The works of William E. Channing, D.D

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THE

WORKS

WILLIAM E. CHANNING, D. D.

SIXTH COMPLETE EDITION,

AN INTRODUCTION.

VOL. VI.

BOSTON:
JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY.

1846.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1843, by

George G. Channing,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of MassachusettB.

A]^ /?JS^

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EMANCIPATION.

1*

CONTENTS OF VOL. VI.

FAGB

EMANCIPATION.— 1S40 5

DISCOURSE ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE REV. JOSEPH

TUCKERMAN, D. D. — 1841 91

THE PRESENT AGE. — AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE

MERCANTILE LIBRARY COMPANY OF PHILADELPHIA. — 1841. 147

THE CHURCH. —A DISCOURSE DELIVERED IN THE FIRST CON-
GREGATIONAL UNITARIAN CHURCH OF PHILADELPHIA.— 1841. 183

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES; OR REMARKS SUGGESTED

BY THE CASE OF THE CREOLE. — Part I. — 1S42. . . .231

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. - Part II. — 1842. . . .281

AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT LENOX ON THE FIRST OF AUGUST,
1842, BEING THE ANNIVERSARY OF EMANCIPATION IN THE
BRITISH WEST INDIES 375

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

The following tract grew almost insensibly out of the
strong impressions received from recent accounts of the
emancipated British Islands. Joseph John Gurney, well
known among us as a member and minister of the Quaker
denomination, was so kind as to visit me after his return
from the West Indies, and then transmitted to me his
"Familiar Letters to Henry Clay,"* describing a winter
in those regions. The satisfaction which I felt was so
great that I could not confine it to myself I began to
write, as a man begins to talk after hearing good news.
Many thoughts connected with the topic rushed succes-
sively into my mind ; and gradually, and with little labor,
this slight work took the form it now wears. I am en-
couraged to hope that it is of some little value, from the
spontaneousness of its growth.

This tract was prepared for the press some time ago,
and should have been published immediately after the ap-
pearance of Mr. Gurney 's Letters. But I was discouraged
by the preoccupation of the minds of the whole communi-
ty with the politics of the day. I was obliged to wait for
the storm to pass ; and I now send it forth in the hope,
that some, at least, are at leisure to give me a short hear-
ing. Not that I expect to be heard very widely. No one
knows, more than I do, the want of popularity of the sub-

* Tlie book is entitleu, '' Familiar Letters to Henry Clay, of Kentucky,
describing a Winter in the West Indies. By Joseph John Gurney."

8 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

ject. Multitudes would think it a waste of time to give
their thoughts to this great question of justice and hu-
manity. But still, there are not a few to whom the truth
will be welcome. Such will find that in these pages I am
not going again over the ground which I have already
travelled ; and I hope they will feel, that, having begun
with " Slavery," I am fitly ending with "Emancipation."
The latter part of the tract discusses a topic which I
have occasionally touched on, but which needs a more
full exposition, and on which I have long wished to com-
municate my views. The duties of the Free States in
regard to Slavery need to be better understood, and my
suggestions I hope will be weighed with candor. As I
have taken little interest for years in the politics of the
day, and as my hope for the country rests not on any
party, but solely on our means of education, and on
moral and religious influences, I ought not to be accused
of wishing to give a political aspect to the anti-slavery
cause. I am very unwilling that it should take the form
of a struggle for office and power. Still, it has political
relations ; and of these I shall speak with freedom. The
topic is an exciting one ; but, as I look at it with perfect
calmness, I hope I shall not disturb the minds of others.

November 15, 1840.

EMANCIPATION.

At length a report of West-Indian Emancipation has
reached us to which some heed will be given ; and it is
so cheering that I should be glad to make it more ex-
tensively known. We have had, already, faithful and
affecting accounts of this great social revolution ; but,
coming from men who bear an unpopular name, they
have received little attention. Here we have the testi-
mony of a man in no way connected with American
Abolitionists. In his long residence among us Mr.
Gurney has rather shunned this party, whether justly
or wisely I do not say. The fact is stated simply to
prevent or remove a prejudice from which he ought not
to suffer. He came to this country on no mission from
the enemies of slavery in his own land. Nor did he
come, as so many travellers do, to gather or invent ma-
terials for a marketable book ; but to preach the Gos-
pel, in obedience to what he thought " a heavenly call."
In this character he visited many parts of our land, and
everywhere secured esteem as a man, and won no small
attention to his religious teachings. After many labors
here, he felt himself charged with a divine message to
the West Indies. His first object in travelling over
those islands was to preach ; but, in his various journeys
and communications with individuals, he naturally open-

10 EMANCIPATION.

ed his eyes and ears to the subject which there en-
grosses almost every thought, and in which his own
philanthropy gave him special interest. In his " Let-
ters " he furnishes us with the details and a few results
of his observation, interspersed with some personal ad-
venture, and with notices of the natural appearances
and productions of regions so new and striking to an
Englishman. The book has the merit of perfectly an-
swering its end, which is, not to reason about emancipa-
tion, but to make the reader a spectator, and to give
him facts for his own reflection. It is written with much
ease, simplicity, clearness, and sometimes with beauty.
It is especially distinguished by a spirit of kindness. It
not only expresses a sincere Christian philanthropy, but
breathes a good humor which must disarm even the
most prejudiced. They who have refused to read anti-
slavery productions because steeped in gall will find no
bitter ingredients here. Not that there is a spirit of
compromise or timidity in our author. He is a thor-
oughly kindhearted man, and conscientiously believes
that he can best serve the cause of truth and liberty by
giving free utterance to his own benignant spirit. The
book has not only the substantial merit of fidelity on a
subject of immense importance, but another claim, which
may operate more widely in its favor. It is entertain-
ing. It does not give us dull and dry wisdom, but
the quick, animated observations of a man who saw
with his heart as well as his eyes, who took a strong
interest in what he describes.

That the book is entirely impartial, I do not say.
This highest merit of a book seems to require more
than human virtue. To see things precisely as they
are, with not a shade or coloring from our own preju-

EMANCIPATION. 1 1

dices or affections, is the last triumph of self-denial.
The most honest often see what they want to see ; and
a man so honored as Mr. Giirney is very apt to be
told what he wants to hear. But the book bears strong
marks of truth. The uprightness of the author secures
us against important error. Let even large deductions
be made for his feelings, as a Quaker, against slavery,
for his sympathy with the negro and the negro's friends ;
after every allowance, the great truth will come out,
that the hopes of the most sanguine advocates of eman-
cipation have been realized, if not surpassed, in the
West Indies.

Such a book is much needed. There has been in
this country a backwardness, almost an unwillingness, to
believe good reports from the West Indies. Not a few
have desired to hear evil, and have propagated so in
dustriously every fiction or exaggeration unfavorable to
freedom, that the honest and benevolent have been mis-
led. The general state of mind among us in regard to
West-Indian emancipation has been disheartening. So
deadly a poison has Southern slavery infused into the
opinions and feelings of the North, especially in the
larger cities, that k\v cordial wishes for the success of
emancipation have met our ears. Stray rumors of the
failure of the experiment in this or that island have
been trumpeted through the country by the newspapers,
and the easy faith of the multitude has been practised
on till their sympathies with the oppressed have become
blunted. I have myself seen the countenance of a man
not wanting in general humanity brighten at accounts
of the bad working of emancipation. In such a state
of feeling and opinion, a book like Mr. Gurney's is
invaluable The truth is told simply, kindly ; and,

12 EMANCIPATION.

though it may receive Httle aid from our newspapers,
must find its way into the hands of many honest readers.
I offer a few extracts, not to take the place of the book,
but in the hope of drawing to it more general attention.
So various and interesting are the details, and so suited
to the various prejudices and misapprehensions common
in our country, that my only difficulty is to make a
selection, — to know where to stop. He first visited
Tortola.

"We could not but feel an intense interest in making
our first visit to a British island peopled with emancipat-
ed negroes. Out of a population of nearly five thousand,
there are scarcely more than two hundred white persons;
but we heard of no inconveniences arising from this dis-
parity. We had letters to Dr. Dyott, the stipendiary
magistrate, and to some of the principal planters, who
greeted us with a warm welcome, and soon relieved us
irom our very natural anxiety by assuring us that free-
dom was working well in Tortola. One of our first visits
was to a school for black children, vmder the care of
Alexander Bott, the pious minister of the parish church.
It was in good order, — the children answered our ques-
tions well. We then proceeded to the jail ; in which, if
my memory serves me right, we found only one prisoner,
with the jailer and the judge ! Our kind friend, Francis
Spencer Wigley, the chief justice of the British Virgin
Islands, happened to be there, and cheered us with the
information, that crime had vastly decreased since the
period of full emancipation." — p. 25.

His next visit was to St. Christopher's.

" I mounted one of the governor's horses, and enjoyed
a solitary ride in the country. Although it was the sev-
enth day of the week, usually applied by the emancipated
laborers to their private purposes, I observed many of
them diligently at work on the cane grounds, cutting the
canes for the mill. Their aspect was that of physical
vigor and cheerful contentment, and all my questions, as
I passed along, were answered satisfactorily. On my
way I ventured to call at one of the estates, and found it

EMANCIPATION. 13

was the home of Robert Claxton, the solicitor-general of
the colony, a gentleman of great intelligence and re-
spectability. He was kind enough to impart a variety of
useful, and, in general, cheering information. One fact
mentioned by him spoke volumes. Speaking of a small
property on the island belonging to himself, he said, ' Six
years ago, (that is, shortly before the Act of Emancipa-
tion,) it was worth only <£ "2,000, with the slaves upon it.
Now, without a single slave, it is worth three times the
money. I would not sell it for ,£6,000.' This remarka-
ble rise in the value of property is by no means confined
to particular estates. I was assured, that, as compared
with those times of depression and alarm which preceded
the Act of Emancipation, it is at once general and very
considerable. I asked the President Crook, and some
other persons, whether there was a single individual on
the island who wished for the restoration of slavery.
Answer, ' Certainly not one.' " — p. 34.

*' 'They will do an infinity of work,' said one of my
informants, 'for wages.'

"This state of things is accompanied by a vast increase
in their own comforts. Our friend Cadman, the Metho-
dist minister, was on this station during slavery, in the
year 1826. He has now returned to it under freedom.
'The change for the better,' he observed, ' in the dress,
demeanour, and welfare of the people, is prodigious.' The
imports are vastly increased. The duties on them were
£1,000 more in 1838 than in 1837 ; and in 1839, double
those of 1838, within £ 150. This surprising increase is
owing to the demand on the part of the free laborers
for imported goods, especially for articles of dress. The
difficulty experienced by the gentry living in the town in
procuring fowls, eggs, kc, from the negroes is consider-
ably increased. The reason is well known, — the labor-
ers make use of them for home consumption. Marriage
is now become frequent amongst them, and a profusion
of eggs is expended on their wedding cakes ! Doubtless
they will soon learn to exchange these freaks of luxury
for the gradual acquisition of wealth." — p. 36.

He next visited Antigua.

"Our company was now joined by Nathaniel Gilbert,
an evangelical clergyman of the Church of England, and

VOL. VI. 2

14 EMANCIPATION.

a large proprietor and planter on the island. Both he
and Sir William [the governor] amply confirmed our
previous favorable impressions respecting the state of
the colony. On my inquiring of them respecting the value
of landed property, their joint answer was clear and de-
cided. ' At the lowest computation, the land, without a
single slave upon it, is fully as valuable now, as it was,
including all the slaves, before emancipation.' In other
words, the value of the slaves is already transferred to
the land. Satisfactory as is this computation, I have ev-
ery reason to believe that it is much below the mark.
With respect to real property in the town of St. John's,
it has risen in value with still greater rapidity. A large
number of new stores have been opened ; new houses are
built or building ; the streets have been cleared and im-
proved ; trade is greatly on the increase ; and the whole
place wears the appearance of progressive wealth and
prosperity." — p. 43.

"Extensive inquiry has led us to the conviction, that
on most of the properties of Antigua, and, in general,
throughout the West Indies, one third only of the slaves
were operative. What with childhood, age, infirmity,
sickness, .s/iom sickness, and other causes, full two thirds
of the negro population might be regarded as dead weight.
— The pecuniary saving, on many of the estates in An-
tigua, by the change of slave for free labor, is, at least,
thirty per cent." — pp. 45, 46.

"We had appointed a meeting at a country village
called Parham. It was a morning of violent rain ; but
about two hundred negroes braved the weather, and unit-
ed with us in public worship. It is said, that they are less
willing to come out to their places of worship in the rain
than was the case formerly. The reason is curious.
They now have shoes and siockings, which they are un-
willing to expose to the mud." — p. 47.

"It is a cheering circumstance, of no small importance,
that there are no less, as we were told, than seven thou-
sand scholars in the various charity schools of Antigua.
In all these schools the Bible is read and taught. Who
can doubt the beneficial moral effect of these extensive
efforts ? " — p. 48.

"The vicar of St. John's, during the last seven years
of slavery, married only one hundred and ten pairs of

EMANCIPATION. 15

negroes. In the single year of freedom, 1839, the num-
ber of pairs married by him was 185.

" With respect to crime, it has been rapidly diminish-
ing during the last i'ew years. The numbers committed
to the house of correction in 1837 — chiefly for petty
offences, formerly punished on the estates — were 850 ;
in 1838, only 244; in 1839, 311. The number left in
the prison at the close of 1837 was 147 ; at the close
of 1839, only 35.

"Nor can it be doubted that the personal comforts
of the laborers have been in the mean time vastly in-
creased. The duties on imports in 1833 (the last year
of slavery) were £13,576 ; in 1839 they were £24,650.
This augmentation has been occasioned by the importa-
tion of dry goods and other articles, for which a demand,
entirely new, has arisen among the laboring population.
The quantity of bread and meat used as food by the
laborers is surprisingly increased. Their wedding cakes
and dinners are extravagant, even to the point, at times,
of drinking champagne !

" In connexion with every congregation in the island,
whether of the Cliurch of England or among the Dis-
senters, has been formed a friendly society. The la-
borers subscribe their weekly pittances to these insti-
tutions, and draw out comfortable supplies, in case of
sickness, old age, burials, and other exigencies. Thus
is the negro gradually trained to the habits of prudence
and foresight." — pp. 48, 49.

"A female proprietor who had become embarrassed
was advised to sell off" part of her property in small lots.
The experiment answered her warmest expectations.
The laborers in the neighbourhood bought up all the
little freeholds with extreme eagerness, made their pay-
ments faithfully, and lost no time in settling on the spots
which they had purchased. They soon framed their
houses, and brought their gardens into useful cultivation
with yams, bananas, plantains, pine-apples, and other
fruits and vegetables, including plots of sugar cane. In
this way Augusta and Liberta sprang up as if by magic.
I visited several of the cottages, in company with the
rector of the parish, and was surprised by the excellence
of the buildings, as well as by the neat furniture and
cleanly little articles of daily use which we found within

16 EIVLiNCIPATION.

It was a scene of contentment and happiness ; and I may
certainly add, of industry ; for these little freeholders
occupied only their leisure hours in working on their
own grounds. They were also earning wages as laborers
on the neighbouring estates, or working at English Har-
bour as mechanics." — pp. 49, 50.

"We were now placed in possession of clear docu-
mentary evidence respecting the staple produce of the
island. The average exports of the last five years of
slavery (1829 to 1833, inclusive) were, sugar, 12,189
hogsheads ; molasses, 3,308 puncheons ; and rum, 2,468
puncheons. Those of the first five years of freedom
(1834 to 1838, inclusive) were, sugar, 13,545 hogsheads ;
molasses, 8,308 puncheons ; and rum, 1,109 puncheons ;
showing an excess of 1,356 hogsheads of sugar, and of
5,000 puncheons of molasses ; and a diminution of 1,359
puncheons of rum. This comparison is surely a triumph-
ant one ; not only does it demonstrate the advantage
derived from free labor during a course of five years, but
affords a proof that many of the planters of Antigua have
ceased to convert their molasses into rum. It ought to
be observed, that these five years of freedom included
two of drought, one, very calamitous. The statement
for 1839 forms an admirable climax to this account. It
is as follows : sugar, 22,383 hogsheads (10,000 beyond
the last average of slavery) ; 13,433 puncheons of mo-
lasses (also 10,000 beyond that average) ; and only 582
puncheons of rum ! That, in the sixth year of freedom,
after the fair trial of five years, the exports of sugar from
Antigua almost doubled the average of the last five years
of slavery, is a fact which precludes the necessity of all
other evidence. By what hands was this vast crop raised
and realized ? By the hands of that lazy and impracti-
cable race, (as they have often been described,) the
negroes. And under what stimulus has the work been
effected ? Solely under that of moderate wages." — p. 53.

He next visited Dominica, of which he gives equally
favorable accounts ; but I hasten to make a few ex-
tracts from his notices of Jamaica, the island from
which the most unfavorable reports have come, and
in which the unwise and unkind measures of the pro-

ElVUNCIPATION. 17

prietors, particularly in regard to rents, have done
much to counteract the good influences of emanci-
pation.

" We were glad to observe that the day [Sunday]
was remarkably well observed at Kingston, — just as it
is in many of the cities of your highly favored Union. A
wonderful scene we witnessed that morning in Samuel
Oughton's Baptist Chapel, which we attended without
having communicated to the people any previous notice
of our coming. The minister was so obliging as to make
way for us on the occasion, and to invite us to hold our
meeting with his flock after the manner of Friends.
Such a flock we had not before seen, consisting of nearly
three thousand black people, chiefly emancipated slaves,
attired, after their favorite custom, in neat white raiment,
and most respectable and orderly in their demeanour and
appearance. They sat in silence with us, in an exem-
plary manner, and appeared both to understand and ap-
preciate the doctrines of divine truth preached on the
occasion. The congregation is greatly increased, both in
numbers and respectability, since the date of full freedom.
They pour in from the country, partly on foot, and partly
on mules or horses, of their own. They now entirely
support the mission, and are enlarging their chapel at
the expense of £1,000 sterling. Their subscriptions to
this and other collateral objects are at once, voluntary
and very liberal. ' I have brought my mite for the chap-
el,' said a black woman, once a slave, to S. Oughton, a
day or two before our meeting ; ' I am sorry it is no
more ' ; she then put into his hand two pieces of gold
amounting to five dollars." — pp. 74, 75.

" Here it may be well to notice the fact, that the great
majority of estates in Jamaica belong to absentee pro-
prietors, who reside in England. In Jamaica, they are
placed under the care of some attorney, or representative
of the owner ; one attorney often undertaking the care
of numerous estates. Under the attorney is the over-
seer, on each particular property, on whom the manage-
ment almost exclusively devolves. This state of things is
extremely unfavorable to the welfare of Jamaica. If the
proprietors cannot give their personal attention to their

2*

IQ EMAJVCIPATION.

estates, it would certainly be a better plan to lease them
to eligible tenants on the spot, — a practice which has
of late years been adopted in many instances. It is only
surprising that estates, never visited by the proprietor,
and seldom by the attorney, but left to the care of inex-
perienced young men, often of immoral character, should
prosper at all. Nor would they prosper even as they
now do, but for two causes ; first, the exuberant bounty
of nature, and secondly, the orderly, inoffensive conduct,
and patient industry, of the negro race." — p. 85.

" The rapid diffusion of marriage among the negroes,
and the increase of it even among the white inhabitants
in Jamaica, is one of the happiest results of freedom.
We were assured, on good authority, that four times as
many marriages took place last year in Jamaica as in an
equal population, on an average, in England, — a fact
which proves not only that numerous new connexions
are formed, but also that multitudes who were formerly
living as man and wife without the right sanction are
now convinced of the sinfulness of the practice, and are
availing themselves with eagerness of the marriage cov-
enant. It appears that upwards of sixteen hundred negro
couples were married in the Baptist churches alone dur-
ing the year 1839." — p. 86.

" In the Parish (or County) of St. Mary rent and wages
have been arranged quite independently of each other,
and labor has been suffered to find its market without
obstruction. The consequence is, that there have been
no differences, and the people are working well. The
quantity of work obtained from a freeman there is far
beyond the old task of the slave. In the laborious occu-
pation of holing, the emancipated negroes perform double
the work of the slave in a day. In road-making the
day's task under slavery was to break four barrels of
stone. JYow, by task-work, a weak hand will fill eight
barrels, a strong one, from ten to twelve." — p. 89.

"At the Baptist station at Sligoville we spent several
hours. It is located on a lofty hill, and is surrounded by
fifty acres of fertile mountain land. This property is
divided into one hundred and fifty freehold lots, fifty of
which had been already sold to the emancipated laborers,
and had proved a timely refuge for many laborers who
had been driven by hard usage from their former homes.

E1\IANCIPATI0N. }%

Some of them had built good cottages ; others, temporary-
huts ; and others, again, were preparing the ground for
building. Their gardens were cleared, or in process of
clearing, and in many cases already brought into fine
cultivation. Not a hoe, I believe, had ever been driven
into that land before. JVow, a village had risen up, with
every promise of comfort and prosperity, and the land
was likely to produce a vast abundance of nutritious food
The people settled there were all married pairs, mostly
with families, and the men employed the bulk of their
time in working for wages on the neighbouring estates.
The chapel and the school were immediately at hand,
and the religious character of the people stood high.
Never did I witness a scene of greater industry, or one
more marked by contentment for the present and hope
for the future. How instructive to remember that two
years ago this peaceful village had no existence ! " —
p. 90.

"On our return home we visited two neighbouring
estates, of about equal size, (I believe,) and equal fer-
tility ; both among the finest properties, for natural and
local advantages, which I anywhere saw in Jamaica.
One was in difficulty ; the other all prosperity. The
first was the estate already alluded to, which had been
deprived of so many hands by vain attempts to compel
the labor of freemen. There, if I am not mistaken, I
saro, as we passed by, the clear marks of that violence
by which the people had been expelled. The second,
called ' Dawkin's Caymanas,' was under the enlight-
ened attorneyship of Judge Bernard, who, with his lady,
and the respectable overseer, met us on the spot. On
this property the laborers were independent tenants.
Their rent was settled according to the money value of
the tenements which they occupied, and they were al-
lowed to take their labor to the best market they could
find. As a matter of course, they took it to the home, mar-
ket ; and excellently were they working on the property
of their old master. The attorney, the overseer, and the
laborers, all seemed equally satisfied, equally at their
ease. Here, then, was one property which would occa-
sion a bad report of Jamaica ; another which would as
surely give rise to a good report. As it regards the prop-
erties themselves, both reports are true ; and they are

20 EMANCIPATION.

the respective results of two opposite modes of man-
agement.

