Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Politics volume 4 .djvu/322

310 of Probate in Suffolk County? Two years ago, with the sword of Boston, the slaveholders cut and wounded peaceful citizens of our own town, and in vain do they besiege the courts of our own State for redress! Mr. Brooks obeys the law of honour among ruffians, Messrs. Curtis and Loring the Fugitive Slave Bill : which is the better of the two,—the law of bullies, or of kidnappers? If Mayor Smith had a right to tread down the laws of Massachusetts, and smite and stab men with the sword, that he might steal a negro, why may not Mr. Brooks beat a senator who speaks against the great crime of the nation?

I rejoice in the indignation which this outrage has caused. Boston is stirred as never before. Does she know that Mr. Sumner was wounded for her transgression, and bruised for her iniquity? Let us lay these things sorrowfully to heart. The past cannot be recalled ; but we may do better in the future,—remove the causes of this evil; may root slavery out of the land, "peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must."

In the country, I expect great good from this wickedness. New-England farmers cover the corn they plant with a prayer for God's blessing: this year they will stamp it also with a curse on Slavery. The matter will be talked over by the shoemakers, and in every carpenter's and trader's shop. The blacksmith, holding the horse's hoof between his legs, will pause over the inserted nail, and his brow grow darker while the human fire burns within. Meetings will be held in fifty towns of Massachusetts, nowhere with a platform so tame as that last night.

There is a war before us worse than Russian. It has already begun : when shall it end? "Not till Slavery has put freedom down," say your masters at the South. "Not till Freedom has driven slavery from the continent," let us say and determine. I have four things to propose: First, Ask Mr. Sumner to come to Boston on the 4th of July, and, in this place, give us an oration worthy of the day, worthy of Boston, and worthy of himself. If he is too sick, ask Wendell Phillips; and, depend upon it, he will be well. Second, Make Mr. Sumner senator next time, and let those men