H 1 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 Hon.R.C v PARSONS, 
 
 BEFOR : THE 
 
 PIONEER ASSOCIATION. 
 
 NORTH SOLON, OHIO, 
 
 AUGUST 30, 1876 
 
 CLEVELA JD, OHIO: 
 
 LEADER PRIKTIXG CoMl'V.Y, 146 SUPERIOR STREET. 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 OF 
 
 / 
 
 Hon. R.C. PARSONS, 
 
 BEFORE THE 
 
 PIONEER ASSOCIATION, 
 
 NORTH SOLON, OHIO, 
 
 AUGUST 30, 1876. 
 
 
 CLEVELAND, OHIO: 
 
 LEADER PRINTING COMPANY, 146 SUPERIOR STREET. 
 1876, 
 
 • « 
 

 • » 
 
The following note will explain itself: 
 
 Hon. R. C. Parsons: 
 
 By a vote taken at the Annual Pioneer Meeting, 
 held at North Solon, August 30th, a Committee was 
 appointed by the Chair to ask for a copy of your Address 
 for publication. If consistent, will you at an early day 
 favor the Committee with a copy, and oblige 
 
 H. W. Curtiss, 
 S. Patrick, 
 C. W. Hemry. 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: 
 
 I am here this morning because I feel under a 
 great personal debt to the people of Solon. For nearly 
 a quarter of a century they have been my warm and 
 steadfast friends, and to them I owe a large and generous 
 debt of gratitude, which time will serve rather to increase 
 than diminish. And though no man can be more pain- 
 fully conscious than myself, of my utter inability to fill 
 the place of the distinguished gentleman, our friend 
 General Garfield, who was expected here to-day, nor in 
 the limited time allowed me for preparation can I do but 
 scanty justice to myself, yet I felt bound, at any sacrifice 
 of personal feeling, to come here in answer to your 
 urgent call, and do the best in my power to entertain 
 you for a few moments with some thoughts suggested by 
 your gathering. 
 
 I shall not attempt to retrace the history of your Soci- 
 ety, or take up your time in recalling the scenes in 
 which so many of you have been actors, and with which 
 all of you are familiar. All this has been done, and 
 faithfully done, by those more familiar with the subject 
 than myself, and who in former times have carefully pre- 
 served, and laid away for future use, the noble records of 
 the pioneers of the Reserve. 
 
In this age of luxury, extravagance and wealth, with 
 the iron-horse rushing by our dwellings, making neighbors 
 of those separated by a continent ; with the telegraph 
 "putting a girdle 'round the earth in forty seconds," ena- 
 bling men to converse with each other though widely 
 sundered as the poles, the very word "pioneer" awakens 
 a sensation in our bosoms like gazing upon the ruins of a 
 by-gone age. 
 
 What a debt do we owe those noble men and women 
 who, through good report and evil report, through 
 perils often by day and by night, amid hunger and 
 loneliness, with painstaking, self-sacrifice and noble am- 
 bitions, laid low the primeval forests, scattered the wild 
 beasts, and the still wilder savage ; plowed and sowed, 
 and turned the wilderness into a garden ; laid broad and 
 deep the foundations on which our free institutions are 
 built, education and religion, leaving to their descend- 
 ants the land we now enjoy — a land sacred to liberty, 
 protected by law — a land that, in all its mighty length 
 and breadth, is not large enough to hold within its bor- 
 ders a single slave — a land of Christian civilization — the 
 ripe, consummate fruit of the experience of ages. 
 
 Most of the early pioneers of the Reserve have calmly 
 folded their hands, and laid down in the quiet earth to 
 their last dreamless sleep. Here and there may be seen 
 a silver-haired old man or woman, whose days have been 
 lengthened out to a green old age, and who, like shocks 
 of corn fully ripe, are waiting to be gathered like their 
 fathers by the Great Reaper. I greet those of them who 
 are here to day with all reverence and honor. I thank 
 them, in the name of our common humanity, for their 
 noble labors, and for the rich and precious examples 
 
they have taught by their virtues; and I earnestly trust, 
 that when their work on earth is ended, they may find 
 that "better country" where "toil and privation" are utter 
 strangers, where rest and peace is an eternal heritage. 
 
