cannon on Boston Common when th<·y heard that John Brown was hung, as they did when the Fugitive Slave Bill passed. There has been a little change ~incc 1850, and men not capable of repentance are yet liable Theodore Parker. 8g to shame- and if they cannot be conYertcd, may yet be scared. "\V ell, things can never tand a , they c1itl tllree month ngo. On the morning of the 19th of April, 177.), at day-Lrcak, 01<1 Enror land and New- Great Britain :md the Thirteen Uolo-nics- were one nation. At -·unrisc, they were two. The fire of the grenadiers made recon ciliation impo 'siLlc, an<l there mu ' t be war and separation. It, js so now. Great cn·llt s turn on small hinge , and let mankind march through. Ilow different thing- happen from what we fancy! All good in=-- titutions are founded on omc great truth of' the miJHl 01· <·on science; and, when , uch a truth .is to be put over the world' , highway, we think it must be borne forward on the . honldl'r' of some mighty hor~e whom God has hod strong all rou111l for that special purpo ·c, and W1..! wonder where the creature is, and when he will be road-ready; anu look after his cl el'p fc>otprints, and listen for hi' tC'p or his snorting. But it ~o nwtimcs happens that the Divine Providence u c quite lnnllblc cattle to Lear his mo::;t precious burden., both fi.t ::;t and f'ar. Some 3000 or 4000 ycnr ago, a body of fugitiv\ ·- ·lave:-;poor, leprous, ill-clad, fl ·d out of Egypt, under tl1e glli<1:u J<'C of a man who slew an Egyptian. lie saw a mnn do a Yile thing to one of hi slaves, and lynched him on the , potthen ran for it. Those fugitive slaves had a great truth. 'rile world, I think lmd not known before ''The Oncncs of Go<.l;" - nt ' least, their leader had it, and for hundred:; of ycnrs did tl1is des pised people keep the glorious trcac:urc which EcrypL <1id not know- which Greece and Rome n C'vcr under ·too<l. "\Vho won]d have thourrht the ark of such sah-ation would haYe been 0 trusted to ~uch feeble hands ! Some 1800 or IDOO year ago, who would have lookel1 to a Jewish carpenter of Galilee, and a Jcwi ·h tcnt-mnk<'r of Tarsus in Cilicja, with few adherents- fish ermen- oh~cu rc people- unlearned and ignorant men,- who would have 8* |