"At Dawkin's Caymanas we had the pleasure of wit-
nessing an interesting spectacle ; for the laborers on the
property, with their wives, sons, and daughters, were on
that day met at a picnic dinner. The table, of vast
length, was spread under a wattled building erected for
the purpose, and at the convenient hour of six in the
evening (after the day's work was finished) was loaded
with all sorts of good fare, — soup, fish, fowls, pigs, and
joints of meat, in abundance. About one hundred and
fifty men and women of the African race, attired with
the greatest neatness, were assembled, in much harmony
and order, to partake of the feast ; but no drink was
provided stronger than water. It was a sober, substan-
tial repast ; the festival of peace and freedom. This
dinner was to have taken place on New-Year's day ; but
it so happened that a Baptist meeting-house in another
part of the island had been destroyed by fire ; and, at
the suggestion of their minister, these honest people
agreed to waive their dinner, and to subscribe their
money, instead, to the rebuilding of the meeting-house.
For this purpose they raised a noble sum (I believe
considerably upwards of £ 100 sterling) ; and now, in the
third month of the year, finding that matters were work-
ing well with them, they thought it well to indulge them-
selves with their social dinner. By an unanimous vote,
they commissioned me to present a message of their af-
fectionate regards to Thomas Clarkson and Thomas
Fowell Buxton, the two men to whom, of all others, per-
haps, they were the most indebted for their present en-
joyment."— pp. 91, 92.

"After breakfast we drove to Kelly's, one of Lord
Sliffo's properties. — We saw the people on this property
busily engaged in the laborious occupation of holing, —
a work for which ploughing is now pretty generally sub-
stituted in Jamaica. ' How are you all getting along } '
said my companion, to a. tall, bright-looking black man,
busily engaged with his hoe. ' Right well, massa, right
well,' he replied. 'I am from America,' said my friend,
' where there are many slaves ; what shall I say to them
from you ? shall I tell them that freedom is working well
here ? ' ' Yes, massa,' said he, ' much well under free-

EMANCIPATION. 21

dom, — thank God for it!' ' Much well ' they were in-
deed doing, for they were earning a dollar for every
hundred cane holes ; a great effort, certainly, but one
which many of them accomplished by four o'clock in the
afternoon. ' How is this ? ' asked the same friend, as he
felt the lumps or welts on the shoulder of another man.
' O, massa,' cried the negro, 'I was flogged when a
slave, — no more whip now, — all free.' " — p. 96.

" The prosperity of the planters in Jamaica must not
be measured by the mere amount of the produce of sugar
or coffee as compared with the time of slavery. Even
where produce is diminished, profit will be increased, —
if freedom be fairly tried, — by the saving of expense.
' I had rather make sixty tierces of coffee,' said A. B.,
' under freedom, than one hundred and twenty under
slavery; such is the saving of expense that I make a bet-
ter profit by it ; nevertheless , I mean to make one hundred
and twenlij, as before.' " — p. 118.

" 'Do you see that excellent new stone wall round the
field below us ^ ' said the young physician to me, as we
stood at A. B.'s front door, surveying the delightful scen-
ery. ' That wall could scarcely have been built at all
under slavery or the apprenticeship; the necessary labor
could not then have been hired at less than £ 5 currency,
or about ^ 13, per chain. Under freedom it cost only
from $ 3-50 to ^ 4 per chain, — not one third of the
amount. Still more remarkable is the fact, that the whole
of it was built, under the stimulus of job-work, by an
invalid negro, who, during slavery, had been given up to
total inaction.' This was the substance of our conver-
sation. The information was afterwards fully confirmed
by the proprietor. Such was the fresh blood infused into
the veins of this decrepid person by the genial hand of
freedom, that he had been redeemed from absolute use-
lessness, had executed a noble work, had greatly im-
proved his master's property, and, finally, had realized
for himself a handsome sum of money. This single fact
is admirably and undeniably illustrative of the principles
of the case ; and for that purpose is as good as a thou-
sand."— p. 119.

" I will take the present opportunity of ofl"ering to thy
attention the account of exports from Jamaica (as ex-
hibited in the return printed for the House of Assembly)

22 EMANCIPATION.

for the last year of the apprenticeship, and the first of full
freedom.

Hhda.

Sugar, for the year ending 9th-month (Sept.) 30,

1838, ... .... 53,825

Do. do. do. do. 1839, 45,359

Apparent diminution, 8,466

" This difference is much less considerable than many
persons have been led to imagine ; the real diminution,
however, is still less ; because there has lately taken
place in Jamaica an increase in the size of the hogshead.
Instead of the old measure, which contained 17 cwt., new
ones have been introduced, containing from 20 to 22 cwt.,
— a change which, for several reasons, is an economical
one for the planter. Allowing only five per cent, for this
change, the deficiency is reduced from 8,466 hogsheads,
to 5,775 ; and this amount is further lessened by the fact,
that, in consequence of freedom, there is a vast addition
to the consumption of sugar among the people of Jamaica
itself, and therefore to the home sale.

" The account of coffee is not so favorable.

Cwt.

Coffee, for the year ending 9th-month (Sept.) 30,

1838, 117,313

Do. do. do. do. 1839, 78,759

Diminution (about one third), 38,554

"The coffee is a very uncertain crop, and the deficien-
cy, on the comparison of these two years, is not greater,
I believe, than has often occurred before. We are also
to remember, that, both in sugar and coffee, the profit to
the planter may be increased by the saving of expense,
even when the produce is diminished. Still, it must be
allowed that some decrease has taken place on both the
articles, in connexion with the change of system. With
regard to the year 1840, it is expected that coffee will, at
least, maintain the last amount ; but a farther decrease on
sugar is generally anticipated.

"Now so far as this decrease of produce is connected
with the change of system, it is obviously to be traced to
a corresponding decrease in the quantity of labor. But
here comes the critical question, — the real turning point.

EMANCIPATION. 23

To what is this decrease in the quantity of labor owing ?
I answer deliberately, but without reserve, ' Mainly to
causes which class under slavery, and not under freedom.'
It is, for the most part, the result of those impolitic at-
tempts to force the labor of freemen which have disgust-
ed the peasantry, and have led to the desertion of many
of the estates.

"It is a cheering circumstance, that the amount of
planting and other preparatory labor bestowed on the
estates during the autumn of 1839 has been much great-
er, by all accounts, than in the autumn of 1838. This is
itself the effect of an improved understanding between
the planters and the peasants ; and the result of it (if
other circumstances be equal) cannot fail to be a consid-
erable increase of produce in 1841. I am told, however,
that there is one circumstance which may possibly prevent
this result, as it regards sugar. It is, that the cultivation
of it under the old system was forced on certain proper-
ties, which, from their situation and other circumstances,
were wholly unfit for the purpose. These plantations af-
forded an income to the local agents, but to the proprietors
were either unprofitable or losing concerns. On such
properties, under those new circumstances which bring
all things to their true level, the cultivation of sugar must
cease.

" In the mean time the imports of the island are rapid-
ly increasing ; trade improving ; the towns thriving ;
new villages rising in every direction ; property much
enhanced ia value ; well-managed estates productive and
profitable ; expenses of management diminished ; short
methods of labor adopted ; provisions cultivated on a
larger scale than ever ; and the people, wherever they
are properly treated, industrious, contented, and gradu-
ally accumulating wealth." — pp. 132 — 134.

" My narrative respecting the British-West-India
Islands being now brought to a close, I will take the
liberty of concentrating and recapitulating the principal
points of the subject in a few distinct propositions.

" 1st. The emancipated negroes are ivorking icell on the
estates of their old masters. — Nor does Jamaica, when
duly inspected and fairly estimated, furnish any exception
to the general result. We find, that, in that island, wher-
ever the negroes are fairl)/, kindly, a.nd wisely treated,

24 EMANCIPATION.

there they are working well on the properties of their old
masters ; and that the existing instances of a contrary
description must be ascribed to causes which class under
slavery, and not under freedom. Let it not, however, be
imagined, that the negroes who are not working on the
estates of their old masters are, on that account, idle.
Even these are, in general, busily employed in cultivating
their own grounds, in various descriptions of handicraft,
in lime-burning or fishing, — in benefiting themselves and
the community, through some new, but equally desirable
medium. Besides all this, stone walls are built, new
houses erected, pastures cleaned, ditches dug, meadows
drained, roads made and macadamized, stores fitted up,
villages formed, and other beneficial operations effected ;
the whole of which, before emancipation, it would have
been a folly even to attempt. The old notion, that the ne-
gro is, by constitution, a lazy creature, who will do no
work at all except by compulsion, is now for ever ex-
ploded."—pp. 137, 138.

"2d. An increased quantity of work thrown upon the
market is, of course, followed by the cheapening of labor."
— p. 138.

"3d. Real property has risen and is rising in value. —
I wish it, however, to be understood, that the comparison
is not here made with those olden times of slavery when
the soils of the islands were in their most prolific state,
and the slaves themselves of a corresponding value ; but
with those days of depression and alarm which preceded
the Act of Emancipation. All that I mean to assert is,
that landed property in the British colonies has touched
the bottom, has found that bottom solid, has already risen
considerably, and is now on a steady ascending march
towards the recovery of its highest value. One circum-
stance which greatly contributed to produce its deprecia-
tion was, the cry of interested persons who wished to run
it down ; and the demand for it which has arisen among
these very persons is now restoring it to its rightful value.
Remember the old gentleman in Antigua, who is always
complaining of the efl"ects of freedom, and ahvays buying
land.''— pp. 139, 140.

"4th. The personal comforts of the laboring popula-
tion, under freedom, are multiplied tenfold." — p. 140.

"5th. Lastly, the moral and religious improvement of

EMANCIPATION. 25

this people, under freedom, is more than equal to the in-
crease of their comforts. Under this head there are
three points deserving, respectively, of a distinct place in
our memories. Fix-st, the rapid increase and vast extent
of elementary and Christian education, — schools for in-
fants, young persons, and adults, multiplying in every
direction. Secondly, the gradual, but decided, diminution
of crime, amounting, in many country districts, almost to
its extinction. Thirdly, the happy change of the general
and almost universal practice of concubinage for the
equally general adoption of marriage. ' Concubinage,'
says Dr. Stewart, in his letter to me, 'the universal prac-
tice of the colored people, has wholly disappeared from
amongst them. No young woman of color thinks of form-
ing such connexions now.' What is more, the improved
morality of the blacks is reflecting itself on the white in-
habitants ; even the overseers are ceasing, one after
another, from a sinful mode of life, and are forming repu-
table connexions in marriage. But while these three
points are confessedly of high importance, there is a
fourth which at once embraces and outweighs them all,
— I mean the diffusion of vital Christianity. I know that
great apprehensions were entertained, — especially in this
country, — lest, on the cessation of slavery, the negroes
should break away at once from their masters and their
ministers. But freedom has come, and while their mas-
ters have not been forsaken, their religious teachers have
become dearer to them than ever. Under the banner of
liberty, the churches and meeting-houses have been en-
larged and multiplied, the attendance has become regular
and devout, the congregations have in many cases been
more than doubled ; above all, the conversion of souls
(as we have reason to believe) has been^oing on to an
extent never befoi-e known in these colonies. In a reli-
gious point of view, as I have before hinted, the wilder-
ness, in many places, has indeed begun to ' blossom as
the rose.' 'Instead of the thorn' has 'come up the fir-
tree, and instead of the brier ' has ' come up the myrtle-
tree, and it shall be to the Lord for a name ; for an ever-
lasting sign, that shall not be cut off.' " — pp. 141, 142.

I have now given a few extracts from Mr. Gurney's
book. They need no comment. Indeed, nothing can

VOL. VI. 3

26 EMANCIPATION.

be said, to convince or move the reader, if these simple
records of emancipation do not find their way to his
heart. In the whole history of efforts for human hap-
piness it is doubtful if another example can be found
of so great a revolution accomplished with so few sacri-
fices and such immediate reward. Compare with this
the American Revolution, which had for its .end to
shake off a yoke too light to be named by the side of
domestic slavery. Through what fields of blood and
years of suffering did we seek civil freedom, a boon
insignificant in comparison with freedom from an own-
er's grasp ! It is the ordinary law of Providence, that
great blessings shall be gained by great sacrifices, and
that the most beneficial social changes shall bring im-
mediate suffering. That near a million of human be-
ings should pass in a day from the deepest degradation
to the rights of freemen with so little agitation of the
social system is a fact so strange that we naturally sus-
pect, at first, some tinging of the picture from the au-
thor's sympathies ; and we are brought to full conviction
only by the simplicity and minuteness of his details.
For one, I should have rejoiced in emancipation as an
unspeakable good, had the immediate results worn a
much darker hue. I wanted only to know that social
order was preserved, that the laws were respected, after
emancipation. I felt, that, were anarchy escaped, no
evil worse than slavery could take its place. I had not
forgotten the doctrine of our fathers, that human free-
dom is worth vast sacrifices, that it can hardly be bought
at too great a price.

I proceed now to offer a few remarks on several
topics suggested by Mr. Gurney's book ; and I shall
close by considering the duties which belong to individ-
uals and to the Free States in relation to slavery.

EMANCIPATION. 27

The first topic suggested by our author, and perhaps
the most worthy of note, is his anxiety to show that
emancipation has been accompanied with Httle pecu-
niary loss, that as a moneyed speculation it is not to be
condemned. He evidently supposes that he is writing
for a people who will judge of this grand event in his-
tory by the standard of commercial profit or loss. In
this view, his simple book tells more than a thousand
satires against the spirit of our times. In speaking of
West-Indian emancipation, it has been common for
men to say, We must wait for the facts ! And what
facts have they waited for ? They have waited to
know that the master, after fattening many years on
oppression, had lost nothing by the triumph of justice
and humanity ; that the slave, on being freed, was to
yield as large an income as before to his employer.
This delicate sensibility to the rights of the wrongdoer,
this concern for property, this unconcern for human na-
ture, is a sign of the little progress made even here by
free principles, and of men's ignorance of the great end
of social union.

Every good man must protest against this mode of
setthng the question of Emancipation. It seems to be
taken for granted by not a few, that, if, in consequence
of this event, the crops have fallen off, or the number
of coffee bags or sugar hogsheads is lessened, then
emancipation Is to be pronounced a failure, and the
great act of freeing a people from the most odious
bondage is to be set down as folly. At the North and
the South this base doctrine has seized on the public
mind. It runs through our presses, not excepting the
more respectable. The bright promises of emancipa-
tion are too unimportant for our newspapers ; but the

28 EMANCIPATION.

fearful intelligence, that this or that island has shipped
fewer hogsheads of sugar than in the days of slavery, is
thought worthy to be published far and wide ; and eman-
cipation is a curse, because the civilized world must pay
a few cents more to bring tea or coffee to the due de-
gree of sweetness. It passes for an "ultraism" of
philanthropy, to prize a million of human beings above
as many pounds of sugar.

What is the great end of civilized society ? Not
coffee and sugar ; not the greatest possible amount of
mineral, vegetable, or animal productions ; but the pro-
tection of the rights of all its members. The sacrifice
of rights, especially of the dearest and most sacred, to
increase of property, is one of the most flagrant crimes
of the social state. That every man should have his
due, not that a few proprietors should riot on the toil,
sweat, and blood of the many, — this is the great design
of the union of men into communities. Emancipation
was not n>eant to increase the crops, but to restore to
human beings their birthright, to give to every man the
free use of his powers for his own and others' good.

That the production of sugar would be diminished for
a time, in consequence of emancipation, was a thing to
be expected, if not desired. It is in the sugar culture,
that the slaves in the West Indies have been and are
most overworked. In Cuba, we are told by men who
have given particular attention to that island, the mor-
tality on the sugar estates is ten per cent, annually, so
that a whole gang is used up, swept off, in ten years.
Suppose emancipation introduced into Cuba. Would
not the production of sugar be diminished .'' Ought not
every man to desire the diminution .'' I do not say, that
such atrocious cruelty was common in the British

EMANCIPATION. 29

Islands. But it was in this department chiefly that the
slaves were exposed to excessive toil. It was to be
expected, then, that, when left free, they would prefer
other modes of industry. Accordingly, whilst the sugar
is diminished, the ordinary articles of subsistence have
increased. Some of the slaves have become small farm-
ers ; and many more, who hire themselves as laborers,
cultivate small patches of land on their own account.
There is another important consideration. Before free-
dom, the women formed no inconsiderable part of the
gangs who labored on the sugar crops. These are now
very much, if not wholly, withdrawn. Is it a grief to a
man, who has the spirit of a man, that woman's bur-
dens are made lighter .'' Other causes of the diminution
of the sugar crop may be found in Mr. Gurney's book ;
but these are enough to show us that this effect is due
in part to the good working of emancipation, to a re-
lief of the male and female slave, in which we ought to
rejoice.

Before emancipation, I expected that the immediate
result of the measure would be more or less idleness,
and consequently a diminution of produce. How natu-
ral was it to anticipate that men who had worked
under the lash, and had looked on exemption from toil
as the happiness of paradise, should surrender them-
selves more or less to sloth, on becoming their own
masters ! It is the curse of a bad system, to unfit men,
at first, for a better. That the paralyzing effect of slav-
ery should continue after its extinction, that the slave
should, at the first, produce le^s than before, this, surely,
is no matter of wonder. The wonder is, and it is a
great one, that the slaves in the West Indies have, in
their new condition, been so greatly influenced by the
3*

30 EMANCIPATION.

motives of freemen ; that the spirit of industry has so
far survived the system of compulsion under which
they had been trained ; that ideas of a better mode of
living have taken so strong a hold on their minds ; that
so many refined tastes and wants have been so soon
developed. Here is the wonder ; and all this shows,
what we have often heard, that the negro is more sus-
ceptible of civilization from abroad than any other race
of men. That some, perhaps many, of the slaves have
worked too little is not to be denied, nor can we blame
them much for it. All of us, I suspect, under like cir-
cumstances, would turn our first freedom into a holy day.
Besides, when we think that they have been sweating
and bleeding to nourish in all manner of luxury a few
indolent proprietors, they do not seem very inexcusable
for a short emulation of their superiors. The negro
sleeping all day under the shade of the palm-tree ought
not to offend our moral sense much more than the
"owner" stretched on his ottoman or sofa. What
ought to astonish us is the limitation, not the existence,
of the evil.

It is to be desired that those among us who groan
over emancipation because the staples of the Islands
are diminished should be made to wear for a few months
the yoke of slavery, so as to judge experimentally
whether freedom is worth or not a few hogsheads of
sugar. If, knowing what this yoke is, they are willing
that others should bear it, they deserve themselves
above all others to be crushed by it. Slavery is the
greatest of wrongs, the most intolerable of all the forms
of oppression. We of this country thought that to be
robbed of political liberty was an injury not to be en-
dured ; and, as a people, were ready to shed our blood

EMANCIPATION. 31

like water to avert it. But political liberty is of nc
worth compared with personal ; and slavery robs men
of the latter. Under the despotism of modern Europe,
the people, though deprived of political freedom, enjoy
codes of laws constructed with great care, the fruits of
the wisdom of ages, which recognize the sacredness of
the rights of person and property, and under which
those rights are essentially secure. A subject of these
despotisms may still be a man, may better his condition,
may enrich his intellect, may fill the earth with his fame.
He enjoys essentially personal freedom, and through
this accomplishes the great ends of his being. To be
stripped of this blessing, to be owned by a fellow-crea-
ture, to hold our limbs and faculties as another's proper-
ty, to be subject every moment to another's will, to
stand in awe of another's lash, to have our whole ener-
gies chained to never varying tasks for another's luxury,
to hold wife and children at another's pleasure, — what
wrong can be compared with this ? This is such an in-
sult on human nature, such an impiely "towards the com-
mon Father, that the whole earth should send up one
cry of reprobation against it ; and yet we are told, this
outrage must continue, lest the market of the civilized
world should be deprived of some hogsheads of sugar.

It is hard to weigh human rights against each other ;
they are all sacred and invaluable. But there is no one
which nature, instinct, makes so dear to us as the right
of action, of free motion ; the right of exerting, and
by exertion enlarging, our faculties of body and mind ;
the right of forming plans, of directing our powers ac-
cording to our convictions of interest and duty ; the
right of putting forth our energies from a spring in our
own breasts. Self-motion, this is what our nature bun-

32 EMANCIPATION.

gers and thirsts for as its true element and life. In truth,
every thing that lives, the bird, the insect, craves and
delights in freedom of action ; and much more must this
be the instinct of a rational, moral creature of God, who
can attain by such freedom alone to the proper strength
and enjoyment of his nature. The rights of property
or reputation are poor compared with this. Of what
worth would be the products of the universe to a man
forbidden to use his limbs, or shut up in a prison .'' To
be deprived of that freedom of action which consists
with others' freedom ; to be forbidden to exert our fac-
ulties for our own good ; to be cut off from enterprise ;
to have a narrow circle drawn round us, and to be kept
within it by a spy and a lash ; to meet an iron barrier in
another's selfish will, let impulse or desire turn where it
may ; to be systematically denied the means of culti-
vating the powers which distinguish us from the brute ;
— this is to be wounded not only in the dearest earthly
interests, but in the very life of the soul. Our humani-
ty pines and dies, rather than lives, in this unnatural re-
straint. Now it is the very essence of slavery to pros-
trate this right of action, of self-motion, not indirectly
or uncertainly, but immediately and without disguise ;
and is this right to be weighed in the scales against su-
gar and coffee ; and are eight hundred thousand human
beings to be robbed of it to increase the luxuries of the
world .''

