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92 T H E L I B E R A T O R . JUNE 5.
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POETRY.
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For the Liberator.
SONNET--TO RALPH WALDO EMERSON.
Out from the arched centuries, great man,
Thou hangest, as some planet from a sky;
And pigmy men are dazed to look so high.
Here comes a drizzling, weak-eyed priest, I ken,
And there, a fool conformist with his ban;
Foul curs in Plato's shadow! Are they nigh?
I'll name them what I like, and pass them by!
* * * * Hereafter, man,
Just where the thunderbolts of Saturn whir
Between his shining rings, I look for thee,
Great-souled Apollo, with a strength to stir
The gulfy chaos of Eternity;
Thou shouldst have been a Greek in the old time!
For us thou art too noble, too sublime. A.
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For the Liberator.
SONNET--A SUMMER SHOWER.
A summer shower is stretching down the sky;
Beautiful trysting hour of Earth and Heaven!
When, in a flood of tears, Love's pledge is given
To lovely Earth, by her sweet loon on high;
Who patters in her ear his constancy:
And so the joyous pledge may not be riven,
Doth seal it with a seal of colors seven,
And, lightly winged with sunshine, back doth fly!
There is a charming loveliness in tears;
A simple glory in the drops of rain,
That glads alike the roses and their breres;
And if it might come back to me again,
All dewey with the nature of the hour,
I'd pour myself out in a summer shower. A.
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OUR EARTHLY FRIENDS IN HEAVEN.
[The following lines were found in the coat pocket belonging to a young man, soon after his death, which was occasioned by consumption.]
Is it wrong to wish to see them,
Who were dear to us on earth,
Who have gone to heavenly mansions,
Who surround a brighter hearth?
Is it wrong to mourn their absence
From the parted household band?
Should we check the sigh of sadness,
Though they're in a better land?
Is it wrong to hope to meet them
Yet upon the blessed shore,
And with songs of joy to greet them,
When this toil of life is o'er?
Is it wrong to think them dearer
Than the many of the blest,
Who to us on earth were strangers?
Must we love them like the rest?
I've a mother up in heaven,
And, oh! tell me, if you will,
Will that mother know her children?
Will she recollect them still?
Can she look down from those windows
To this dark and dismal shore?
Will she know when I am coming?
Will she meet me at the door?
Will she clasp me to her bosom,
In her ecstasy of joy?
Will she ever be my mother?
Shall I ever be her boy?
And thou, loved one, who didst leave us
In the morning of thy bloom--
Dearest sister, shall I meet thee
When I go beyond the tomb?
Shall I see thy lovely features?
Shall I hear thy pleasant words,
Sounding o'er my spirit's heart-strings
Like the melody of birds?
And I think me of another--
Of a darling little one--
Who went up among the angels,
Ere his life had scarce begun.
Oh! I long once more to see him,
And to fold him in my arms!
As I did when he was with us,
With his thousand budding charms.
Ah! 'tis true the soul must suffer,
And be bowed with anguish down,
Ere 'tis fitted for its dwelling,
Ere 'tis ready for its crown.
But, O Jesus! blessed Jesus!
Thou art loved without alloy;
Thou wilt meet us, thou wilt bless us,
Thou wilt give us perfect joy.
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LITTLE FOOLS AND GREAT ONES.
Friend, when in youth's too fleeting hours
You roam the earth alone,
And have not sought some loving heart
That you may make your own:
Remember woman's priceless worth,
And think, when pleasures pall--
That little fools will love too much,
But great ones not at all.
And if a friend deceive you once,
Absolve poor human kind,
Nor rail against your fellow-man
With malice in your mind;
But in your daily intercourse,
Remember, lest you fall--
That little fools confide too much,
But great ones not at all.
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BETTER LATE THAN NEVER.
Life is a race where some succeed,
While others are beginning;
'Tis luck at times, at others speed,
That gives an early winning.
But if you chance to fall behind,
Ne'er slacken your endeavor;
Just keep this wholesome truth in mind--
'Tis better late than never.
If you can keep ahead, 'tis well,
But never trip your neighbor;
'Tis noble when you can excel
By honest, patient labor.
But if you are outstripped at last,
Press on as bold as ever;
Remember, though you are surpassed,
'Tis better late than never.
Ne'er labor for an idle boast
Of victory o'er another,
But, while you strive your uttermost,
Deal fairly with a brother.
Whate'er your station, do your best,
And hold your purpose ever,
And if you fail to beat the rest,
'Tis better late than never.
Choose well the path in which you run,
Succeed by noble daring;
Then, though the last, when once 'tis won,
Your crown is worth the wearing.
Then never fret if left behind,
Nor slacken your endeavor;
But ever keep this truth in mind--
'Tis better late than never!
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FLOWERS THAT NEVER FADE.
Flowers that bloom to wither fast,
Light whose beams are soon o'ercast,
Friendship, warm, but not to last--
Such by earth are given.
Seek the flowers that ne'er shall fade;
Find the light no cloud can shade;
Meet the Friend that ne'er betrayed;
These are found in heaven!
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MISCELLANY.
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PROGRESS OF SLAVERY AGITATION.
Split between the Unitarians North and the Unitarians South--The Unitarian Conference broken up.
[Correspondence of the St. Louis Republican.]
ALTON, Ill., May 18, 1857.
