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

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ANTI-SLAVERY ADDRESS.


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.

"This is the state of man: to-day, he puts forth
The tender leaves of hope; tomorrow, blossoms,
And bears his blnshing honours thick upon him ;
The third day comes a frost, Nebraska’s frost;
And, when he thinks, good easy man, full surely.
His greatness is a ripening, nips his root,
And then he falls ——."

"Oh, how wretched
Is that poor man that hangs on the favours!
There is betwixt that smile he would aspire to,
That sweet aspect of voters, and their ruin,
More pangs and fears than wars or women have ;
And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer,
Never to hope again!"

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