The national weakness : a discourse delivered in the First Church, Brookline, on Fast day, Sept. 26, 1861

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€\)t National SEeaitness

DISCOURSE

DEUVERLD IN

THE FIRST CHURCH, BROOKLINE,

On Fast Day, Sept. 26, 1861.

BY REV. F. H. HEDGE, D.D.

BOSTON:

WALKER, WISE, AND COMPANY,

245, Washington Street.

1861.

€^t National TOeaftness

DISCOURSE

DELIVERED IN

THE FIRST CHURCH, BROOKLINE,

On Fast Day, Sept. 26, 1861.

BY EEV. F. H. HEDGE, D.D.

BOSTON:

WALKER, WISE, AND COMPANY,

245, Washington Street.

1861.

SERMON.

Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as be

THAT PUTTETH IT OFF." — 1 Kings XX. 11.

When President Lincoln, five months ago, put forth his
Proclamation, announcing a combination against the
laws of the land too powerful to be suppressed by ordi-
nary methods, and calling for seventy-five thousand
troops to meet this exigency, there mingled, with the
grief and indignation awakened in us by the treason
which necessitated such an appeal, a thrill of patriotic
joy at this demonstration of a new energy on the part
of Government, after so many months of passive sub-
mission. We gloried in the prospect of a speedy
solution of our national difficulties by a vigorous asser-
tion of the Federal authority. Our spirits, which had
settled into sullen gloom, almost despair of our coun-
try's future, were raised to a pitch of jubilant expecta-
tion, as we felt, through all our bones, the shock of
national consciousness which that manifesto communi-
cated to the loyal States.

The States were not slack in acknowledging the
appeal. Massachusetts, true to her historical primacy,
with promptness worthy her illustrious pedigree, re-

spondcd to the call. Her Governor's word gave back
the President's like its echo; a regiment of her so s
eqmpped and on the march in less than six days, was'

vith'h M '^'■^"' ^ '"'^^^ '^* °f April, dated
^uth her blood, >n.t:ated and auspicated the new con-
flict The seventy-five thousand were mustered and
sent; and to these were added as many more. Our hearts
were estabhshed : we were not afraid. The prevalent
expectation was, that a three-months' campaign would
suffice. If not to heal all difficulties, and reinstate the
shattered Union, at least to crush the power of the re-
bels, and make it impossible for them to pursue their
di^rganizing course and to carry out their nefarious

o *

So we girded on oiu- harness with some boastin^
With what result ? The three-months' campaign, inau
g.u-ated ,vrth so much enthusiasm, after som; lels
BuH Eu"n ™^''°""''"'' «™"''t''d ^vith the battle of

The three months expired, _ five months have
elapsed _ and the rebel power is still unsubdued

no!'; ^nziitrr ' rr -^ '- --

-Lxie leoeis are not crushed, nor even so

So f! '1"'''"""°" '° '-"""''' ''™'" ">- position,
bo far as they are weakened at all, it is by want of
means, by their straitened economy and financial embar-
rassment, and not by the triumphs of the Federal arms.
Ihc Federal arms have not triumphed in any important
n^emcnt, except when opposed in overwlihn::
fo.ce to a weak resistance on the part of the enemy

And, altliougli the disaster at Bull Run cannot be re-
garded as a victory on the part of the rebels, it added
greatly to their confidence, and therefore to their
Strength ; M'hile it terribly rebuked our own overween-
ing confidence in ourselves, and proved to us how little
enthusiasm and patriotic determination will avail, with-
out military disciphne, — without wise conduct, pru-
dence, and self-control. An army of brave men, — for
such unquestionably they were, — by mere conceit of
approaching danger, not real, imminent peril, overtaken
with a panic which dissolves all bonds of military orga-
nization, almost of human fellowship, and converts a
body of warriors into a herd of frightened deer, flying
at the top of their speed when none pursued, never halt-
ing to ascertain whether any just cause existed for their
alarm, utterly bereft of counsel and reason, and given
over to a passion of insane terror, — this, after all the
noisy demonstrations, the congratulations and harangues,
the receptions and parades, which solemnized the setting
forth of these hosts, though not an uncommon occur-
rence in war, and though no worse than a hundred
panics recorded in history, is still a shame and a tragedy,
which sadly illustrates the difference there is between
promise and performance, between girding on and put-
ting off.