The Unitarian Conference, which has been in session in this city for ten days past, closed its labors on yesterday. Regular minutes of the proceedings have not yet been made public, nor were they at all reported in the Alton papers, and I am therefore unable to give the names of the more prominent clergy and lay delegates present, or to speak fully of their proceedings.
There were forty or fifty ministers present, representing Boston, Syracuse, Utica, Buffalo, Detroit, Cincinnati, Louisville, Chicago, St. Louis, and other western and northern cities. There were among them several men of considerable note and venerable and solid appearance, but the large majority were young men, and, to judge from the tone and temper of their speeches, were rather on the fast order, if so common a term may be used upon so grave a subject.
The proceedings were of a pleasant and harmonious character, up to last Friday morning, when the everlasting slavery question was brought forward by one of these fast young preachers by the name of Staples, who sprung a set of resolutions upon the body of that character, introducing the subject as one of the reforms which demanded the action of Conference.
Speeches waxed hot and hotter. The calm waters of the Christian brotherhood were agitated and tempest-tossed. So many chafed and struggled for the floor, that the fifteen-minute rule for speeches was adopted. To a looker-on, the change was a sad one. To the active participants, the occasion was one of intense strife for some imaginary victory.
The 'abolition' portion, who soon proved to be the strongest by at least two-thirds of the Conference, declared that the action of that body last year, at Chicago, when they gave the slavery question the go-by, was wrong; that the Unitarian Church was anti-slavery, and it was incumbent upon the Conference, as such, to pronounce publicly against the unholy and iniquitous system.
The 'pro-slavery' party professed an entire willingness that each delegate, each pastor, or each church, in all the land, should entertain their peculiar opinions upon the subject of slavery, and all other questions. But they claimed that this assembly was simply a conference of voluntary delegations from various free and independent congregations, and it had no power to make creeds, establish platforms, or pass resolutions declaratory of church position upon any of the great contested questions of the day. They had no objection to a discussion, if the delegates wished it, of the slavery question; but, as a 'Conference,' a mere numerical majority of twenty or less could not make rules or pass ordinances which the minority were bound to respect.
The debate waxed hot, until night, when the subject was referred to a committee of clergymen to consider upon the resolutions, and report thereon the next morning. The President of this Conference was a Northern man--he decided in the various motions, points of order, &c., made during the afternoon, quite generally against the minority--many of which were made by Judge Treat, of St. Louis. He put Rev. Dr. Eliot, Judge Treat and three Northern men on the committee; but the two former gentlemen announced their declination, saying, that the conference, having no power to make creeds or platforms upon the slavery or any other question, such a committee was unnecessary, and to serve on it would stultify them in those positions. The President then put on Rev. Mr. Haywood, of Louisville, and another of the majority party. Mr. Haywood hesitatingly consented, hoping to devise thereby some plan to avert the impending storm.
I should state that some harsh speeches were made during these proceedings. A young man by the name of Conway, the name who had a difficulty with his flock of the Unitarian Church of Washington City, several months since, because of preaching political sermons, and was compelled to leave it, and who is now preaching to a small congregation in Cincinnati, made a violent effort, in which the minister of God was far less discernible than the pothouse politician. Judge Treat became well warmed, and proceeded in his characteristic, vehement, sledge-hammer style. Dr. Eliot was, as ever, smooth, courteous, forbearing, although flings and implications were plainly pointed at him in preceding speeches. But it was evident that his stand was taken, and he, the leader of the minority, would resist to the last this (as he deemed) usurpation of power, which was antagonistic to the whole spirit and letter of the doctrines of the independent, freethinking, anti-creed, Unitarian Church.
Saturday morning came--a morning of deep interest to the Unitarians of Alton--may I say, to the Unitarians of the United States. This day would witness whether the church should divide upon the slavery question, as some of our large Christian denominations, or should continue on in brotherly affection, each man, each church, regarding this subject as they thought proper, and allowing to his fellow-man the same privilege.
The conference met, and the beautiful little church of Alton, built equally by free State and slave State funds, was well filled by an anxious auditory. Instantly the debate upon this vexed question was sprung, and permitted by the presiding officer, before the committee made their report.
The committee suppressed the resolutions, but submitted a statement, a sort of hotch-potch of argument, to this effect: That this Assembly was a Conference--had no power to make creeds, establish platforms, &c., but that it was in their power to pass a resolution, as a Conference, simply expressive of the views of the Conference; and, therefore, advised the Conference to declare, that it regarded slavery as a great crime, &c., &c., as is usual with anti-slavery meetings generally.
When the report had been made, and two or three speeches in its favor delivered, Dr. Eliot, of St. Louis, arose. All eyes were turned upon him. A needle could have been heard to fall, as he proceeded. He was calm, clear--his voice as pleasant as the breath of a June morning. He was standing towards the front of the church, and most of us behind him, and we could not see his face. He said, in substance, that the storm had come, even upon the Conference of the Unitarian Church of the land. He had been one of the originators of that manner of assemblage of the Church--he little thought, then, that it would prove a means of usurpation upon Unitarian Independence and sectional antagonism. He could not consent to the report. He denied the power of that body, except by a ruthless, arbitrary vote of a small majority of members, to pass it over the protest of a minority--even a minority of one. But he saw what was about to follow. He did not object to the particular wording of the committee's report. What they had said, was said as kindly as possible. He did not object to their particular views upon the question of slavery. He had his. But he regarded this step as the entering wedge, and that the first step to a sectional agitation, upon a theoretic question--a question which, in its practical relations, was far beyond their reach--and that hereafter, the Conference would not prove an assemblage of representatives of [[italics]] all [[/italics]] the Unitarian churches of the land; that the action now about to be taken affected him and his church; that it would tend to cripple his means of usefulness among his people; and therefore, conceding to every other delegate the right of perfect freedom of action in this matter, he, for himself alone, without consulting with even his brother delegates from St. Louis, believed it his duty, most respectfully, to withdraw from the Conference, and asked that his name be erased from its roll of membership.
