eservation of republican liberty and of legalized equality, even
among the nominally free. Diogenes, with his lantern, might have
vainly looked, through many a long day, among the followers of Marius,
or Catiline, or Caesar, for a specimen of the poor but virtuous and
self-respecting Roman citizen of the days of Cincinnatus, or even of
Regulus."[20]

But Mr. Greeley's philosophy was as destructive as his logic was
defective. He wished the slave free, not because he loved him; but
because of the deep concern he had for the welfare of the free, white
working-men of America. He was willing the Negro should be free, but
never suggested any plan of relief for his social condition, or
prescribed for his spiritual and intellectual health. He handled the
entire Negro problem with the icy fingers of the philosopher, and
always applied the flinty logic of abstract political economy. He was
an _anti-slavery_ advocate, but not an _abolitionist_. He was opposed
to slavery, as a system at war with the social and commercial
prosperity of the nation; but so far as the humanity of the question,
in reaching out after the slave as an injured member of society, was
concerned, he was silent.

THE AGGRESSIVE ANTI-SLAVERY PARTY had its birth in the pugnacious
brains of E. P. Lovejoy, James G. Birney, Cassius M. Clay, and John
Brown. All of the anti-slavery parties had taught the doctrine of
_non-resistance_; that if "thy enemy smite thee on thy cheek, turn the
other also." But there were a few men who believed they were possessed
of sacred rights, and that it was their duty to defend them, even with
their lives. It was not a popular doctrine; and yet a conscientious
few practised it with sublime courage whenever occasion required. In
1836 James G. Birney, editor of _The Philanthropist_, published at
Cincinnati, Ohio, defended his press, as best he could, against a mob,
who finally destroyed it. And on the 7th of November, 1837, the Rev.
Mr. Lovejoy sealed the sacred doctrine of the liberty of the press
with his precious blood in the defence of his printing-press at Alton,
Illinois. Cassius M. Clay went armed, and insisted upon his right to
freely and peaceably discuss the cause of anti-slavery.

But these men only laid down a great, fundamental truth; it was given
to John Brown to write the lesson upon the hearts of the American
people, so that they were enabled, a few years later, to practise the
doctrine of _resistance_, and preserve the