Meanwhile, the pirates of the new Confederacy, in
defiance of the public sentiment of Christendom, are
pursuing their prey, and snatching their plunder, on all
our seas. Hundreds of vessels, with large amounts of
value, have been seized by these bold buccaneers, who
have thus far eluded all attempts to arrest their career.

1*

Such, then, is our position at the present time. With

p r::T ™' ^"P^'^''-'»"' ^'-"S'h at our dis.
po al we have not as yet, for want of headship, of

tta:rnttr:rt: • *f t: — -

borders ,. . a .J-direetefelrt^reZ" Z

to'nlT """'v"'' undaunted, -still mocks us

and itl r ■,"■"'""• ^''^" *■"'' - humihating,

a^ w n ';"™.'''""»^' ^ -^'"'-y lesson to such a

ness „h,oh It much concerns ns to lay to heart. As a
nation, we are proudly conscious of our strength- it
were well we understood our weakness also, our i^a on
.n«™..es and faults. Of some of these, I propose'r

One element of weakness is our self-conceit, _ the
^a,„-gIo„ous persuasion that we are, on the whole

nf :th 'tr- "'^ r" ''- ^"^^ "^^' ^- --^'-^ °'-

Pnnts. One can pardon some degree of self-importance
to a great and prosperous nation : I suppose there er
was one without it. Let a people thLk well of ,1

ii Lr ;^^:rcep: ^'"^ ^^-^ ^*^

T!„, 1 .\u ' "' °- "S" °f ""Ho"!"! health

Bu let the conceit bear some proportion to the fact, and

m it IT- ""'"°'"' "'""° ™"'"- *"" ">^ -'i»--'l
suno fi , " •" "'"" °^ '""*"' development, great

bin; lr7' "■* "° "-I'-rt'-te increate of
substance. We Americans not only arrogate to our-
selves a great destiny, in which, if we' are "true to our

opportunities, we may be right ; but we boast of great
doings, in which we are certainly wrong. We confound
prosperity with merit ; we mistake a growth which is
partly due to natural laws, partly to rare opportu-
nities, and partly to a certain shiftiness of constitution,
for a proof of greatness ; we plume ourselves on our
expansion ; we give ourselves airs on the strength of a
rapid, perhaps unexampled, increase of population, and
a corresponding success in trade. AVhen I hear such
boasts, I cannot help recalling what an English cynic
says of our pretensions : " Brag not yet of our Ameri-
can cousins. Their quantity of cotton, dollars, industry,
and resources, I believe to be almost unspeakable. But
I can by no means worship the like of these. What
great human soul, what great thought, what great
noble thing, that one could worship or loyally admire,
has yet been produced there ? None ! The American
cousins have done none of these things."

I cannot help remembering, that the little republic of
Athens, while yet in its youth, with its hmitcd territory,
population, and means, produced, within a century after
the Persian wars, the immortal works which are still the
chief boast of letters and art ; and, what is more, the
immortal men whom the world still honors as little less
than divine. The most that we can say of ourselves is,
that we have occupied a large territory with our civili-
zation, such as it is, and invented some ingenious con-
trivances for the expedition of business, and the merely
mechanical intercourse of life. Mechanical ingenuity,
directed to material ends, is, thus far, our chief dis-
tinction as a people. And even here our merit is not

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supreme. The steamship is a great addition to the sum
of human means; but the ship itself, which preceded it,
was incomparably greater. The electric telegraph is a
cunnmg invention; but the art of writing, about which
httle noise was made at the time, was a greater advance
in civihzation, and a greater blessing to mankind.

