Ernest Crosby, Garrison the non-resistant

[136] iota in matters of principle, which hesitates to denounce where denunciation is due, and which finally places its reliance in anything but the power of truth-any such movement, if it be weighed, will be found wanting in the elements inherent in a great cause.

Are we ready to learn these lessons, and above all to adopt the methods of peace? They that take the sword shall perish by the sword. How many a brilliant cause has been brought to naught by the folly of its adherents, who sought to secure freedom by the weapons of tyranny! I have recently been reading the life of a reformer who was almost a non-resistant — a man of puritanic habits and simple life, and devoted with his whole soul to the cause of freedom and the people-and yet by yielding to the temptation of using violent means he made his name the object of universal execration. Robespierre was until two years or so before his death a consistent humanitarian and opponent of bloodshed. It is an historical fact that he resigned a lucrative judgeship because he was unwilling to pronounce a sentence of death. When the Revolution was well under way he proposed a bill for the abolition of capital punishment, and made a good fight for it. He refused to be a member of a court to try royalists, and served on a committee to protect the royal family during the September