Judge Treat, also a St. Louis delegate, then arose, and in a few very happy remarks, made a like announcement and request.
Another delegate (Mr. Crow, of St. Louis, I believe,) arose, and asked that, for the sake of harmony and prosperity to the Unitarian cause in the South, this whole matter be postponed to next year. This motion was negatived by a majority vote.
Hon. Robert Smith, M.C., of this Congressional District, one of the most prominent members of the Alton Unitarian Church, now gained the floor. His feelings had been not a little ruffled the day previous by indiscreet remarks of the younger preachers, in discussing the slavery question. They had spoken sneeringly of politicians, of the public press, and had remarked that 'St. Louis has already cost the Conference too much.'
Mr. Smith was warm--yea, it is not stretching a point to say he was thoroughly aroused. He regretted that this step was about to be taken--that resolutions were about to be passed to divide the Unitarian brotherhood of the North and the South, upon
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a theoretic question, suspended on an imaginary line. And he particularly regretted as an Alton man, that the act of separation was to be done in this city, where, after so long a struggle, and with aid from various sources, they had just been able to effect church organization and erect an edifice. He had hoped that those Northern gentlemen, who were so anxious to do the deed, would wait until the conference should meet upon their own soil, and thus dye it with the blood of the martyred denomination. He would say to those young advocates of liberty (the fast young preachers,) that they would quite as well show their anti-slavery zeal to the world by going to the slave States, and live among, and deal with, and preach against it, as had Dr. Eliot for many years past, as to enter such as body as this, and make empty speeches and pass imaginary thunderbolts in the way of resolutions, against evil which here did not exist. He was willing for them to have their opinions, but was not willing that their opinions should be forced down the throats of others. If they wished to talk over the slavery question, let them call a special meeting for it, outside of the Conference, and talk their fill. And further, if the young men feared that this course would not give them sufficient notoriety, they could have their speeches printed, and cast broadcast over the land--and he would cheerfully pay all the attendant expense.
The speech was cutting. I can give no more of it, for I am already too lengthy, I fear. Other speeches were made on the majority side, some fanatical, some flat, (especially of Conway, the expelled,) one or two of which were most excellent in spirit and manner, of elderly ministers in the church, who were sorely grieved at the disruption, but believed it better to be even so than to tamper and compromise with sin, by remaining to declare against the great national sin of human slavery.
The dissenters withdrew, and the report of the committee was adopted, by about twenty-five ayes, judging from sight and sound--naes but one or two.
The Unitarian Church of the United States was divided.
The Conference adjourned to dinner. Some of the delegates left town immediately. The Northern wing had an afternoon session.
On yesterday, the Sabbath services were held at the Unitarian Church in the morning, and in the afternoon the Rev. Mr. Forman was installed as pastor of the Alton Unitarian Church. This morning's Chicago train bore away to their homes many of the Unitarian preachers, Church North, with bitterness in many of the breasts against their brethren of the Church South. The upper Mississippi packets will take away others this evening.
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SCHOOLS IN WASHINGTON.
The Federal District has a colored population of 14,000, most of them free, while a large proportion of both free and slave are parti-colored, evincing a liberal infusion of Caucasian blood. For the education of none of these, whether slave or free, is any public provision made, while nearly all of them exist in a state of poverty and social degradation which forbids the thought of their education by spontaneous effort. Living in a a state of social vassalage, tolerated by the ruling caste only as ministrants to their pride, luxury and indolence, or panders to their vices, it is not strange that the moral as well as intellectual condition of these blacks is a very low one--it would be strange indeed if it were otherwise.
These facts, some years since, impelled a Northern lady, Miss Myrtilla Miner, to undertake the establishment there of a school for colored girls. The plan was favored by a few philanthropists, through whose aid a plat of three acres or so lying near the boundary dividing Washington City from Georgetown, has been purchased and paid for, with a small but commodious building thereon, which is at once the school-house and residence of the teacher and her boarding-scholars. Here some thirty or forty girls of all hues but white are being instructed as well as the abilities and means of the teacher will permit. The impossibility of renting a room for such a purpose has contained the purchase of this house and ground, while the absence of any appeals for local sympathy or local notoriety has not shielded the enterprise from the wrath of his Democratic Majesty, King Mob. For some years past, however, it has been unmolested-- a favor which Miss Miner gratefully attributes to the personal interposition of Mrs. President Pierce, who, hearing that its riotous suppression was imminent, drove over repeatedly in her carriage to inquire into the progress of the school, and be assured of its prospects and safety. The cowardly miscreants who were plotting its destruction, noting with amazement its reflected shadow of the White House patronage, wilted like mown weeds under a July sun.
