Still, William, Underground Rail Road:
A Record of Facts, Authentic Narratives, Letters, Etc.

Porter & Coales, Publishers, Philadelphia, PA, 1872
Call Number: 1400, MSA L1117

MSA L1117, Image No: 659   Enlarge and print image (42K)

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Still, William, Underground Rail Road:
A Record of Facts, Authentic Narratives, Letters, Etc.

Porter & Coales, Publishers, Philadelphia, PA, 1872
Call Number: 1400, MSA L1117

MSA L1117, Image No: 659   Enlarge and print image (42K)

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  << PREVIOUS   NEXT >>
632 THE UNDERGROUND RAIL ROAD. to the lame. I was a father to the poor; and the cause which I knew not I searched ont. And I brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth." This is an exact portraiture of your father, a most comprehensive delineation of his character as a philanthropist and reformer. It was his meat and drink. " The poor to fe«d, the lost to «eok, To proffer life to death. Hope to the erring, to the weak The strength of his own faith. "To plead the captive's right; remore The filing of hatcfrom law ; And soften in the fire of love The hardened «teel of war. "He walked the dark world in tho mild, Still guidance of the light; In tearful tenderness a child, A Btrong man in tho right." Did there ever live one who had less of that " fear of man which bringeth a snare," than himself ? Or who combined more moral courage with exceeding tenderness of spirit ? Or who adhered more heroically to his convictions of duty in the face of deadly peril and certain suffering? Or who gave himself more unreservedly, or with greater disinterestedness, to the service of bleeding humanity ? Or who took more joyfully the spoiling of his goods as the penalty of his sympathy for the hunted fugitive ? Or who more untiringly kept pace with all the progressive movements of the age, as though in the very freshness of adult life, while venerable with years ? Or who, as a husbuud, father, friend, citizen, or neighbor, more nobly performed all the duties, or more generally distributed all the charities of life? He will leave a great void in the community. Such a stalwart soul appears only at rare iutervals. Delaware, enslaved, treated him like a felon ; Delaware, redeemed, will be proud of his memory. " Only tho actions of the just Smell Bireet »nd blossom in the dust." His rightful place is conspicuously among the benefactors, saviours, martyrs of the human race. His career was full of dramatic interest from beginning to eud, and crowded with the experiences and vicissitudes of a .most eventful nature. What he promised he fulfilled; what he attempted, he seldom, or never failed to accomplish; what he believed, lie dared to proclaim upon the housetop ; what he ardently desired, and incessantly labored for, was the reign of universal freedom, peace, and righteousness. He was among the manliest of men. and the gentlest of spirits. There was no form of human suffering that did not touch his heart; but his abounding sympathy was especially drawn oat towards the poor, imbrutcd slaves of the plantation, and such of