[174] Most happy am I to be no longer in conflict with the mass of my fellow-countrymen on the subject of slavery. For no man of any refinement or sensibility can be indifferent to the approbation of his fellow-men, if it be rightly earned. But to obtain it by going with the multitude to do evil—by pandering to despotic power or a corrupt public sentiment—is self-degradation and personal dishonor:For more true joy Marcellus exiled feelsBetter to be always in a minority of one with God—branded as madman, incendiary, fanatic, heretic, infidel—frowned upon by ‘the powers that be,’ and mobbed by the populace—or consigned ignominiously to the gallows, like him whose soul is marching on, John Brown. though his ‘body lies mouldering in the grave,’ or burnt to ashes at the stake like Wickliffe, or nailed to the cross like him who ‘gave himself for the world,’—in defence of the right, than like Herod, having the shouts of a multitude crying, ‘It is the voice of a god, and not of a man!’ Farewell, tried and faithful patrons! Farewell, generous benefactors, without whose voluntary but essential pecuniary contributions the Liberator must have long since been discontinued! Farewell, noble men and women who have wrought so long and so successfully, under God, to break every yoke! Hail, ye ransomed millions! Hail, year of jubilee! With a grateful heart and a fresh baptism of the soul, my last invocation shall be:
Than Caesar with a Senate at his heels.
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