[113] is the idea which carried Washington through a seven-years war; which inspired Lafayette; which touched with coals of fire the lips of Adams, Otis, and Patrick Henry. Ours is an idea which is at least noble and elevating: it is an idea which draws in its train virtue, goodness, and all the charities of life, all that makes earth a home of improvement and happiness.“He is radical, an agitator, a rabid abolitionist, scattering fire-brands and death amongst us,” said the old conservatives who were indirectly storing their magazines of merchandise with the gains derived from the unceasing toil of those in bondage: “he must be silenced, or bought up for our conciliatory purposes.” They mistook their man. They set political power and money-making above principle. Mr. Sumner had come up abreast of the progressive spirit of the age. He saw that aHer path, where'er the goddess roves,We found now a new party. Its corner-stone is freedom. Its broad, all-sustaining arches are truth, justice, and humanity. Like the ancient Roman Capitol, at once a temple and a citadel, it shall be the fit shrine of the genius of American institutions.
Glory pursues, and generous shame,
The unconquerable mind, and freedom's holy flame.
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B. B. Russell, 1874.
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