“If your cause is just, if your principles are pure, and if your conduct is prudent, you need not fear the multitude of opposing hosts.”

I’LL HAVE MOMMY WITH ME

A 1st-grader stood in front of his classroom to make a speech about “What I want to be when I grow up.” He said, “I’m going to be a lion tamer and have lots of fierce lions. I’ll walk into the cage and they will roar.” He paused for a moment thinking through what he had just said and then added, “But of course, I’ll have my mommy with me.”

COURAGE OF THEIR CONVICTIONS Sydney Harris in Bits and Pieces, Oct. 1991

I am tired of hearing about men with the “courage of their convictions.” Nero and Caligula and Attila and Hitler had the courage of their convictions—but not one had the courage to examine his convictions, or to change them, which is the true test of character.

THE FOUR CHAPLAINS Today in the Word, April 1, 1992.

Boarding the SS Dorchester on a dreary winter day in 1943 were 903 troops and four chaplains, including Moody alumnus Lt. George Fox. World War II was in full swing, and the ship was headed across the icy North Atlantic where German U-boats lurked. At 12:00 on the morning of February 3, a German torpedo ripped into the ship. “She’s going down!” the men cried, scrambling for lifeboats.
A young GI crept up to one of the chaplains. “I’ve lost my life jacket,” he said. “Take this,” the chaplain said, handing the soldier his jacket. Before the ship sank, each chaplain gave his life jacket to another man. The heroic chaplains then linked arms and lifted their voices in prayer as the Dorchester went down. Lt. Fox and his fellow pastors were awarded posthumously the Distinguished Service Cross.

QUOTE: If you worried about falling off the bike, you’d never get on. - Lance Armstrong.

QUOTE: Courage: It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.” Harper Lee - To Kill A Mockingbird

ORDINARY HEROES

Phillip Haille wrote of the little village of Le Chambon in France, a town whose people, unlike others in France , hid their Jews from the Nazis. Haille went there, wondering what sort of courageous, ethical heroes could risk all to do such extraordinary good. He interviewed people in the village and was overwhelmed by their ordinariness. They weren’t heroes or smart, discerning people.
Haille decided that the one factor that united them was their attendance, Sunday after Sunday, at their little church, where they heard the sermons of Pastor Trochme. Over time, they became by habit people who just knew what to do and did it. When it came time for them to be courageous, the day the Nazis came to town, they quietly did what was right.
One old woman, who faked a heart attack when the Nazis came to search her house, later said,
‘Pastor always taught us that there comes a time in every life when a person is asked to do something for Jesus. When our time came, we knew what to do.’“

QUOTE : “One man with courage makes a majority.”- Andrew Jackson

FAR BETTER TO DARE… - Theodore Roosevelt

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.

QUOTE: “In the end we will not remember the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” - Anne Frank

QUOTE: “The time is always right to do what is right.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

QUOTE: Edmund Burke 1700’s  “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing!”

DO NOT SHRINK FROM CONFLICT---Thomas Paine

Leonidas, King of Sparta, was preparing to make a stand with his Greek troops against the Persian army in 480 B.C. when a Persian messenger arrived. The man told Leonidas how futile it was to resist the advance of the huge Persian army. "Our archers are so numerous," said the messenger, "that the flight of their arrows darkens the sun." "So mush the better," replied Leonidas, "For we shall fight in the shade." Leonidas made his stand, and died with his 300 troops.