 A few weeks ago, I stood in the midst of the Coliseum 
 in ancient Rome, and gazed with awe upon that stupen- 
 dous ruin. As you know, it was designed by a Christian 
 architect and martyr, and was commenced by the Empe- 
 ror Vespasian seventy-two years after the birth of our 
 Saviour, and dedicated by Titus ten years after the 
 destruction of Jerusalem. As I looked upon that vast 
 theater, once capable of seating eighty thousand specta- 
 tors, standing in its grandeur and magnificence as it 
 stood eighteen hundred years ago — as its tragic and ter- 
 rible history came crowding into my mind, then I began 
 to realize something of what it meant, to be a pioneer in 
 that great religion which the Master said was "Peace 
 on earth and good will to men." 
 
 Yes, thought I, here within these very walls, on the 
 soil hallowed by their heroic sufferings and sacrifices; 
 here, in the midst of the arena where now I stand, died, 
 in the midst of the jeers and scoffs of the cruel and 
 heartless spectators, those pioneers of the truth "of whom 
 the world was not worthy," the Christian martyrs. Prob- 
 ably, within the space enclosed by those mighty walls, 
 there has been more of human suffering, more fearful bar- 
 barities enacted, than upon any other place of equal extent 
 upon earth. The records of the Church are crowded 
 with the names of men and women who perished, 
 for "Christ's sake," on that dreadful spot. Wherever the 
 Christian religion obtained its converts — no matter in 
 what part of the earth — subject to the Roman jurisdic- 
 
8 
 
 tion, there were they arrested by the cruel governors of 
 Rome, in order "they might be butchered" to make a 
 Roman holiday. In the time of Trajan, that great and 
 noble teacher, scholar and Christian leader, Ignatius was 
 brought from Antioch, the place where the Christians 
 received their name, to be devoured by wild beasts in 
 the Coliseum. Here are still in perfect preservation the 
 cages where the wild beasts were confined and starved 
 to maddening ferocity. There are the dungeons, with 
 walls of incredible thickness, open for light and air only 
 in front, and that looking directly into the midst of that 
 awful amphitheater, where the hopeless victims, spared 
 for to-morrow, must see the victims of to-day meet their 
 end ; where the only sounds that met their ears were the 
 exultant howls of the populace over the sufferings of the 
 tortured martyr, the shrieks of the sufferer, or the savage 
 roar of the wild and famished beasts as they roamed 
 around, eager for blood, panting for their prey. What 
 exalted faith, sublime courage and holy zeal must 
 have been given to those men and women, the real 
 pioneers of the truth ! With what unfaltering hope did 
 they lay down their lives, in the belief they might attain 
 a "better resurrection." 
 
 Out of the very air around me I seemed to hear these 
 words : "What are these which are arrayed in white robes, 
 and whence came they?" "And I said unto him, Sir, 
 thou knowest. These are they who came out of great 
 tribulation." "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst 
 any more, neither shall the sun light on them nor any 
 heat." 
 
 Close by the Coliseum are the remains of the gorgeous 
 palace of the Caesars. Here lived in imperial luxury 
 
and voluptuousness the Emperors of Rome, who ruled 
 the world. From the windows of the palace they could 
 see the "seven hills," and look over a large portion of 
 the city they ruled. Far across the Campagna stretched 
 the Viaduct, still standing as a monument to the genius 
 and power of the Roman people. On the left stood the 
 Forum of Julius Caesar, where Cicero thundered, and 
 whose walls had echoed to the voices of Caesar, Brutus, 
 Pompey, Mark Antony, Cataline, and indeed all the 
 great heroes of Roman history. In this palace Caligula 
 lived, four years after the crucifixion of our Lord, and 
 here are the remains of the yellow and golden palace 
 of Nero, whose splendors and costly adornings put to 
 shame the story of Aladdin. Close by, and leading out 
 of the city, was the "Appian Way," the most celebrated 
 roadway in the world. It was begun by Appius Clau- 
 dius, three hundred and twelve years before Christ, 
 stretching across the Campagna, and connecting Rome 
 with Southern Italy, Greece, and the eastern possession 
 of the Roman empire. 
 