What matters it, that the staples of the West Indies
are diminished ? Do the people there starve .'' Are
they driven by want to robbery ? Has the negro pass-
ed from the hands of the overseer into those of the
hangman ? We learn from Mr. Gurney that the proph-
ecies of ruin to the West Indies are fulfilled chiefly in

EMANCIPATION. 33

regard to the prisons. These are in some places falling
to decay, and everywhere have fewer inmates. And
what makes this result more striking is, that, since
emancipation, many offences, formerly punished sum-
marily by the master on the plantation, now fall under
the cognizance of the magistrate, and are, of course,
punishable by imprisonment. Do the freed slaves want
clothing .'' Do rags form the standard of emancipa-
tion .'' We hear not only of decent apparel, but are
told that negro vanity, hardly surpassed by that of the
white dandy, suffers nothing for want of decoration or
fashionable attire. There is not a sign, that the people
fare the worse for freedom. Enough is produced to
give subsistence to an improved and cheerful population;
and what more can we desire .'' In our sympathy with
the rich proprietor shall we complain of a change
which has secured to every man his rights, and to thou-
sands, once trodden under foot, the comforts of life and
the means of intellectual and moral progress .'' Is it
nothing, that the old, unfurnished hqt of the slave is in
many spots giving place to the comfortable cottage ? Is
it nothing, that in these cottages marriage is an indisso-
luble tie .'' that the mother presses her child to her heart
as indeed her own .'' Is it nothing, that churches are
springing up, not from the donations of the opulent, but
from the hard earnings of the religious poor .'' What if
a few owners of sugar estates export less than formerly.''
Are the many always to be sacrificed to the few ? Sup-
pose the luxuries of the splendid mansion to be re-
trenched. Is it no compensation, that the comforts of
the laborer's hut are increased .'' Emancipation was re-
sisted on the ground, that the slave, if restored to his
rights, would fall into idleness and vagrancy, and even

34 EMANCIPATION.

relapse into barbarism. But the emancipated negro
discovers no indifference to the comforts of civihzed
life. He has wants various enough to keep him in ac-
tion. His standard of living has risen. He desires a
better lodging, dress, and food. He has begun, too, to
thirst for accumulation. As Mr. Gurney says, '■' He
understands his interest as well as a Yankee." He is
more likely to fall into the civilized man's cupidity than
into the sloth and filth of a savage. Is it an offset for
all these benefits, that the custom-house reports a dimi-
nution of the staples of slavery ?

What a country most needs is, not an increase of its
exports, but the well-being of all classes of its popula-
tion, and especially of the most numerous class ; and
these things are not one and the same. It is a striking
fact, that, while the exports of the emancipated islands
have decreased, the imports are greater than befoi'e. In
Jamaica, during slavery, the industry of the laborers
was given chiefly to a staple which was sent to absen-
tee proprietors, who expended the proceeds very much
in a luxurious life in England. At present not a little
of this industry is employed on articles of subsistence
and comfort for the working class and their families ;
and, at the same time, such an amount of labor is sold
by this class to the planter, and so fast are they acquir-
ing a taste for better modes of living, that they need and
can pay for great imports from the mother country.
Surely, when we see the fruits of industry diffusing them-
selves more and more through the mass of a communi-
ty, finding their way to the very hovel, and raising the
multitude of men to new civilization and self-respect,
we cannot grieve much, even though it should appear,
that, on the whole, the amount of exports or even of pro-

EMANCIPATION. 35

ducts is decreased. Tt is not the quantity, but the dis-
tribution, the use, of products, which determines the
prosperity of a state. For example, were the grain
which is now grown among us for distillation annually
destroyed by fire, or were every ship freighted with
distilled liquors to sink on approaching our shores, so
that the crew might be saved, how immensely would the
happiness, honor, and real strength of the country be
increased by the loss, even were this not to be replaced,
as it soon would be, by the springing up of a new, vir-
tuous industry, now excluded by intemperance ! So,
were the labor and capital now spent on the importation
of pernicious luxuries to be employed in the intellec-
tual, moral, and religious culture of the whole people,
how immense would be the gain in every respect,
though for a short time material products were diminish-
ed ! A better age will look back with wonder and scorn
on the misdirected industry of the present times. The
only sure sign of public prosperity is, that the mass of
the people are steadily multiplying the comforts of Hfe
and the means of improvement ; and where this takes
place we need not trouble ourselves about exports or
products.

I am not very anxious to repel the charge against
emancipation of diminishing the industry of the Islands,
though it has been much exaggerated. Allow that the
freed slaves work less. Has man nothing to do but
work .'' Are not too many here overworked ? If a
people can live with comfort on less toil, are they not
to be envied rather than condemned .'' What a happi-
ness would it be, if we here, by a new wisdom, a new
temperance, and a new spirit of brotherly love, could
cease to be the care-worn drudges which so many in all

36 EMANCIPATION.

classes are, and could give a greater portion of life to
thought, to refined social intercourse, to the enjoyment
of the beauty which God spreads over the universe, to
works of genius and art, to communion with our Crea-
tor ! Labor connected with and aiding such a life
would be noble. How much of it is thrown away on
poor, superficial, degrading gratifications !

We hear the condition of Hayti deplored because
the people are so idle and produce so little for expor-
tation. Many look back to the period when a few
planters drove thousands of slaves to the cane-field and
sugar-mill in order to enrich themselves and to secure
to their families the luxurious ease so coveted in tropi-
cal climes, and they sigh over the change which has
taken place. I look on the change with very different
feelings. The negroes in that luxuriant island have in-
creased to above a million. By slight toil they obtain
the comforts of life. Their homes are sacred. Their
little property in a good degree secure. They live to-
gether peaceably. So little inclined are they to vio-
lence that the large amounts of specie paid by the gov-
ernment to France, as the price of independence, have
been transported through the country on horseback with
comparatively no defence, and with a safety which no
one would be mad enough to expect under such cir-
cumstances in what are called civilized lands. It is
true, their enjoyments are animal in a great degree.
They live much like neglected children, making little or
no progress, making life one long day of unprofitable
ease. I should rejoice to raise them from children in-
to men. But when I contrast this tranquil, unoffending
life with the horrors of a slave plantation it seems to
me a paradise. What matters it, that they send next to

EMANCIPATION. 3?.

no coffee or sugar to Europe ? How much better, that
they should stretch themselves in the heat of the day
under their gracefully waving groves, than sweat and
bleed under an overseer for others' selfish ease ! Hayti
has one curse, and that is, not freedom, but tyranny.
Her president for life is a despot, under a less ominous
name. Her government, indifferent or hostile to the
improvement of the people, is sustained by a standing
army, which undoubtedly is an instrument of oppression.
But in so simple a form of society despotism is not
that organized robbery which has flourished in the civil-
ized world. Undoubtedly in this rude state of things
tlie laws are often unwise, partial, and ill administered.
I have no taste for this childish condition of society.
Still, 1 turn with pleasure from slavery to the thought of
a million of fellow-beings, little instructed indeed, but
enjoying ease and comfort under that beautiful sky and
on the bosom of that exhaustless soil. Tn one respect
Hayti' is infinitely advantaged by her change of condi-
tion. Under slavery her colored population, that is,
the mass of her inhabitants, had no chance of rising,
could make no progress in intelligence and in the arts
and refinements of life. They were doomed to per-
petual degradation. Under freedom their improvement
is possible. They are placed within the reach of melio-
rating influences. Their intercourse with other nations
and the opportunities afforded to many among them of
bettering their condition furnish various means and in-
citements to progress. If the Catholic Church, which is
rendering at this moment immense aid to civilization and
pure morals in Ireland, were to enter in earnest on the
work of enlightening and regenerating Hayti, or if (what
I should greatly prefer) any other church could have

VOL. VI. 4

SS EMANCIPATION.

free access to the people, this island might in a short
time become an important accession to the Christian
and civilized world, and the dark cloud which hangs
over the first years of her freedom would vanish before
the brightness of her later history.

My maxim is, " Any thing but slavery ! Poverty
sooner than slavery ! " Suppose that we of this good
city of Boston were summoned to choose between liv-
ing on bread and water and such a state of things as
existed in the West Indies. Suppose that the present
wealth of our metropolis could be continued only on the
condition, that five thousand out of our eighty thousand
inhabitants should live as princes, and the rest of us be
reduced to slavery to sustain the luxury of our masters.
Should we not all cry out, Give us the bread and wa-
ter ? Would we not rather see our fair city levelled to
the earth, and choose to work out slowly for ourselves
and our children a better lot, than stoop our necks to
the yoke ? So we all feel, when the case is brought
home to ourselves. What should we say to the man
who should strive to terrify us, by prophecies of dimin-
ished products and exports, into the substitution of bond-
age for the character of freemen ?

In the preceding remarks I have insisted that eman-
cipation is not to be treated as a question of profit and
loss, that its merits are not to be settled by iis influence
on the master's gains. Mr. Gurney, however, maintains
that the master has nothing to fear, that real estate has
risen, that free labor costs less than that of the slave.
All this is good news, and should be spread through the
land ; for men are especially inclined to be just when
they can serve themselves by justice. But emanci-
pation rests on liigher ground than the master's accumu-

EMANCIPATION. 39

lation, even on the rights and essential interests of the
slave. And let these be held sacred, though the luxury
of the master be retrenched.

2. I have now finished my remarks on a topic which
was always present to the mind of our author, — the
alleged decrease of industry and exports since emanci-
pation. The next topic to which T shall turn is, his
notice of slavery in Cuba. He only touched at this is-
land, but evidently received the same sad impression
which we receive from those who have had longer time
for observation. He says :

" Of one feature in the slave-trade and slavery of Cu-
ba T had no knowledge until I was on the spot. The im-
portation consists almost entirely of men, and we were
informed that on many of the estates not a single female
is to be found. Natural increase is disregarded. The
Cubans import the stronger animals like bullocks, work
them up, and then seek a fresh supply. This, surely, is a
system of most unnatural barbarity." — p. 160.

This barbarity is believed to be unparalleled. The
young African, torn from home and his native shore, is
brought to a plantation where he is never to know a
home. All the relations of domestic life are systemat-
ically denied him. Woman's countenance he is not to
look upon. The child's voice he is no more to hear.
His owner finds it more gainful to import than to breed
slaves ; and, still more, has made the sad discovery, that
it is cheaper to " work up " the servile laborer in his
youth, and to replace him by a new victim, than to let
him grow old In moderate toil. T have been told by
some of the most recent travellers in Cuba, who gave
particular attention to the subject,* that In the sugar-

• Mv accounts from Cuba have been received from Dr. Madden, and
David Turnbull, Esq. ; the former, one of the British commissioners resi-

40 EMANCIPATION.

making season the sla-ves are generally allowed but four
out of the twenty-four hours for sleep. From these, too,
I learned that a gang of slaves is used up in ten years.
Of the young men imported from Africa, one out of ten
dies yearly. To supply this enormous waste of life,
above twenty-five thousand slaves are imported annual-
ly from Africa,* in vessels so crowded that sometimes
one quarter, sometimes one half, of the wretched crea-
tures perish in agony before reaching land. It is to
be feared that Cuban slavery, traced from the moment
when the African touches the deck to the happier mo-
ment when he finds his grave on the ocean or the plant-
ation, includes an amount of crime and misery not to
be paralleled in any portion of the globe, civilized or
savage. And there are more reasons than one why I
would bring this horrid picture before the minds of my
countrymen. We, we, do much to sustain this sys-
tem of horror and blood. The Cuban slave-trade is
carried on in vessels built especially for this use in
American ports. These vessels often sail under the
American flag, and are aided by American merchant-
men, and, as is feared, by American capital. And this
IS not all. The sugar, in producing which so many of
our fellow-creatures perish miserably, is shipped in great

dent at Havana to enforce the treaty with Spain in relation to the slave-
trade ; the latter, a gentleman who visited Cuba chiefly, if not solely, to in-
quire into slavery. Mr. TurnbuH's account of Cuba, in his "Travels in
the West," deserves to be read. The reports of such men, confirmed in a
very important particular by Mr. Gurney, have an autiiority which obliges
me to speak as I have done of tlie slave-system of this island. If, indeed,
(what is most unlikely,) they have fallen into errors on the subject, these
can easily be exposed, and 1 shall rejoice in being the means of bringing
out the truth.

* There are different estimates of the number, some making it much
greater than the text

EMANCIPATION. 41

quantities to this country. We are the customers who
stimulate by our demands this infernal cruehy. And,
knowing this, shall we become accessories to the mur-
der of our brethren by continuing to use the fruit of
the hard-wrung toil which destroys them ? The sugar
of Cuba comes to us drenched with human blood. So
we ought to see it, and to turn from it with loathing.
The guilt which produces it ought to be put dow^n by
the spontaneous, instinctive horror of the civilized world.

There is another fact worthy attention. It is said,
that most of the plantations in Cuba which have been
recently brought under cultivation belong to Ameri-
cans, that the number of American slave-holders is in-
creasing rapidly on the island, and consequently that the
importation of human cargoes from Africa finds much
of its encouragement from the citizens of our republic.
It is not easy to speak in measured terms of this enor-
mity. For men born and brought up amidst slavery
many apologies may be made. But men born beyond
the sound of the lash, brought up where human rights
are held sacred, w^ho, in face of all the light thrown
now on slavery, can still deal in human flesh, can be-
come customers of the "felon " who tears the African
from his native shore, and can with open eyes inflict this
deepest wrong for gain, and gain alone, — such "have
no cloak for their sin." Men so hard of heart, so
steeled against the reproofs of conscience, so intent on
thriving though it be by the most cruel wrongs, are not
to be touched by human expostulation and rebuke. But
if any should tremble before Almighty justice, ought not
they 9

There is another reason for dwelling on this topic.
It teaches us the little reliance to be placed on the im-
4*

42 EMANCIPATION.

pressions respecting slavery brought home by superficiai
observers. We have seen what slavery is in Cuba;
and yet men of high character from this country, who
have visited that island, have returned to tell us of the
mildness of the system. Men who would cut off their
right hand, sooner than withdraw the sympathy of oth-
ers from human suffering, have virtually done so, by
their representation of the kindly working of slavery on
the very spot where it exists with peculiar horrors.
They have visited some favored plantation, been treated
with hospitality, seen no tortures, heard no shrieks, and
then come home to reprove those who set forth indig-
nantly the wrongs of the slave. And what is true with
regard to the visiters of the West Indies applies to
those who visit our Southern States. Having witness-
ed slavery in the famihes of some of the most enlight-
ened and refined inhabitants, they return to speak of it
as no very fearful thing. Had they inquired about the
state of society through the whole country, and learned
that more than one fourth of the inhabitants cannot write
their own names, they would have forborne to make a
few selected families the representatives of the commun-
ity, and might have believed in the possibility of some
of the horrid details recorded in " Slavery as it is."
For myself, I do not think it worth my while to inquire
into the merits of slavery in this or that region. It is
enough for me to know that one human being holds oth-
er human beings as his property, subject to his arbitrary
and irresponsible will, and compels them to toil for his
luxury and ease. I know enough of men to know what
the workings of such a system on a large scale must be;
and I hold my understanding insulted when men talk to
me of its humanity. If there be one truth of history

EMANCIPATION. 43

taught more plainly than > any other, it is the tendency of
human nature to abuse power. To protect ourselves
against power, to keep this in perpetual check, by di-
viding it among many hands, by limiting its duration, by
defining its action with sharp lines, by watching it jeal-
ously, by holding it responsible for abuses, this is the
grand aim and benefit of the social institutions which are
our chief boast. Arbitrary, unchecked power is the
evil against which all experience cries out so loudly that
apologies for it may be dismissed without a hearing.
But admit the plea of its apologists. Allow slavery to
be ever so humane. Grant that the man who owns me
is ever so kind. The wrong of him who presumes to
talk of owning me is too unmeasured to be softened by
kindness. There are wrongs which can be redeemed
by no kindness. Because a man treads on me with
velvet foot, must I be content to grovel in the earth ?
Because he gives me meat as well as bread, whilst he
takes my child and sells it into a land where my chained
limbs cannot follow, must I thank him for his kindness .''
I do not envy those who think slavery no very pitiable
a lot provided its nakedness be covered and its hunger
regularly appeased.

It is worthy of consideration, that the slave's lot does
not improve with the advance of what is called civiliza-
fion, that is, of trade and luxuries. Slavery is such a
violation of nature, that it is an exception to the general
law of progress. In rude states of society, when men's
wants and employments are (ew, and trade and other
means of gain hardly exist, the slave leads a compara-
tively easy life ; he partakes of the general indolence.
He lives in the family much as a member, and is op-
pressed by no great disparity of rank. But when so-

4i EMANCIPATION.

ciety advances, and wants multiply, and the lust of gain
springs up, and prices increase, the slave's lot grows
harder. He is viewed more and more as a machine to
be used for profit, and is tasked like the beast of bur-
den. The distance between him and his master in-
creases, and he has less and less of the spirit of a man.
He may have better food ; but it is that he may work
the more. He may be whipped less passionately or
frequently ; but it is because the never varying routine
of toil and the more skilful discipline which civilization
teaches have subdued him more completely. Thus to
the slave it is no gain, that the community grow richer
and more luxurious. He has an interest in the return
of society to barbarism, for in this case he would come
nearer the general level. He would escape the peculiar
ignominy and accumulated burdens which he has to he^x
in civilized life.

3. I pass to another topic suggested by Mr. Gur-
ney's book. What is it, let me ask, which has freed
the West-India slave, and is now raising him to the
dignity of a man ? The answer is most cheering. The
great emancipator has been Christianity. Policy, in-
terest, state-craft, church-craft, the low motives which
have originated other revolutions, have not worked
here. From the times of Clarkson and Wilberforce
down to the present day, the friends of the slave, who
have pleaded his cause and broken his chains, have
been Christian? , and it is from Christ, the divine phil-
anthropist, from the inspiration of his cross, that they
have gathered faith, hope, and love, for the conflict.
This illustration of the spirit and power of Christianity
is a bright addition to the evidences of its truth. We

EMANaPATION. 45

have here the miracle of a great nation rising in its
strength, not for conquest, not to assert its own rights,
but to free and elevate the most despised and injured
race on earth ; and as this stands alone in human his-
tory, so it recalls to us those wonderful works of mercy
and power by which the divinity of our religion was at
first confirmed.

It is with deep sorrow that I am compelled to turn
to the contrast between religion in England and religion
in America. There it vindicates the cause of the op-
pressed. Here it rivets the chain, and hardens the
heart of the oppressor. At the South what is the
Christian ministry doing for the slave .'' Teaching the
rightfulness of his yoke, joining in the cry against the
men who plead for his freedom, giving the sanction of
God's name to the greatest offence against his children.
This is the saddest view presented by the conflict with
slavery. The very men whose office it is to plead
against all wrong, to enforce the obligation of impartial,
inflexible justice, to breathe the spirit of universal
brotherly love, to resist at all hazards the spirit and evil
customs of the world, to live and to die under the ban-
ner of Christian truth, have enlisted under the standard
of slavery. Had they merely declined to bring the
subject into the church, on the ground of the presence
of the slave, they would have been justified. Had they
declined to discuss it through the press and in conversa-
tion, on the ground, that the public mind was too furious
to bear the truth, they would have been approved by
multitudes ; though it is wisest for the minister to resign
his office, when it can be exercised only under menace
and unrighteous restraint, and to go where with un-
sealed lips he may teach and enforce human duty in its

46 EMANCIPATION.

full extent. But the ministers at the South have not
been content with silence. The majority of them are.
understood to have given their support to slavery, to
have thrown, their weight into the scale of the master.
That, in so doing, they have belied their clear convic-
tions, that they have preached known falsehood, we do
not say. Few ministers of Christ, we trust, can teach
what their deliberate judgments condemn. But, in cases
like the present, how common is it for the judgment to
receive a shape and hue from self-interest, from private
affection, from the tyranny of opinion, and the passions
of the multitude ! Few ministers, we trust, can sin
against clear, steady light. But how common is it for
the mind to waver and to be obscured in regard to
scorned and persecuted truth ! When we look beyond
the bounds of slavery, we find the civilized and Chris-
tian world, with few exceptions, reprobating slavery, as
at war witb the precepts and spirit of Christ. But at
the South his ministers sustain it, as consistent with
justice, equity, and disinterested love. Can we help
saying, that the loud, menacing, popular voice has
proved too strong for the servants of Christ .''

We hoped better things than this, because the preva-
lent sects at the South are the Methodists and Baptists,
and these were expected to be less tainted by a world-
ly spirit than other denominations in which luxury and
fashion bear greater sway. But the Methodists, forgetful
of their great founder, who cried aloud against slavery
and spared not ; and the Baptists, forgetful of the sainted
name of Roger Williams, whose love of the despised
Indian, and whose martyr spirit should have taught
them fearless sympathy with the negro, have been found
in the ranks of the foes of freedom. Indeed, their

EMANCIPATION. 47

allegiance to slavery seems to know no bounds. A
Baptist association at the South decreed, that a slave,
sold at a distance from his wife, might marry again in
obedience to his master ; and that he would even do
wrong to disobey in this particular. Thus one of the
plainest precepts of Christianity has been set at nought.
Thus the poor slave is taught to renounce his wife,
however dear, to rupture the most sacred social tie,
that, like the other animals, he may keep up the stock
of the estate. The General Methodist Conference,
during this very year, have decreed, that the testimony
of a colored member of their churches should not be re-
ceived against a white member who may be on trial be-
fore an ecclesiastical tribunal. Thus, in church affairs,
a multitude of disciples of Jesus Christ, who have been
received into Christian communion on the ground of
their spiritual regeneration, who belong, as is believed,
to the church on earth and in heaven, are put down by
their brethren as incapable of recognizing the obligation
of truth, of performing the most common duty of mo-
rality, and are denied a privilege conceded, in worldly
affairs, to the most depraved. Thus the religion of the
South heaps insult and injury on the slave.

