He had been a lifelong soldier of Liberty, baptized into a service of blood. While yet young, his brother, an editor in Illinois, devoted to the slave, fell a victim to the cause he served so well. His fate awakened a wide sympathy throughout the country, drawing Channing from his retirement to speak at Faneuil Hall, and touching with a living coal the lips of Wendell Phillips, whose voice then and there, for the first time, flamed forth against Slavery. It was natural that Owen Lovejoy should assume those vows of perpetual warfare with the tyrant murderer which he so truly kept,--tyrant murderer of a cherished brother,--tyrant murderer of Liberty, not only on the plantation, but everywhere throughout the land,--tyrant murderer of the Constitution, which guards alike the rights of States and citizens,--and tyrant murderer of national peace, without which there can be no true prosperity or happiness. Thus, as a soldier of Liberty, he began, and he kept his harness on to the last. He was one of the most amiable of men, whose heart was abundant with goodness and gentleness, and whose countenance streamed with sunshine. But on this account he was only the more inexorable toward a wrong so cruel in all its influences. A child of the New Testament, he was no stranger to the early Hebrew spirit, and had little patience with those who, born among Northern schools and churches, strove to arrest or mitigate the doom of Slavery. The famous curse of Meroz, so solemnly denounced against neutrality, which had been echoed from ancient Judea by English Puritans in their great contest, found an echo in his heart: “Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof, because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.”[109] Of course, in this spirit he used plain words, and did not hesitate. But if he did not hesitate, it was because he saw clearly the path of duty. Amiability did not make him doubt. He was a positive man, of positive principles, who knew well how much was always lost by timid counsels, especially on great occasions. Because there were some about him who were skeptical and irresolute, he was not disheartened, but preserved to the last an example of fidelity which history will piously enshrine. His own illustrations were from the sacred writings, but a heathen poet has given a warning which is part of the lesson of his life:-- “Old Priam’s age, or Nestor’s, may be out, And thou, O Taurus, still go on in doubt. Come, then, how long such wavering shall we see? Thou mayst doubt on; but then thou’lt nothing be.”[110] Of all doubts, there are none more painful or indefensible than those by which human rights are put in jeopardy.