Garrison had it for an imposing-stone
when he looked into the faces of seventeen millions of angry men, and
printed his sublime pledge, "I will not retreat a single inch, and I
will be heard."
If I were going to raise a monument to the Pilgrims, I know where I
should place it. I should place one corner-stone on the rock, and the
other on that level spot where fifty of the one hundred were buried
before the winter was over; but the remainder closed up shoulder to
shoulder as firm, unflinching, hopeful as ever. Yes, death rather than
compromise of Elizabeth. I would write on their monument two mottoes:
One, "The Right is more than our Country!" and over the graves of the
fifty: "Death, rather than Compromise!"
How true it is that the Pilgrims originated no new truth! How true it
is, also, that it is not truth which agitates the world! Plato in the
groves of the Academy sounded on and on to the utmost depth of
philosophy, but Athens was quiet. Calling around him the choicest minds
of Greece, he pointed out the worthlessness of their altars and shame of
public life, but Athens was quiet.
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