Puslapio vaizdai
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a feeble, isolated, colonial traffic-should, for at least twenty years, be prosecuted as a national interest, under the American flag, and protected by the national arm; secondly, that a slaveholding oligarchy, created by allowing three-fifths of the slaveholding population to be represented by their task-masters, should be allowed a permanent seat in congress; thirdly, that the slave system should be secured against internal revolt and external invasion, by the united physical force of the country; fourthly, that not a foot of national territory should be granted, on which the panting fugitive from slavery might stand, and be safe from his pursuers, thus making every citizen a slave-hunter and slave-catcher. To say that this 'covenant with death' shall not be annulled-that this 'agreement with hell' shall continue to stand-that this 'refuge of lies' shall not be swept away is to hurl defiance at the eternal throne, and to give the lie to Him that sits thereon. It is an attempt, alike monstrous and impracticable, to blend the light of heaven with darkness of the bottomless pit, to unite the living with the dead, to associate the Son of God with the Prince of Evil. Accursed be the American Union, as a stupendous, republican imposture! "

It is not to be wondered at that such a writer should be accused of harshness and severity. English cannot be rendered with greater force and energy than he combines it to express his views upon this subject. But hear him criticise his critics:

"I am accused of using hard language. I admit the charge. I have not been able to find a soft word to describe villainy, or to identify the perpetrator of it. The man who makes a chattel

of his brother-what is he? The man who keeps back the hire of his laborers by fraud-what is he? They who prohibit the circulation of the bible-what are they? They who compel three millions of men and women to herd together like brute beasts-what are they? They who sell mothers by the pound, and children in lots to suit purchasers-what are they? I care not what terms are applied to them, provided they do apply? If they are not thieves, if they are not tyrants, if they are not men-stealers, I should like to know what is their true character, and by what names they may be called. It is as mild an epithet to say that a thief is a thief, as to say that a spade is a spade. Words are but the signs of ideas. 'A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.' Language may be misapplied, and so be absurd or unjust; as for example, to say that an abolitionist is a fanatic, or that a slaveholder is an honest man. But to call things by their right names is to use neither hard nor improper language. Epithets may be rightly applied, it is true, and yet be uttered in a hard spirit, or with a malicious design. What then? Shall we discard all terms which are descriptive of crime, because they are not always used with fairness and propriety? He who, when he sees oppression, cries out against it—who, when he beholds his equal brother trodden under foot by the iron hoof of despotism, rushes to his rescue-who, when he sees the weak overborne by the strong, takes sides with the former, at the imminent peril of his own safety-such a man needs no certificate to the excellence of his temper, or the sincerity of his heart, or the disinterestedness of his conduct. Or is the apologist of slavery, he who can see the victim of thieves lying bleeding and help

less on the cold earth, and yet turn aside, like the callous-hearted priest and Levite, who needs absolution."

Upon the same subject he says again :

"Let us speak plain; there is more force in names
Than most men dream of; and a lie may keep
Its throne a whole age longer, if it skulk
Behind the shield of some fair-seeming name.
Let us call tyrants, tyrants, and maintain
That only freedom comes by grace of God,
And all that comes not by his grace must fall;
For men in earnest have no time to waste

In patching fig-leaves for the naked truth.

"Let us call tyrants, tyrants; not to do so is to misuse language, to deal treacherously with freedom, to consent to the enslavement of mankind. It is neither an amiable nor a virtuous, but a foolish and pernicious thing, not to call things by their right names. 'Woe unto them,' says one of the world's great prophets, that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.'"

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His own power in stinging criticism is well displayed, and there is an expression of severe purity and uprightness upon it. In his social relations he is said to be an exceedingly amiable man, a kind and loving husband and father. His purity of character is irreproachable. Not a whisper was ever raised by his worst enemy against his private character.

As an orator he does not occupy a very high posi

tion. He lacks the graces of oratory-is too severe in his style of speaking. Yet in spite of these disadvantages he often speaks with tremendous power. It is by simple force of the ideas he utters. He uses an iron logic, and his earnestness is so intense that it arrests the attention of the hearer as effectually as the natural graces of oratory. We think there is no humor in his writings or speeches-he is too solemnly in earnest for that; but as a man and companion he by no means lacks geniality of character.

We presume that there is no living American who is such a victim to the adverse prejudices of the people as William Lloyd Garrison, but we have faith to believe that in the future his name will be glorious, when those of the majority of his cotemporaries will have been forgotten.

JOHN B. GOUGH.

THE history of the temperance reformation in the United States is intimately associated with that of a few prominent individuals. At an early period in the enterprise, we shall find the account of the Washingtonian movement, in which John Hawkins appeared, heading the reform ranks, himself but just escaped the drunkard's grave. His star was hardly in its zenith, when a new one of greater magnitude appeared in the eastern part of Massachusetts, the rays of which have reached every portion of the United States, lit the extinguished lamp of hope in ten thousand bosoms, and has since gone to kindle the flames of reform in the Old World. John B. Gough was born in Sandgate, county of Kent, England, in August, 1817. His father had been a soldier in the Peninsular war, and at the birth of this son was living upon a small pension at home. Accustomed to the severe discipline of the army, his nature possessed few attractions for a youth like John; yet it is interesting to trace thus early in his life the strength of his imagination, which held him breathless by the hour while his father was relating the story of the

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