Ernest Crosby, Garrison the non-resistant

[60] is something which compels admiration in this attitude. Garrison belonged to a higher class of men than Lincoln, for he forgot himself in his desire for the triumph of what he regarded as the right. Lincoln's great achievements were incidents in a political career of the ordinary kind, the object of which was the promotion of his own interests and the assurance of his own advancement. As the world goes, we cannot criticize the ambitious lawyer, ready to argue any side of any case, nor the ambitious politician who wishes to be conspicuous; but such occupations and aspirations would be impossible to the noblest type of man. Garrison would at any moment have given his life and devoted his name to oblivion, if by so doing he could have helped his cause. And he was withal the most modest of men, even in conventions of his own people avoiding all appearance of dictation.

And the last mark of prophethood was also Garrison's. Despised and rejected of men during the active part of his career, insulted, mobbed, almost massacred, yet, even sooner than is usually the case, the children of those who would have stoned him have raised monuments to his memory. The fine statue on Commonwealth avenue, Boston, in the very city which once nearly murdered him, bears on its pedestal the words taken from