The leaders of the
Liberty party, though personally opposed to him and to his line of
action, were, nevertheless, friends of the slaves, and ought to have
been so accounted and treated by the man who more than any other was
devoted to the abolition of slavery.
But the whole mental and moral frame of the man precluded such
liberality of treatment of opponents. They had rejected his way, which
was the only true way, and were, therefore, anathema maranatha. When a
moral idea which has been the subject of widespread agitation, and has
thereby gained a numerous following, reaches out, as reach out it must,
sooner or later, for incorporation into law, it will, in a republic like
ours, do so naturally and necessarily through political action--along
the lines of an organized party movement. The Liberty party formation
was the product of this strong tendency in America. Premature it
possibly was, but none the less perfectly natural. Now every political
party, that is worthy of the name, is a compound rather than a simple
fact, consisteth of a bundle of ideas rather than a single idea. Parties
depend upon the people for success, upon the people not of one interest
but of many interests and of diversities of views upon public questions.
One plank is not broad enough to accommodate their differences and
multiplicity of desires. There must be a platform built of many planks
to support the number of votes requisite to victory at the polls.
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