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[504] among them all, has given blow for blow? or who has girded on his sword? or who has recommended an appeal to force? Would not such conduct, on their part, astonish even their enemies? When rotten eggs and brickbats have been hurled at their heads, what have they sent in return? Forgiveness. When tar-and-feathers have been prepared for their persons, what recompense have they bestowed? Forgiveness. When their private and public meetings have been ruthlessly invaded, what course have they adopted to prevent a repetition of the outrage? Forgiveness. When their property has been burnt in the streets, and their lives hunted like partridges upon the mountains, what have they manifested by way of retaliation? Still—forgiveness! Why? Are they pusillanimous? Do they lack nerve? No. But they fear Him who says— “Vengeance is mine—I will repay;” and they can love their enemies, bless them that curse, do good to them that hate, and pray for them which despitefully use and persecute them.

We appeal to the world. The Society of Friends aside, what other body of men, whether political or religious, besides abolitionists, would suffer themselves to be insulted and outraged, and their meetings forcibly suppressed or systematically interrupted by their opponents, without making a prompt and violent appeal to the lex talionis? . . .

Thanks be to God that the abolitionists are generally men of peace. The spirit of non-resistance and of forgiveness is omnipotent.

From his tranquil retreat at Friendship's Valley, Mr. Garrison sent to the Liberator his unstinted comments upon the principal speeches at the Faneuil Hall meeting, beginning with a letter to the Hon. Peleg Sprague.1 Whatever respect he had hitherto cherished for this person's character as a patriot and statesman, had fled on perusing his late speech. ‘In my opinion, there is not more of crime, or of moral turpitude, in firing a whole city—in committing highway robbery or murder —than in the delivery of such a speech, in such a place, on such an occasion, and under such circumstances.’ Human barbarity towards one's fellow-creatures, or impiety towards heaven, could go no further. At the judgment day, Mr. Sprague would be answerable, as

1 Lib. 5.142.

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