And what have the Christians of the North done ''
We rejoice to say, that from these have gone forth not
a few testimonies against slavery. Not a few ministers,
in associations, conventions, presbyteries, or conferen-
ces, have declared the inconsistency of the system with
the principles of Christianity and with the law of love.
Still, the churches and congregations of the Free States
have, in the main, looked coldly on the subject, and dis-
couraged, too eifectually, the free expression of thought
and feeling in regard to it by the religious teacher.

48 EMANCIPATION.

Under that legislation of public opinion which, without
courts or offices, sways more despotically than Czars
or Sultans, the pulpit and the press have, in no small
degree, been reduced to silence as to slavery, especially
in cities, the chief seats of this invisible power. Some
fervent spirits among us, seeing religion, in this and
other cases, so ready to bend to worldly opinion, have
been filled with indignation. They have spoken of
Christianity as having no life here, as a beautiful
corpse, laid out in much state, worshipped with costly
homage, but worshipped very much as were the proph-
ets whose tombs were so ostentatiously garnished in the
times of the Saviour. But this is unjust. Christianity
lives and acts among us. It imposes many salutary re-
straints. It inspires many good deeds. There are not
a few in whom it puts forth a power worthy of its better
days, and the number of such is growing. Let us not
be ungrateful for what this religion is doing, nor shut
our ears against the prophecies which the present gives
of its future triumphs. Still, as a general rule, the
Christianity of this day falls fearfully short of the
Christianity of the immediate followers of our Lord.
Then the meaning of a Christian was, that he took the
cross and followed Christ, that he counted not his life
dear to him in the service of God and man, that he trod
the w^orld under his feet. Now we ask leave of the
world how far we shall follow Christ. What wrong or
abuse is there, which the bulk of the people may think
essential to their prosperity and may defend with outcry
and menace, before which the Christianity of this age
will not bow .'' We need a new John, who, with the
untamed and solemn energy of the wilderness, shall cry
out among us. Repent ! We need that the Crucified

EMANCIPATION. 49

should speak to us with a more startling voice, " He
that forsaketh not all things and followeth me cannot be
my disciple." We need that the all-sacrificing, all-
sympathizing spirit of Christianity should cease to bow
to the spirit of the world. We need, that, under a deep
sense of \vant and woe, the church should cry out, " Thy
kingdom come ! " and with holy importunity should bring
down new strength, and life, and love from Heaven.

4. I pass to another topic suggested by Mr. Gurney's
book. According to this and all the books written on
the subject. Emancipation has borne a singular testimo-
ny to the noble elements of the negro character. It
may be doubted whether any other race would have
borne this trial as well as they. Before the day of free-
dom came, the West Indies and this country foreboded
fearful consequences from the sudden transition of such
a multitude from bondage to liberty. Revenge, mas-
sacre, unbridled lust, were to usher in the grand festival
of Emancipation, which was to end in the breaking out
of a new Pandemonium on earth. Instead of this, the
holy day of libert}^ was welcomed by shouts and tears
of gratitude. The liberated negroes did not hasten, as
Saxon serfs in like circumstances might have done, to
haunts of intoxication, but to the house of God. Their
rude churches were thronged. Their joy found utter-
ance in prayers and hymns. History contains no record
more touching than the account of the religious, tender
thankfulness which this vast boon awakened in the negro
breast.* And what followed .'' Was this beautiful emo-
tion an evanescent transport, soon to give way to feroci-

* See note at the end.
VOL. VI. 5

50 EMANCIPATION.

ty and vengeance ? It was natural for masters who had
inflicted causeless stripes, and filled the cup of the
slaves with bitterness, to fear their rage after liberation.
But the overwhelming joy of freedom having subsided,
they returned to labor. Not even a blow was struck in
the excitement of that vast change. No violation of
the peace required the interposition of the magistrate.
The new relation was assumed easily, quietly, without
an act of violence. And since that time, in the short
space of two years, how much have they accomplished!
Beautiful villages have grown up. Little freeholds have
been purchased. The marriage tie has become sacred.
The child is educated. Crime has diminished. There
are islands where a greater proportion of the young are
trained in schools than among the whites of the slave
States. I ask, whether any other people on the face
of the earth would have received and used the infinite
blessing of liberty so well.

The history of West-Indian emancipation teaches us
that we are holding in bondage one of the best races of
the human family. The negro is among the mildest,
gentlest of men. He is singularly susceptible of im-
provement from abroad. His children, it is said, re-
ceive more rapidly than ours the elements of knowl-
edge. How far he can originate improvements time
only can teach. His nature is affectionate, easily
touched ; and hence he is more open to religious im-
pression than the white man. The European race
have manifested m.ore courage, enterprise, invention ;
but in the dispositions which Christianity particularly
honors how inferior are they to the African ! When I
cast my eyes over our Southern region, the land of
bowie-knives, lynch-law, and duels, of " chivalry,"

EMANCIPATION. 51

" honor," and revenge ; and when I consider that
Christianity is declared to be a spirit of charity, " which
seeketh not its own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no
evil, and endureth all things," and is also declared to
be " the wisdom from above, which is first pure, then
peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy
and good fruits ; " can I hesitate in deciding to which
of the races in that land Christianity is most adapted,
and in which its noblest disciples are most Hkely to be
reared ? It may be said, indeed, of all the European
nations, that they are distinguished by qualities opposed
to the spirit of Christianity ; and it is one of the most
remarkable events of history, that the religion of Jesus
should have struck root among them. iVs yet it has
not subdued them. The "law of honor," the strongest
of all laws in the European race, is, to this day, direct-
ly hostile to the character and word of Christ. The
African carries within him, much more than we, the
germs of a meek, long-suffering, loving virtue. A short
residence among the negroes in the West Indies im-
pressed me with their capacity of improvement. On
all sides I heard of their religious tendencies, the no-
blest in human nature. I saw, too, on the plantation
where I resided, a gracefulness and dignity of form and
motion, rare in my own native New England. And this
is the race which has been selected to be trodden down
and confounded with the brutes ! Undoubtedly the
negroes are debased ; for, were slavery not debasing, I
should have little quarrel with it. But let not their de-
gradation be alleged in proof of peculiar incapacity of
moral elevation. They are given to theft ; but there is
no peculiar, aggravated guilt in stealing from those by
whom they are robbed of all their right? and their very

62 EMANCIPATION.

persons. They arc given to falsehood ; but this is the
very effect produced by oppression on the Irish peas-
antry. They are undoubtedly sensual ; and yet the
African countenance seldom shows that coarse, brutal
sensuality which is so common in the face of the white
man. I should expect from the African race, if civil-
ized, less energy, less courage, less intellectual original-
ity, than in our race, but more amiableness, tranquillity,
gentleness, and content. They might not rise to an
equaUty in outward condition, but would probably be a
much happier race. There is no reason for holding
such a race in chains ; they need no chain to make them
harmless.*

In the remarks now made I have aimed only to ex-
press my sympathy with the wronged. As to the white
population of the South, I have no intention to dispar-
age it. I have no undue partiality to the North ; for I
believe, that, were Northern men slave-holders, and sat-
isfied that they could grow richer by slave than by free
labor, not a few would retain their property in human
flesh with as resolute and furious a grasp as their South-
ern brethren. In truth, until the cotton culture had in-
toxicated the minds of the South with golden dreams,
that part of the country seemed less tainted by cupidity
than our own. The character of that region is still a
mixed one, impulsive, passionate, vindictive, sensual ;
but frank, courageous, self-relying, enthusiastic, and ca-
pable of great sacrifices for a friend. Could the wither-
ing influence of slavery be withdrawn, the Southern
character, though less consistent, less based on princi-
ple, might be more attractive and lofty than that of the
North. The South is fond of calling itself Anglo-

* See note at tlie end.

E.ALAJXCIPATIOX. 53

Saxon. Judging from character, I should say that this
name belongs much more to the North, the country of
steady, persevering, unconquerable energy. Our South-
ern brethren remind me more of the Normans. They
seem to have in their veins the burning blood of that
pirate race, who spread terror through Europe, who
seized part of France as a prey, and then pounced on
England ; a conquering, chivalrous race, from which
most of the noble families of England are said to be
derived. There were certainly noble traits in the Nor-
man character, such as its enthusiasm, its defiance of
peril by sea and land, its force of will, its rude sense
of honor. But the man of Norman spirit, or Norman
blood, should never be a slave-holder. He is the last
man to profit by this relation. His pride and fierce
passions need restraint, not perpetual nourishment ;
whilst his indisposition to labor, his desire to live by
others' toil, demands the stern pressure of necessity to
rescue him from dishonorable sloth. Under kindlier in-
fluences he may take rank among the noblest of his race.
However, in looking at the South, the first thing
which strikes my eyes is, not the Anglo-Saxon or the
Norman, but the Slave. I overlook the dwellings of
the rich. My thoughts go to the comfortless hut of the
negro. They go to the dark mass at work in the fields.
That injured man is my brother, and ought not my sym-
pathies to gather round him peculiarly ? Talk not to
me of the hospitality, comforts, luxuries of the planter's
mansion. These are all the signs of a mighty wrong.
My thoughts turn first to the slave. I would not, how-
ever, exaggerate his evils. He is not the most unhap-
py man on that soil. True, his powers are undevel-
oped ; but therefore he is incapable of the guilt which
5*

64 EMANCIPATION.

Others incur. He has, as we have seen, a generous na-
ture, and his day of improvement, though long post-
poned, is to come. When I see by his side (and is the
sight very rare .'') the self-indulgent man who, from mere
love of gain and ease, extorts his sweat, I think of the
fearful words which the Saviour has put into the lips of
the Hebrew patriarch in the unseen world, " Thou in
thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and Lazarus
evil things ; but now he is comforted, and thou art tor-
mented." Distinctions founded on wrong endure but
for a day. Could we now penetrate the future world,
what startling revelations would be made to us ! Before
the all-seeing, impartial justice of God, we should see
every badge of humiliation taken ofl' from the fallen,
crushed, and enslaved ; and where, where would the
selfish, unfeeling oppressor appear .''

5. I shall advert but to one more topic suggested by
Mr. Gurney's book ; I refer to the kind and respectful
manner in which he speaks of many slave-holders. He
has no sympathy whh those who set down this class of
men indiscriminately as the chief of sinners, but speaks
with satisfaction of examples of piety and virtue which
he found in their number. By some among us this len-
ity will be ascribed to his desire to win for himself gold-
en opinions ; but he deserves no such censure. The
opinion of slave-holders is of no moment to him ; for he
has left them for ever, and returns to his own country,
where his testimony to their worth will find no sym-
pathy, but expose him to suspicion, perhaps to re-
proach. Of the justice of his judgment I have no
doubt. Among slave-holders there may be, and there
are, good men. But the inferences from this judgment

EMANCIPATION. 55

are often false and pernicious. There is a common dis-
position to connect the character of the slave-holder and
the character of slavery. Many at the North, who by
intercourse of business or friendship have come to ap-
preciate the good qualities of individuals at the South,
are led to the secret, if not uttered, inference, that a sys-
tem sustained by such people can be no monstrous
thing. They repel indignantly the invectives of the
Abolitionists against the master, and by a natural pro-
cess go on to question or repel their denunciation of
slavery. Here lies the secret of much of the want of
just feeling in regard to this institution. People be-
come reconciled to it in a measure by the virtues of its
supporters. I will not reply to this error by insisting
that the virtues which grow up under slavery bear a
small proportion to the vices which it feeds. I take a
broader ground. I maintain that we can never argue
safely from the character of a man to the system he
upholds. It is a solemn truth, not yet understood as it
should be, that the worst institutions may be sustained,
the worst deeds performed, the most merciless cruelties
inflicted, by the conscientious and the good. History
teaches no truth more awful, and proofs of it crowd on
us from the records of the earliest and latest times.
Thus, the worship of the immoral deities of heathenism
was sustained by the great men of antiquity. The
bloodiest and most unrighteous wars have been insti-
gated by patriots. For ages the Jews were thought to
have forfeited the rights of men, as much as the African
race at the South, and were insulted, spoiled, and slain,
not by mobs, but by sovereigns and prelates, who really
supposed themselves avengers of the crucified Saviour.
Trajan and Marcus Aurelius, men of singular humanity,

56 EMANCIPATION.

doomed Christians to death, surrendering their better
feelings to what they thought the safety of the state.
Few names in history are more illustrious than Isabella
of Castile. She was the model, in most respects, of a
noble woman. But Isabella outstripped her age in
what she thought pious zeal against heretics. Having
taken lessons in her wars against the Moors, and in the
extermination of the Jews, she entered fully into the
spirit of the Inquisition ; and by her great moral power
contributed more than any other sovereign to the ex-
tension of its fearful influence ; and thus the horrible
tortures and murders of that infernal institution, in her
ill-fated country, lie very much at her door. Of all the
causes which have contributed to the ruin of Spain,
the gloomy, unrelenting spirit of religious bigotry has
wrought most deeply; so that the illustrious Isabella,
through her zeal for religion and the salvation of her
subjects, sowed the seeds of her country's ruin. It is
remarkable, that Spain, in her late struggle for freedom,
has not produced one great man ; and at this moment
the country seems threatened with disorganization ; and
it is to the almost universal corruption, to the want of
mutual confidence, to the deep dissimulation and fraud,
which the spirit of the Inquisition, the spirit of mis-
guided religion, has spread through society, that this
degradation must chiefly be traced. The wrongs, woes,
cruelties, inflicted by the religious, the conscientious,
are among the most important teachings of the past.
Nor has this strange mixture of good and evil ceased.
Crimes, to which time and usage have given sanction,
are still found in neighbourhood with virtue. Examples
taken from other countries stagger belief, but are true.
Thus, in not a few regions, the infant is cast out to

EMANCIPATIOxN. . 57

perish by parents who abound in tenderness to their
surviving children. Our own enormities are to be under-
stood hereafter. Slavery is not, then, absolved of guilt
by the virtues of its supporters, nor are its wrongs on
this account a whit less tolerable. The Inquisition was
not a whit less infernal because sustained by Isabella.
Wars are not a whit less murderous because waged for
our country's glory ; nor was the slave-trade less a com-
plication of unutterable cruelties because our fathers
brought the African here to make him a Christian.

The great truth now insisted on, that evil is evil, no
matter at whose door It lies, and that men acting from
conscience and religion may do nefarious deeds, needs
to be better understood, that we may not shelter our-
selves or our institutions under the names of the great
or the good who have passed away. It shows us, that,
in good company, we may do the work of fiends. It
teaches us how important is the culture of our whole
moral and rational nature, how dangerous to rest on the
old and the established without habitually and honestly
seeking the truth. With these views, I believe at once
that slavery is an atrocious wTong, and yet that among
its upholders may be found good and pious people. I
do not look on a slave country as one of the provinces
of hell. There, as elsewhere, the human spirit may
hold communion with God, and it may ascend thence
to heaven. Still, slavery does not lay aside its horrible
nature because of the character of some of its sup-
porters. Persecution is a cruel outrage, no matter by
whom carried on ; and so slavery, no matter by whom
maintained, works fearful evil to bond and free. It
breathes a moral taint, contaminates young knd old,
prostrates the dearest rights, and strengthens the cu-

58 EMANCIPATION.

pidity, pride, love of power, and selfish sloth, on which
it is founded. I readily grant that among slave-holders
are to be found upright, religious men, and, especially,
pious, gentle, disinterested, noble-minded women, who
sincerely labor to be the guardians and benefactors of
the slaves, and under whose kind control much comfort
may be enjoyed. But we must not on this account shut
our eyes on the evils of the institution or forbear to ex-
pose them. On the contrary, this is the very reason
for lifting up our voices against it ; for slavery rests
mainly on the virtues of its upholders. Without the
sanction of good and great names it would soon die.
Were it left as a monopoly to the selfish, cruel, un-
principled, it could not stand a year. It would become
in men's view as infamous as the slave-trade, and be
ranked among felonies. It is a solemn duty to speak
plainly of wrongs which good men perpetrate. It is
very easy to cry out against crimes which the laws
punish, and which popular opinion has branded with in-
famy. What is especially demanded of the Christian
is, a faithful, honest, generous testimony against enor-
mities which are sanctioned by numbers, and fashion,
and wealth, and especially by great and honored names,
and which, thus sustained, lift up their heads to heaven,
and repay rebuke with menace and indignation.

I know that there are those who consider all ac-
knowledgment of the virtues of slave-holders as treach-
ery to the cause of freedom. But truth is truth, and
must always be spoken and trusted. To be just is a
greater work than to free slaves, or propagate religion,
or save souls. I have faith in no policy but that of
simplicity and godly sincerity. The crimes of good
men in past times, of which I have spoken, have sprung

EMA-\CIPATIO:\. 59

chiefly from the disposition to sacrifice the simple,
priinary obligations of truth, justice, and humanity, to
some grand cause, such as religion or country, which
has dazzled and bewildered their moral sense. To free
the slave, let us not wrong his master. Let us rather
find comfort in the thought, that there is no unmixed
evil, that a spirit of goodness mixes more or less with
the worst usages, and that even slavery is illumined by
the virtues of the bond and free.

I have now finished my remarks on Mr. Gurney's
book, and in doing so I join with many readers in thank-
ing him for the good news he has reported, and in re-
peating his prayers for the success of emancipation. I
now proceed to a different order of considerations, of
great importance, and which ought always to be con-
nected with such discussions as have now engaged us.
The subject before us is not one of mere speculation.
It has a practical side. There are Duties which be-
long to us, as Individuals, and as Free States, in regard
to slavery. To these I now ask attention.

I begin with individuals ; and their duty is, to be
faithful in their testimony against this great evil, to speak
their minds freely and fully, and thus to contribute what
they may to the moral power of public opinion. It is
not enough to think and feel justly. Sentiments not
expressed slumber, and too often die. Utterance, in
some form or other, is a principal duty of a social being.
The chief good which an enlightened, virtuous mind
can do is, to bring itself forth. Not a few among us
have refrained from this duty, have been speechless in
regard to slavery, through disapprobation of what they
have called the violence of the Abolitionists. They

60 EMANCIPATION.

have said, that in this rage of the elements it was fit to
be still. But the storm is passing away. Abolitionism,
in obedience to an irresistible law of our nature, has
parted with much of its original vehemence. All noble
enthusiasms pass through a feverish stage, and grow
wiser and more serene. Still more, the power of the
Anti-slavery Association is not a little broken by internal
divisions, and by its increasing reliance on pohtical ac-
tion. It has thrown away its true strength, that is,
moral influence, in proportion as it has consented to mix
in the frays of party. Now then, when associations are
waning, it is time for the individual to be heard, time
for a free, solemn protest against wrong.

It is often said, that all moral efforts to forward the
abolition of slavery are futile ; that to expect men to
sacrifice interest to duty is a proof of insanity ; that, as
long as slavery is a good pecuniary speculation, the
South will stand by it to the death ; that, whenever
slave-labor shall prove a drug, it will be abandoned, and
not before. It is vain, we are told, to talk, reason, or
remonstrate. On this ground some are anxious to bring
East-India cotton into competition with the Southern,
that, by driving the latter from the market, the exces-
sive stimulus to slave-breeding and the profits of slave-
labor may cease. And is this true .'' Must men be
starved into justice and humanity ? Have truth, and
religion, and conscience no power .'' One thing we
know, that the insanity of opposing moral influence to
deep-rooted evils has, at least, great names on its side.
The Christian faith is the highest form of this madness
and folly, and its history shows that " the foolishness of
God is stronger than men." What an insult is it on the
South, and on human nature, to believe that millions of

EMANCIPATION. 61

slave-holders, of all ages, sexes, and conditions, in an
age of freedom, intelligence, and Christian faith, are
proof against all motives but the very lowest ! Even in
the most hardened, conscience never turns wholly to
3tone. Humanity never dies out among a people. After
all, the most prevailing voice on earth is that of truth.
Could emancipation be extorted only by depreciation of
slave-labor, it would, indeed, be a good ; but how much
happier a relation would the master establish with the
colored race, if, from no force but that of principle and
kindness, he should set them free ! Undoubtedly, at
the South, as elsew-here, the majority are selfish, mer-
cenary, corrupt ; but it would be easy to find there
more than " ten righteous," to find a multitude of up-
right, compassionate, devout miuds, which, if awakened
from the long insensibility of habit to the evils of slavery,
would soon overpower the influences of the merely self-
ish slave-holder.

We are told, indeed, by the South, that slavery is no
concern of ours, and consequently that the less we say
of it the better. What ! shall the wrongdoer forbid
lookers-on to speak, because the affair is a private one,
in which others must not interfere .'' Whoever injures a
man binds all men to remonstrate, especially when the
injured is too weak to speak in his own behalf. Let
none imagine, that, by seizing a fellow-creature and
setting him apart as a chattel, they can sever his ties to
God or man. Spiritual connexions are not so easily
broken. You may cany your victim ever so far, you
may seclude him on a plantation or in a cell ; but you
cannot transport him beyond the sphere of human broth-
erhood, or cut him off from his race. The great bond
of humanity is the last to be dissolved. Other ties,

VOL. VI. 6

62 EMANCIPATION.

those of family and civil society, are severed by death.
This, founded as it is on what is immortal in our nature,
has an everlasthig sacredness, and is never broken ;
and every man has a right, and, still more, is bound, to
lift up his voice against its violation.

There are many wliose testimony against slavery is
very much diluted by the fact of its having been so long
sanctioned, not only by usage, but by law, by public
force, by the forms of civil authority. They bow
before numbers and prescription. But in an age of
inquiry and innovation, when other institutions must
make good their title to continuance, it is a suspicious
tenderness, which fears to touch a heavy yoke because
it has grown by time into the necks of our fellow-
creatures. Do we not know that unjust monopolies,
cruel prejudices, barbarous punishments, oppressive in-
stitutions, have been upheld by law for ages ? Majori-
ties are prone to think that they can create right by
vote, and can legalize gainful crimes by calling the forms
of justice to their support. But these conspiracies
against humanity, these insults ofiered to the majesty
and immutableness of truth and rectitude, are the last
forms of vv'ickedness to be spared. Selfish men, by
combining into a majority, cannot change tyranny into
right. The whole earth may cry out, that this or that
man was made to be owned and used as a chattel, or a
brute, by his brother. But his birthright as a man, as
a rational creature of God, cleaves to him untouched by
the clamor. Crimes, exalted into laws, become there-
fore the more odious ; just as the false gods of heathen-
ism, when set up of old on the altar of Jehovah, shocked
his true worshippers the more by usurping so conspicu-
ously the honors due to him alone.

