We would have ourselves the joy of seeing this work4 accomplished. Before our eyes close, we wish to see the happy day which shall proclaim liberty to the captive. If it be possible, let the shout of emancipated millions rise, before his ear is dust whose voice first waked the trumpet-note which is
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meeting of the same Society at Lynn, March 28, memorable for the maiden speech, in the anti-slavery cause, of Wendell Phillips,1 who ‘charmed and surprised the2 audience,’ and signalized his complete adhesion to the movement and his abandonment of legitimate worldly ambition by urging a resolution, which would be heard3 from again,—‘That, having a great work to do, and but comparatively feeble means wherewith to do it, our influence and effort should be devoted mainly to the cause of abolition.’
From his speech on this subject of ‘special consecration’ let us take a passage, prophetic in its aspiration, and noteworthy as the tribute of an eye-witness of the Boston mob to its victim:
1 Son of John Phillips, the first mayor of Boston; a graduate of Harvard College in the class of 1831. He had studied law, as has been already noticed (ante, 1.453), and been admitted to the Suffolk bar. His high social position, his profession, his fascinating person, his extraordinary oratorical gifts, made any career he might have chosen practicable for him. His sacrifice in renouncing public honors and advancement has hardly any parallel in the history of the cause. The poet Lowell has thus embalmed it:
He stood upon the world's broad threshold: wideSee also the tribute of the Board of Managers of the Mass. A. S. Society, evidently from Mr. Garrison's pen, in Lib. 9: 95, on the eve of Mr. Phillips's departure for Europe.
The din of battle and of slaughter rose;
He saw God stand upon the weaker side,
That sank in seeming loss before its foes;
Many there were who made great haste and sold
Unto the cunning enemy their swords.
He scorned their gifts of fame, and power, and gold,
And, underneath their soft and flowery words,
Heard the cold serpent hiss; therefore he went
And humbly joined him to the weaker part,
Fanatic named, and fool, yet well content
So he could be the nearer to God's heart,
And feel its solemn pulses sending blood
Through all the wide-spread veins of endless good.
The Century Company. , 1885-1889.
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