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��THE GRANITE MONTHLY.
��William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phil- lips, Henry C. Wright, James N. Buf- fum, Charles Remond, Frederick Doug- las and Theodore Parker, of Massachu- setts, .all men of great power on the Anti-Slavery lecture platform ; but for thrilling denunciation of the wicked- ness of American Slavery, and in the narrative of the wrongs and curses in- flicted upon the African race through two hundred years, no one of them all could sound the depths of human woe or reach the sublime of freedom like Parker Pillsbury. The writer of this has heard all these distinguished men, most of them many times, and this is the impress which remains in his mem- ory.
Such is the -man who has written "Acts of the Anti-Slavery Apostles." It is a marvelous book, and should be read by every well-informed, thought- ful American citizen. The Jews can never escape the history of the cruci- fixion of our Saviour ; the Romish church the horrors of the Spanish In- quisition ; the Church of England the fires of Smithfield ; the Puritans of Massachusetts the persecutions of the Baptists and the Quakers, nor the judi- cial murders of those innocent women who were accused as witches ; nor can the American Church or State escape the great crime and abominations of two centuries of American Slavery. The only thing left for them to do now is to atone for that which can not be recalled.
The Acts of the Apostles of our Lord. and Saviour can all be read in one brief hour, but the Acts of the Apos.tles of Anti- Slavery can not be read in twice as many days. And it is necessary that they should be read and pondered now by every American citizen who feels an interest in the welfare of his country.
It was in 1842 that N.P.Rogers wrote of the merits and position of Parker Pillsbury among the abolition-
��ists ; but he very soon after became better known, and was fully ap- preciated by his abolition friends ; — so much so that in 1846, after a five days Anti-Slavery convention at New Bed- ford, in Liberty Hall, he was reserved Tus f he great gun io c\o%Q the meeting on Sunday, and a closely packed au- dience remained till after ten o'clock at night, on the very tip-toe of expecta- tion, to hear " the son of thunder " from New Hampshire make the closing speech of the evening ; and no one went away disappointed or dissatisfied.
In the winter of 1860-61 he deliv- ered an address in Eagle Hall in this city, in which he pictured the sins and iniquities of this nation, in enslaving the black man. He rolled up a moun- tain of crimes and laid it at the doors of the y\merican Church and the American State, — and then the Salva- tion of the Union was the excuse for this "Sum of all villainies !" O, how he launched the thunderbolts of his denunciation against the Union Savers ! The following is one of his illustrations, not easy to be forgotten :
" I tell you God is ripening this na- tion for his judgment. How much longer will he forbear? The cup of his anger is nearly full, and when he begins to reveal the terrors of his wrath, what do you suppose the cries of all these Lai ion Savers will amount to? They will be of no more avail than the feeble wail of an infant, when all the fire department of New York goes thundering up Broadway."
Only too soon, alas ! did he begin to reveal "the terrors of his wrath !" Only too soon did his judgments de- mand the frightful sacrifice ! ".-^nd the blood of half a million young men, brave and beautiful," was claimed to wash away and wipe out the guilt and stain of Southern Slavery ! Who so competent, who so deserving, to record the Acts of the Apostles of Anti-Slav- ery as Parker Pillsbury ?
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