BUTCH AND EDDIE
Story number one:
World War II produced many heroes. One such man was Butch O'Hare. He was a fighter pilot assigned to an aircraft carrier in the South Pacific.
One day his entire squadron was sent on a mission. After he was airborne, he looked at his fuel gauge and realized that someone had forgotten to top off his fuel tank. He would not have enough fuel to complete his mission and get back to his ship. His flight leader told him to return to the carrier.
Reluctantly he dropped out of formation and headed back to the fleet. As he was returning to the mothership, he saw something that turned his blood cold. A squadron of Japanese Zeroes were speeding their way toward the American fleet. The American fighters were gone on a sortie and the fleet was all but defenseless. He couldn't reach his squadron and bring them back in time to save the fleet. Nor, could he warn the fleet of the approaching danger.
There was only one thing to do. He must somehow divert them from the fleet. Laying aside all thoughts of personal safety, he dove into the formation of Japanese planes. Wing-mounted 50 caliber's blazed as he charged in, attacking one surprised enemy plane and then another. Butch weaved in and out of the now broken formation and fired at as many planes as possible until finally all his ammunition was spent.
Undaunted, he continued the assault. He dove at the Zeroes, trying to at least clip off a wing or tail, in hopes of damaging as many enemy planes as possible and rendering them unfit to fly. He was desperate to do anything he could to keep them from reaching the American ships. Finally, the exasperated Japanese squadron took off in another direction.
Deeply relieved, Butch O'Hare and his tattered fighter limped back to the carrier. Upon arrival he reported in and related the event surrounding his return. The film from the camera mounted on his plane told the tale. It showed the extent of Butch's daring attempt to protect his fleet. He was recognized as a hero and given one of the nation's highest military honors.
And today, O'Hare Airport in Chicago is named in tribute to the courage of this great man.
Story number two:
Some years earlier there was a man in Chicago called Easy Eddie. At that time, Al Capone virtually owned the city. Capone wasn't famous for anything heroic. His exploits were anything but praiseworthy. He was, however, notorious for enmeshing the city of Chicago in everything from bootlegged booze and prostitution to murder.
Easy Eddie was Capone's lawyer and for a good reason. He was very good! In fact, his skill at legal maneuvering kept Big Al out of jail for a long time.
To show his appreciation, Capone paid him very well. Not only was the money big; Eddie got special dividends. For instance, he and his family occupied a fenced-in mansion with live-in help and all of the conveniences of the day. The estate was so large that it filled an entire Chicago city block. Yes, Eddie lived the high life of the Chicago mob and gave little consideration to the atrocity that went on around him.
Eddy did have one soft spot, however. He had a son that he loved dearly. Eddy saw to it that his young son had the best of everything; clothes, cars, and a good education. Nothing was withheld. Price was no object. And, despite his involvement with organized crime, Eddie even tried to teach him right from wrong.
Yes, Eddie tried to teach his son to rise above his own sordid life. He wanted him to be a better man than he was. Yet, with all his wealth and influence, there were two things that Eddie couldn't give his son. Two things that Eddie sacrificed to the Capone mob that he could not pass on to his beloved son: a good name and a good example.
One day, Easy Eddie reached a difficult decision. Offering his son a good name was far more important than all the riches he could lavish on him. He had to rectify all the wrong that he had done.
He would go to the authorities and tell the truth about Scar-face Al Capone. He would try to clean up his tarnished name and offer his son some semblance of integrity. To do this he must testify against The Mob, and he knew that the cost would be great. But more than anything, he wanted to be an example to his son. He wanted to do his best to make restoration and hopefully have a good name to leave his son.
So, he testified. Within the year, Easy Eddie's life ended in a blaze of gunfire on a lonely Chicago street. He had given his son the greatest gift he had to offer at the greatest price he would ever pay.
I know what you're thinking. What do these two stories have to do with one another? Well, you see, Butch O'Hare was Easy Eddie's son.

CELEBRITIES VS HEROES James Bradley & Ron Powers Flags of Our Fathers Bantam)

Celebrities seek fame. They take actions to get attention. Heroes have risked something to help others. Their actions involve courage.

QUOTE: It was Winston Churchill who said, "Success is never final. Failure is never fatal. It is courage that counts."

