ss and then Greeley's pastor, Dr. Chapin, spoke. Men forgot the
wreck of his political fortunes and the tragedy of his later career. He
expressed the ambition of his life in the wish "that the stone which
covers my ashes may bear to future eyes the still intelligible
inscription: 'Founder of the New York Tribune.'"

A Universalist in his religious faith, Horace Greeley believed that
right was stronger than wrong, good more powerful than evil, and that
there will be in eternal ages no endless perdition for the evil ones of
earth, but that God and all the resources of His power and love will
here or there compel every knee to bow and every will surrender to the
will divine. He earned the right to say at the end of his noble career,
"I have been spared to see the end of giant wrongs that I once deemed
invincible in this country, and to note the silent upspringing and
growth of principles and influences which I hail as destined to root out
some of the most flagrant and pervading influences that remain. So,
looking calmly, yet humbly, for that close of my mortal career which
cannot be far distant, I reverently thank God for the blessings
vouchsafed me in the past; and with an awe that is not fear, and a
consciousness of demerit which does not exclude hope, await the opening
before my steps of the gates of the Eternal World."

VI

HARRIET BEECHER STOWE; JOHN BROWN: THE CONFLICT PRECIPITATED

About 1850, as the result of the long agitation of the editors and
orators, preachers and poets, the people of this country entered upon a
heated mood, when excitement dwelt like fire in the intellect and
conscience. For thinking men, it was becoming clear that civil war was
inevitable, and that commercial relations between North and South would
soon be broken off. But the North had goods to sell, and the South had
money with which to buy; so the word was passed that every one must keep
silence about slavery, lest discussion bring on a financial panic. It
was the era of imprisoned moral sense. In the ocean, some waves are
tidal waves, and on land sometimes the soil is heaved by an earthquake;
at this time God began to heave the conscience of the people as the full
moon heaves the sea. And although we now see that God was behind the
movement, foolish men then tried to stay these moral forces. Northern
merchants and politicians cried, "Peace!" and the Southern successors of
Calhoun lifted the old club, the threat of secession; bu