FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192  
193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   204   205   206   207   208   209   210   211   212   213   214   215   216   217   >>   >|  
ion of superhuman courage. "Will no one pity me?" he said, laying his hand over his heart. "Here, fire here!" While he yet spake, two balls entered his heart, and he fell dead. Thus perished the hero poet of Cuba. He has not fallen in vain. His genius and his heroic death will doubtless be regarded by his race as precious legacies. To the great names of L'Ouverture and Petion the colored man can now add that of Juan Placido. PERSONAL SKETCHES AND TRIBUTES THE FUNERAL OF TORREY. Charles T. Torrey, an able young Congregational clergyman, died May 9, 1846, in the state's prison of Maryland, for the offence of aiding slaves to escape from bondage. His funeral in Boston, attended by thousands, was a most impressive occasion. The following is an extract from an article written for the _Essex Transcript_:-- Some seven years ago, we saw Charles T. Torrey for the first time. His wife was leaning on his arm,--young, loving, and beautiful; the heart that saw them blessed them. Since that time, we have known him as a most energetic and zealous advocate of the anti-slavery cause. He had fine talents, improved by learning and observation, a clear, intensely active intellect, and a heart full of sympathy and genial humanity. It was with strange and bitter feelings that we bent over his coffin and looked upon his still face. The pity which we had felt for him in his long sufferings gave place to indignation against his murderers. Hateful beyond the power of expression seemed the tyranny which had murdered him with the slow torture of the dungeon. May God forgive us, if for the moment we felt like grasping His dread prerogative of vengeance. As we passed out of the hall, a friend grasped our hand hard, his eye flashing through its tears, with a stern reflection of our own emotions, while he whispered through his pressed lips: "It is enough to turn every anti- slavery heart into steel." Our blood boiled; we longed to see the wicked apologists of slavery--the blasphemous defenders of it in Church and State--led up to the coffin of our murdered brother, and there made to feel that their hands had aided in riveting the chain upon those still limbs, and in shutting out from those cold lips the free breath of heaven. A long procession followed his remains to their resting-place at Mount Auburn. A monument to his memory will be raised in that cemetery, in the midst of t
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192  
193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   204   205   206   207   208   209   210   211   212   213   214   215   216   217   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
slavery
 
Torrey
 
Charles
 

murdered

 
coffin
 

grasping

 
strange
 
genial
 

passed

 

sympathy


vengeance

 
humanity
 

feelings

 

bitter

 

moment

 
prerogative
 

forgive

 

sufferings

 

Hateful

 

murderers


indignation

 

expression

 

looked

 

dungeon

 

tyranny

 

torture

 

riveting

 

shutting

 
brother
 
breath

heaven

 
memory
 

monument

 

raised

 

cemetery

 

Auburn

 

procession

 

remains

 

resting

 

Church


reflection

 
emotions
 

pressed

 

whispered

 

grasped

 
friend
 
flashing
 

wicked

 

apologists

 
blasphemous