A woman and her husband interrupted their vacation to go to a dentist. "I want a tooth pulled, and I don’t want Novocain because I’m in a big hurry," the woman said. "Just extract the tooth as quickly as possible, and we’ll be on our way." The dentist was quite impressed. "You’re certainly a courageous woman," he said. "Which tooth is it?" The woman turned to her husband and said, "Show him your tooth, dear."

Courage is not limited to the battlefield or the Indianapolis 500 or bravely catching a thief in your house. The real tests of courage are much deeper and much quieter. They are the inner tests, like remaining faithful when nobody’s looking, like enduring pain when the room is empty, like standing alone when you’re misunderstood.—Charles R. Swindoll

QUOTE: We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. – Plato

KING CHRISTIAN VS THE NAZIS John Maxwell, The Power of Partnership in the Church

In April of 1940, German tanks rumbled across the borders of yet another peaceful European country – Denmark. Already possessing control of Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland, the powerful Nazi invaders encountered little resistance from the small northern nation.

Soon other countries fell to the Germans as well: Norway, Holland, Belgium and France – their people bullied, bloodied and beaten down. As part of their systematic method of intimidation and oppression, the Germans announced that every Dane of Jewish descent would be required to wear a yellow star of David. They had done the same thing in Germany. Any Jew who failed to comply would be put to death. The Star of David, a proud symbol of their Jewish faith and culture, would be used to mark them as undesirable members of society - to rob them of their possessions, their dignity and even their lives.

The Danish government and its people were in no position to do battle against the powerful German army. But their leader, King Christian the 10^th, made a bold move to prevent the Nazis from persecuting the Jewish people among them, one that risked his own life. After the proclamation was made by the occupying army, the Danish monarch called for all of his country’s citizens to wear the Star of David, for every Danish household to stand as partners with their Jewish neighbors.

What would you have done had you lived in Denmark in 1940? Tremendous fear must have gripped the hearts of those 1^st Gentile citizens to venture from their homes the morning after the king’s announcement. Would they be the only ones who had heeded the call? Would they be singled out? Would they be scooped up along with the Jews and executed?

What they saw was nothing short of a miracle. There were Stars of David everywhere. The Jews among them wept when they saw the people’s love and support. And because the people stood together, the Nazi’s full plan of persecution against the Jews was never carried out in that country.

Noah built and voyaged alone. His neighbors laughed at his strangeness and perished in style.

Abraham wandered and worshipped alone. Sodomites smiled at the simple shepherd, followed the fashion, and fed the flames.

Daniel dined and prayed alone

Elijah sacrificed and witnessed alone

Jeremiah prophesied and wept alone

JESUS loved and died alone.

THIS IS COURAGE - Contributed by Sabrina

The philosophy final at U.C.L.A had many blank pages for the answer to one question: "What is courage? Most of us wrote frantically, giving examples, expounding on theories. But one of my classmates turned in his essay with just two words on it - THIS IS.

He received an A.

Back in the 1500's a Catholic Priest was troubled by his past. He observed all of the requirements of the Roman Church in attempting to relieve himself of his shame and guilt. He did penance, even going so far as to kiss the steps that ascended to the Pope's throne in Rome. But no matter what he did, he failed to find relief. Finally he turned to the scriptures to see if there could be an answer there he that couldn't find elsewhere. It was there that he discovered forgiveness and hope and it was also there that he found himself led to question some of the Catholic Church's activities - indulgences, the selling of church offices and even, eventually the authority of the Pope.

These discoveries prompted him to challenge the church to a debate on 95 different points of doctrine that he wrote on a piece of paper and nailed to the church door in Wittenburg, Germany. The following debates and pamphlets that passed out as a result, swiftly brought the German peasants to his side of the debate. Rome responded by Papal bulls denouncing his teachings and excommunicating this priest - Luther from the church. Luther burned the Bulls.

Rome finally called the errant priest to a counsel held at Worms, Germany. There, faced by priest and bishops, knights and court officials, and especially by the hostile young emperor Charles V, Luther was confronted by his teachings, piled on a desk. He was asked if he formally acknowledged these writings, or if he would recant. No debate would be allowed.

