Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Politics volume 4 .djvu/316

304 taint. But those ten men wanted this iniquity brought about, wanted slave-ridden Texas in '44, wanted the Fugitive Slave Bill in '50, kidnapping in '51, and again in '54. They protested against the "abrogation of the Missouri Compromise," but in such language that the South knew it meant, "Do as you like; we will not prevent you." So it has been continually, "On the side of the Oppressor there was Power."

Where are such men now? Eecall the platform of last night. Where were the citizens of most "eminent gravity," where the great fortunes, the great offices, the judges of the courts, the great "reputations?" Not one of them was there. Of the Boston which the South cares for, I saw not a man. Why not? You shall answer that question.

In Boston, there are three men of senatorial dignity: they have been in the Senate of the United States, and have all left it. They are men of large talent, good education, high social standing. They are all public orators, and seek occasions on which to address the people; and, to one of them, speech is as the breath of his nostrils. Last night, there was a meeting to express the indignation of Boston at the outrage on Mr. Sumner. These three men were asked to go and speak : not one of them was there. Twice the Committee waited on Mr. Winthrop and Mr. Everett, and twice solicited the ex-senators to come and speak; and twice was the labour thrown away. Did Mr. Everett, once a minister of this cit}^, remember that he refused to present in the Senate the petition of three thousand New-England ministers against the enslavement of Kansas? Did he recollect, that, a whole generation since, he volunteered to shoulder his musket, and march from Bunker Hill to Virginia to put down any attempt of the slaves to regain their natural and unalienable Right to Liberty? At a generous word, Massachusetts, who never forgets, would have rejoiced anew in the bounteous talents, in the splendid scholarship, of the man,—would have recalled every public service he has done, and dropped a tear on his failures and evil deeds. But it was not in him. Mr. Winthrop inherits a name dear to all New England,—connected with her earliest history, stitched into the cradle-clothes of American liberty. Could not