The real and most important achievement, and there-
foi^ the true test of a nation, is the national character.
Ined by this standard, the American people can claim
no pre-eminent rank among the nations. Here om-
weakness is painfully evident. It is true, the national
character is not yet fully developed, and must not be
too severely judged. True it is also, that the national
character has many excellent and noble quahties, amon<.
which I may mention generosity, kindliness, and darin^.!
But these are offset by fatal defects. Chief amoif-
these IS a certain looseness which pervades the intellect!
ual and moral life of the nation, debilitating its mental
capacity, and vitiating all its action.

Intellectually, this trait appears in the superficiality,
the crudeness, the want of discipline, of thorough and
effective training, which characterize American hfe •
and are due, in part, to the very constitution of our
republican society, in which the facihties afforded for a
certain kind of success, the chance of a prosperous
cai-eer, to mere self-assertion, with little or no culture,
and no laborious preparation of any kind, tend to lessen
the demand for thorough education, and consequently
reduce its standard and restrict its means. Where a
hasty education will suffice for social and pohtical suc-
cess, the greater part will seek no other. To an Ame-

rican, the last criterion of merit, and the -P-me mark
Th s callin.., is to get the most votes; and, m this, i
t^:^::. edticLd that sueeeed hest. hut t e m^s

„.so..upu,ous and the '^-^^^^T.o^^^^
our public men, as a general lule, aie wo
worse trained, and worse mannered than ^^o y f any
ntlipr civilized nation. A uioiou3iii;y o
:^ dlmerlcan gentleman Is P-ve^blally "are pheno-
menon aird nowhere more so than m public life, ihe
men who represent us in the courts of Europe, repre-
Tn to often and too faithfnlly, our ignorance and
utreedin.. With no knowledge of the 1-8-?^ °f

t un"; to which they are sent, or of French (the
he countiy ^^^ ^.^^^^^^^^ ^j. p^i^t^ „,

SSclea::;: '^Hh no one ,uali«catioii ^r ^e
t thev occupy but the service rendered in pro
^:: n ^e drctiol of the chief who sends them, they

vler to have been accidentally cast ashore in
seem lathei to ha ^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^_

those strange lands han de ^^^ ^

::~::it:w^^nlg through an our history
Sialic s like those of Irving, Wheaton, Everett,
Barria that of the accompl.hed a— dor ^^^^^
now represents ns at the court of Vienna , ^"^ -* '^^
been t^ie prevaiUng type. How, indeed, cai ii^^ be
otherwise? How should we be better abro d th n t
home' The representation is according to the con i
^rcy. The same want of thoroughness appears in the
hre-departments of State, whose incumbents are niosdy
aiTtils Iv deficient in knowledge and tact equal to no
eincyrecpiiring brain and heart instead of routine.

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A great crisis like the Drpspnffinri.fi

and unprepared. "'"" '"^""P^teut

Viewed in its moral aspects, the looseness of .-hich

no- an obstacle in our n>i.Ly operl ^ s.' '\Z
Amencan .3 not taught by the genius of the civil politv
under wh,ch he lives, a. other nations are byt ir^ '
respect and obey his superiors. On the contr r" 'the
lesson he learns from his political experience is,l'at he

own good sense, he is apt to interpret as a ri^ht to
a own way .„ every condition and relation of° 1 fe
a pnncple of act.on utterly incompatible with milita™
l.sc.ph„e. It is difficult for him to admit the idl f I
superior much more to submit himself with unquTst on
2 obe .ence to one who is placed in author ;;;
him. Subordmafon is the first and fundamental m-n

"■aei. Xh.s lesson the American citizen has vet to
learn; and, ,f the war shall serve to enforce ft rf

ntuc, as well as of a moral and Christian grace
lie same looseness appears in the moral incfifference

bohh ZT-'r"^ "'"=•■"-='' »- go^rto'

p.ae e, ,vh>ch overlooks the gravest transgressions
tolu„tes bankruptcy of the most .aggravated anj fraud

