Age of the United States." The paper
introduced to the English public the great names which were
appearing on the scene in connection with this cause in America.
There was, of course I need not mention, our eminent guest of
to-day; there was Arthur Tappan, and Lewis Tappan, and James G.
Birney of Alabama, a planter and slave-owner, who liberated his
slaves and came north, and became, as I think, the first
presidential candidate upon abolition principles in the United
States. (Hear, hear.) There were besides them, Dr. Channing,
John Quincy Adams, a statesman and President of the United
States, and father of the eminent man who is now Minister from
that people amongst us. (Cheers.) Then there was Wendell
Phillips, admitted to be by all who know him perhaps the most
powerful orator who speaks the English language. (Hear, hear.) I
might refer to others, to Charles Sumner, the well-known
statesman, and Horace Greeley, I think the first of journalists
in the United States, if not the first of journalists in the
world. (Hear, hear.) But besides these, there were of noble
women not a few. There was Lydia Maria Child; there were the two
sisters, Sarah and Angelina Grimke, ladies who came from South
Carolina, who liberated their slaves, and devoted all they had
to the service of this just cause; and Maria Weston Chapman, of
whom Miss Martineau speaks in terms which, though I do not
exactly recollect them, yet I know described her as
noble-minded, beautiful and good. It may be that there are some
of her family who are now within the sound of my voice. If it be
so, all I have to say is, that I hope they will feel, in
addition to all they have felt heretofore as to the character of
their mother, that we who are here can appreciate her services,
and the services of all who were united with her as co-operators
in this great and worthy cause. But there was another whose name
must not be forgotten, a man whose name must live for ever in
history, Elijah P. Lovejoy, who in the free State of Illinois
laid down his life for the cause. (Hear, hear.) When I read that
article by Harriet Martineau, and the description of those men
and women there given, I was led, I know not how, to think of a
very striking passage which I am sure must be familiar to most
here, because it is to be found in the Epist