Men had died for less. Heretics were burned at stakes or tortured for hours for punishment, and Luther knew that his very life hung in the balance. It was at that moment that he asked for time to consider his answer and to pray to God for guidance. He was granted 24 hours.

The next day, Luther attempted to make a defense of his works but was brusquely demanded to make a plain simple answer. Pausing, Luther looked at his accusers and replied that he would only recant if convinced of his error by either Scripture or evident reason. Otherwise he could not go against his conscience which was bound by the Word of God. He raised himself to his full height and declared "Here I stand, I can do no other."

Shortly afterwards, Luther was "kidnapped" by a friendly German prince who hid him in his castle for a period of time for Luther's protection.

When Henry Ward Beecher was a boy, it is said that the teacher in the school he attended asked a boy a question which the boy answered. Apparently the teacher was much incensed at the answer and cried testily: "Sit down!" The abashed boy sat abruptly down. Several boys were asked the same question and gave the same answer and promptly became confused when the teacher voiced his unexplained disapproval.

Finally Beecher was called upon and gave the same answer as the other boys. "Sit Down!" roared the teacher. But Beecher held his ground and insisted that the answer was correct. For a few moments the teacher stormed at him, but seeing Beecher obdurate and convinced, he smiled and said: "Well, boys, you were all correct, but Beecher was the only one sure enough to stand up for it.

LACK OF COURAGE IN STRUGGLE Poem by J.H. Newman

Time was, I shrank from what was right,

From fear of what was wrong;

I would not brave the sacred fight,

Because the foe was strong.

But now I cast that finer sense Rework these last few lines

And sorer shame aside;

Such dread of sin was indolence,

Such aim at heaven was pride.

THE HERO Saturday Magazine

Courage does not consist in feeling no fear, but in conquering fear. He is the hero who seeing the lions on either side goes straight on, because there his duty lies.

"I hate to see things done by halves. If it be right, do it boldly, if it be wrong, leave it undone." Gilpin

"Courage consists not in hazarding without fear, but being resolutely minded in a just cause." Plutarch.

"True courage is the result of reasoning. A brave mind is always impregnable. Resolution lies more in the head than in the veins; and a just sense of honor and of infamy, of duty and of religion, will carry us farther than all the force of mechanism." Jeremy Collier

"Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather fear that it shall never have a beginning." J.H. Newman

"‘Underneath are the everlasting arms.’ What child of gold was ever permitted to fall lower than God’s ‘underneath.’" H.Gill

COURAGE COMES FROM DIVINE SPARK Poem by George Farquhar

Courage - an independent spark from heaven's bright throne

By which the soul stands raised, triumphant, high, alone.

Polycarp was a leading bishop in Smyrna, and had been close friend and disciple of John the Apostle. Now at 86, he had been caught in the iron arms of a Rome which sought to disband the Christians. All Polycarp had to do to live was to renounce Christ and he would live. He replied "eighty and six years have I served Him and He never did me any injury. How then can I blaspheme my King and my Savior?"

The Roman Proconsul replied "I have respect for your age. Simply say 'Away with the Atheists' (meaning the Christians) and be set free."

Polycarp then pointed toward the Pagan crowd and recited "Away with the atheists."

He died a martyr for His Christ, a soldier of the army of God.

2 frogs fell into a deep cream bowl, one was an optimistic soul

But the other took the gloomy view, "We shall drown," he cried

without much ado.

So with a last despairing cry, he flung up his legs and said "goodbye"

Said the other frog with a merry grin, "I can't get out,

but I won't give in, I'll swim around till my strength is spent

and then I'll die the more content!"

Bravely he swam til it would seem, his struggles

began to churn the cream

On the top of the butter at last he stopped

and out of the bowl he gaily hopped!

What is the moral? 'tis easily found:

If you can't get out, keep swimming round.