EMAXCIPATIOX. 63

It is important that wc should, each of us, bear our
conscientious testimony against slavery, not only to swell
that tide of public opinion which is to sweep it away,
but that we may save ourselves from sinking into silent,
unsuspected acquiescence in the evil. A constant re-
sistance is needed to this downward tendency, as is
proved by the tone of feeling in the Free States. What
is niore common among ourselves than a courteous,
apologetic disapprobation of slavery, which differs little
from taking its part ? This is one of its worst influences.
It taints the whole country. The existence, the per-
petual presence, of a great, prosperous, unrestrained
system of wrong in a community is one of the sorest
trials to the moral sense of the people, and needs to be
earnestly withstood. The idea of justice becomes un-
consciously obscured in our minds. Our hearts become
more or less seared to wrong. The South says, that
slavery is nothing to us at the North. But through our
trade we are brought into constant contact with it ; we
grow familiar with it ; still more, we thrive by it ; and
the next step is easy, to consent to the sacrifice of
human beings by whom we prosper. The dead know
not their want of life ; and so a people, whose moral
sentiments are palsied by the interweaving of all their
interests with a system of oppression, become degraded
without suspecting it. In consequence of this con-
nexion with slave countries, the idea of Human Rights,
that great idea of our age, and on which we profess to
build our institutions, is darkened, weakened, among us,
so as to be to many little more than a sound. A coun-
try of licensed, legalized wrongs is not the atmosphere
in which the sentin:!ent of reverence for these rights can
exist in full power. In such a community there may be

64 EMANCIPATION.

a respect for the arbitrary rights which law creates and
may destroy, and a respect for historical rights, which
rest on usage. But the fundamental rights which inhere
in man as man, and which lie at the foundation of a just,
equitable, beneficent, noble polity, must be imperfectly
comprehended. This depression of moral sentiment in
a people is an evil the extent of which is not easily
apprehended. It affects and degrades every relation of
life. Men in whose sight human nature is stripped of all
its rights and dignity cannot love or honor any who
possess it, as they ought. In offering these remarks I
do not forget, what I rejoice to know, that there is
much moral feeling among us in regard to slavery. But
still, there is a strong tendency to indifference, and to
something worse ; and on this account we owe it to our
own moral health, and to the moral life of society, to
express plainly and strongly our moral abhorrence of
this institution.

This duty is rendered more urgent by the depraving
tendency of our political connexions and agitations. It
has been said, much too sweepingly, but with some
approximation to truth, that in this country we have
hosts of politicians, but no statesmen ; meaning, by the
latter term, men of comprehensive, far-reaching views,
who study the permanent good of the community, and
hold fast, under all changes, to the great principles on
which its salvation rests. The generality of our public
men are mere politicians, purblind to the future, fevered
by the present, merging patriotism in party spirit, intent
oil carrying a vote or election, no matter what means
they use or vshat precedents they establish, and holding
themselves absolved from a strict morality in public
afiairs. A principal object of political tactics is, to

EMANCIPATION. 65

conciliate and gain over to one or another side the most
important interests of the country ; and of consequence
the slave interest is propitiated with no small care. No
party can afford to lose the South. The master's vote
is too precious to be hazarded by sympathy with the
slaves. Accordingly parties and office-seekers wash
their hands of Abolitionism as if it were treason, and,
without committing themselves to slavery, protest their
innocence of hostility to it. How far they would bow
to the slave power, were the success of a great election
to depend on soothing it, cannot be foretold, especially
since we have seen the party most jealous of popular
rights surrendering to this power the right of petition.
In this state of things the slave-holding interest has the
floor of Congress very much to itself. Now and then a
man of moral heroism meets it with erect front and a
tone of conscious superiority. But political life does
not abound in men of heroic mould. Military heroes
may be found in swarms. Thousands die fearlessly on
the field of battle, or the field of " honor." But the
moral courage which can stand cold looks, frowns, and
contempt, which asks counsel of higher oracles than
people or rulers, and cheerfully gives up preferment to
a just cause, is rare enough to be canonized. Tn such a
country the tendency to corruption of moral sentiment
in regard to slavery is strong. Many are tempted to ac-
quiescence in it ; and of consequence the good man, the
friend of humanity and his country, should meet the danger
by strong, uncompromising reprobation of this great wrong.
I would close this topic with observing, that there
is one portion of the community to which I would espe-
cially commend the cause of the enslaved, and the duty
of open testimony against this form of oppression ; and
6*

66 EMANCIPATION.

that is, our women. To them, above all others, slavery
should seem an intolerable evil, because its chief victims
are women. In their own country, and not very far
from them, there are great multitudes of their sex ex-
posed to dishonor, held as property by man, unprotected
by law, driven to the field by the overseer, and happy
if not consigned to infinitely baser uses, denied the rights
of wife and mother, and liable to be stripped of husband
and child when another's pleasure or interest may so
determine. Such is the lot of hundreds of thousands
of their sisters ; and is there nothing here to stir up
woman's sympathy, nothing for her to remember, when
she approaches God's throne or opens her heart to her
fellow-creatures ? Woman should talk of the enslaved
to her husband, and do what she can to awaken, amongst
his ever-thronging worldly cares, some manly indigna-
tion, some interest in human freedom. She should
breathe into her son a deep sense of the wrongs which
man inflicts on man, and send him forth from her arms
a friend of the weak and injured. She should look on
her daughter, and shudder at the doom of so many
daughters on her own shores. When she meets with
woman, she should talk with her of the ten thousand
homes which have no defence against licentiousness,
against violation of the most sacred domestic ties ; and
through her whole intercourse, the fit season should be
chosen to give strength to that deep moral conviction
which can alone overcome this tremendous evil.

I know it will be said, that, in thus doing, woman
will wander beyond her sphere, and forsake her proper
work. What ! Do I hear such language in a civilized
age, and in a land of Christians .'' What, let me ask, is
woman's work ? Tt is, to be a minister of Christian

EMANCIPATION. 67

love. It is, to sympathize with human misery. It
is, to breathe sympathy into man's heart. It is, to
keep aUve in society some feehng of human brother-
hood. This is her mission on earth. Woman's sphere,
I am told, is home. And why is home instituted .''
Wliy are domestic relations ordained .'' These relations
are for a day ; they cease at the grave. And what is
their great end ? To nourish a love which will endure
f)r ever, to awaken universal sympathy. Our ties to
our parents are to bind us to the Universal Parent.
Our fraternal bonds, to help us to see in all men our
brethren. Home is to be a nursery of Christians ; and
what is the end of Christianity, but to awaken in all
souls the principles of universal justice and universal
charity ? At home we are to learn to love our neigh-
bour, our enemy, the stranger, the poor, the oppressed.
If home do not train us to this, then it is wofully per-
verted. If home counteract and quench the spirit of
Christianity, then we must remember the Divine Teach-
er, who commands us to forsake father and mother,
brother and sister, wife and child, for his sake, and for
the sake of his truth. If the walls of home are the
bulwarks of a narrow, clannish love, through which the
cry of human miseries and wrongs cannot penetrate,
then it is mockery to talk of their sacredness. Domes-
tic life is at present too much in hostility to the spirit
of Christ. A family should be a community of dear
friends, strengthening one another for the service of their
fellow-creatures. Can we give the name of Christian
to most of our families .'' Can we give it to women who
have no thoughts or sympathies for multitudes of their
own sex, distant only two or three days' journey from
their doors, and exposed to outrages from which they

68 EMANCIPATION.

would pray to have their own daughters snatched,
though it were by death ?

Having spoken of the individual, I proceed to speak
of the duties of the Free States, in their political ca-
pacity, in regard to slavery ; and these may be reduced
to two heads, both of them negative. The first is, to
abstain as rigidly from the use of political power against
slavery in the States where it is established as from
exercising it against slavery in foreign communities.
The second is, to free ourselves from all obligation to
use the powers of the National or State governments in
any manner whatever for the support of slavery.

The first duty is clear. In regard to slavery the
Southern States stand on the ground of foreign com-
munities. They are not subject or responsible to us
more than these. No State sovereignty can intermeddle
with the institutions of another. We might as legiti-
mately spread our legislation over the schools, churches,
or persons of the South as over their slaves. And in
regard to the General Government, we know that it was
not intended to confer any power, direct or indirect, on
the Free over the Slave States. Any pretension to such
power on the part of the North would have dissolved
immediately the Convention which framed the Consti-
tution. Any act of the Free States, when assembled in
Congress, for the abolition of slavery in other States,
would be a violation of the national compact, and would
be just cause of complaint.

On this account I cannot but regret the disposition
of a part of our Abolitionists to organize themselves into
a political party. Were it, indeed, their simple purpose
to free the North from all obligation to give support to

EMANCIPATION. 69

slavery, I should agree with them in their end, though
not in their means. By looking, as they do, to political
organization as a means of putting down the institution
in other States they lay themselves open to reproach.
I know, indeed, that excellent men are engaged in this
movement, and I acquit them of all disposition to tran-
scend the limits of the Federal Constitution. But it is
to be feared that they may construe this instrument too
literally ; that, forgetting its spirit, they may seek to
use its powers for purposes very remote from its original
design. Their failure is almost inevitable. By extend-
ing their agency beyond its true bounds they insure its
defeat in its legitimate sphere. By assuming a political
character they lose the reputation of honest enthusiasts,
and come to be considered as hypocritical seekers after
place and power. Should they, in opposition to all
probability, become a formidable party, they would
unite the Slave-holding States as one man ; and the
South, always able, when so united, to link with itself
a party at the North, would rule the country as before.

No association, like the Abolitionists, formed for a
particular end, can, by becoming a political organiza-
tion, rise to power. If it can contrive to perpetuate
itself, it will provoke contempt by the disproportion of
its means to its ends ; but the probability is, that it will
be swallowed up in the whirlpool of one or the other of
the great national parties, from whose fury hardly any
thing escapes. These mighty forces sweep all lesser
j)olitical organizations before them. And these are to
be robbed of their pernicious power, not by forming a
third party, but by the increase of intelligence and virtue
in the community, and by the silent flowing together of
reflecting, upright, independent men, wlio will feel them-

70 EMANCIPATION.

salves bound to throw off the shackles of party ; who
will refuse any longer to neutralize their moral influence
by coalition with the self-seeking, the hollow-hearted,
and the double-tongued ; whose bond of union will be,,
the solemn purpose to speak the truth without adultera-
tion, to adhere to the right without compromise, to sup-
port good measures and discountenance bad, come from
what quarter they may, to be just to all parties, and to
expose alike the corruptions of all. There are now
among us good and true men enough to turn the balance
on all great questions, would they but confide in princi-
ple, and be loyal to it in word and deed. Under their
influence, newspapers might be established in which men
and measures of all parties would be tried without fear
or favor by the moral. Christian law ; and this revolution
of the press would do more than all things else for the
political regeneration of the' country. The people would
learn from it, that, whilst boasting of liberty, they are
used as puppets and tools ; that popular sovereignty,
with all its paper bulwarks, is a show rather than a sub-
stance, as long as party despotism endures. It is by
such a broad, generous improvement of society, that
our present political organizations are to be put down,
and not by a third party on a narrow basis, and which,
instead of embracing all the interests of the country,
confines itself to a single point.

I cannot but express again regret at the willingness
of the Abolitionists to rely on and pursue political power.
Their strength has always lain in the simplicity of their
religious trust, in their confidence in Christian truth.
Formerly the hope sometimes crossed my mind, that,
by enlarging their views and purifying their spirit, they
would gradually become a religious community, founded

EMANCIPATION. 71

on the recognition of God as the common, equal Father
of all mankind, on the recognition of Jesus Christ as
having lived and died to unite to himself and to baptize
with his spirit every human soul, and on the recognition
of the brotherhood of all the members of God's human
family. There are signs that Christians are tending,
however slowly, toward a church in which these great
ideas of Christianity will be realized ; in which a spiritual
reverence for God, and for the human soul, will take
place of the customary homage paid to outward dis-
tinctions ; and in which our present narrow sects will be
swallowed up. I thought that I saw, in the principles
with which the Abolitionists started, a struggling of the
human mind toward this Christian union. It is truly a
disappointment to see so many of their number be-
coming a political party, an association almost always
corrupting, and most justly suspected on account of the
sacrifices of truth, and honor, and moral independence,
which it extorts even from well-disposed men. Their
proper work is, to act on all parties, to support each as
far as it shall be true to human rights, to gather laborers
for the good cause from all bodies, civil and religious,
and to hold forth this cause as a universal interest, and
not as the property or stepping-stone of a narrow asso-
ciation.

I know that It is said, that nothing but this political
action can put down slavery. Then slavery must con-
tinue ; and if we faithfully do our part as Christians, we
are not responsible for its continuance. We are not to
feel as if we were bound to put It down by any and
every means. We do not speak as Christians, when
we say that slavery must and shall fall. Who are we,
to dictate ihns to Omnipotence .'' Tt has pleased the

72 EBIANCIPATION.

mysterious Providence of God that terrible evils should
be left to overshadow the earth for ages. " How long,
O Lord ? '' has been the secret cry extorted from good
men by the crimes of the world for six thousand years.
On the philanthropist- of this age the same sad burden
is laid, and it cannot be removed. We must not feel,
that, were slavery destroyed, paradise would be re-
stored. As in our own souls the conquest of one evil
passion reveals to us new spiritual foes, so in society
one great evil hides in its shadow others perhaps as fear-
ful, and its fall only summons us to new efforts for the
redemption of the race. We know, indeed, that good is
to triumph over evil in this world ; that "Christ must
reign till he shall put all enemies beneath his feet," or
until his spirit shall triumph over the spirit, oppressions,
corruptions of the world. Let us, then, work against
all wrong, but with a calm, solemn earnestness, not with
vehemence and tumult. Let us work with deep rever-
ence and filial trust toward God, and not in the proud
impetuosity of our own wills. Happy the day, when
such laborers shall be gathered by an inward attraction
into one church or brotherhood, whose badge, creed,
spirit, shall be Universal Love ! This will be the true
kingdom of God on earth, and its might will infinitely
transcend political power.

For one, T have no desire to force emancipation on
the Soudi. Had I political power, I should fear to use
it in such a cause. A forced emancipation is, on the
whole, working well in the West Indies, because the
mother country watches over and guides it, and pours
in abundantly moral and religious influences to calm,
and enlighten, and soften the minds newly set free.
Here no such control can be exercised. Freedom at

EMANCIPATION. 73

the South, to work well, must be the gift of the masters.
Emancipation must be their own act and deed. It must
spring from good-will and sense of justice, or, at least,
from a sense of interest, and not be extorted by a foreign
power; and with this origin, it will be more successful
even than the experiment in the West Indies. In those
islands, especially in Jamaica, the want of cordial co-
operation on the part of the planters has continually
obstructed the beneficial working of freedom, and still
throws a doubtfulness over its complete success.

I have said, that the Free States cannot rightfully use
the power of their own legislatures or of Congress to
abolish slavery in the States where it is established.
Their first duty is to abstain from such acts. Their
next and more solemn duty is to abstain from all action
for the support of slavery. If they are not to subvert,
much less are they to sustain it. There is some excuse
for communities, when, under a generous impulse, they
espouse the cause of the oppressed in other states, and
by force restore their rights ; but they are without ex-
cuse in aiding other states in binding on men an un-
righteous yoke. On this subject, our fathers, in framing
the Constitution, swerved from the right. We, their
children, at the end of half a century, see the path of
duty more clearly than they, and must walk in it. To
this point the public mind has long been tending, and
the time has come for looking at it fully, dispassionately,
and with manly and Christian resolution. This is not a
question of abolitionism. It has nothing to do with
putting down slavery. We are simply called, as com-
munities, to withhold support from it, to stand aloof, to
break oft' all connexion with this criniinal institution.

VOL. VI. 7

74 EMANCIPATION.

The Free States ought to say to the South, " Slavery is
yours, not ours, and on you the whole responsibility of
it must fall. We wash our hands of it wholly. We
shall exert no power against it ; but do not call on us to
put forth the least power in its behalf. We cannot,
directly or indirectly, become accessories to this wrong.
We cannot become jailers, or a patrol, or a watch, to
keep your slaves under the yoke. You must guard
them yourselves. If they escape, we cannot send them
bade Our soil makes whoever touches it free. On
this point you must manage your own concerns. You
must guard your own frontier. In case of insurrection,
we cannot come to you, save as friends alike of bond
and free. Neither in our separate legislatures, nor in
the national legislature, can we touch slavery to sustain
it. On this point you are foreign communities. You
have often said, that you need not our protection ; and
we must take you at your word. In so doing we have
no thought of acting on your fears. We think only of
our duty, and this, in all circumstances, and at all haz-
ards, must be done."

The people of the North think but little of the extent
of the support given to slavery by the Federal Govern-
ment; though, when it is considered that " the slave-
holding interest has a representation in Congress of
iwenty-jive members, in addition to the fair and equal
representation of the free inhabitants," it is very natural
to expect the exercise of the powers of Congress in
behalf of this institution. The Federal Government has
been, and is, the friend of the slave-holder, and the ene-
my of the slave. It authorizes the former to seize, in a
Free State, a colored man, on the ground of being a fu-
gitive, and to bring him before a justice of the peace of

EiMAN'CIPATION. 75

his own selection ; and this magistrate, without a jury,
and without obhgation to receive any testimony but what
the professed master offers, can dehver up the accused
to be held as property for life. The Federal Govern-
ment authorizes not only the apprehension and impris-
onment, in the District of Columbia, of a negro sus-
pected of being a runaway, but the sale of him as a
slave, if within a certain time he cannot prove his free-
dom. It sustains slavery within the District of Colum-
bia, though "under its exclusive jurisdiction," and
allows this District to be one of the chief slave-marts
of the country. Not a slave-auction is held there but
by the authority of Congress. The Federal Govern-
ment has endeavoured to obtain by negotiation the res-
toration of fugitive slaves who have sought and found
freedom in Canada, and has offered in return to restore
fugitives from the West Indies. It has disgraced itself
in the sight of all Europe, by claiming, as property,
slaves who have been shipwrecked on the British is-
lands, and who by touching British soil had become
free. It has instructed its representative at Madrid to
announce to the Spanish court, " that the emancipation
of the slave population of Cuba would be very severely
felt in the adjacent shores of the United States." It
has purchased a vast unsettled territory which it has
given up to be overrun with slavery. To crown all, it
has, in violation of the Constitution, and of the right
granted even by despotism to its subjects, refused to
listen to petitions against these abuses of power. After
all this humbling experience, is it not time for the Free
States to pause, to reflect, to weigh well what they are
doing through the national government, and to resolve

76 EMANCIPATION. ^

that they will free themselves from every obligation to
uphold an institution which they know to be unjust ? *

The object now proposed is to be effected by amend-
ments of the Constitution, and these should be sought
in good faith ; that is, not as the means of abolishing
slavery, but as a means of removing us from a partici-
pation of its guilt. The Free States should take the
high ground of duty ; and, to raise them to this height,
the press, the pulpit, and all religious and upright men
should join their powers. A people under so pure an
impulse cannot fail. Such arrangements should be
made that the word, slavery, need not be heard again in
Congress or in the local legislatures. On the principle
now laid down, the question of abolition in the District
of Columbia should be settled. Emancipation at the
seat of government ought to be insisted on, not for the
purpose of influencing slavery elsewhere, but because
what is done there is done by the whole people, because
slavery sustained there is sustained by the Free States.
It is said, that the will of the citizens of the District
is to be consulted. Were this true, which cannot be
granted, the difficulty may easily be surmounted. Let
Congress resolve to establish itself where it will have
no slavery to control or uphold, and the people of the
District of Columbia will remove the obstacle to its
continuance where it is, as fast as can be desired.

The great difficulty in the way of the arrangement
now proposed is, the article of the Constitution requiring
the surrender and return of fugitive slaves. A State

* On the subject of this paragraph the reader will do well to consult " A
View of the Action of the Federal Government in behalf of Slavery, by
William Jay." The author is a son of Chief Justice Jay, and a worthy
representative of the spirit and principles of his illustrious father.

ElMANCrPATTON. 77

obeying this seems to me to contract as great guilt as if
it were to bring slaves from Africa. No man who re-
gards slavery as among the greatest wrongs can in any
way reduce his fellow-creatures to it. The flying slave
asserts the first right of a man, and should meet aid
rather than obstruction. Who that has the heart of a
freeman, or breathes the love of a Christian, can send
him back to his chain .'' On this point, however, the
difficulty of an arrangement is every day growing less.
This provision of the Constitution is undergoing a silent
repeal, and no human power can sustain it. Just in pro-
portion as slavery becomes the object of conscientious
reprobation in the "free States, just so fast the difficulty
of sending back the fugitive increases. In the part of
the country where T reside it is next to impossible that
the slave who has reached us should be restored to
bondage. Not that our courts of law are obstructed ;
not that mobs would rescue the fugitive from the magis-
trate. We respect the public authorities. Not an arm
would be raised against the ofiicers of justice. But
what are laws, against the moral sense of a community .''
No man among us, who values his character, would aid
the slave-hunter. The slave-hunter here would be
looked on with as little favor as the felonious slave-
trader. Those among us who dread to touch slavery
in its own region, lest insurrection and tumults should
follow change, still feel that the fugitive who has sought
shelter so far can breed no tumult in the land which he
has left, and that, of consequence, no motive but the
unhallowed love of gain can prompt to his pursuit ; and
when they think of slavery as perpetuated, not for pub-
lic order, but for gain, they abhor it, and would not lift

a finger to replace the flying bondsman beneath the

7#

78 EMANCIPATION.

yoke. Thus this provision of the Constitution is vir-
tually fading away ; and, as I have said, no human pow-
er can restore it. The moral sentiment of a community
is not to be withstood. Make as many constitutions as
you will ; fence round your laws with what penalties you
will ; the universal conscience makes them as weak as
the threats of childhood. There is a spirit spreading
through the country in regard to slavery wliich demands
changes of the Constitution, and which will master if it
cannot change it. No concerted opposition to this in-
strument is thought of or is needed. No secret under-
standing among our citizens is to be feared at the South.
The simple presence to their minds of the great truth,
that man cannot rightfully be the property of man, is
enough to shelter the slave. With this conviction, we
are palsy-stricken when called upon to restore him to
bondage. Our sinews are relaxed ; our hands hang
down ; our limbs will not carry us a step. Now this
conviction is spreading, and will become the established
principle of the Free States. Politicians, indeed, to an-
swer a party end, may talk of property in man as some-
thing established or not to be questioned ; but the peo-
ple at large do not follow them. The people go with
the civilized and Christian world. The South should
understand this, should look the difficulty in the face ;
and they will see, that, from the nature of the case, re-
sistance is idle, that neither policy nor violence can
avail. And, what is more, they have no right to re-
proach us with letting this provision of the Constitution
die among us. They have done worse. We are pas-
sive. They have actively, openly, flagrantly, violated
the Constitution. They have passed laws threatening
V; 'Imprison and punish the free colored citizens of the

EMANCIPATION. 79

North for exercising the rights guarantied to every citi-
zen by the national compact, that is, for setting foot on
their shores and using their highways. This wrong has
been too patiently borne ; and in one way we can turn
it to good account. When reproached with unfaithful-
ness to the Constitution, we can hold it up as our shield,
and cite the greater disloyalty of the South as an ex-
tenuation of our own.