 Beyond the wall of the city, but in plain view, was the 
 spot where St. Paul was beheaded. His sacred remains 
 were carefully preserved by the Christians of his day, 
 and over them is now erected one of the most costly and 
 magnificent cathedrals of the world. Here, if in any 
 known spot, rest the ashes of the Great Apostle. As you 
 stand over his tomb, you hear his voice saying, "1 have 
 fought the good fight; I have finished my course; I 
 have kept the faith." Among the earliest of the martyrs, 
 before the Coliseum was completed, the persecutions of the 
 Christian disciples had begun to rage, and St. Paul and 
 St. Peter both sealed their belief with their lives — the 
 
10 
 
 one going to the block, the other to the more terrible 
 crucifixion. 
 
 But the Emperors of Rome have vanished from the 
 earth, with all their lordly retinues. Their splendid pal- 
 aces have crumbled in the dust. Almost their names 
 have passed from the memory of mankind. But the 
 names of some of those humble martyrs, whom they 
 tortured and persecuted, the pioneers of the faith taught 
 by Him who died on Calvary will live sweet in the hearts 
 and memories of men forever. 
 
 As one travels over the earth, he is forcibly reminded 
 of the great truth, "that the fashion of this world passeth 
 away." I have just finished reading a most charming 
 and attractive book, written by one of my own gifted 
 townsmen, who is with us to-day (Mr. Fogg), called, 
 "Arabistan, or the Land of the Arabian Nights." I have 
 followed the author in my mind through all his wander- 
 ings in Egypt, Jerusalem and Arabia. I have been with 
 him to the ancient cities of Bagdad, Babylon and Nin- 
 eveh. The desolation and decay that have swept these 
 once imperial cities almost into oblivion, tells the story 
 most forcibly of the vain effort of mankind to perpetuate 
 their history or their memories. While the ruins of their 
 most imperishable works remain, the names of their 
 builders have gone beyond the hope of resurrection. 
 Yet men toil for honor and fame, and will do so to the 
 end of time. But the monuments of one age are erased 
 by those of another, and in a few centuries the names 
 of those great men most familiar to us, will give place 
 to the heroes of a later and different civilization. 
 
 As we look upon our own great State, with her teem- 
 ing millions of industrious people, her wide-spread useful- 
 
11 
 
 ness and acknowledged power among the States of the 
 Union, we can scarcely realize the fact that within the 
 life-time of some of your own pioneers, the first white 
 family was on its way in a covered wagon from New 
 England to found a settlement in Ohio. The men who 
 originally settled Ohio were of the race of Puritans 
 who settled in New England. They were bold, brave, 
 hardy men and women, careful against danger, but able 
 to meet it. Their religious belief was that of their 
 fathers, and they loved liberty of conscience and liberty 
 of action, because they knew how costly a price had 
 been paid to secure them. The story of the Mayflower, 
 and the sufferings of those devoted pilgrims had been 
 graven on their hearts, and they brought to the State of 
 Ohio, and especially to the Western Reserve, the habits, 
 the desires and the practices of their ancestors. 
 
 I never think of our Pilgrim fathers, driven from the 
 land they loved, seeking these barren shores for the 
 honor of God, and the liberty of worshiping Him accord- 
 ing to the dictates of their own consciences, without 
 emotion. To them we owe so much of what we now 
 enjoy. For within the compass of that little bark the 
 germinal principles of civil and religious liberty, which 
 so long had been struggling into being, assumed a local 
 habitation and a name. On board that humble vessel 
 the first charter of American liberty was drawn and 
 signed. Carlyle says in one of his books : "Look now 
 at American Saxondom, and at the little fact of the sail- 
 ing of the Mayflower two hundred years ago. There 
 were struggling settlers before — some material as of a 
 body was there, but the soul of it was this. These poor 
 men, driven out of their own country and not able to 
 
12 
 
 live in Holland, determined on settling in the New 
 World. Black, untamed forests are there, and wild, sav- 
 age creatures, but not so cruel as a star-chamber hang- 
 man. They clubbed their small means together, hired a 
 ship — the little ship Mayflower — and made ready to set 
 sail. Ha ! these men had, I think, a work. The weak 
 thing, weaker than a child, becomes strong if it is a true 
 thing. Puritanism was only despicable, laughable then, 
 but nobody can manage to laugh at it now. It is one of 
 the strongest things under the sun at present." 
 