Recently, an effort has been made, mainly in Boston, to raise $20,000 for the enlargement of the house and general improvement of this school, so as to fit it for the accommodation of a half a dozen teachers and one hundred and fifty scholars, including twenty or thirty boarders. Such dangerous radicals and fanatics as the Rev. Dr. Lothrop, George S. Hillard and Deacon Same Greele were conspicuous in the effort, and it was thought that the $20,000 required could be raised in the course of this year.
These facts have stirred up the Hon. Walter Lennox, a pecuniary magnate and ex-Mayor of Washington City, to a counter demonstration. He announces through The National Intelligencer, that this school must be put down. He don't want to provoke 'a sentimental controversy'? He would simply suppress agitation by suppressing the education of colored children in the district. Says the Hon. Walter :--
'The matter involved is too momentous in all its relations, not only to this community, but to the entire country; and, in the language of the extract itself, "rises infinitely above all party or sectional lines." It is my wish to arrest public attention here, as also elsewhere, in order that such immediate measures may be adopted as the exigency of the case demands. If I do not entirely mistake the opinion which the citizens of this District will entertain of the character and fatal consequences of this enterprise, they will almost universally, without distinction of party or class, emphatically protest against it, and will confidently expect that the advocates of this measure will promptly abandon it, as an unjust and dangerous interference with the interests and feelings of a separate independent community.
'* * * We shall gain nothing by concession or delay. This scheme was stated some years ago in humble guise, and in the foothold it has already gained, it feels secure of its future progress. Earnest, prompt action can now arrest it peacefully; tumult and blood may destroy its future history.
'With justice, we can say to the advocates of this measure, You are not competent to decide this question; your habits of thought, your ignorance of our true relations to the colored population, prevent you from making a full and candid examination of its merits, and above all, the temper of the public mind is inauspicious even for its consideration. If your humanity demands this particular sphere for its action, and if, to use your own language, "prejudice would brand them at your Northern schools," establish separate institutions in the Free States, dispense your money there abundantly as your charity will supply, draw to them the unfortunate at your own door, or from abroad, and in all respects gratify the largest impulses of your philanthropy; but do not seek to impose on us a system contrary to our wishes and interests, and for the further reason that by so doing you injure the cause of those whom you express a wish to serve. We must insist that within our limits we are the best, and must be the exclusive judges of the character and degree of instruction that shall be imparted to this class of our population, who shall be their teachers, and what the nature of the influences they may seek or shall be permitted to exercise.'
Certainly, Mr. Lennox! you citizens of the District can break up the school, burn the house, confiscate the grounds, and punish or banish the teacher, if you insist on it. There is no power in the States where the teaching of the poor and despised is no crime to prevent such demonstrations on your part. But the people of the Free States have a right to judge whether a District in which such wrongs are instigated by the rich and powerful, and executed by their blind instruments, is a fit location for the capital of this 'Model Republic,' and they will ponder the question without fear of your mobs or your denunciation. Nay, they will require their representatives not to vote million after million of their money to increase your wealth and power, if you war thus on the education of the lowly which you are to asked to support. At the late session of Congress, million after million of their money was voted away to increase the price of your lots, the rent of your houses--one million at one dash of the pen in aid of the construction of an aqueduct, at the cost of the Federal Treasury, to diffuse the water of the Potomac through your streets; when your houses have no more right to be supplied with water at their expense than have the dwellings of New York or Chicago. You drove that
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appropriation through by means of a Committee of Conference, when you knew that the House was at least two-thirds opposed to it, and would at any time have voted it down as a separate proposition, as was in fact done. Now, Mr. Lennox, drive that woman and her little squad of school-children out of the District, and let us see the name of the Northern Representative who votes more money out of his constituents' pockets to enhance the price or the rents of your houses in the Federal City!--N. Y. Tribune.
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THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY.
The American Tract Society arrived on Wednesday at a harmonious result with regard to Slavery, in the adoption of the Report of a large and highly respectable Committee.
We understand that this result, though accepted by both parties, is specially regarded as a triumph by the Anti-Slavery men connected with the Tract organization. If so, we must think them thankful for small favors. To what does it amount? That the Society will cease to print works as Dick's, or Chalmer's, or Wesley's, or James's, which have ceased to be truly such, through their deliberate mutilation by the Society's own agents, is very proper, like any act of reformation which implies repentance; for the Society had not right to make an author say what he did not mean by omitting a very important part of what he actually said. Apologists for bondage habitually insist that Christ was not hostile to slavery, because he nowhere in express terms condemned it; but if he had done so, and such men as have hitherto controlled the issues of the Tract Society had been allowed to edit and publish the Gospels, the modern world would have been kept in ignorance of the fact. And we apprehend that such works as bear explicit testimony against the sin and wrong of slaveholding will henceforth be deemed 'not adapted to the design of the Society in their original form'--and that will be the upshot of this resolution.
As to the Report, it seems to us calculated rather to 'darken counsel' than frankly to affirm and declare a line of policy on a most momentous question. Among 'those moral duties which grow out of the existence of slavery,' is the duty of abolishing slavery included, or is it not? Does the Tract Society consider the naked act of making a poor and ignorant woman labor through life and bear children, for the benefit of an intelligent and powerful man whom the State declares her master, right or wrong? Among 'those moral evils and vices which slavery is known to promote,' is the enforcement of unpaid service or is it not recognized? And will the Society publish and circulate tracts which, 'in a fraternal and Christian spirit,' exhibit the inherent and inevitable wrong of slaveholding, and Christian duty of abstaining from and discountenancing it? This is the vital point, and on this point the Report fails to enlighten us. We must await, then, the acts which are to give significance to this non-luminous congeries of words, before we can join in exultation over yesterday's doings by the Tract Society.--Tribune.