11

ulent kind as a mercantile mishap, not compromismg tlie
social position of the offender ; - an indifference to which
the audacions filibuster is as worthy a hero as Scott or
Kane ; and which views criminality in general rather as
an interesting variety of human nature, than as damnable
o-uilt. Suppose our national difficulties settled, the re-
beUion suppressed, the Union restored : I fear that the
leader in this conspiracy, whose crime aganist this
country is unsurpassed in the annals of treason, so far
from receiving his deserts on the gallows, would become
the popular hero of the day. Should he visit the loyal
States, I fear he would be received with pubhc honors,
and would be as likely as another to be elected President
of the United States. We may certainly claim, as a
people, the merit of extraordinary freedom from vmdic-
tiveness ; but we must also plead guilty to a most
extraordinary degree of moral indifference.

One other element of national weakness I will men-
tion; and that is our present system of political admim-
stration, which has come to be a regular quadrenmal
revolution, extending through all the departments of
State, and including every Federal office in the land
No sooner has any functionary become sufficiently versed
in the duties of his station to discharge them with credit
to himself and with profit to the nation, than immedi-
ately he is ejected, and his place supphed by a novice,
who, mindful of the brief and precarious tenure of his
position, is chiefly intent on making the most that can
be made, in the way of pecuniary gain, of the opportu-
nities it affords. The mischief arising from this source
is incalculable. Not only are character and talent ol

12

Ihe highest order ahnost necessarily excluded from the
erv.ce of the State by a system which makes ffi
the reward of successful demagogism, but a lottery
opened w.th each Presidential term to hungry adven
turers, whose only idea of office is that of a prlL in the
game of politics, with opportunity of plunder f^ a

n™t Tf t, " '," ' """•■•• "^^y ^° '" ^i *e ex-

pense of then- morals or their time; for this is a race in

-Inch ,nent, self-respect, and scrnpulons integrity a "

-re to be distanced by importunity chicanery," nd'b

-.>faeed tmpudence. Can they condescend o tamper

vnh electo.-s, and to foul their hands with low intrigue '

all hope of success m that direction. This is a svst™,

aTd no rr °''™' ™ '"P"'^"^ gulf between merit
and pohtical emmence. The present century has wit-
nessed a^stoady decline in the character of o'r pu He

sm wel r^ f '"'^ ""^ high-minded patriot-

ism were once the rule, they have come to be the
excepfon. To the Jeffersons, the Adamses, and Clays
has succeeded a race of jobbers and hack poUtician '
Such are the results of this deplorable systen of quad.'
lemnal rotation in office. This has made us, witlaU
our prospenty, our rapid growth, and extended om

as Amencan pohtics. So demoralizing, so disor-

13

crauizing, is the tendency of this system, that even the
rupture of the Union, at the ^Drospect of which we startle
and arc now so distressed, could bring us nothing worse
than our own chosen and established methods were all
these years preparing for us. All this must be reformed,
or we slide to inevitable ruin, from which, hitherto, our
ample territory and vast material resources alone have
saved us. The quarrel between North and South which
now agitates the land is but an anticipation of (unless it
shall prove, as I trust it may, our deliverance from)
greater evils that ^vere threatening us before this out-
break, and that must have arrived, independently of the
present crisis, by the natural termination of the course we
were pursuing. We were rushing, with a speed unex-
ampled in the history of nations, to the civil dissolution
which precedes despotism in the natural order of his-
tory. The war now enkindled by sectional conflicts, with
all the evil and miseries attending it, will prove, in the
end, the greatest of blessings, if it serves to arrest this
downward tendency ; if it opens our eyes to our politi-
cal errors and vices, and puts us in the way of reforming
them ; if it raises to the supreme power a truly wise and
independent man, with an eye to discern what is need-
ful, and strength of will, in spite of precedent and
popular clamor, to enforce it, — a man Avho, without re-
spect to party, shall put the right men in the right
places ; retaining the competent and faithful of former
administrations, and fearlessly ejecting the incompetent
of his own ; and whose influence, backed by Congress
and the nation, shall avail to make that practice the law
of the land. I see no salvation for this people, no