 There was Elder Brewster, with his open Bible, com- 
 mending his little flock to Him who holds the seas in the 
 hollow of His hand. There was the accomplished Winslo w 
 and his noble wife giving up home, friends and country to 
 share the common fate in store for the Pilgrim. There 
 were Carver and Bradford and Allerton, and there was 
 Miles Standish, the brave and gallant soldier, with his 
 beautiful wife Rose, that tender and delicate flower, so 
 soon to be transplanted, to bloom in a "better country," 
 whose oldest fashion is immortality. But all this thrice- 
 told tale is as familiar to you as household words, and I 
 will not weary you by needless repetition. But you would 
 expect the descendants of such men and women would, 
 in founding a great State like Ohio, lay broad the founda- 
 tions for the advancement of liberty, education and 
 humanity, and in this we are not disappointed. From 
 one end of the State to the other, schools have been 
 established, colleges endowed, churches built, morality 
 practiced and encouraged, and perhaps it may be said 
 with honest pride, that no State has a more intelligent, 
 valuable or useful population than our own. So soon as 
 our people had reached a condition where they could 
 
13 
 
 tax themselves for purposes of humanity, they built the 
 Insane, the Blind, the Deaf and Dumb, and Idiot Asy- 
 lums, all of which have been the source of incalculable 
 good to the unfortunate beings compelled to seek refuge 
 within their walls. 
 
 It was while acting as your member of the Legislature 
 that I became aware of the vast influence for good of 
 these benevolent institutions, and the credit which was 
 due to the pioneers of the State, under whose influence 
 they were founded and encouraged. And if I was asked 
 what was the distinctive feature of our people in all the 
 States, which makes them superior as a race to many 
 others I have visited, I should answer, because of their 
 generous public charities, and the tender care they take 
 of the poor unfortunates of the land, who are unable by 
 the act of God to provide rationally for themselves. 
 
 I should like, if time permitted, to detail at length 
 what has been done in our country during the last half 
 century, to advance the cause of humanity in the treat- 
 ment of the insane, the blind, the deaf and dumb, and 
 the idiotic, but I will only glance at their history for a 
 moment. 
 
 For centuries the poor unfortunate insane had been 
 treated like the vilest of criminals. To protect itself, 
 society loaded them with chains and handcuffs, shut 
 them in the gloomiest of dungeons, the safest of prisons, 
 and left them to wear their lives away behind bolts and 
 bars, helpless, hopeless and forsaken. All this has been 
 changed, and Ohio was one of the earliest States to 
 embrace the reformation. Among the names of the 
 noble men and women who were pioneers in this 
 great work, I will mention but one, and that a woman, 
 
14 
 
 Miss Dorothea L. Dix. Her labors in searching out the 
 miserable insane, beginning in Massachusetts, her benev- 
 olent and devoted self-sacrifices have rarely been equaled 
 and never excelled. Those who have read the history 
 of Howard, the philanthropist, in his struggles to aid the 
 unfortunate victims of legal punishment in England, can 
 appreciate something of her great mission. She visited 
 the maniacs in their lonely cells everywhere, and by pen 
 and voice called upon Congress and the State Legisla- 
 tures to put a stop to the terrible injustice and sickening 
 inhumanity. Brave, heroic, self-sacrificing, great woman ! 
 We honor you with all our hearts. The good you 
 achieved can never be known or calculated, and your 
 influence will never cease to be felt through the coming 
 ages. Almost at once, in answer to her call, sprung up 
 over the land those noble edifices that are the pride of 
 our own and sister States. The poor insane, no longer 
 criminals and outcasts, found the fetters stricken from 
 their limbs, and themselves ushered into spacious, well- 
 ventilated halls and rooms, with wholesome food and 
 nourishment. Scientific and humane physicians replaced 
 the iron-hearted jailors, and undertook their cure. All 
 that money and skill could do, was lavished upon them 
 in the attempt to restore their reason, and fit them again 
 for the society of mankind. So far successful were these 
 efforts, that I believe, where cases are placed early under 
 proper treatment in those institutions, over seventy per 
 cent, are permanently cured. Those incurable are far 
 from being wretched or outcasts. They have a certain 
 enjoyment of life; they eat, drink and sleep in safety 
 and peace, while a large number of them, in music, 
 dancing, riding and walking, find employment and com- 
 
15 
 
 parative happiness. God bless the pioneers in this great 
 work. 
 