LAWYER DAVID AND GOLIATH R.Digest 11/96 p.139

My daughter's boss, Gene, a commercial appraiser of short stature, arrived in court with a bulging briefcase. The lawyer for the other party was a Goliath of a man who, when he caught sight of Gene, cried out across the court room: "Well, little man, what have you got in the briefcase?"

Without looking up, Gene replied, "Five smooth stones."

Harvard University's Basketball team was known to have had difficulty winning games. Undaunted, they developed a battle cry for their fearless team when faced with defeat:

Shortly after take-off, an airplane crashed into a bridge spanning the Potomac River,

plunging moments later into the icy waters below ... resulting in the death of at least 65

people. Horrible as the event was. there comes a very heart-warming story out of it.

Shortly after the crash a helicopter swooped down Just above the water to rescue those

who were fortunate enough not to sink with the aircraft. One man, however, when the

rescue rope was thrown to him, repeatedly refused to let himself be rescued and kept

throwing the rope to one of the other drowning victims. Several times this brave hero

refused the lifeline, but chose rather to throw it to someone else. He could easily have been saved. but he was more concerned with saving others than himself. After the helicopter had rescued the others it went back JUST ONE MORE TIME to get the man who had so heroically risked his life for others, but this time he was gone, gone forever into the icy depths of the Potomac River.

I'm writing this letter,

Quite frankly, to say

I abhorred the column

You wrote yesterday!

It was weak and insipid

and words synonymous -

In short, it lacked courage!

Yours truly, Anonymous

BILLY GRAHAM ON COURTESY... as my wife has often said, we have never received an ugly letter from a Roman Catholic.

DECISIONS!!! R.Digest 5/83 p.163

During that part of the Naval War College course known as Fundamentals of Command and Decision, our instructor was stressing the importance of being able to make sound decisions under pressure. A visiting officer from a small foreign navy spoke up. "Talk about decision!" he said. "I was 700 miles out at sea in my destroyer when I received a dispatch from my base: "We have just had a revolution. Which side are you on?'"

THE DANGERS OF GROUP DECISIONS Pulpit Helps 2/93, p.14

The more members of group like and respect each other, the more probable it is they will make a poor decision. A well known example of the dangers of this unhealthy group orientation took place during the John F. Kennedy administration. A faulty decision caused the defeat of American forces in the invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs, embarrassing the president and the nation.

President Kennedy had surrounded himself with a committee of some of the shrewdest advisors in the country. This group of experts did not make a poor decision because of low IQs. They failed because they wanted to be liked by others in the group. They allowed friendship and loyalty to overwhelm their decision making process.

Advisors who were tempted to speak out in opposition to the attack decided against it out of fear of being disliked, or because they did not want to waste anyone's time. In a memorandum written before the committee assembled, Arthur Schlesinger, one of the members of the Kennedy inner circle, acknowledged that he considered the invasion of Cuba to be a mistake. But he kept silent when he participated in the discussion. Robert Kennedy, the president's brother and the U.S. attorney general, got Schlesinger in the corner after discovering that he opposed the invasion. Kennedy put it bluntly, "Arthur, you may be right or you may be wrong, but the president has made up his mind. Do not push any further." Schlesinger kept quiet.

In the French Alps, a young student was trapped for three days on the north face of perilous "Fool's Needle" in the Mont Blanc range. He was dangling from a narrow ledge when rescue workers found him. His hands were frozen, and later, on a hospital bed, he told about the harrowing ordeal. "I repeated over and over to myself," he commented, "I must hold on. I must hold on at any price."

During WWII, General Creighton Abrams and his company were surrounded by the enemy to the east, west, north and south. General Abrams said "Gentlemen, for the first time in the history of this campaign, we are now in a position to attack the enemy in any direction."