14

way of redemption from political ruin, until the principle
is established of permanence in offices whose term is not
prescribed by the Constitution, nor necessarily affected
by the exigencies of State, — a permanence limited only
by the competence and good behavior of the incumbent.
Such a system of administration would tend to make of-
fice no longer the reward of electioneering and the prize
of demagogues, but the fit investment of intellectual and
moral Avorth ; it would tend to take the affairs of State
out of the hands of jobbers and pettifoggers and bar-
room politicians, and commit them to those who are
equal to the trust ; it would tend to stop the mouths of
the orators of the stump, to abate the nuisance of the
popular harangue, and to purify the national speech ;
it would make the annual and quadrennial elections a
safe and peaceable process, instead of the hurly-biu'ly it
now is, inflaming the passions, setting friend against
friend, dividing households, and imbittering all the in-
tercoui'se of life ; it would help to do away with this
periodical Walpurgis, this iincovering of the hells of
wrath and strife ; and, finally, it would make politics
with us what they are in other lands, — a science of civil
and international relations, instead of a trade and a trick,
which none can be concerned in and not be defiled ; it
would give us counsellors instead of speculators ; magis-
trates whom we can sincerely respect, instead of available
ciphers ; and make, in the good old Bible phrase, " our
rulers peace, and our exactors righteousness."

I shall not speak of slavery in connection with this
subject of the national weakness ; not because I do not
feel it to be the great weakness of the land, — the

15

head and front of our offending, but because the subject
has been so thoroughly discussed as to need no comment
of mine, and, at present, no further ventilation. Those
who do not see it to be the crowning evil of our polity
are not likely to be converted by any illustration which
I can give it.

The faults'-and vices I have named, if not the imme-
diate cause of oui" troubles, are yet, in so far as the
head and heart and hand of the nation have been
weakened and its action vitiated by them, the true
som-ce of the mortifications, the disappointments, and
all the bitter experiences, of this year of sorrows. God
grant these experiences — "his chastisements," as our
Chief Magistrate calls them — may work in us the good
work of discipline and reform, — may open our eyes
and bring back our hearts to forsaken truth and violated

law ! that we may learn wisdom and learn obedience

by the things we suffer, and rise from the humihation of
this affliction, a purified people, " zealous of good works."
And now, fellow-citizens, it befits us to consider what
is needful and good for the present distress. Here we
are, committed to a war whose term no mortal can
predict, whose issues defy all human calculation ; a war
which will cost us hundreds of millions of money, and,
it may be, hundreds of thousands of lives ; a war which
will beggar oiu- commerce, check our industry, decnnate
our cities, dismember our households, ingulf our beloved,
and wring our hearts with unspeakable anguish. What
shall we say, in view of these horrors? what pohcy
embrace? what course pursue? I know but one counsel
in this emergency. One thought is uppermost in my

16

heart ; one word gushes up to my lips. It is hard to
say it, in the face of all this tribulation and -woe ;
but I know of nothing better : that word is, Onward ! —
onward, while a dollar remains in our treasury, and a
regiment in the field ! — onward, with due caution, but
with unabated zeal and indomitable hearts ! We have
girded on our harness; and cursed be he that would
bid us put it off until one of two issues arrives to our
arms, — until we have quite conquered the enemies of
our peace, and driven rebellion into the sea, or we our-
selves are so far conquered as to have no means and no
hope left ; until it becomes evident, and is forced on
our reluctant minds, that we have undertaken an im-
possibility, and are fighting against God, and nuist
needs submit to his decree and the stronger foe, and
accept the rupture of the Union as the bitter end
and' the heavenly doom ! There are times when the
cry of peace is the voice of treason, frightful and hate-
ful as war ever is. Precious is peace ; but liberty and
right are more precious still: and liberty and right
are at stake in this contest, — the liberties and rights
bequeathed to us by our fathers, and bought with their
blood. For certain it is, that if we fail to conquer the
rebels who have lifted their parricidal hands against
the common mother of us all, the National Union,
they will eventually conquer us, and exercise a deadly
dominion over us, if not by force of arms, by the surer
weapons of political intrigue, — by insidious tampering
with our commerce, by fell collusion Avith traitors on
this side, by sowing dissension in our counsels and
strife in our ranks, till province after province is