 The history of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, and those 
 for the Blind, are almost equally interesting. Shut out, 
 as these unfortunates are, from so much of life that is 
 useful or enjoyable, they are yet educated at these insti- 
 tutions, so that existence becomes perhaps, in the total, 
 as satisfactory to them as the majority of their fellow 
 men. I knew Mr. Thomas H. Gallaudet, the founder of 
 the mode of treatment of the deaf and dumb of the 
 United States. He was a noble, wholly unselfish man, 
 who gave his life to this work. He married a deaf mute, 
 and so gave the highest proof of his devotion to the inter- 
 ests of these unfortunate people. 
 
 Next to the loss of reason, I have always regarded 
 blindness as the greatest of personal afflictions. But 
 owing to the benevolence of the present age, its advance- 
 ment in science and culture, the blind now achieve high 
 positions as men and women of education and ability, 
 and often excel in those branches of learning which are 
 supposed only to be acquired by those who see. Yet I 
 never pass a blind man that I do not wish it were in my 
 power to open his eyes, that he might enjoy the beauty 
 of the world around him, and look up at the sun, the 
 moon, the stars, and into the faces of his fellow men. 
 But alas, no such power has been given to mortals since 
 our Lord touched the eyes of blind Bartimeus at the 
 gates of Jericho, on his last journey to Jerusalem, and gave 
 him not only the vision of himself, the Great Healer, but 
 opened upon the poor, darkened mind of him who "was 
 born blind," that panorama of beauty, the valley of the 
 Jordan, in all its surpassing loveliness. No wonder "that 
 he followed Jesus in the way." 
 
16 
 
 Of all tasks, apparently the most hopeless was the 
 attempt to ameliorate the condition of those born to 
 idiocy. But even here good men and women did not 
 despair ; and however loathsome the work, it was under- 
 taken with zeal and cheerful courage. In our own State, 
 owing almost exclusively to the influence of women, we 
 have a noble Asylum for Idiots, and the success in 
 teaching them has been marked and favorable. I well 
 remember visiting the old institution in its infancy, and 
 seeing with my own eyes the good being accomplished by 
 the noble women who were giving their hearts and hands 
 to this work. 
 
 It would hardly be respectful, at this meeting of the 
 Pioneer Association, if we failed to notice that we are 
 celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of our nation's 
 birthday, for it is only a century since the truths con- 
 tained in the Declaration of Independence were given to 
 the world. Most forcibly and pertinently did General 
 Garfield, in his masterly oration in the House of Rep- 
 resentatives, a few days ago, allude to this great act of 
 our fathers. "Whence came," he says, "the immortal 
 truths of the Declaration 1 ? To me this was for years the 
 riddle of our history. The great doctrine of the Declar- 
 ation germinated in the hearts of our fathers, and were 
 developed under the new inflences of this wilderness 
 world by the same subtle mystery which brings forth the 
 rose from the germ of the rose-tree. Unconsciously to 
 themselves, the great truths were growing under the new 
 conditions, until, like the century plant, they blossomed 
 into the matchless beauty of the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, whose fruitage, increased and increasing, we 
 enjoy to-day." 
 
17 
 
 Let it never be said that we have failed to render due 
 homage to the memory of those illustrious pioneers of 
 freedom, who spread before the world, in characters of 
 living light, the principles by which they were governed, 
 and to the maintenance of which they pledged "their 
 lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor." 
 
 I have stood by the last resting places of some of the 
 great heroes, statesmen and scholars of the earth. I 
 have seen the mausoleum of Hadrian, the tomb of the 
 Scipios, of St. Constantia and St. Helena, the daughter 
 and wife of Constantine, the first Christian emperor. In 
 the Vatican now stands the magnificent sarcophagus of 
 Porphyry, where the ashes of his daughter were depos- 
 ited. I have looked with wonder upon the costly and 
 splendid tombs of the once powerful Medici family at 
 Florence, whose place of sepulture is one of the wonders 
 of the world. It was from this very family came Catha- 
 rine de Medici, that bigoted fanatic who caused in Paris 
 the frightful massacre of St. Bartholomew. I have stood 
 by the remains of Napoleon, in the Church of the Inva- 
 lides, where all has been done to heap dignity and honor 
 upon the remains of a mortal that boundless wealth and 
 national pride could do — and I have walked where his 
 great rival, the Duke of Wellington, lies in his granite 
 coffin, in the crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral, while the 
 measured steps of the sentry, going to and fro, showed 
 how sacredly was guarded this chamber of the dead. I 
 have been to the grave of Columbus, of Shakespeare and 
 Scott, of Milton and Johnson, to the tombs of England's 
 kings and queens, and mightiest orators and heroes. So 
 have I visited the last resting places of the kings and 
 queens, and great men and women of France, whose 
 
