"Knowest thou whether this be thy son's coat or no?" And Boston would answer, "It is my son^s coat: an evil beast hath devoured him." And I would say, "The evil beast is of your own training."
When Mr. Phillips was indicted for freedom of speech, the bail was fixed at fifteen hundred dollars. Mr. Brooks is arrested for beating a man to an extent which may cause his death : the bail was fixed at five hundred dollars. The crime is only one-third so great. In 1851, when a Pennsylvania Quaker, a miller with a felt hat, rides to his neighbour's house on his sorrel horse, and the coloured people, resisting a kidnapper, cheer him, he is indicted for high treason against the United States, and spends months in gaol; but Mr. Brooks goes at large. Passmore Williamson was charged with contempt,—not for the United States, not for its laws, but only for Judge Kane; and he spends months in gaol; and Mr. Representative Brooks goes at large all this time.
Now, I am not surprised at this. They who sow the wind must expect to see the whirlwind come up in time. It is very pretty work sowing the wind broadcast; light and clean to the hand, very respectable: but when you come to eat the harvest of whirlwinds, when the bread of storms is broke on your table, then you remember that "righteousness exalteth a nation, and sin is the ruin of any people." When the vilest of men are exalted, you must expect the wicked will "walk on every side." Remember the Cause of this wickedness in Washington, Kansas, all over the land, — the ferocious disposition of the slaveholders, their fixed determination to spread bondage over the whole country, to " crush out " all freedom of speech. Remember the allies of that ferocity,—corrupt men in the midst of us who have promoted this wickedness, who still encourage it. Remember the general servility of the Northern people, who tread down the black man that the white might gain money from the oppressor.
Do not think this is the act of a single person. Mr. Brooks is a representative man, more decorous and well- mannered than most men of his section or his State. He was but the agent of the Slave Power: all the South will justify his deed. Already South Carolina sends him a