17

added to the new confederacy, and, piece by piece,
what remains of the old Union is broken up. For the
hydra of Secession is a monster that will not cease to
ravage and destroy nntil the hfe is burnt out of it by
the searing apphcation of loyal arms. There will be
no drawn game in this warfare : our only alternative is
to conquer or succumb. y*

The cry of peace has been raised, here and there, by
those whose pohtical prospects or material interests are
imperilled or impaired by the war. What would they
have ^ what kind and conditions of peace would they
propose? Shall the North — that is, the Federal
Government— lay down its arms, and say to the rebels,
" We have erred : we repent. Go your way ; do what
you will : we oppose you no longer " ? If such be their
meaning, let them declare it, and see how many they
can drrw to their side. But no : they would have a
convention for mutual adjustment. Suppose the con-
vention assembled : what is there to adjust that the
Constitution has not adjusted? Will the South accept
that arbiter? The seceding States have already disowned
it. For the North to offer more than the compromises
of the Constitution would be saying to the rebels,
"We submit to your will : put your feet on our necks."
^lay I never live to see the day when that concession
shall take effect ! Better a war of extermination than
such adjustment.

The demand for peace has hitherto, so far as I know,
been confined to the North, the party aggrieved^ and
assailed, — the party acting in defence of the Union
and the Constitution. It must come from the other side

18

of the Potomac ; the cry must go up from the ranks of
Secession, and be accompanied by return to the okl
allegiance, — before our warfxre can be accomplished.

Great are the difficulties attending this struo-o-le for
nationality. There never was a conflict so complicated
and embarrassing as ours. Had we only the known,
declared, and open enemy to encounter, our task would
be comparatively light. But we have to contend Avith
secret foes ; our enemies are partly those of our own
household ; Treason lurks in our own ranks, in league
with Eebellion outside, and furthering its cause. If we
fail at last, it will be the treachery that walketh in
darkness, not the destruction that wasteth at noonday,
to which we succumb.

But we will not admit the thought of failure, with
such an overweight of means and forces as falls to our
side, with such issues as hang on om- success, — the
interests of civil society, the cause of order the world
over, the cause of liberty for all time. Let us rather
think, with such interests at stake, that Natui-e herself
is in league with us; that the stars, in their courses,
fight on our side ; that humanity travails with the bur-
den of our victory. Let us think that the shades of
our fathers look solemnly down on this solemn struo--
gle to preserve what they gave. And, with these, let
our piety connect the more recent memories of those
who have fallen in this campaign, — the proto-martyrs
of our cause. High among these, shines the honored
name of Lyon, than whom no braver ever led the van
in the field of death. He sleeps well : his memory is
blest.

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" There is a tear for all wlio die,
A mourner o'er the humblest grave ;
But nations swell the funeral cry,
And Triumph weeps, above the brave.

And so let the day of public humiliation be to all the
peopl of this Union a day of new consecration and
ew hope May He who ^yeighs the nations in Ins
TaLt L tl Jnation true to his word, and trusting
• rname, in war as in peace I May those who gr^
on the harness of battle wear it without boastmg but
"th cheerful courage and unfaltering trust ; and when
^Mtii cneeiiui o . .. ^rr ^^^y. boastmg be

in due season we shall put it ott, may oui p

1 l.nif in God who giveth us the vic-
not in ourselves, but m uoa, \Miu ^

tory !

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