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From the Jeffersonian [Ohio] Democrat.
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY AND SLAVERY.
At the recent Annual Meeting of this Society, the Committee appointed at the previous meeting, to review the action of the Executive Committee, made their report. The Publishing Committee recommended the adoption of the following resolutions, as the views of the Society. It will be seen that all such disorganizing and infidel subjects of moral reform as Temperance, Peace, Anti-Slvery, &c., are to be ignored by the Society, as not coming within its ideas of 'Gospel truth.' In other words, the Society will not be the especial organ of 'any one system of religious or moral reform,' but will most unceremoniously pitch in to 'all forms of fundamental doctrinal error,' as part of its 'Gospel' teachings, and let alone the unimportant subjects of moral reform, like Anti-Slavery, Peace, Temperance, &c., for fear of impairing its influence among slaveholders, rummies and filibusters. National sins, however injurious to mankind at large, to particular communities, or to individuals, must not be meddled with at all, for fear that slaveholders, advocates of war and intemperance, will not patronize the Society, as usual, by liberal donations of money. But here are the resolutions:
* * * * *
It is well known, perhaps, that the Tract Society have, within the past few years, been very careful not to offend the South, even refusing to publish a single line (in their Southern editions) against the sin of slvery; but that they have had one edition for the North, and another for the South, of the same work. This shows the basest kind of hypocrisy, at the outset; and we think the charge of infidelity against all that do not subscribe to the peculiar doctrinal theories of the American Tract Society, comes with bad grace from a professed religious Association who are too holy to inculcate Peace principles, Temperance or Anti-Slavery reform. We believe that this Society, which boasts of receiving $153,885 95 during the past year, in donations and legacies, and of the sale of books and periodicals amounting to $266,599 44 more, might use its vast influence in rolling back the tide of Intemperance, War and Slavery, without particularly conflicting with the 'Gospel,' or the very 'religious' pockets of the Society. The Apostles, we read, and even the Savior himself, denounced and preached against the national and individual sins of the Jews; and they did not 'fail to declare the whole counsel of God,' because a few Herods and other tyrants and oppressors of that day were for silencing them for speaking the truth in its purity.
There is no disguising the fact that the great monopoly called the 'American Tract Society,' is, and always has been, an ally of the Slave Power of this country; and we might cite numerous evidences which have fallen under our own observation, to prove the above assertion. Its managers have evidently intended to disseminate a kind of 'Gospel' acceptable to professed Christians generally, but yet so far non-committal as not to particularly offend the Devil. From such kind of teaching and preaching, 'Good Lord, deliver us.'
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From the Madison, [Wis.] State-Journal.
WM. A. WHITE.
We are no longer prevented by any feeling of delicacy from expressing our sentiments concerning this citizen, over whom a cloud of mystery has hung for seven long months. Those who knew him best have most deeply felt his absence, and although the circumstances under which he died are very, very painful, and we recall with a shudder the last moments, or rather hours of his life, his friends who have been haunted with a variety of conjectures will now find painful satisfaction in the solution of the mystery so far as it is a solution, while those who are perhaps too much disposed to judge others by themselves, and have therefore settled down upon opinions derogatory to the character of Mr. W., will learn a wholesome lesson in the discovery that there has been a man more ready to injure himself than others.
Mr. White was 38 years of age. Of his early history, the writer has little knowledge. His boyhood was spent in Watertown, Mass., and he was blessed with all the favorable influences of a New England village, which did not fail to leave their impression upon him. His sense of religious obligation early learned to manifest itself in the substantial form of humanity, and soon after he was graduated at Harvard College in 1838, he became earnestly engaged in the great reforms of the day, and always generous almost to a fault, he thus devoted not only his time and strength, but also a goodly portion of his large inheritance to the causes of Temperance and Anti-Slavery. He was either editor or frequent contributor of reform journals in Boston, for a number of years, and frequently spoke at anti-slavery and temperance meetings in that city and throughout the country, and fearlessly exposed himself to danger where he felt any good might be accomplished. He was in advance of his age. He was pioneer in a a cause which, though then despised, is now very generally espoused. As another said of him--'He studied law, but practiced the gospel.' If, in common with men who engage in good works, and in accordance with the universal imperfections of human character, he loved the notoriety which he thus gained, who is therefore to take from the credit of heartiness? Indeed, it is not to be questioned that the would have found other means of giving himself prominence, if his sympathy for suffering fellow-beings had not been quick, and his moral sense been strong. With all the property he inherited, he must have seen before him a career of influence as a man of wealth, but his ambition was of a nobler grade. He was impatient with conservatives, and despised those whose God was the dol-
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lar. He moved to the West with high purposes, locating in Madison somewhat over three years ago. Our citizens will long remember him as a disinterested and public-spirited man, one who, though glad to be widely known as engaged in good works, never sought popularity, and never would stoop to pandering or sycophancy to obtain the honors of office.
He was far above the common level of the community--above it in moral purpose and power as well as intelligence and independence.
