Attentive walkers in Cambridge’s Mt. Auburn Cemetery will find surprises every few feet. Yesterday, we found the unremarkable monument in the accompanying picture. The epitaph it bears, however, hints at most extraordinary life:
The virtues of this rare man were celebrated at his death by the eloquence of Emerson and in the poetry of Whittier: An unexampled honor in his time.
He sheltered the exiled Hungarians.
Together with John Brown, he saved Kansas to freedom.
Almost alone in 1863, he organized the colored regiments which turned the scales in favor of the Union cause.
He expended a fortune in public and private benefactions.
All but forgotten, this son of Massachusetts is one of the heroes of Abolition.
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