THE STORY OF THE NONPABTISAN LEAGUE 



was dragged through the streets of Boston 

 with a rope around his neck, but hardly an- 

 other name in American history is more re- 

 spected to-day. As late as 1861 Wendell 

 Phillips had to be protected by armed volun- 

 teers across Boston Common because of a 

 speech he had made in Tremont Temple in 

 favor of human liberty; there is now a great 

 monument to him on the ground he trod that 

 day. If Washington had failed he would 

 have been in history worse than Jack Cade, 

 for all the English descriptions of him in his 

 own time represented him to be a howling 

 demagogue, abounding in wickedness and in- 

 famy. Giordano Bruno was burned before 

 an applauding mob, and organized society in 

 his day believed itself well rid of a pest; but 

 one of the most beautiful monuments in Rome 

 marks the spot where he died. 



It is so about great things and little. When 

 Samuel Plimsoll was toiling for the safety of 

 sailors other men thought first that he was 

 crazy, then that he was a nuisance, then that 

 he was a demagogue and a dangerous person, 

 full of devilish plots against the maritime sys- 

 tem that had made England great. When 

 Samuels tested the British intolerance against 

 the Jews, prominent journals denounced him 

 and people spat upon him as he passed. They 

 honor his memory now. The name of Thomas 

 Jefferson was covered with abuse because he 



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