18 
 
 names are familiar to us as household words. All 
 over the world the traveler is called to stand in silence 
 and respect over the ashes of some warrior, scholar, poet, 
 statesman or author, whose fame has become a part of 
 the great history of mankind. But none of those im- 
 pressed me so deeply as, with uncovered head, I stood 
 before the old-fashioned, grated tomb at Mt. Vernon, 
 where, by the side of his wife, in a plain and simple 
 white marble sarcophagus, lies all that is mortal of him 
 who was "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts 
 of his countrymen," our own illustrious Washington. 
 Lord Brougham, in his sketches of the greatest of the 
 men produced for centuries by England, France and 
 America, places Washington as the most truly great of 
 them all. His patriotism had no tinge of selfishness. 
 His conquests were not for self-advancement, or to aid 
 a wanton ambition. He served his country that she 
 might become a free land, and great in the family of 
 nations ; that, for all coming time, she might be the star 
 of hope to the oppressed and down-trodden of the 
 earth. 
 
 Just fifty years ago, the fourth of July, 1826, died two 
 of the greatest of those patriots of the Revolution — 
 John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Both had lived 
 to see the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration. Roused 
 from his sleep by the firing of cannon, the ringing of 
 bells, and the stirring strains of martial music, Mr. Adams 
 was asked if he understood the meaning of what he 
 heard. "Oh, yes," he said, "it is the glorious Fourth of 
 July — God bless it — God bless you all! But," says he, 
 "Jefferson still survives." The music he loved best on 
 earth, the rejoicings of a free people, was mingling in 
 
19 
 
 his ears with the angels' song on the other side of the 
 river. 
 
 When the news fell upon the country, after many days, 
 that Jefferson and Adams had passed away, the people 
 seemed stunned by the blow. The nation, as with one 
 heart and mind, paid its choicest honors to the memory 
 of the illustrious dead. Let us recall for a moment the 
 names of their co-patriots and associates. What a galaxy 
 of stars ! Washington, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, 
 Otis, Fisher Ames, Dr. Warren, Patrick Henry, Franklin, 
 Robert Morris, and many others we could mention. 
 How the eloquence and the example of these men caused 
 millions of hearts to glow with patriotic fire. How the 
 feeble nation rallied around that uplifted banner, upon 
 which was inscribed in blazing letters, "Resistance to 
 tyrants is obedience to God !" I tell you, patriotism cost 
 something in those days. When Washington consulted 
 the Legislature of Massachusetts as to the propriety o* 
 bombarding Boston, Hancock was the first to advise it, 
 if necessary to promote the cause of the Revolution, 
 though most of his great wealth consisted of stores and 
 houses in the city. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact, that the period of the Ameri- 
 can Revolution seemed to develop the most exalted 
 character of men on both sides of the Atlantic. In 
 England, Burke, Fox, Pitt, Sheridan, Camden, Erskine 
 and others rose to the height of their splendid fame ; and 
 on the other side, Samuel Adams, Dr. Warren, Otis, 
 Patrick Henry and Josiah Quincy, with Fisher Ames, 
 aroused the people to arms by the force of their genius 
 and impassioned appeals. It has been said that the 
 Congress of 1776 comprised the most remarkable body 
 
