A retrospect of forty years, 1825-1865 . simpossible and could never take place. As fast as the telegraph and mails could carry it, speech was in the hands of the people Northand South. I read it aloud at my fathers breakfast tableon the 8th of March. In the North, on the part of all thefriends of freedom, it was received with amazement andindignation. It was regarded by many as a bid for thepresidential nomination in 1852; by others as a surrenderto the demands of the South, and by many others as atimorous compliance with the cry for a compromise inwhich, as always before, the Sou
A retrospect of forty years, 1825-1865 . simpossible and could never take place. As fast as the telegraph and mails could carry it, speech was in the hands of the people Northand South. I read it aloud at my fathers breakfast tableon the 8th of March. In the North, on the part of all thefriends of freedom, it was received with amazement andindignation. It was regarded by many as a bid for thepresidential nomination in 1852; by others as a surrenderto the demands of the South, and by many others as atimorous compliance with the cry for a compromise inwhich, as always before, the South was to be the gainerand the North the loser. But especially and above allthe storm of indignation was directed against Mr. Web-sters advocacy of a new fugitive slave law. The im-prisoned winds of his opening metaphor were now let loosein a more literal sense, and blew contending tempestson his naked head. Horace Mann wrote: Websteris a fallen star! Lucifer descending from Heaven!1Giddings, of Ohio, said: By this speech a blow was 224. A RETROSPECT OE EORTY YEARS struck at freedom and the constitutional rights of thefree States which no Southern arm could have a public meeting held March 25, in Faneuil Hall, tocondemn the action of Mr. Webster, Theodore Parkersaid: I know no deed in American history done by ason of New England to which I can compare this but theact of Benedict Arnold. . The only reasonable wayin which we can estimate this speech is as a bid for thepresidency. The Abolitionists were furious at Webstersdenunciation of them. One of the vials of wrath pouredout was a poem by the Quaker poet Whittier, entitledIchabod, in which he wrote, among other things: Of all we loved and honored, naught Save power remains;A fallen angels pride of thought,Still strong in chains. All else is gone; from those great eyes The soul has fled;When faith is lost, when honor dies, The man is dead! Then, pay the reverence of old days To his dead fame;Walk backward, with averted
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