It is best, however, that neither party should be un-
faithful. It is best that both, enlightened as to the spirit
of our times, should make new arrangements to prevent
coUision, to define the duties of each and all, to bring
the Constitution into harmony with the moral convic-
tions and with the safety of North and South. Until
some such arrangements are made, perpetual collisions
between the two great sections of our country must
occur. Notwithstanding the tendencies to a low tone
of thought and feeling at the North in regard to slavery,
there is a decided increase of moral sensibihty on the
subject ; and in proportion as this shall spread the Free
States will insist more strenuously on being released
from every obligation to give support to what they de-
liberately condemn.

This liberation of the Free States from all connexion
with and action on slavery would, indeed, be an immense
boon, and the removal of much dissension. Still, the
root of bitterness would remain among us. Still, our
union, that inestimable political good, will be insecure.
Slavery, whilst it continues, must secretly, if not open-
ly, mix with our policy, sow jealousies, determine the
character of parties, and create, if not diversities of in-
terests, at least suspicions of them, which may prove
not a whit the less ruinous because groundless.

80 EMANCIPATION.

Slavery is unfriendly to union, as it is directly hostile
to the fundamental principle on which all our institutions
rest. No nation can admit an element at war with its
vital, central law without losing something of its stabil-
ity. The idea of Human Rights is the grand distinc-
tion of our country. Our chief boast as a people is
found in the fact, that the toils, sacrifices, heroic deeds
of our fathers had for their end the establishment of
these. Here is the unity which sums up our history,
the glory which lights up our land, the chief foundation
of the sentiment of loyalty, the chief spring of national
feeling, the grand bond of national union ; and whatever
among us is at war with this principle weakens the living
force which holds us together.

On this topic I cannot enlarge. But recent events
compel me to refer to one influence more by which
slavery is unfriendly to union. It aggravates those traits
of character at the South which tend to division. It
inflames that proud, fiery spirit which is quick to take
offence, and which rushes into rash and reckless courses.
This ungoverned violence of feeling breaks out espe-
cially-in Congress, the centre from which impulses are
communicated to the whole people. It is a painful
thought, that, if any spot in the country is preeminent
for rudeness and fierceness, it is the Hall of Represent-
atives. Too many of our legislators seem to lay down
at its door the common restraints of good society and
the character of gentlemen. The national chamber
seems liable to become a national nuisance ; and although
all parts of the country are in a measure responsible for
this wound inflicted on the honor and union of the coun-
try, we do feel that the evil is to be imputed chiefly to
the proud, impetuous temper of the South. It is be-

ElVIANCIPATION. 81

lieved that the personal violences which, if repeated,
will reduce the national council to the level of a boxing
match may be traced to that part of the country. This
evil is too notorious to be softened down by apologies
or explanations ; nor is it less an evil because prece-
dents and parallels can be found in the legislative bodies
of France and England. It tends, not merely to spread
barbarism through the community, but to impair the
authority of legislation, to give new ferocity to the con-
flicts of party, and thus to weaken the national tie.

If slavery, that brand of discord, were taken away,
the peculiarities of Northern and Southern character
would threaten little or no evil to the Union. On the
contrary, these two grand divisions of the country, now
estranged from each other, would be brought near, and
by acting on and modifying one another would produce
a national character of the highest order. The South,
with more of ardor and of bold and rapid genius, and
the North, with more of wisdom and steady principle,
furnish admirable materials for a State. Nor is the un-
ion of these to a considerable degree impracticable.
It is worthy of remark, that the most eminent men at
the South have had a large infusion of the Northern
character. Washington, in his calm dignity, his rigid
order, his close attention to business, his reserve almost
approaching coldness, bore a striking affinity to the
North ; and his sympathies led him to choose Northern
men very much as his confidential friends. Mr. Madi-
son had much of the calm wisdom, the patient, studious
research, the exactness and quiet manner of our part
of the country, with little of the imagination and fervor
of his own. Chief Justice Marshall had more than
these two great men of the genial, unreserved charac-

82 EMANCIPATION.

ter of a warmer climate, but so blended with a spirit of
moderation, and clear judgment, and serene wisdom, as
to make him the delight and confidence of the whole
land. There is one other distinguished name of the
South, which I have not mentioned, Mr. Jefferson ;
and the reason is, that his character seemed to belong
to neither section of the country. He wanted the fiery,
daring spirit of the South, and the calm energy of the
North. He stood alone. He was a man of genius,
given to bold, original, and somewhat visionary specu-
lation, and at the same time a sagacious observer of
men and events. He owed his vast influence, second
only to Washington's, to his keen insight into the char-
acter of his countrymen and into the spirit of his age.
His opponents have set him down as the most unscru-
pulous of politicians ; but one merit, and no mean one,
must be accorded to him, that of having adopted early,
and of having held fast through life, the most generous
theory of Human Rights, and of having protested against
slavery as an aggravated wrong. In truth, it is impos-
sible to study the great men of the South, and to con-
sider the force of intellect and character which that re-
gion has developed, without feelings of respect, and
without the most ardent desire that it may free itself, by
any means, from an institution which aggravates what is
evil and threatening in its character, which cripples
much of its energy, which cuts it off from the sympa-
thies and honor of the civilized world, and which pre-
vents it from a true, cordial union with the rest of the
country. It is slavery which prevents the two sections
of country from acting on and modifying each other for
the good of both. This is the great gulf between us,
and it is constantly growing wider and deeper in propor-

EMANCIPATION. S3

tion to the spread of moral feeling, of Christian philan-
thropy, of respect for men's rights, of interest in the
oppiessed.

Why is it that slavery is not thrown off? We here
ascribe its continuance very much to cupidity and love
of power. But there is another cause, which is cer-
tainly disappearing. Slavery at the South continues, in
part, in consequence of that want of activity, of steady
force, of resolute industry among the free white popu-
lation, which it has itself produced. A people with
force enough to attempt a social revolution, and to bear
its first inconveniences, would not endure slavery. We
of the North, with our characteristic energy, would
hardly tolerate it a year. The sluggishness, the stupid-
ity of the slaves would keep us in perpetual irritation.
We should run over them, tread them almost uncon-
sciously under foot, in our haste and eagerness to ac-
complish our enterprises. We should feel the waste-
fulness of slave labor, in comparison with free. The
clumsy mechanic, the lagging house-servant, the sloven-
ly laborer, ever ready with a lying excuse, would be too
much for our patience. Now there is reason to think
that the stirring, earnest, industrious spirit of the North
is finding its way Southward ; and with this, a desire
to introduce better social relations can hardly be re-
pressed.

We believe, too, that this revolution would be has-
tened, if the South would open its ear to the working
of emancipation in other countries, and to the deep
interest in the African race which is now spreading
through the world. On these subjects very httle is yet
known at the South. The newspapers there spread
absurd rumors of the failure of the experiment of the

84 EMANCIPATION.

West Indies, but the truth finds no organs. We doubt,
too, whether one newspaper has even made a reference
to the recent pubhc meeting in England for the civihza-
tion of Africa, the most remarkable, in one respect,
ever held in that country ; for it was a representation
of all ranks and sects, including the greatest names in
church and state, and, what was not less venerable, a
multitude of both sexes who have made themselves dear
and honored by services to humanity. Whoever con-
siders this, and other signs of the times in Europe, will
see the dawn of a better era, when the wrongs of past
ages are to be redressed, when the African is to be
lifted up, and the sentence of moral outlawry is to be
passed on the enslavers of their brethren. Many among
us are apt to smile and say, that nations have but one
law, self-interest. But a new and higher force is begin-
ning to act on human affairs. Religion is becoming an
active, diffusive, unwearied principle of humanity and
justice. All the forces of Christianity are concentrat-
ing themselves into a fervent, all-comprehending phil-
anthropy. This is at length to be understood at the
South, and it will be felt there. In that region there
are pious men and women who will not endure to be
cut off from the religious communion of the world.
There are self-respecting men, brave enough to defy all
personal danger, but not to defy the moral sentiment of
mankind. There are the wise and good, who will re-
joice to learn that emancipation brings dignity and hap-
piness to the slave, and safety and honor to the free.
Here is power enough to put down the selfish and un-
principled. Here are influences which, joined with favor-
ing events from God's good providence, are, we trust,
to remove the wrongs and evils of slavery, and to give
us a right to hold up our head among Christian nations.

EMANCIPATION. 85

But if it is not ordained that by these and like in-
fluences this great wrong is to be done away, of one
thing we are sure, that God's righteous providence lacks
not means for accomplishing his designs. He has in-
finite ministers for humbling human pride and lifting up
the fallen. The solemn lesson of our times is the in-
stability of all human power. Despotic thrones have
fallen, and surely private despotism cannot endure. We
learn from history, that, in seasons apparently the most
inauspicious, the seeds of beneficent revolutions have
been sown and have unfolded in silence. Much more,
in these days of change and progress, causes must be at
work for the redemption of the slave. Emancipation,
universal freedom, must come. May God prepare its
way, not by earthquakes and storms, but by " the still,
small voice " of truth, by breathing into the hearts of
this people the spirit of wisdom, justice, and love !

It is a solemn thought, with which I close these re-
marks, that a people upholding or in any way giving
countenance to slavery contract guilt in proportion to
the light which is thrown on the injustice and evils of
this institution, and to the evidence of the benefits of
emancipation ; and if so, then the weight of guilt on this
nation is great and increasing. Our fathers carried on
slavery in much blindness. They lived and walked
under the shadow of a dark and bloody past. But the
darkness is gone. " The mystery of iniquity " is now
laid open. Slavery, from its birth to its last stage, is
now brought to light. The wars, the sacked and burn-
ing villages, the kidnapping and murders of Africa,
which begin this horrible history ; the crowded hold, the
chains, stench, suffocation, burning thirst, and agonies
of the slave-ship ; the loathsome diseases and enormous

VOL. VI. 8

80 EMANCIPATION.

waste of life in the middle passage ; the wrongs and
sufferings of the plantation, with its reign of terror and
force, its unbridled lust, its violations of domestic rights
and charities ; these all are revealed. The crimes and
woes of slavery come to us in moans and shrieks from
the old world and the new, and from the ocean which
divides them ; and we are distinctly taught, that in no
other calamity are such wrongs and miseries concentrated
as in this. To put an end to some of these woes, the
most powerful nations have endeavoured, by force of
laws and punishments, to abolish the slave-trade ; but the
trial has proved, that, while slavery endures, the traffic
which ministers to it cannot be suppressed. At length
the axe has been laid at the root of the accursed tree.
By the act of a great nation nearly a million of slaves
have been emancipated ; and the first results have ex-
ceeded the hopes of philanthropy. All this history of
slavery is given to the world. The truth is brought to
our very doors. And, still more, to its, above all
people, God has made known those eternal principles
of freedom, justice, and humanity, by which the full
enormity of slavery may be comprehended. To shut
our eyes against all this light; to shut our ears and
hearts against these monitions of God, these pleadings
of humanity ; to stand forth, in this great conflict of
good with evil, as the chief upholders of oppression ;
to array ourselves against the efforts of the Christian and
civilized world for the extinction of this greatest wrong ;
to perpetuate it with obstinate madness where it exists,
and to make new regions of the earth groan under its
woes ; this, surely, is a guilt which the justice of God
cannot wink at, and on which insulted humanity, re-
ligion, and freedom call down fearful retribution.

EMANCIPATION. 87

NOTES.

JVote to page 49.

Ox this page I have spoken of the manner in which the
slaves in the West Indies received emancipation. This
great event took place, in Antigua, on the first of August,
1834. The following account of the manner in which the
preceding night was kept is extracted from Thome and
Kimball's book on the subject.

" The Wesleyans kept ' watch-night ' in all their chap-
els on the night of the 31st .July. One of the Wesley an
missionaries gave us an account of the watch-meeting at
the chapel in St. John's. The spacious house was filled
with the candidates for liberty. All was animation and
eagerness. A mighty chorus of voices swelled the song
of expectation and joy ; and as they united in prayer, the
voice of the leader was drowned in the universal acclama-
tion of thanksgiving, and praise, and blessing, and honor,
and glory, to God, who had come down for their deliver-
ance. In such exercises the evening was spent until the
hour of twelve approached. The missionary then pro-
posed, that, when the clock on the cathedral should begin
to strike, the whole congregation should fall upon their
knees, and receive the boon of freedom in silence. Ac-
cordingly, as the loud bell tolled its first note, the im-
mense assembly fell prostrate on their knees. All was
silence, save the quivering, half-stifled breath of the strug-
gling spirit. The slow notes of the clock fell upon the
multitude ; peal on peal, peal on peal, rolled over the pros-
trate throng, in tones of angels' voices, thrilling among
the desolate chords and weary heart-strings. Scarce had

88 EMAAXIPATION.

the clock sounded its last note, when the lightning flashed
vividly around, and a loud peal of thunder roared along
the sky, — God's pillar of fire, and trump of jubilee ! A
moment of profoundest silence passed, — then came the
burst, — they broke forth in prayer; they shouted, they
sung, 'Glory!' 'Alleluia!' they clapped their hands,
leaped up, fell down, clasped each other in their free
arms, cried, laughed, and went to and fro, tossing upward
their unfettered hands ; but high above the whole there
was a mighty sound which ever and anon swelled up ; it
was the utterings, in broken Negro dialect, of gratitude to
God.

" After this gush of excitement had spent itself, and the
congregation became calm, the religious exercises were
resumed, and the remainder of the night was occupied in
singing and prayer, in reading the Bible, and in addresses
from the missionaries, explaining the nature of the free-
dom just received, and exhorting the free people to be in-
dustrious, steady, obedient to the laws, and to show them-
selves in all things worthy of the high boon which God had
conferred upon them."

JYote to page 52.

On reading to a friend my remarks on the African
character, he observed to me, that similar views had been
taken by Alexander Kinmont, in his "Lectures on Man :
Cincinnati, 1839." This induced me to examine the Lec-
tures ; and I had the satisfaction of finding, not only a
coincidence of opinions, but that the author had pursued
the subject much more thoroughly, and illustrated it with
much strength and beauty. I would recommend this work
to such as delight in bold and original thinking. The
reader, indeed, will often question the soundness of the
author's conclusions ; but even in these cases the mind
will be Waked up to great and interesting subjects of re-
flection. I will subjoin a few extracts relating to the
African character.

EIVIANCIPATIOM. ' 89

" When the epoch of the civilization of the Negro
family arrives, in the lapse of ages, they will display in
their native land some very peculiar and interesting traits
of character, of which we, a distinct branch of the human
familv, can at present form no conception. It will be,

— indeed, it must be, — a civilization of a peculiar stamp ;
perhaps, we might venture to conjecture, not so much
distinguished by art, as a certain beautiful nature ; not so
marked or adorned by science, as exalted and refined by
a new and lovely theology, — a reflection of the light of
heaven more perfect and endearing than that which the
intellects of the Caucasian race have ever yet exhibited.
There is more of the child, of unsophisticated nature, in
the Negro race than in the European." — p. 190.

"The peninsula of Africa is the home of the Negro,
and the appropriate and destined seat of his future glory
and civilization, — a civilization which, we need not fear
to predict, will be as distinct in all its features from that
of all other races as his complexion and natural tempera-
ment and genius are different. But who can doubt that
here, also, humanity in its more advanced and millennial
stage will reflect, under a sweet and mellow light, the
softer attributes of the Divine beneficence .-' If the Cau-
casian race is destined, as would appear from the pre-
cocity of their genius, and their natural quickness and ex-
treme aptitude to the arts, to reflect the lustre of the
Divine wisdom, or, to speak more properly, the Divine
science, shall we envy the Negro, if a later but far nobler
civilization await him, — to return the splendor of the
Divine attributes of mercy and benevolence in the prac-
tice and exhibition of all the milder and gentler virtues ?"

— p. 191.

"If there are fewer vivid manifestations of intellect in
the Negro family than in the Caucasian, as I am disposed
to believe, does that forbid the hope of the return of that
pure and gentle state of society among them which at-
tracts the peculiar regard of Heaven ? " — p. 192.

"The sweeter graces of the Christian religion appear
almost too tropical and tender plants to grow in the soil
of the Caucasian mind ; they require a character cT hu-
man nature, of which you can see the rude lineaments in
the Ethiopian, to be implanted in, and grow naturally and
beautifully withal." — p. 218.

A

DISCOURSE

ON

THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE

REV. JOSEPH TUCKERMAN, D. D.,

DELIVERED AT THE

WARREN-STREET CHAPEL, ON SUNDAY EVENING,
JANUARY 31, 1841.

DISCOURSE.

Five years ago this Chapel was dedicated to the
moral and rehgious instruction of the poor of this city.
This event makes no noise in history, and may seem to
some to merit no particular notice. It is remembered,
however, by not a few individuals and families, as the
beginning of many good influences. Still more, it is
not an event which stands alone. This Chapel is the
sign of an important movement, which is not soon to
pass away. It sprung from the labors of that faithful
servant of God to whom w^e owe the establishment of
the Ministry at Large in this place. It is intimately
connected with, and reveals to us, his hfe and labors ;
and accordingly, the anniversary of its dedication to re-
hgious services is a fit occasion for offering a tribute to
his memory. I have wished, ever since his removal, to
express my reverence for his character, and my sense
of the greatness of his work. To these topics I invite
your attention. But before entering on them I propose
to consider a more general subject, which was often on
the lips of our departed friend, to which he constantly
recurred in his writings, and on the comprehension of
which the permanence of the Ministry at Large chiefly
depends. This subject is, the obligation of a city to
care for and watch over the moral health of its mem-

94 DISCOURSE ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER

bers, and especially to watch over the moral safety and
elevation of its poorer and more exposed classes. The
life of our departed friend embodied and expressed this
truth with singular power, and the consideration of it
is a natural and fit introduction to a memorial of his
virtues and labors, as well as particularly adapted to the
occasion which has brought us together.

Why is it, my friends, that we are brought so near to
one another in cities ? It is, that nearness should
awaken sympathy ; that multiplying wants should knit
us more closely together ; that we should understand
one another's perils and sufferings ; that we should act
perpetually on one another for good. Why were we
not brougiit into being in solitudes, endowed each with
the power of satisfying to the full his particular wants .'
God has room enough for a universe of separate, lone-
ly, silent beings, of selfish, unshared enjoyment. But,
through the whole range of nature, we find nothing in-
sulated, nothing standing alone. Union is the law of
his creation. Even matter is an emblem of universal
sympathy, for all its particles tend towards one another,
and its great masses are bound into one system by
mutual attraction. How much more was the human
race made for sympathy and mutual aid ! How plain
is the social destination of man ! born, as he is, into
the arms of love, sustained from the beginning by hu-
man kindness, endowed with speech, and plunged among
fellow-beings to whose feelings he cannot but respond,
into whose hearts he yearns to pour his own, and whose
rights, feelings, and interests are commended to his re-
gard by a law of love and justice written within him by
a Divine hand. Can we ask why such beings are gath-

OF THE REV. DR. TUCKERMAN. 95

ered into cities ? Is it not, that they should propose a
common weal ? Is it not, that they should desire and
seek each other's highest good ? What is the happiest
community ? What the city which should be chosen
above all others as our home ? It is that the members
of which form one body, in which no class seeks a mo-
nopoly of honor or good, in which no class is a prey
to others, in which there is a general desire that every
human being may have opportunity to develope his
powers. What is the happiest community .'' It is not
that in which the goods of life are accumulated in a few
hands, in which property sinks a great gulf between dif-
ferent ranks, in which one portion of society swells with
pride, and the other is broken in spirit ; but a commu-
nity in which labor is respected, and the means of com-
fort and improvement are liberally diffused. It is not
a community in which intelligence is developed in a
k\v^ whilst the many are given up to ignorance, super-
stition, and a gross animal existence ; but one in which
the mind is so reverenced in every condition that the
opportunities of its culture are afforded to all. It is a
community in which religion is not used to break the
many into subjection, but is dispensed even to the
poorest, to rescue them. from the degrading influence of
poverty, to give them generous sentiments and hopes, to
exalt them from animals into men, into Christians, into
children of God. This is a happy community, where
human nature is held in honor ; where, to rescue it from
ignorance and crime, to give it an impulse towards
knowledge, virtue, and happiness, is thought the chief
end of the social union.

