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of that freedom.
(Hear, hear.) There may be, perhaps, those who ask what is this triumph of which I speak.
To put it briefly, and, indeed, only to put one part of it, I may say that it is a triumph which has had the effect of raising 4,000,000 of human beings from the very lowest depth of social and political degradation to that lofty height which men have attained when they possess equality of rights in the first country on the globe.
(Cheers.) More than this, it is a triumph which has pronounced the irreversible doom of slavery in all countries and for all time.
(Renewed cheers.) Another question suggests itself—How has this great matter been accomplished?
The answer suggests itself in another question—How is it that any great matter is accomplished?
By love of justice, by constant devotion to a great cause, and by an unfaltering faith that that which is right will in the end succeed.
(Hear, hear.)
Recalling the trials and perils attending the earlier stages of
Mr. Garrison's career—his imprisonment at
Baltimore, the
Boston mob, and the
Georgia law—
Mr. Bright continued:
Now, these were menaces and perils such as we have not in1 our time been accustomed to in this country in any of our political movements—(hear, hear)—and we shall take a very poor measure indeed of the conduct of the leaders of the emancipation party in the United States if we estimate them by any of those who have been concerned in political movements amongst us. But, notwithstanding all drawbacks, the cause was gathering strength, and Mr. Garrison found himself by and by surrounded by a small but increasing band of men and women who were devoted to this cause, as he himself was. We have in this country a very noble woman who taught the English people much upon this question about thirty years ago; I allude to Harriet Martineau.
(Cheers.) I recollect well the impression with which I read a most powerful and touching paper which she had written, and which was published in the number of the Westminster Review for December, 1838.
It was entitled “The2 Martyr Age of the United States.”
The paper introduced to the English public the great names which were appearing on the scene in connection with this cause in America. . . . When I read that article by Harriet Martineau, and the description of3 those men and women there given, I was led, I know not how, to think of a very striking passage which I am sure must be