service to the cause.

If the reformer changed his original intention respecting the place of
publication for his paper, he made no alteration of his position on the
subject of slavery. "I shall strenuously contend," he declares in the
salutatory, "for the immediate enfranchisement of our slave population."
"In Park Street Church," he goes on to add, "on the Fourth of July,
1829, in an address on slavery, I unreflectingly assented to the popular
but pernicious doctrine of _gradual_ abolition. I seize this opportunity
to make a full and unequivocal recantation, and thus publicly to ask
pardon of my God, of my country, and of my brethren, the poor slaves,
for having uttered a sentiment so full of timidity, injustice, and
absurdity."

To those who find fault with his harsh language he makes reply: "I
_will_ be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this
subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation.
No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell
him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell
the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it
has fallen--but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the
present. I am in earnest--I will not equivocate--I will not excuse--I
will not retreat a single inch--AND I WILL BE HEARD." Martin Luther's
"Here I take my stand," was not braver or grander than the "I will be
heard," of the American reformer. It did not seem possible that a young
man, without influence, without money, standing almost alone, could ever
make good those courageous words. The country, in Church and State, had
decreed silence on the subject of slavery; the patriotism of the North,
its commerce, its piety, its labor and capital had all joined hands to
smother agitation, and stifle the discussion of a question that