W. A. White was of such men as this country needs, but whose worth cannot be appreciated because it cannot be reckoned by dollars and cents. If he lacked anything good, it was nothing so much as wordly wisdom, and if, judging by results, as the world is too apt to judge, he was not always shrewd and cautious in business, it is also to be remembered that his whole soul was not bent upon accumulating wealth, that he thoroughly despised that shrewdness which is only another name for meanness and trickery. Those who knew him best, knew that he would rather die than be guilty of a dishonorable act. Of his last hours we know little. We will not judge him upon our conjectures; of the wonders of hisphysical frame we are too ignorant. The over-strained cords must eventually snap.
'Strange that a harp of thousand strings
Should keep in tune so long.'
We trustingly leave him to the mercy of his God.
Five years ago, Mr. White was described in Crayon Sketches, by Geo. W. Bungay. The following are extracts :--
'The senior editor of the New Englander, (W .A. White,) is a fluent and forcible speaker. He speaks better than he writes. He is an enthusiast in reform, and manifests little patience with wooden-headed conservatives, who will not comprehend what they cannot count with their fingers, nor measure anything that is longer than a yardstick. With such men, and with the oppressors of our race, whether they use rum or the rawhide, liquor or the lash, the cat or the can, he has no fellowship. When he writes about them, his pen foams at the nib. When he speaks about them, his speeches remind us of some rivers that are sweet at their source, but bitter at the mouth.
'Although connected, like Wendell Phillips and Edmund Quincy, with some of the first families in New England, he cheerfully and modestly identifies himself with the progress parties, whom the Pharisees and Sadducees of this generation do not delight to honor. Doubtless he is fond of fame, but he will not sacrifice his sentiments to obtain it; like Cato, he would rather have posterity inquire why no statues were erected to him, than why they were.'
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THE LATE WILLIAM A WHITE.
The remains of William A. White, which were lately discovered at Milwaukee, were brought to this city yesterday, and taken to Watertown, where they were deposited in the burial place of his family.
Mr. White was born at Watertown, Sept. 2, 1818, and was the only song of Abijah White, a wealthy citizen of that place, who died in 1845, and whose children, besides his son, were six daughters, one of whom, now deceased, was the wife of Professor James Russell Lowell, of Cambridge. The rest of the daughters are still living. One of them is married to Col. Richardson, Mayor of Worcester, and another to Charles W. Elliott, author of the recently published History of New England.
Mr. White graduated at Harvard College in 1838. Among his classmates were William Aspinwall, Wendell T. Davis, Charles Devens, Rufus Ellis, William W. Story, Nathan Hale, Jr., and Professor Eustis and Lowell, of Harvard University. Upon leaving college, he entered the Law School, and afterwards studied in the office of B. R. Curtis, now one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was admitted to the bar, but practiced law for only a brief period, as he soon, with characteristic ardor and energy, there himself into the Anti-Slavery and Temperance movements, in behalf of which he was for several years conspicuous as a zealous and effective speaker and writer.
In 1843 he made an anti-slavery lecturing tour to the West, in company with George Breadburn and Frederick Douglass, and while in Indiana and Illinois, was repeatedly assailed by mobs, and exposed to great personal danger. On one occasion he was severely injured in the head by stones and brickbats. After his return, he became editor and publisher of the Excelsior, the New Englander, and the Washingtonian, temperance journals, which he conducted with vigor and ability, and kept in existence at the expense of his own private fortune. In 1854 he removed to the West, and settled in Madison, Wisconsin, where he soon became distinguished as an able and public spirited citizen. At the time of his death, we believe, he was Chairman of the Republican State Committee. In 1855 he married a daughter of Justin Butterfield, of Chicago. He had been previously married, in 1846, to Miss Harriet Strugis, of Roxbury, who died in 1850, leaving two children. In October, 1856, Mr. White went from Madison to Milwaukee to attend the State Agricultural Fair. On the ninth of October, he went to Chicago to see his wife, who was there on a visit to his mother. He returned to Milwaukee early on the morning of the tenth, took breakfast at his hotel, and walked out immediately afterwards. He was quite unwell at the time, and while at Chicago had complained of severe headache and nausea. He was met in the street by an acquaintance at a short distance from the hotel, and was not again seen alive. It appears that he continued his walk outside the city along the lake shore for about two miles, until he reached a solitary bluff overlooking the water. Here he probably was seized with a fit or disease of the heart, to which he was subject, and died while seated on the edge of the bluff looking down upon the lake. The body was found about a fortnight ago, by a boy, at the foot of the bluff, to which it had been brought by the fall of a portion of the bank.
There was nothing whatever in Mr. White's circumstances or character that rendered it probable that he had committed suicide. Notwithstanding the reports to the contrary at the time of his death, it has been ascertained by his administrators that his pecuniary affairs were in a good condition. His own property, inherited from his father, would have paid his debts twice over. His wife possessed in her right a very large property,--an ample fortune, in fact. He was singularly happy in his domestic relations, and was devotedly attached to his young children, for whose sake, in fact, he had been led to settle in the West. It is not to be presumed without evidence, that he would without cause voluntarily desert them by taking his own life.