20 
 
 of men ever convened in one deliberative assembly. 
 More than one-half of them had been educated in the 
 colleges of Europe or America, and all were men of 
 exalted character and influence. These pioneers of free- 
 dom have all gone to their rest ; but their works follow 
 them. The Union they established of thirteen feeble 
 States, with three millions of scattered people, is our 
 Union of to-day— the wonder of the world. It has sur- 
 vived the struggle of the great civil war, where a million 
 of men met on the field of battle to decide whether 
 freedom or slavery should rule the land, and now, with 
 a population of forty million souls, is starting off upon a 
 new era of prosperity and usefulness. But in comparison 
 with the empires and kingdoms of the old world, our 
 nation is yet in its childhood. In Italy I was pointed 
 out by my guide the spot where Americus Vespucius and 
 Christopher Columbus, the discoverers of America, were 
 born. But he spoke of these men as he would speak of 
 those who had passed away within the memory of living 
 men, so lately had they lived, in comparison with the 
 founders and distinguished men of his own country. To 
 him a century or two seemed a small space of time for 
 the growth of a nation. But the world moves with more 
 rapid steps than in days gone by. Science has brought 
 mankind elosely together, and the old-fashioned ways of 
 life have been destroyed by the inventions of steam, 
 electricity, and the results of modern thought. As I 
 stood near the house where Galileo wrote some of his 
 most valuable astronomical works, I felt sure, had he 
 lived until to-day, he would scarcely have felt afraid of 
 the Inquisition for asserting that the world was round 
 and moved upon its axis. Times have changed since all 
 that. 
 
21 
 
 We are justly proud of our country and her free insti- 
 tutions, and feel they will challenge comparison with 
 the most favored lands on earth. But the work of main- 
 taining its high character is committed to individuals. 
 It is to them we must look to make it wiser and better. 
 Men will pass away, but principles will live forever. 
 
 Standing upon the soil of Solon, one of the earliest 
 homes of the anti-slavery people of America, it is meet 
 we should congratulate each other upon having lived to 
 see our country no longer cursed by the presence of a 
 single slave. The late Hon. Edward Wade, formerly 
 your member of Congress, told me, sixteen years ago, 
 that the township of Solon was the first in the United 
 States to cast a political majority vote in favor of anti- 
 slavery. In view of the gigantic civil war, which drenched 
 the land in fraternal blood, caused alone by that "irre- 
 pressible conflict between freedom and slavery," so long 
 foretold, and by many hoped for; in view of the com- 
 plete and overwhelming triumph of freedom and free 
 institutions growing out of the struggle, you may, as a 
 people, well feel proud of being the pioneers in this 
 greatest of all great works. 
 
 The time will come, in my judgment, when the colored 
 men of the United States, from Maine to Louisiana, will 
 unite in erecting a magnificent monument upon the soil 
 of Solon, to perpetuate in honorable remembrance the 
 memory of those good and true men ; and to mark the 
 spot where, for the first time in the history of the coun- 
 try, a brave and conscientious people dared to cast a 
 majority of their votes in favor of an oppressed and 
 down-trodden race. We have lived to see slavery abol- 
 ished, and stricken out of existence upon this continent. 
 
22 
 
 Men arc no longer property, bought and sold like beasts 
 of burden. "A black man or woman is no longer an 
 outcast in social life, a cipher in the courts of law, and 
 a pariah in the house of God !" He has been made 
 equal before the law with his white master, and walks 
 the land in all the conscious pride of freedom and inde- 
 pendence. 
 
 Let us bear honorable testimony to the pioneers of 
 this great reform, as we recall the labors and sufferings 
 of Sandford, Lay, Woolman, Benezet, Whitefield, Hop- 
 kins, Rush, Wesley, Lundy, Samson, Birney, Bailey, 
 Tappan, Whitehead, Weld, Lovejoy, Chase, Burritt, 
 Slade, Phillips, Giddings, and a host of other noble men, 
 as well as women, who upheld the banner of the slave 
 on this side of the Atlantic. In England, though Mr. 
 Bayne, in his sketch of Wilberforce, speaks of him as 
 the earliest opponent of anti-slave trade and abolition in 
 that country, yet I believe it was Thomas Clarkson, who, 
 by means of his writings and influence, induced Wilber- 
 force to introduce his bill into Parliament for the abolition 
 of the slave trade, in 1792, which measure he continued 
 to urge until in 1807, when his bill became a law, under 
 the administration of Mr. Fox. 
 