HEROES FOR TODAY R.Digest 3/90 p.181

One summer morning, as Ray Blankenship was preparing his breakfast, he gazed out the window, and saw a small girl being swept along in the rain flooded drainage ditch beside his Andover, Ohio home. Blankenship knew that farther downstream, the ditch disappeared with a roar underneath a road and then emptied into the main culvert.

Ray dashed out the door and raced along the ditch, trying to get ahead of the foundering child. Then he hurled himself into the deep, churning water.

Blankenship surfaced and was able to grab the child's arm. They tumbled end over end. Within about 3 feet of the yawning culvert, Ray's free hand felt something - possibly a rock - protruding from one bank. He clung desperately, but the tremendous force of the water tried to tear him and the child away. If I can just hang on until help comes, he thought.

He did better than that. By the time fire department rescuers arrived, Blankenship had pulled the girl to safety. Both were treated for shock.

On April 12, 1989, Ray Blankenship was awarded the Coast Guard's Silver Lifesaving Medal. The award is fitting, for this selfless person was at even greater risk to himself than most people knew... Ray Blankenship can't swim.

A MEDAL FOR ROY BENAVIDEZ R.Digest 4/83 p. 122ff

A 12-man Special Forces team found themselves unfortunately dropped off in the middle of North Vietnamese army battalion. Hemmed in and taking serious fire, they needed to be taken out rapidly. SSgt Roy P. Benvidez, an army veteran of over 13 years was on board the rescue helicopter.

The chopper swooped low and was met by withering small-arms fire. It couldn't stay down long enough to get the team out. But there was another clearing about 75 yards away from which no enemy fire was coming.

When the chopper was 10 feet from the ground, Benavidez jumped out and hit the ground running. After covering 20 yards, he was shot in the right leg. Bowled over by the bullet, he fell, but was up in an instant and kept moving.

A hand grenade exploded in front of him. Shrapnel tore into his face, narrowly missing his eyes. Again he fell, and again he got up and ran. Bleeding profusely and in terrible pain, he staggered into the broken circle of his comrades.

At 2:15 P.M. 5/2/68, Benavidez found 8 of the 12 men still alive, all wounded. As they began moving, he spotted the body of the team leader. Dangling from the dead man's neck was a pouch containing classified papers with call signs and radio codes. It had to be recovered. He removed the pouch and slipped it into his shirt.

He pushed the men into the clearing. One had been hit in the face and had a bandage over his eyes. "Hang on to my neck," Benavidez ordered him. He half-carried another soldier, who had been shot in the legs. Another who had been hit in the stomach didn't want to move. Benevidez shouted and cursed and got all the wounded moving.

Under fire they reached the chopper, and Benavidez guided the men on board. Then he ran back to retrieve the body of the team leader - and was shot in the back. He pitched over in a somersault, landing flat on the ground. "O Lord, not here. Please, God don't let me die here." His head was filled with ringing bells. His body felt as if it was burning with fever. One leg seemed paralyzed.

At that moment, the helicopter pilot was killed. The chopper, which had been hovering just off the ground, crashed and tipped over. Benavidez rallied the survivors, including the wounded injured door gunner...

The men slumped down into a hollow. Wood flew everywhere as enemy bullets cut into the trees around them. Benavidez opened a 1st aid kit and gave several of them morphine. He gave himself 2 injections. Then he used the radio to direct air support from jets and gunships, hoping to suppress enemy fire long enough to allow another helicopter to land.

"Are you hit bad, sarge?" one of the men asked Benavidez.

"I have been hit so many times I don't give a darn no more."

While giving another soldier first-aid, he took another bullet in the thigh.« Under cover from the helicopter gunners, with the soldier wounded in the stomach on one side, and the injured door gunner on the other, Benavidez staggered into the clearing. He put them aboard the chopper and went back for the others. As he bent over another wounded man, Benavidez was suddenly struck in the back of the head by a rifle butt.