Mr. White possessed fine natural abilities. He was a fluent and impressive speaker, and wrote with ease and pungency. He had a keen wit and strong sense of humor, which frequently did him good service in the hot debates in which he was engaged as an anti-slavery and temperance orator. In character he was in the highest degree frank, manly, generous, and upright. He was incapable of a mean or selfish act, and his first and only rule of action was to do what was right, without regard as to whether it was expedient. When satisfied that he was on the right track, he went ahead with a constitutional courage that amounted to absolute fearlessness. As an eminently brave, sincere, and honest man, who earnestly sought to do his duty, and to benefit his fellow-men at the cost of much personal sacrifice to himself, he will long be remembered with affection and respect by an unusually extensive circle of friends and acquaintances.--Boston Traveller.
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REV. GEORGE B. CHEEVER.
On Sunday last, Rev. George B. Cheever, of the Church of the Puritans, in New York city, stated in his pulpit they he had received a letter, signed by sixteen members of his church, including three deacons, requesting him to resign his pastoral charge. This step was taken in consequence of the dissatisfaction felt by those parties at the course lately taken by Dr. Cheever, in preaching on the recent decision of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case. The announcement caused great excitement, and Dr. Cheever promptly called a business meeting, to be held in the lecture-room of his church on Monday evening. At this meeting, a proposal to investigate the affair was voted down, 20 to 48, and a resolution passed, expressive of approbation of Dr. Cheever's course, and of affection and respect for him personally, without a dissenting voice. Dr. Cheever is well and widely known in this neighborhood, having once been pastor of the Howard street church in Salem, and having numerous friends and relatives around Boston.--Traveller.
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[[image: finger pointing right]] The London papers abound in articles on the decision of our Supreme Court on the case of Dred Scott, which are not flattering to our national pride. Their writers 'thank God that they were born Englishmen, and live in a civilized country.'
[[/column 5]]
[[column 6]]
[[Illustration for Ayer's Cherry Pectoral]]
CATHARTIC PILLS
OPERATE by their powerful influence on the internal viscera to purify the blood and stimulate it into healthy action. They remove the obstructions of the stomach, bowels, liver, and other organs of the body, and, by restoring their irregular action to health, correct, wherever they exist, such derangements as are the first causes of disease. An extensive trial of their virtues, by Professors, Physicians, and Patients, has shown cures of dangerous diseases almost beyond belief, were they not substantiated by persons of such exalted position and character as to forbid the suspicion of untruth. Their certificates are published in my American Almanac, which the Agents below named are pleased to furnish free to all inquiring.
Annexed we give [[italics]] Directions [[\italics]] for their use in the complaints which they have been found to cure.
For COSTIVENESS.--Take one or two pills, or such quantity as to gently move the bowels. Costiveness is frequently the aggravating cause of PILES, and the cure of one complaint is the cure of both. No person can feel well while under a costive habit of body. Hence it should be, as it can be, promptly relieved.
For DYSPEPSIA, which is sometimes the cause of [[italics]] Costiveness [[/italics]], and always uncomfortable, take mild doses -- from one to four -- to stimulate the stomach and liver into healthy action. They will do it, and the [[italics]] heartburn, bodyburn, [[/italics]] and [[italics]] soulburn [[/italics]] of dyspepsia will rapidly disappear. When it is gone, don't forget what cured you.
For A FOUL STOMACH, or [[italics]] Morbid Inaction of the Bowels, [[/italics]] which produces general depression of the spirits and bad health, take from four to eight Pills at first, and smaller doses afterwards, until activity and strength are restored to the system.
For NERVOUSNESS, SICK HEADACHE, NAUSEA, [[italics]] Pain in the Stomach, Back, or Side, [[/italics]] take from four to eight pills on going to bed. If they do not operate sufficiently, take more the next day until they do. These complaints will be swept out from the system. Don't wear these and their kindred disorders because your stomach is foul.
For SCROFULA, ERYSIPELAS, [[italics]] and all diseases of the Skin, [[/italics]] take the Pills freely and frequently, to keep the bowels open. The eruptions will generally soon begin to diminish and disappear. Many dreadful ulcers and sores have been healed up by the purging and purifying effect of these Pills, and some disgusting diseases, which seemed to saturate the whole system, have completely yielded to their influence, leaving the sufferer in perfect health. Patients! your duty to society forbids that you should parade yourself around the world covered with pimples, blotches, ulcers, sores, and all or any of the unclean diseases of the skin, because your system wants cleansing.
To PURIFY THE BLOOD, they are the best medicine ever discovered. They should be taken freely and frequently, and the impurities which sow the seeds of incurable diseases will be swept out of the system like chaff before the wind. By this property they do as much good in preventing sickness as by the remarkable cures which they are making every where.
LIVER COMPLAINT, JAUNDICE, [[italics]] and all Bilious Affections [[/italics]] arise from some derangement -- either torpidity, congestion, or obstructions of the Liver. Torpidity and congestion vitiate the bile, and render it unfit for digestion. This is disastrous to the health, and the constitution is frequently undermined by no other cause. Indigestion is the symptom. Obstruction of the duct which empties the bile into the stomach causes the bile to overflow into the blood. This produces Jaundice, with a long and dangerous train of evils. Costiveness, or, alternately, costiveness and diarrhea, prevails. Feverish symptoms, languor, low spirits, weariness, restlessness, and melancholy, with sometimes inability to sleep, and sometimes great drowsiness; sometimes there is severe pain in the side; the skin and the white of the eyes become a greenish yellow; the stomach acid; the bowels sore to the touch; the whole system irritable, with a tendency to fever, which may turn to bilious fever, bilious colic, bilious diarrhea, dysentery, &c. A medium dose of three or four pills taken at night, followed by two or three in the morning, and repeated a few days, will remove the cause of all these troubles. It is wicked to suffer such pains when you can cure them for 25 cents.