 From that time until 1832, he ceased not his labors 
 for the abolition of slavery in the colonies, when his 
 efforts were crowned with success. His name should 
 never be spoken by a black man without reverence, nor 
 by the lover of mankind without sympathy and affection. 
 If earthly honors should be paid to the memories of men 
 who have served their day and generation, for services 
 rendered to advance the interests of the human race, I 
 can imagine none more worthy than the pioneers of anti- 
 
23 
 
 slavery, the men who in the face of ridicule and con- 
 tempt, of social ostracism and endless abuse, with pain, 
 and stripes, and imprisonment ; amid the fires of perse- 
 cution, and the frowns of the great mass of mankind, 
 with tireless zeal and God-like self-sacrifice, advocated the 
 cause of the poor, down trodden, helpless, hopeless 
 slave, until success crowned their efforts and slavery be- 
 came "as a tale that is told." 
 
 But I must close. One by one the pioneers of your 
 Society, as well as the great reforms of the last century, 
 are passing away. The noble oak, with its-wide spread- 
 ing arms, and ample foliage, under whose grateful shade 
 man and beast have alike found shelter, yields at last to 
 the hand of time, and falls prostrate upon the ground. 
 The autumn, with its golden and purple glories, follows 
 the summer, and the fruits of the harvest are gathered 
 into storehouses, for the time when the earth shall no 
 longer yield her increase. The winter follows; the spark- 
 ling streams that glistened in the sunshine, and made 
 glad the heart, are frozen in their channels. The fields 
 once so beautiful with waving corn and grain, are deso- 
 late with snow and frost. He is the wise man who, 
 knowing the winter must come at last, has made ample 
 preparation for its demand and necessities. And this 
 history of the seasons is typical of human life. At the 
 longest it has but a brief spring, summer, autumn, win- 
 ter. " The days of the years of our pilgrimage are three- 
 score-years-and-ten, and if, by reason of strength, they be 
 fourscore, yet is their strength labor and sorrow." 
 
 On the fifth day of July last, while I was in mid-ocean, 
 on my journey home, one of your oldest members and 
 friends — and one especially beloved and honored by me 
 
24 
 
 and mine — a man known personally to nearly all of you, 
 a man of ripe and generous culture, of great learning, of 
 stainless character, a citizen who in every relation of life 
 he had been called to fill, had adorned both public and 
 private station, distinguished for the valuable services he 
 had rendered the people among whom he had lived for 
 half a century, Judge Samuel Starkweather, of Cleve- 
 land, suddenly was stricken down and died. He was 
 conversing in his usual winning manner, seated upon his 
 bedside, when, without a moment's hesitation, he 
 stretched himself at full length upon his bed, closed 
 his eyes with calm dignity and composure, and, with the 
 faith of the Patriarchs of old, went out to join the fathers. 
 Life and its solemn obligations for him was ended. But 
 it was a life so rich in human happiness and good works, 
 it could be said, in a measure, to have been complete. 
 
 If Judge Starkweather had one trait of character 
 especially peculiar to himself, it was his strong, sincere, 
 hearty love of his fellow men. The warm and sympa- 
 thetic nature which made him the delight of home and 
 the social circle, did not grow cold as he mingled in the 
 world with his fellows. He had a kind word for every 
 man, however humble his station — a tone of familiarity 
 and good will that gave his conversation an unspeakable 
 charm ; and all this came because it was his nature to 
 love mankind. He could no more help it, than the 
 Autumn sun as it rises above the horizon, can help 
 bathing the earth in new beauty and splendor. 
 
 To many of the older pioneers here, whom for a 
 quarter of a century I have known so intimately — in 
 social and public life — I shall to-day, in all probability, 
 say, "good-bye" for the last time. During my entire 
 
25 
 
 active manhood you have been my faithful, earnest 
 friends, and I find it hard to express in fitting words my 
 sense of obligation. Such ties are not easily formed, 
 and such friendships are hard to sever. But I humbly 
 trust, as the days of the years of your pilgrimage draw to 
 a close and this earthly house of your tabernacle shall be 
 dissolved, you may, strong in the faith of your Puritan 
 fathers, and relying upon the promises which to them 
 were a stay and staff, be led safely up to the gates of that 
 Celestial city, over whose portals is inscribed in letters of 
 gold, " Inasmuch as ye have been faithful over a few 
 things I will make thee ruler over many ; enter thou 
 
 INTO THE JOYS OF THY LORD." 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 illl 
 
 014 751 458 A