He fell, but instinctively rolled over and bounced to his feet. He stood facing a N. Vietnamese soldier, who rushed at him with his bayonet. Benavidez grabbed it, cutting his hand wide open. While pulling the soldier toward him, he drew out his belt knife with his other hand and stabbed him.

Now he was covered with blood, hurting badly and screaming, and beginning to lose his senses. Most of his men were up and moving. Somehow summoning a last reserve of strength, he picked up two of the weaker ones and started toward the chopper. As he drew near, he saw two enemy soldiers crawling toward the chopper where the door gunners couldn't see them. He scooped up a nearby rifle and shot both. One of the door gunners, confused by what was happening, swung his gun around at Benavidez, thinking the sergeant was a N. Vietnamese soldier who was shooting at him. The pilot shouted to the gunner just in time.

After getting the men on board, Benavidez... passed out.

When the helicopter put down at Loc Ninh, a doctor took one look and said, "There's nothing I can do for him." Benavidez heard the words, opened his eyes and, unable to speak, defiantly spit at the doctor.

On November 21, 1980, after all the facts concerning the incident came to light, Roy Benavidez was recommended for and received, the highest award given by the government: The medal of honor.

HE DIED WITH HIS FATHER'S HELMET R.Digest 6/74 p. 79

Each beach (at D Day) had its own share of stories. One of the more poignant occurred on Sword Beach. As Comdr. Philippe Kieffer led his French commandos ashore under a storm of fire, a commando fell fatally wounded next to Kieffer. Dragging the man onto the beach, Kieffer saw that he wore an old WWI French helmet. "It was my father's," the soldier said. "He wore it at Verdun." As Kieffer lowered the man to the beach, the commando spoke once more: "One favor. Before you go, turn my head toward Paris."

CONFIDENCE IN FACE OF FACTS SE Leadership Conference 3/94

Caption under a cartoon of woman standing in front of an audience with the slip of her dress down around her ankles: "Confidence is what you have before you know the situation."

IF r.digest December 1974

In ancient Sparta, the citizens were stoical, military minded, and noted for their economy of speech. Legend has it that when Philip of Macedonia was storming the gates of Sparta he sent a message to the besieged king saying, "If we capture your city, we will burn it to the ground." A one-word answer came back: "If."

COURAGE AGAINST SLAVERY The Freedom Givers by Fergus M. Bordewich in R.Digest 3/2001 p. 119ff

(Writing about "conductors" on the Underground Railroad) While black conductors were often motivated by their own painful experiences, whites were commonly driven by religious convictions. Levi Coffin, a Quaker raised in North Carolina, explained, "The Bible, in bidding us to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, said nothing about color."

In the 1820s Coffin moved west to Newport (now Fountain City), Ind., where he opened a store. Word spread that fleeing slaves could always find refuge at the Coffin home. At times he sheltered as many as 17 fugitives at once, and he kept a team and wagon ready to convey them on the next leg of their journey. Eventually, 3 principal routes converged at the Coffin house, which came to be the Grand Central Terminal of the Underground Railroad.

For his efforts, Coffin received frequent death threats and warnings that his store and home would be burned. Nearly every conductor faced similar risks or worse. In the North, a magistrate might have imposed a fine or a brief jail sentence for aiding fugitives. In the Southern states, whites were sentenced to months or even years in jail. One courageous Methodist minister, Calvin Fairbank, was imprisoned for more than 17 years in Kentucky, where he kept a log of his beatings: 35,105 stripes with the whip.

As for the slaves, escape meant a journey of hundreds of miles through unknown country, where they were usually easy to recognize. With no road signs and few maps, these fugitives had to put their trust in directions passed by word of mouth, and in secret signs - nails driven into trees, for example - that conductors used to mark the route north.

Many slaves traveled under cover of night, their faces sometimes caked with white powder. Quakers often dressed their "passengers," both male and female, in gray gowns, deep bonnets and ample veils. On one occasion, Levi Coffin was transporting so many runaway slaves that he disguised them as a funeral procession.