[201] has become unmistakably manifest; while, at the same time, all compromises with slavery are happily dissolved, so that freedom now stands face to face with its foe. The pulpit, too, released from ill-omened silence, now thunders for freedom, as in the olden time. It belongs to Massachusetts--nurse of the men and principles which made the earliest Revolution — to vow herself anew to her ancient faith, as she lifts herself to the great struggle. Her place now, as of old, is in the van, at the head of the battle. But, to sustain this advanced position with proper inflexibility, three things are needed by our beloved Commonwealth, in all her departments of government,--the same three things which once in Faneuil Hall I ventured to say were needed by every representative of the North at Washington. The first is backbone; the second is backbone; and the third is backbone. With these Massachusetts will be respected, and felt as a positive force in the national government; while at home, on her own soil,--free at last in reality as in name,--all her people, from the islands of Boston to Berkshire Hills, and from the sands of Barnstable to the northern line, will unite in the cry,--No slave-hunt in our borders! no pirate on our strand!
No fetter in the Bay State! no slave upon her land!
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B. B. Russell, 1874.
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