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[11] admired of her own long-descended aristocrats! What could not be tolerated, even in so plebeian a fanatic as Garrison, no longer than a rope could be thrown to a howling mob, rose when coming from the lips of the eloquent and travelled young patrician, the most atrocious blasphemy against God and the Constitution! And yet his great theme was ‘The True Grandeur of Nations,’ and the burden of his oration was Peace,—an oration which Cobden, the most eloquent advocate of peace in Europe, pronounced ‘the noblest contribution ever made by any modern writer to the cause of peace.’ But it gave offence to the magnates of the Whig Party in Massachusetts, since it was known that they were fast drifting, body and soul, into the embraces of the slave-power, which was demanding fresh aggressions upon the territory of Mexico, with a view to wrest from her some of her fairest possessions, to be devoted to the demon of human servitude. Mr. Sumner early foresaw that this would end in a collision with our sister republic, and which, under the dictation of the slave oligarchy, would be attended with outrages and injustice. The Whigs had been greatly weakened by the death of Harrison, and the wavering policy, and final defection of John Tyler; and the Democrats, preparing to regain their lost power, were also ready to bid for the pro-slavery vote. Thus both parties would hold up their hands for any measure that would give them votes, no matter how great the demolition of principle.
United States Publishing Company, 1874.
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