It is the unhappiness of most large cities, that, in-
stead of this union and sympathy, they consist of dif-

9© DISCOURSE ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER

ferent ranks so widely separated as, indeed, to form
different communities. In most large cities there may
be said to be two nations, understanding as little of one
another, having as little intercourse, as if they lived in
different lands. In such a city as London the distance
of a few streets only will carry you from one stage of
civilization to another, from the excess of refinement to
barbarism, from the abodes of cultivated intellect to
brutal ignorance, from what is called fashion to the
grossest manners ; and these distinct communities know
comparatively nothing of each other. There are trav-
ellers from that great city who come to visit our Indians,
but who leave at home a community as essentially bar-
barous as that which Hhey seek, who, perhaps, have
spent all their lives in the midst of it, giving it no
thought. To these travellers a hovel in one of the sub-
urbs which they have left would be as strange a place
as the wigwam of our own forests. They know as lit-
tle what thousands of their own city suffer, to what ex-
tremities thousands are reduced, by what arts thousands
live, as they know of the modes of life in savage tribes.
How much more useful lessons would they learn, and
how much holier feelings would be awakened in them,
were they to penetrate the dens of want, and woe, and
crime, a few steps from their own door, than they gain
from exploring this new world ! And what I say of
London is true also of this city in a measure. Not a
few grow up and die here without understanding how
multitudes live and die around them, without having de-
scended into the damp cellar where childhood and old
age spend day and night, winter and summer, or with-
out scaling the upper room which contains within its
narrow and naked walls, not one, but two and even

OF THE REV. DR. TUCKERMAN. 97

three families. They see the poor in the street, but
never follow them in thought to their cheerless homes,
or ask how the long day is filled up. They travel, in
books at least, to distant regions, among nations of dif-
ferent languages and complexions, but are strangers to
the condition and character of masses who speak their
native tongue, live under their eye, and are joined with
them for weal or woe in the same social state. This
estrangement of men from men, of class from class, is
one of the saddest features of a great city. It shows
that the true bond of communities is as yet imperfectly
known.

The happy community is that in which its members
care for one another, and in which there is, especially,
an interest in the intellectual and moral improvement of
all. That sympathy which provides for the outward
wants of all, which sends supplies to the poor man's
house, is a blessed fruit of Christianity ; and it is happy
when this prevails in and binds together a city. But
we have now learned that the poor are not to be essen-
tially, permanently aided by the mere relief of bodily
wants. We are learning that the greatest efforts of a
community should be directed, not to relieve indigence,
but to dry up its sources, to supply moral wants, to
spread purer principles and habits, to remove the temp-
tations to intemperance and sloth, to snatch the child
from moral perdition, and to make the man equal to his
own support by awakening in him the spirit and the
powers of a man. The glory and happiness of a com-
munity consists in vigorous efforts, springing from love,
sustained by faith, for the diffusion, through all classes,
of intelligence, of self-respect, of self-control, of thirst
for knowledge, and for moral and religious growth.

VOL. VI. 9

98 DISCOURSE ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER

Here is the first end, the supreme interest, which a
community should propose, and in achieving it all other
interests are accomplished.

It is a plain truth, and yet how little understood ! that
the greatest thing in a city is Man himself. He is its
end. We admire its palaces ; but the mechanic who
builds them is greater than palaces. Human nature, in
its lowest form, in the most abject child of want, is of
more worth than all outward improvements. You talk
of the prosperity of your city. I know but one true
prosperity. Does the human soul grow and prosper
here .'' Do not point me to your thronged streets. I
ask. Who throng them .'' Ts it a low-minded, self-
seeking, gold-worshipping, man-despising crowd, which
I see rushing through them ? Do I meet in them, un-
der the female form, the gayly-decked prostitute, or the
idle, wasteful, aimless, profitless woman of fashion .''
Do I meet the young man showing off his pretty person
as the perfection of nature's works, wasting his golden
hours in dissipation and sloth, and bearing in his counte-
nance and gaze the marks of a profligate ? Do I meet
a grasping multitude, seeking to thrive by concealments
and frauds ? an anxious multitude, driven by fear of
want to doubtful means of gain ? an unfeeling multitude,
caring nothing for others, if they may themselves pros-
per or enjoy ? In the neighbourhood of your comfort-
able or splendid dwellings ai'e there abodes of squalid
misery, of reckless crime, of bestial intemperance, of
half-famished childhood, of profaneness, of dissoluteness,
of temptation for thoughtless youth ? And are these
multiplying with your prosperity, and outstripping and
neutralizing the influences of truth and virtue ? Then
your prosperity is a vain show. Its true use is, to make

OF THE REV. DR. TUCKERMAN. 99

a better people. The glory and happiness of a city-
consist not in the number, but the character, of its
population. Of all the fine arts in a city, the grandest
is the art of forming noble specimens of humanity. The
costliest productions of our manufactures are cheap, com-
pared with a wise and good human being. A city which
should practically adopt the principle, that man is worth
more than wealth or show, would gain an impulse that
would place it at the head of cities. A city in which
men should be trained worthy of the name would be-
come the metropolis of the earth.

God has prospered us, and, as we believe, is again
to prosper us, in our business ; and let us show our
gratitude by inquiring for what end prosperity is given,
and how it may best accomplish the end of the Giver.
Let us use it to give a higher character to our city, to
send refining, purifying influences through every depart-
ment of life. Let us especially use it to multiply good
influences in those classes which are most exposed to
temptation. Let us use it to prevent the propagation of
crime from parent to child. Ijct us use it in behalf of
those in whom our nature is most depressed, and who,
if neglected, will probably bring on themselves the arm
of penal law. Nothing is so just a cause of self-respect
in a city as the healthy, moral condition of those who
are most exposed to crime. This is the best proof that
the prosperous classes are wise, intelligent, and worthy
of their prosperity. Crime is to the state what danger-
ous disease is to the human frame, and to expel it should
be to the community an object of the deepest concern.
This topic is so important that I cannot leave it with-
out urging it on your serious thoughts.

Society has hitherto employed its energy chiefly to

100 DISCOURSE ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER

punish crime. It is infinitely more important to prevent
it ; and this I say not for the sake of those alone on
whom the criminal preys. I do not think only or chiefly
of those who suffer from crime. I plead also, and plead
more, for those who perpetrate it. In moments of
clear, calm thought I feel more for the wrong-doer than
for him who is wronged. In a case of theft, incompara-
bly the most wretched man is he who steals, not he who
is robbed. The innocent are not undone by acts of vi-
olence or fraud from which they suffer. They are in-
nocent, though injured. They do not bear the brand of
infamous crime ; and no language can express the import
of this distinction. When I visit the cell of a convict,
and see a human being who has sunk beneath his race,
who is cast out by his race, whose name cannot be pro-
nounced in his home, or can be pronounced only to
start a tear, who has forfeited the confidence of every
friend, who has lost that spring of virtue and effort, the
hope of esteem, whose conscience is burdened with ir-
reparable guilt, who has hardened himself against the ap-
peals of religion and love, here, here I see a Ruin. The
man whom he has robbed or murdered, how much hap-
pier than he ! What I want is, not merely that society
should protect itself against crime, but that it shall do
all that it can to preserve its exposed members from
crime, and so do for the sake of these as truly as for its
own. It should not suffer human nature to fall so deep-
ly, so terribly, if the ruin can be avoided. Society
ought not to breed Monsters in its bosom. If it will
not use its prosperity to save the ignorant and poor from
the blackest vice, if it will even quicken vice by its
selfishness and luxury, its worship of wealth, its scorn
of human nature, then it must suffer, and deserves to
suffer, from crime.

OF THE REV. DR. TUCKERMAN. 101

I would that, as a city, we might understand and feel
how far we are chargeable with much of the crime and
misery around us of w^hich we complain. Is it not an
acknowledged moral truth, that we are answerable for
all evil which we are able, but have failed, to prevent ?
Were Providence to put us in possession of a remedy
for a man dying at our feet, and should we withhold it,
would not the guilt of his death he at our door ? Are
we not accessory to the destruction of the blind man
who in our sight approaches a precipice and whom we
do not warn of his danger ? On the same ground much
of the guilt and misery around us must be imputed to
ourselves. Why is it that so many children in a large
city grow up in ignorance and vice ? Because that city
abandons them to ruinous influences, from which it might
and ought to rescue them. Why is beggary so often
transmitted from parent to child ? Because the public,
and because individuals, do little or nothing to break the
fatal inheritance. Whence come many of the darkest
crimes ? From despondency, recklessness, and a press-
ure of suffering which sympathy would have lightened.
Human sympathy, Christian sympathy, were it to pene-
trate the dwellings of the ignorant, poor, and suffering,
were its voice lifted up to encourage, guide, and con-
sole, and its arm stretched out to sustain, what a new
world would it call into being ! What a new city should
we live in ! How many victims of stern justice would
become the living, joyful witnesses of the regenerating
power of a wise Christian love !

In these remarks I have expressed sympathy with the

criminal ; but do not imagine that I have any desire to

screen him from that wise punishment which aims at

once to reform offenders and protect society. The

9*

102 DISCOURSE ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER

mercy which would turn aside the righteous penahies of
law is, however unconsciously, a form of cruelty. As
friends of the tempted part of the community we should
make the escape of the criminal next to hopeless. But
let not society stop here. Let it use every means in its
power of rescuing its members from the degradation and
misery of crime and public punishment. Let it especially
protect the exposed child. Here is a paramount duty
which no community has yet fulfilled. If the child be
left to grow up in utter ignorance of duty, of its Maker,
of its relation to society, to grow up in an atmosphere
of profaneness and intemperance, and in the practice of
falsehood and fraud, let not the community complain of
his crime. It has quietly looked on and seen him, year
after year, arming himself against its order and peace ;
and who is most to blame, when at last he deals the
guilty blow .'' A moral care over the tempted and igno-
rant portion of the state is a primary duty of society.

I know that objection will be made to this representa-
tion of duty. It will be said by not a few, " We have
not time to take care of others. We do our part in tak-
ing care of ourselves and our famihes. Let every man
watch over his own household, and society will be at
peace."

I reply. First, this defence is not founded in truth.
Very few can honestly say, that they have no time or
strength to spend beyond their famihes. How much
time, thought, wealth, strength, is wasted, absolutely
wasted, by a large proportion of every people ! Were
the will equal to the power, were there a fraternal con-
cern for the falling and fallen members of the com-
munity, what an amount of energy would be spent in
redeeming society from its terrible evils, without the
slightest diminution of exertion at home !

OF THE REV. DR. TUCKEEMAN. 103

But, Still more, we defeat ourselves, when we neglect
the moral state of the city where we live, under pre-
tence of caring for our families. How little may it
profit you, my friends, that you labor at home, if in the
next street, amidst haunts of vice, the incendiary, the
thief, the ruffian, is learning his lesson or preparing his
instruments of destruction ! How little may it profit
you that you are striving to educate your children, if
around you the children of others are neglected, are
contaminated with evil principles or impure passions !
Where is it that our sons often receive the most power-
ful impulses ? In the street, at school, from associates.
Their ruin may be sealed by a young female brought up
in the haunts of vice. Their first oaths may be echoes
of profaneness which they hear from the sons of the
abandoned. What is the great obstruction to our efforts
for educating our children .'' It is the corruption around
us. That corruption steals into our homes, and neutral-
izes the influence of home. We hope to keep our little
circle pure amidst general impurity. This is like striv-
ing to keep our particular houses healthy, when infection
is raging around us. If an accumulation of filth in our
neighbourhood were sending forth foul stench and pesti-
lential vapors on every side, we should not plead, as a
reason for letting it remain, that we were striving to
prevent a like accumulation within our own doors. Dis-
ease would not less certainly invade us because the
source of it was not prepared by ourselves. The in-
fection of moral evil is as perilous as that of the plague.
We have a personal interest in the prevalence of order
and good principles on every side. If any member of
the social body suffer, all must suffer with it. This is
God's ordination, and his merciful ordination. It is thus

104 DISCOURSE ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER

that he summons us to watch over our brother for his
good. In this city, where the children are taught chiefly
in pubhc schools, all parents have pecuHar reason for
seeking that all classes of society be improved.

Let me add one more reply to the excuse for neglect-
ing others drawn from the necessity of attending to our
own families. True, we must attend to our families ;
but what is the great end which we should propose in
regard to our children ? Is it to train them up for them-
selves only ? to shut them up in their own pleasures .''
to give them a knowledge by which they may serve their
private interests .'' Should it not be our first care to
breathe into thern the spirit of Christians ? to give them
a generous interest in our race ? to fit them to live and
to die for their fellow-beings .'' Is not this the true
education .'' And can we, then, educate them better
than by giving them, in our own persons, examples of a
true concern for our less prosperous fellow-creatures .''
Should not our common tones awaken in them sympathy
with the poor, and ignorant, and depraved .'' Should not
the influences of home fit them to go forth as the bene-
factors of their race .'' This is a Christian education.
This is worth all accomplishments. Give to society a
generous, disinterested son or daughter, and you will
pay with interest the debt you owe it. Blessed is that
home where such members are formed, to be heads of
future families and fountains of pure influence to the
communities of which they form a part. In this respect
our education is most deficient. Whilst we pay pro-
fusely for superficial accomplishments, very little is done
to breathe a noble, heroic, self-sacrificing spirit into the
young.

In reply to these remarks, ill-boding skepticism will

OF THE REV. DR. TUCKERMAN. 105

cry out, " Why all this labor ? Society cannot be im-
proved. Its evils cannot be done away." But this
croaking has little significance to one who believes in
Christ, the divinely ordained Regenerator of the world,
and who compares, in the light of history, the present
with past times. On these authorities, I maintain that
society caii be improved. I am confident that this city
would become a new place, a new creation, were the
intelligent and good to seek in earnest to spread their in-
telligence and goodness. We have powers enough here
for a mighty change, were they faithfully used. I would
add, that God permits evils for this very end, that they
should be resisted and subdued. He intends that this
world shall grow better and happier, not through his own
immediate agency, but through the labors and sufferings
of benevolence. This world is left, in a measure, to
the power of evil, that it should become a monument, a
trophy, to the power of goodness. The greatness of
its crimes and woes is not a ground for despair, but a
call to greater effort. On our earth the divine Philan-
thropist has begun a war with evil. His cross is erected
to gather together soldiers for the conflict, and victory
is written in his blood. The spirit which Jesus Christ
breathes has already proved itself equal to this warfare.
How much has it already done to repress ferocity in
Christian nations, to purify domestic life, to abolish or
mitigate slavery, to provide asylums for disease and
want ! These are but its first fruits. In the progress
already made by communities under its influences we are
taught that society is not destined to repeat itself per-
petually, to stand still for ever. We learn that great
cities need not continue to be sinks of pollution. No
man has seized the grand peculiarity of the present age

106 DISCOUKSE ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER

who does not see in it the means and material of a vast
and beneficent social change. The revolution which we
are called to advance has, in truth, begun. The great
distinction of our times is a diffusion of intelligence, and
refinement, and of the spirit of progress, through a vast-
ly wider sphere than formerly. The middle and labor-
ing classes have means of improvement not dreamed of
in earlier times. And why stop here ? Why not in-
crease these means where now enjoyed ? Why not
extend them where they are not possessed ? Why shall
any portion of the community be deprived of light, of
sympathy, of the aids by which they may rise to com-
fort and virtue ?

At the present moment it is singularly unreasonable
to doubt and despair of the improvement of society.
Providence is placing before our eyes, in broad light,
the success of efforts for the melioration of human af-
fairs. I might refer to the change produced among our-
selves, within a few years, by the exertions of good men
for the suppression of intemperance, the very vice which
seemed the most inveterate, and which more than all
others spreads poverty and crime. But this moral re-
volution in our own country sinks into nothing, when
compared with the amazing and almost incredible work
now in progress on the other side of the ocean. A few
years ago, had we been called to name the country of
all others most degraded, beggared, and hopelessly
crushed, by intemperance, we should have selected
Ireland. There men and women, old and young, were
alike swept away by what seemed the irresistible tor-
rent. Childhood was baptized into drunkenness. And
novv, in the short space of two or three years, this vico
of ages has almost been rooted out. In a moral point

OF THE REV. DR. TUCKERIVIAN. 107

of view, the Ireland of the past is vanished. A new
Ireland has started into life. Three millions of her
population have taken the pledge of total abstinence, and
instances of violating the pledge are very, very rare.
The great national anniversaries, on which the whole
laboring population used to be dissolved in excess, are
now given to innocent pleasures. The excise on ardent
spirits has now been diminished nearly half a million
sterling. History records no revolution like this. It is
the grand event of the present day. Father Matthew,
the leader in this moral revolution, ranks far above the
heroes and statesmen of the times. As Protestants,
we smile at the old legends of the Catholic Church ;
but here is something greater, and it is true. However
we may question the claims of her departed saints, she
has a living minister, if he may be judged from one
work, who deserves to be canonized, and whose name
should be placed in the calendar not far below Apos-
tles. And is this an age in which to be skeptical as to
radical changes in society, as to the recovery of the
mass of men from brutal ignorance and still more brutal
vice .''

The remarks which have now been made are needed
at the present moment. Our city is growing, and we
are impatient for its more rapid growth, as if size and
numbers were happiness. We are anxious to swell our
population. Is it not worth our while to inquire, what
kind of a population we are to gather here .'' Are we
so blind as to be willing and anxious to repeat the ex-
perience of other cities .'' Are we willing to increase
only our physical comforts, our material wealth ? Do
we not know that great cities have hitherto drawn to-
gether the abandoned ? have bred a horde of ignorant,

108 DISCOURSE ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER

profligate, criminal poor ? have been deformed by the
horrible contrasts of luxury and famine, of splendor and
abject woe ? Do we not know that among the indigent
and laborious classes of great cities the mortality is fear-
fully great in comparison with that of the country ? a re-
sult to be traced to the pestilential atmosphere which
these people breathe, to the filth, darkness, and damp-
ness of their dwellings, to the suffering, comfortless
condition of their children, and to the gross vices which
spring up from ignorance and destitution. Do we want
no better destiny for this our dear and honored metro-
polls ? You will not suspect me of being a foe to what
are called improvements. Let our city grow. Let
railroads connect it with the distant West. Let com-
merce link it with the remotest East. But, whilst its
wealth and numbers grow, let its means of intelligence,
religion, virtue, domestic purity, and fraternal union
grow faster. Let us be more anxious for moral than
physical growth. May God withhold prosperity, unless
it is to be inspired, hallowed, ennobled by public spirit,
by institutions for higher education, and by increasing
concern of the enlightened and opulent for the ignorant
and poor ! If prosperity is to narrow and harden us, to
divide us into castes of high and low, to corrupt the rich
by extravagance and pride, and to create a more reck-
less class of poor, then God avert it from us ! But pros-
perity need not be so abused. It admits of noble uses.
It may multiply the means of good. It may multiply
teachers of truth and virtue. It may make the desert
places of society blossom as the rose. To this end
may our prosperity be consecrated. Thus may we re-
quite the Author of all good.

How we may accomplish the good work now set be-

OF THE REV. DR. TUCKERMAN. 109

fore US I have not lime to say. I would only ask your
attention to one means of improving our city, to which
our attention is particularly called by the occasion which
has brought us together. I refer to the Ministry at
Large. The reasons of this institution are too obvious
to require labored exposition. That those classes of
society which enjoy fewest advantages of education pe-
culiarly need instruction and the voice of the living
teacher ; that those whose habits, conditions, and wants
exclude them, in effect, from our churches should be
visited in their homes by the ministers of Christianity,
who does not see and acknowledge ? If we, with every
means of culture, need the Christian ministry, the poor
need it more. Is it not a duty, and should we not re-
joice, to send forth faithful, enlightened men whose
office shall be, to strengthen those whom corrupt in-
fluences are sweeping fram duty with peculiar power,
to guide those who have no other counsellor, to admon-
ish and cheer those who are pressed with heaviest temp-
tations, to awaken the minds of those who are almost
unconscious of their intellectual powers, to breathe for-
titude into those who suffer most, to open a better world
to those to whom this world is darkened, and, above all,
to snatch their children from ruin, to protect the young
who seem borne to a heritage of want or crime .'' The
ministry devoted to these offices is, undeniably, a wise.
Christian, noble institution. This evening you are call-
ed to contribute to its support. Do so cheerfully. You
are not called to uphold a plan of doubtful charity, or
to send teachers to remote regions, where years of
anxious labor must be spent on an unbroken, unthankful
soil before the fruit can appear. You are invited to
sustain an institution seated in the heart of our city, and

VOL. VI. 10

110 DISCOURSE ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER

Avhich, as you know, is sending the waters of life through
our own population. Its chapels, Sunday schools, li-
brai'ies, are in the midst of you. The doors to which
its ministers carry counsel and consolation are near your
own. You see its influences this moment in these child-
ren. Its aim is, to remove the saddest features of our
civilization, the deep corruption of great cities ; and in
the energy which it now puts forth we have a pledge of
a happier era, in which society will prosper without the
terrible sacrifice of so many of its members. May this
good work go on and spread, and may future genera-
lions bless us for saving them from some of the worst
evils which darken our own age !

I have now closed my remarks on the general topic
suggested by this occasion. But the work of the Min-
i-itry for the Poor has brought to my mind solemn and
ter.der thoughts, which I know you will not think foreign
to our present meeting, and which it will be a relief to
my own spirit to express. The Ministry at Large in
this city was chiefly originated and established by one
of my earliest, dearest friends, who closed his eyes not
many months since on a foreign shore. Allow me to
pay a tribute to his memory ; and in doing this allow
me' to speak with the freedoiB of friendship. I have
not labored to collect materials for a regular history
of this distinguished man, for I believe that I shall be
more just to his memory in giving reminiscences of our
long intercourse than in reporting a series of events. I
will utter with all simplicity what rises to my memory,
and I hope that the clear image which I bear of my de-
]xuted friend may be transferred to the hearts of my
Leai'ers.

