Page:The Natick resolution, or, resistance to slaveholders.djvu/36

34 At a late hour this afternoon, I learned that the friends of freedom were to have a meeting here to-night, in honor of William Lloyd Garrison. I am here to-night, sir, to express my love for the great cause your guest has advocated for twenty years through the columns of the Liberator, [hear! hear!] and my profound admiration and respect for his self-sacrificing and unfaltering devotion to it, amid obloquy and reproach. It is my misfortune, perhaps, to differ from him on many important questions. Differing, however, from him as I do, I have ever honored him for his unshrinking zeal and unwavering fidelity to the cause of liberty and progress. [Applause.] For twelve years I have read the Liberator; and, sir, if I love liberty, and loathe slavery and oppression, if I entertain a profound regard for the rights of man all over the globe, I owe it, in a great degree, to the labors of William Lloyd Garrison. [Prolonged applause.] I am not ashamed to acknowledge the debt of gratitude I owe him for his labors in behalf of three millions of men, and no fear of censure, ridicule or reproach shall deter me from expressing, on all fit and proper occasions, my respect and admiration for the man. [Applause.] Sir, the unceasing labor he has given to the cause of liberty and humanity for these twenty past years will cause his name and his memory to be cherished and revered ages after the stone which shall lie upon his grave shall crumble and mingle with the dust. [Hear! hear!] And when that great day comes, as surely it will come,—for God reigns,—when three millions of men, held in slavery in this republic, shall be free, the friends of liberty will acknowledge, what many now deny, the patriotism of William Lloyd Garrison. [Cheers.]

I came here, also, to-night, sir, to listen to the voice of one of the most gifted orators of the old world, whose eloquent tones are still ringing in our ears. You have alluded, Mr. Chairman, to the jealous feelings of our countrymen to foreign interference. Sir, I am an American—with American sympathies, feelings, and prejudices. I love my country, with all her faults, with a supreme devotion. I go for my country now, at all times, and on all occasions, and in every contest. Sir, I love not England. [Sensation.] I am not dazzled by her splendor or awed by her power, although the sun never goes down on her possessions, and her