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: 663   Enlarge and print image (45K)

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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: 663   Enlarge and print image (45K)

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638 THE UNDERGROUND BAIL ROAD. served by the striking contrast of his own life and character, with the average of the Society, to exemplify to the world the real, genuine Quakerism: It is not at all to the credit of his fellow-members, that it must be said of them, that when be was bearing the cross and doiug the work for which he is now so universally honored, they, many of them, were not only not in sympathy with him, but would undoubtedly, if they had had the requisite vitality and courage, have cut him off from their denominational fellowship. He was a sincere, earnest believer in the cardinal point of Quakerism, the Divine presence in the human aoul—this furnishes the key to his action through life. This divine attribute he regarded not as the birth-right of Friends alone, not of one race, sex or class, but of all mankind. Therefore •was be an abolitionist; therefore was he interested in the cause of the Indians; therefore was he enlisted In the cause of equal rights for women; therefore was he a friend of temperance, of oppressed and needy working-men and women, world-wide in the scope of his philanthropic sympathy, and broadly catholic, and comprehensive in his views of religious life and duty. He waa the soul of honor in business. His experience, when deprived at sixty, of every dollar of his property for having obeyed God rather than man, in assisting fugitives from Slavery, and the promptness with which his friends came forward with proffered co-operation, furnishes a lesson which all should ponder well. He had little respect for, or patience with shams of any kind, in religious, political or social life. As we looked upon Thomas Garrett's calm, serene face, mature in a ripe old age, still shadowing forth kindliness of heart, firmness of purpose, discriminating intelligence, conscientious, manly uprightness, death never seemed more beautiful: " Why, what a Death but Life ID other forms of being? Life without The coarser attributes of men, tbc dull And momenUj decaying frame which hold! The ethereal spirit in, and bindi it down To brotherhood with brutes ! There's no Such thing ai Death ; what's lo-callcd in but The beginning of a new existence, * fresh Segment of the eternal round of change." A. M. P. Another warm admirer of this Great Lover of humanity, in a letter to George W. Stone thus alludes to his life and death: TATTWTON, MASS., Jnne.25tb, 1871. DEAR STONE :—Your telegram announcing the death of that old soldier and saint, and my good friend, Thos. Garrett, reached me last evening at ten o'clock. My finst impulse was to start for Wiiraington, and be present at his funeral; but when I considered my work here, and my engagements for the next four days, I found it impossible to go.