Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker volume 6.djvu/195

182 a celebrated feast of old, they have "kept the good wine until now!" (alluding to Garrison and Phillips, who were to follow).

If the Nebraska Bill is defeated, I shall rejoice that iniquity is foiled once more. But if it become a law-there are some things which seem probable.

1. On the 4th of March, 1866, the democrats will have leave to withdraw from office.

2. Every Northern man who has taken a prominent stand in behalf of Slavery will be politically ruined. You know what befell the Northern politicians who voted for the Missouri Compromise; a similar fate hangs over the men who enslave Nebraska. Already, Mr. Everett is, theo- logically speaking, among the lost; and, of all the three thousand New England ministers whose petition he dared not present, not one will ever pray for his political salvation.

Pause with me and drop a tear over the ruin of Edward Everett, a man of large talents and commensurate industry, very learned, the most scholarly man, perhaps, in the country, with a persuasive beauty of speech only equalled by this American (Mr. Phillips), who surpasses him; he has had a long career of public service, public honour—Clergyman, Professor, Editor, Representative, Governor, Ambassador, President of Harvard College, alike the ornament as the auxiliary of many a learned society—he yet comes to such an end.

Mr. Douglas also is finished; the success of his measure is his own defeat. Mr. Pierce has three short years to