RHEUMATISM, GOUT, [[italics]] and all Inflammatory Fevers [[/italics]] are rapidly cured by the purifying effects of these Pills upon the blood and the stimulus which they afford to the vital principle of Life. For these and all kindred complaints they should be taken in mild doses, to move the bowels gently, but freely.
As a DINNER PILL, this is both agreeable and useful. No pill can be made more pleasant to take, and certainly none has been made more effectual to the purpose for which a dinner pill is employed.
PREPARED BY
J.C. AYER
Practical and Analytical Chemist,
LOWELL, MASS.,
AND SOLD BY
THEODORE METCALF & CO., } [[italics]] Boston; [[/italics]]
BREWER, STEVENS & CUSHING,}
BROWN & PRICE, [[italics]] Salem; [[/italics]]
H. H. HAY, [[italics]] Portland; [[/italics]]
J. N. MORTON & CO., [[italics]] Concord, N. H.; [[/italics]]
And by Druggists and Dealers in Medicine everywhere. D12 6m
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IT IS NOT A DYE!
[[short line]]
PRESIDENT J.H. EATON, L.L.D.,
[[italics]] Union University, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, [[/italics]]
Says: 'Notwithstanding the [[italics]] irregular [[/italics]] use of Mrs. S.A. Allen's World's Hair Restorer, &c. [[italics]] the falling off of hair ceased, and my grey locks were restored to their original color,' [[/italics]]
REV. M. THACHER (60 years of age), Pitcher, Chenango Co. N.Y. 'My hair is now restored to its natural color, and ceases to fall off.'
REV. WM. CUTTER, Ed. Mother's Magazine, N.Y. 'My hair is changed to its natural color, &c.'
REV B.P. STONE, D.D., Concord, N.H., 'My hair which was grey, is now restored to its natural color, &c.'
REV. D. CLENDENIN, Chicago, Ill. 'I can add my testimony, and recommend it to my friends.'
REV. D.T. WOOD, Middletown, N.Y. 'My own hair has greatly thickened, also that of one of my family who was becoming bald.'
REV J. P. TUSTIN, Charleston, S.C. 'The white hair is becoming obviated, and new hair forming, &c.'
REV. A. FRINK, Silver Creek, N.Y. 'It has produced a good effect on my hair, and I can and have recommended it.'
REV. A. BLANCHARD, Meriden, N.H. 'We think very highly of your preparations, &c.'
REV. B.C. SMITH, Prattsburgh, N.Y. 'I was surprised to find my grey hair turn as when I was young.'
REV. JOS. McKEE, Pastor of the West D.R. Church, N.Y. REV. D. Morris, Cross River, N.Y. MRS. REV. H.A. Pratt, Hamden, N.Y.
[[image: hand with finger pointing right]] We might swell this list, but, if not convinced TRY IT. MRS. S.A. ALLEN'S ZYLOBAL-SAMUM,
Or World's Hair Dressing, is essential to use with the Restorer, and is the best Hair Dressing for old or young extant, being often efficacious in cases of hair falling, &c. without the Restorer.
Grey haired, Bald, or persons afflicted with diseases of the hair or scalp, read the above, and judge of
Mrs. S. A. ALLEN'S WORLD'S HAIR RESTORER.
[[italics]] It does not soil or stain. [[/italics]] Sold by all the principal wholesale and retail merchants in the United States, Cuba, or Canada.
DEPOT, 355 BROOME-STREET, New-York.
[[image: hand with finger pointing right]] Some dealers try to sell articles instead of this, on which they make more profit. Write to Depot for circular and information.
[[italics]] Wholesale Agents. [[/italics]] Boston-ORLANDO TOMPKINS 271 Washington Street. Madam DEMOREST, 238 do. BURR. FOSTER & CO. GEO. C. GOODWIN.
March 27 6m
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ELOCUTION
Is rapidly rising in favor, and a competent teacher of this art will supply a long-felt want. Miss H. G. GUNDERSON, 16 Bradford street, offers her services in this department to Colleges, Academies, Schools, professional gentlemen, ladies, and all who wish to acquire a correct style of reading and speaking.
Miss G. has permission to refer to the following gentlemen:--
G.F. THAYER, Esq., late Principal of the Chauncy Hall School.
AMOS BAKER, Esq., Principal of Chapman Hall School.
Rev. J. W. OLMSTEAD, Editor of the Watchman and Reflector.
Rev. C. F. BARNARD, Warren St. Chapel.
Prof. H. B. HACKETT, Newton Theological Seminary.
Prof. ALVAH HOVEY, " " "
Rev. O. S. STEARNS, Newton Centre.
Rev. J. NEWTON BROWN, D.D., Philadelphia.
Rev. L. F. BEECHER, D.D., Principal of Saratoga Female Seminary.
Boston, May 1, 1857. 1y
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J. B. YERRINTON & SON,
PRINTERS;
21 Cornhill.............BOSTON.
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[[/page]]Transcription Notes:
Last edit done up to column 2, paragraph ending "...impending storm."
obscured text found at: http://fair-use.org/the-liberator/1857/06/05/the-liberator-27-23.pdf