OF THE REV. DR. TUCKERMAN. Ill

My acquaintance with Joseph Tuckerman began
about forty-seven years ago, and during most of the
time which has since elapsed we lived together as broth-
ers, communicating thoughts, feelings, reproofs, encour-
agements, with a faithfulness not often surpassed. I
think of him with peculiar pleasure, as he was, perhaps,
the most signal example within my remembrance of
Improvement ; of a man overcoming obstacles, and
making progress under disadvantages. When I first
met him in college he had the innocence of childhood ;
he was sympathizing, generous, without a stain of the
vices to which youth is prone ; but he did not seem to
have any serious views of life. Three years he passed
almost as a holyday, unconscious of his privileges, un-
interested in his severer studies, surrendering himself to
sportive impulses, which, however harmless in them-
selves, consumed the hours which should have been
given to toil. How often has he spoken to me with
grief and compunction of his early wasted life ! In his
last college year a change began, and the remote cause
of it he often spoke of with lively sensibility. His moth-
er, he was accustomed to say, was one of the best of
women. She had instilled into him the truths of reh-
gion with a mother's love, tempered with no common
wisdom. The seed was sown in a kindly nature. The
religious principle, which at first had only been a re-
straint from evil, began to incite to good ; and to this
the progress and greatness of his life were mainly due.
On leaving college he gave himself to the Christian min-
istry ; but, with the unchastened inconsideration of his
youth, he plunged into its duties with little preparation.
The consequence was a succession of mortifications,
most painful at the time, but of which he afterwards

112 DISCOURSE ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER

spoke as a merciful discipline. So unpromising was the
opening of a career of singular energy and usefulness.

By the kind ordination of Providence he was settled
in a small, obscure parish, which offered nothing to
gratify ambition or to dissipate the mind. Years passed
in a life which we should call monotonous, but which
was singularly fitted to give him the calmness and steadi-
ness which he needed. Here he became a student, a
faithful, laborious student, and accumulated much know-
ledge, and devoted no little time to the thorny topics of
theology. Thus the defects of his early intellectual
training were repaired, and his faculties sharpened and
invigorated.

He was not, however, made to wear out life in such
pursuits. His strength did not lie in abstract specula-
tion. Had he given himself to this, he would never
have forced his way to new or great views. His heart
was his great power. To his moral, religious, benevo-
lent sentiments he owed, chiefly, the expansion of his
intellectual nature. Haying laid a good foundation by
study, an unerring instinct taught him that study was not
his vocation. His heart yearned for active life. He
became more and more penetrated with the miseries and
crimes of the world. As he sat in his lonely study, the
thought of what men endured on the land and the sea
withdrew him from his books. He was irresistibly at-
tracted towards his fellow-creatures, by their sufferings,
and, still more,, by a consciousness that there was some-
thing great beneath their sufferings, by a sympathy with
their spiritual wants. His study window looked on the
sea ; and the white sail, as it skirted the horizon, re-
minded him of the ignorance and moral perils of the
sailor ; and, accordingly, he was the first man in the

OF THE REV. DK. TUCSm^IAN. 113

country to make an effort "for the improvement and in-
struction of this class of men. The society which he
instituted for this end did not answer its purpose ; for he
knew httle or nothing of the people he wished to serve,
nor was the community then awake, as it now is, to the
work of reform. But the spirit which was moving in
him was not depressed by failure. He soon gave him-
self with zeal to the missionary cause ; thought, talked,
and wrote about it with characteristic energy ; and, had
not family ties prevented, would have devoted himself,
I believe, to the service of the heathen.

Whilst the passion for conflict with evil was strug-
gling within him his health failed, and for a time he had
reason to fear that he was to be cut off from usefulness.
But the same gracious Providence which had ordained
with signal kindness the events of his past existence was
guiding him through this dark passage to the great sphere
and purpose of his life. His disease incapacitated him
for answering the demand made upon his voice by the
pulpit. He felt that he must cease from regular preach-
ing ; and what, then, was he to do ? In a favored hour
the thought of devoting himself to the service of the
poor of this city entered his mind, and met a response
within which gave it the character of a Divine monition.
He consulted me ; and, in obedience to a long-rooted
conviction, that society needs new ministries and agen-
cies for its redemption, and that men inspired with self-
sacrificing zeal for its redemption are God's best gifts to
the world, I encouraged his faith and hope.

At first he entered almost tremblingly the houses of

the poor where he was a stranger, to offer his sympathy

and friendship. But " the sheep knew the voice of the

shepherd." The poor recognized by instinct their friend,

10*

114 DISCOURSE ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER

and from the first moment a relation of singular tender-
ness and confidence was established between them.
That part of his life I well remember, for he came often
to pour into my ear and heart his experience and suc-
cess. I well remember the effect which contact with
the poor produced on his mind. He had loved them
when he knew little of them, when their distresses came
to him through the imagination. But he was a proof
that no speculation or imagination can do the work of
actual knowledge. So deep was the sympathy, so in-
tense the interest, which the poor excited in him, that it
seemed as if a new fountain of love had been opened
within him. No favorite of fortune could have repaired
to a palace, where the rays of royal favor were to be
centred on him, with a more eager spirit and quicker
step than our friend hastened to the abodes of want in
the darkest alleys of our city. How often have I stood
humbled before the deep spiritual love which burst from
him in those free communications which (ew enjoyed
beside myself. I cannot forget one evening, when, in
conversing with the late Dr. Follen and myself on the
claims of the poor, and on the cold-heartedness of so-
ciety, he not only deeply moved us, but filled us with
amazement, by his depth of feeling and energy of utter-
ance ; nor can I forget how, when he left us. Dr. Fol-
len, a man fitted by his own spirit to judge of greatness,
said to me, " He is a great man."

This strong love for his fellow-creatures was not a
wild enthusiasm. It was founded on clear, deliberate
perception of the spiritual nature, the immortal destina-
tion, of every human being. Whoever discerns truly
and feels deeply this greatness of humanity, this relation
of the soul to God, must, indeed, pass for an enthusiast
In the present day ; for our state of society is, in a

OF THE REV. DR. TUCEERMAN. 115

great degree, a denial of the higher rights, claims, and
destinies of a human being.

It was this love for the poor which gave to our friend's
labors their efficacy, which made his ministry a living
thing, and which gave it perpetuity. This house and
our other chapels had their foundation in this love. He
could not be kept from the poor. Cold, storms, sick-
ness, severe pain, could not shut him up at home. Noth-
ing but his domestic ties prevented him from taking up
his abode among the indigent. He would sometimes
say, that, could he, on leaving the world, choose his
sphere, it would be that of a ministering spirit to the
poor ; and if the spirits of departed good men return to
our world, his, I doubt not, might be found in the haunts
of want and woe. In this, as I have already said, there
was no blinding enthusiasm. He saw distinctly the vices
which are often found among the poor, their craft, and
sloth, and ingratitude. His ministry was carried on in
the midst of their frequent filth and recklessness. The
coarsest realities pressed him on every side. These
were not the scenes to make an enthusiast. But amidst
these he saw, now the fainter signs, now the triumphs, of
a divine virtue. It was his delight to relate examples of
patience, disinterestedness, piety, amidst severest sufier-
iugs. These taught him, that, in the poorest hovels, he
was walking among immortals, and his faith in the di-
vinity within the soul turned his ministry into joy.

Dr. Tuckerman has sometimes been called the found-
er of the Ministry at Large. If by this language be
meant that he first planned and established a distinct
ministry for the poor, the language is incorrect. Before
his time there had been men who had devoted them-
selves exclusively and faithfully to the rehgious instruc-

116 DISCOURSE ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER

lion of those who cannot be gathered into the ordinary
places of worship. His merit lay in giving a new life
to the work, in showing what it could do, in raising it
from neglect to a high place among the means of re-
generating the world, and in awakening new hopes of
the improvement of what had been looked on as the
hopeless portion of society. The greatest benefactors
of men are, not so much those who discover or contrive
wholly original and untried modes of action, as those
who seize on familiar means or agencies and exalt them
into new powers. Our friend had hardly entered into
his ministry when he discovered its capacities. He saw
that it opened a sphere of usefulness which had hardly
been dreamed of. With prophetic faith, he threw into
it his whole soul ; and his example and success raised
up others to confide in and to wield the same power.
He may thus be said, in an important sense, to have
established this ministry. Through him it has taken root
in men's faith. It has passed, with all the energy which
he imparted to it, into other hands, and is seen and felt
to deserve a place among our permanent institutions.
Much of this success was, undoubtedly, due to his
singleness of heart ; but much, also, to his clear insight
into the principles of human nature which rendered the
poor open to good influences, and into the means by
which human beings in their condition may be most
effectually approached.

In carrying on this great work Dr. Tuckerman did
not stand alone. He received important aids from
sympathizing friends. He began his labors under the
patronage of the American Unitarian Association. At
length, to insure the continuance of the Ministry at Large
and to extend its operation, a union, or, as it is called, a

OF THE REV. DR. TUCKERMAN. 117

Fraternity, of several churches in the city was formed,
to take this important work under its guidance and care.
There were some among us who had come to feel that
a Christian church was established not only for the edifi-
cation of its own members, but for the general cause of
Christianity ; and that it was especially bound to extend
the means of moral and religious instruction to such
families or individuals in its neighbourhood as, from
poverty, or any other causes, were deprived of the bene-
fit of the pubhc ordinances of religion. In conformity
to this idea the Fraternity was formed, on a simple but
efficient plan. In each of the churches disposed to co-
operate for the support of the Ministry at Large a branch-
association is estabhshed, the members of which con-
tribute to this work according to their means or sense of
duty, and which is represented in a central board, to
whose discretion the management of the whole concern
IS intrusted. By this arrangement various good ends
are accomplished. The Ministry of the Poor has be-
come linked with our most important religious institu-
tion, and may be hoped to partake of the durableness
of the regular ministry. The churches are knit together
by a new bond, not one of creeds, or tribunals, or organi-
zations to accumulate power, but the holy bond of chari-
ty ; and, still more, they are brought to recognize dis-
tinctly and practically their obligation to look beyond
themselves, and to labor for the extension of Christian
truth and virtue.

This association gave but a small salary to Dr.
Tuckerman, but he desired nothing beyond what was
necessary to save him from debt ; and this he did desire.
On this point he was peculiarly sensitive, so much so
that a notice of him would be imperfect in which this

118 DISCOURSE ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER

trait should be omitted. He shrunk from the slightest
pecuniary embarrassment as an intolerable evil. " Owe
no man any thing," was a precept which he kept in
sight in all his domestic arrangements ; and, by his strict
economy and wise providence, he was able to spend a
long life and bring up a large family without once an-
ticipating his income and without contracting a debt.
Some of his friends, of looser habits, received lessons
of wisdom and reproof in this respect from his counsel
and example.

As to the great ideas which ruled over and guided his
ministry, and as to the details of his operations, they
ma}' be gathered best from the Reports which he was
accustomed to make to the societies under whose pat-
ronage he acted. He published, indeed, a volume on
this subject ; but it is hardly worthy of his abilities or
his cause. It was prepared under the pressure of dis-
ease, when his constitution was so exhausted by exces-
sive labor that he was compelled to forego all out-door
duties. He wrote it with a morbid impatience, as if he
might be taken away before giving it to the world. It
ought, in truth, to be regarded as an extemporaneous
effusion. It was hurried through the press whilst the
friends whom he had consulted were hoping that it was
undergoing a patient revision. Thus hastily composed,
it was necessarily diffuse, a fault which marks his most
careful writings. It might, indeed, have been compress-
ed to half the size ; and, as might be expected, it fell
almost dead from the press. This sore trial he bore
with great equanimity ; but he felt it deeply. The sad-
dest words I heard from him in his sickness were those
in which he expressed his regrets at having precipitated
this publication.

OF THE REV. DR. TUCKERMAN. 119

It is in his Reports, chiefly, that the history of his
ministry is to be studied. These are a treasure for the
man vvlio would act wisely on the poor. They are rec-
ords of an uncommonly v^arious experience. They
show his insight into the temptations, perils, hearts, of
the depressed and indigent ; and, whilst exposing their
errors and sins, breathe a never-failing sympathy. It is
easy to see in these that the great principle which ani-
mated his ministry was an immovable faith in God's
merciful purposes towards the poor. Their condition
never, for a moment, seemed to him to separate them
from their Creator. On the contrary, he felt God's
presence in the narrow, comfortless dwelling of the poor
as he felt it nowhere else.

His perpetual recognition of the spiritual, immortal
nature of the poor gave to all his intercourse a charac-
ter of tenderness and respect. He spoke to them plain-
ly, boldly, but still as to the children of the same infi-
nite Father. He trusted in man's moral nature, how-
ever bruised and crushed ; he was sure that no heart
could resist him, if he could but convince it of his sin-
cere brotherly concern. One rule he observed almost
too instinctively to make it a rule. He always spoke
encouragingly. He felt that the weight under which the
poor man's spirit was already sinking needed no addi-
tion from tTie harshness of his spiritual guide. He went
forth in the power of brotherly love, and found it a di-
vine armor. On this point too much cannot be said.
The city of Boston has the honor, above all cities, of
proving how much can be accomplished by a generous,
affectionate mode of speech and action among those
classes of society which it has been thought can only
be reached by menace, sternness, and terror. Dr.

120 DISCOURSE ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER

Tuckerman and his successors, in their intercourse with
tlie poor, and the Rev. Mr. Taylor, in his labors among
seamen, have taught us that men, in the most unprom-
ising conditions, are to be treated as men ; that under
coarse jackets, and even rags, may be found tender and
noble hearts ; and that the heart, even when hardened,
still responds to the voice of a true friend and brother.
The horrible thought, that certain portions of society
are to be kept down by appeals to their superstition and
fear, has here received a refutation very cheering to the
friends of humanity. Dr. Tuckerman carried among
the poor his own highest views of religion, and often
gpoke to me of the eagerness with which they were re-
ceived. He was, indeed, too wise a man to give them
in an abstract form, or in technical language. They
were steeped in his heart before they found their way to
his lips ; and, flowing warm and fresh from this foun-
tain, they were drunk in as living waters by the thirsty
souls of the poor.

A great secret of Dr. Tuckerman's success lay in
his strong interest in individuals. It was not in his na-
ture to act on masses by general methods ; he threw his
soul into particular cases. Every sufferer whom he
visited seemed to awaken in him a special affection and
concern. I i-emember well the language which he once
used in regard to a man who had gone far astray. He
said to me with deep emotion, " I want that man's soul;
I must save him." He made the worst feel that they
had a friend, and by his personal interest linked them
anew with their race.

Let me add another explication of his success. He
sought for something to love in all. He seized on any
thing good which might remain in the fallen spirit ; on

OF THE REV. DE. TUCKERIVIAN. 121

any domestic affection, any generous feeling, which
might have escaped the wreck of the character. If he
could but touch one chord of love, one tender recollec-
tion of home, one feeling of shame or sorrow for the
past, no matter how faintly, he rejoiced and took cour-
age, like the good physician who, in watching over the
drowned, detects a flutter of the pulse, or the feeblest
sign of life. His hope in such eases tended to fulfil it-
self. His tones awakened a like hope in the fallen.
" He did not break the bruised reed, or quench the
smoking flax."

He began his ministry expecting to accomplish his
work by visiting and conversation, and this he always
relied on as the most important means of usefulness.
But he soon found that social worship could not be dis-
pensed with, that this was a want of human nature ; that
the poor, by the mere circumstance of leaving their
homes and coming together in decent apparel for the
worship of God, received a salutary impulse, and that
in this way they could be , brought most effectually to
act on one another for good. He therefore resumed
preaching, though unequal to the effort. The effect of
this new situation in awakening his powers as a preach-
er was striking. In his sermons written for common
congregations he had never been very attractive ; but
his free, extemporaneous, fervent address drew round
him a crowd of poor who hung on his lips ; and those
who were not poor were moved by his fervent utter-
ance. His idea of preaching underwent a great change.
Whilst abstaining from public complaint, he would in
private mourn over the lifeless discussions of the pulpit,
which too often make the church cold as the grave.

His influence over the poor was a good deal increased

VOL. VI. 11

122 DISCOURSE ON THE LIFE AND CHAJIACTER

by the variety of forms in which he exerted it. He
was not merely a spiritual guide. He had much skill in
the details of common life, was a good economist, un-
derstood much about the trades and labors in which the
poor ai'e most occupied, could suggest expedients for
diminishing expense and multiplying comforts, and by
these homely gifts won the confidence of the poor. He
could sympathize with them in their minutest wants and
sufferings, and opened a way for his high truths by
being a wise counsellor as to their worldly interests. At
the very moment when he passed with some for an en-
thusiast, he was teaching household management to a
poor woman, or contriving employment for her husband,
or finding a place for her child.

This reminds me of one branch of his labors in which
he took special interest. He felt deeply for the child-
ren of the poor. They were in his mind habitually,
as he walked the streets, and when he entered the in-
digent dwelling. He used to stop to inquire into the
residence and history of the begging child. He visited
the market and the wharf to discover the young who
were wasting the day in sloth, taking their first lessons
in the art of theft. He was unwearied in his efix)rts to
place these children in schools ; and multitudes owe to
him their moral safety and the education which pre-
pared them for respectable lives. Through his means,
not a few, who had escaped all domestic control and
entered on the downward path of crime, were sent to
the House of Reformation ; and he delighted to meet,
or speak of, those who, under this influence, had been
restored to innocence. To the interest which he avi^ak-
ened in the unprotected children of the poor we owe
chiefly the establishment of the Farm School. If any

OF THE REV. DR. TUCKERMAN. 123

subject peculiarly occupied his thoughts and heart, it
was the duty of the city to that portion of tlie young
who, if not adopted by society, must grow up to guilt
and shame and public punishment. If his benevolence
ever broke out in bitter reproach, it was in speaking of
the general insensibihty to the neglected child, trained
up by its parents to beggary and fraud, accustomed to
breathe the fumes of intemperance, and left to look on
vice as its natural state. Such was his influence that
street-beggary sensibly declined among us, an effect in-
dicating an extent of good influence not easily appre-
hended.

To show his generous modes of viewing the poor,
I would state, that, for a time, he assembled the child-
ren one afternoon in the week to give them instruction
in natural history. He took great delight in this branch
of knowledge, and had stored up in his mind a large
number of facts illustrative of the wisdom and goodness
of God in the creation. These he used to unfold, and
was able to awaken the curiosity and fix the attention
of his young hearers ; of which, indeed, they furnished
proof, by giving him a portion of time usually spent in
play. His want of strength, which compelled him to
relinquish the pulpit, obliged him to give up this mode
of teaching after a short trial.

I mention these various exertions as illustrative of
the enlarged spirit which he carried into his work. His
great object was to promote religion ; but religion did
not stand alone in his mind. He felt its connexion with
intellectual cultivation, with wise household management,
with neatness and propriety of manners, and especially
with the discharge of parental duty ; and his labors may
be said to have covered almost all the departments of

124 DISCOURSE ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER

social life. The truth is, that his heart was in his work.
He did not think of it as the work of a day, or of a few
years, but of life. He wanted to grow old and die in it.
The world opened nothing to him, in all its various
callings, more honorable, more godlike. His ambition,
of which he had his share, and his disinterested and re-
ligious principles, all flowed into this channel ; so that
he acted with undivided energy, with a whole soul.
Hence he became fruitful in expedients, detected new
modes of influence, wound his way to his end gently
and indirectly, and contrived to turn almost every thing
to account. Some, indeed, complained that he dragged
his poor into all companies and conversation. But we
must learn to bear the infirmities of a fervent spirit, and
to forgive a love which is stronger than our own, though
it may happen to want the social tact in which the in-
different and trifling are apt to make the most proficiency.
On one subject Dr. Tuckerman agreed in opinion
and feeling with all who visit and labor for the poor.
He felt that the poverty of our city was due chiefly to
Intemperance, and that this enhances infinitely the woes
of a destitute condition. A poor family into which this
vice had not found its way was a privileged place in his
sight. Poverty without drunkenness hardly seemed to
rank, as an evil, by the side of that which drunkenness
had generated. If there was one of our citizens whom
he honored as eminently the friend of the poor, it was
that unwearied philanthropist who, whilst his heart and
hands are open to all the claims of misery, has selected,
as his peculiar care, the cause of Temperance.* Dr.
Tuckerman's spirit groaned under the evils of intemper-
ance, as the ancient prophets under the burden of the

* Moses Grant

OF THE REV. DR. TUCKERMAN. 125

woes which they were sent to denounce. The funaes
of a distillery were, to his keen feelings, more noisome
and deadly than the vapors of putrefaction and pesti-
lence. He looked on a shop for vending ardent spirits
as he would have looked on a pitfall opening into hell.
At the sight of men who, under all our present lights,
are growing rich by spreading these poisons through the
land, he felt, I doubt not, how the curses of the lost and
the groans of ruined wives and children were rising up
against them. I know, for I have heard, the vehemence
of entreaty with which Dr. Tuckerman sometimes ap-
proached the intemperate, and he has often related to
me his persevering efforts for their recovery. Could he
have bequeathed to the sober and Christian part of this
city and Commonwealth his intense convictions in regard
to this vice, it would soon be repressed ; the sanction
of public authority would no longer be given to its de-
testable haunts ; one chief source of the miseries of our
civilization would be dried up.

The influence of Dr. Tuckerman's labors was not
confined to this city or country. His Reports found
their way to Europe, and awakened similar exertions.
When his declining health obliged him to cross the ocean
not many years since, he met in England a cordial wel-
come from kindred spirits. His society was coveted by
the good and eminent, and his experience listened to
with profound respect. It- was his happiness to meet
there Rammohun Roy. I was informed by a friend,
who was present at their mterviews, that this wise and
great Hindoo, whose oriental courtesy overflowed to-
wards all, still distinguished our countryman by the
affectionate veneration with which he embraced him.
In France he was received with much kindness by the
11*

126 DISCOURSE ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER

Baron Degerando, the distinguished philosopher and
philanthropist, whose extensive and profound researches
into poverty, and into the means of its prevention or
cure, have left him no rival, whether in the present or
past times. This virtuous man, whose single name is
enough to redeem France from the reproach, sometimes
thrown on her, of indifference to the cause of humanity,
has testified, in private letters and in his writings, his
high consideration for the character and labors of our
departed friend. In truth, Dr. Tuckerman's influence
is now felt on both sides the ocean ; and his name, linked
as it is with the Ministry of the Poor, is one of the few
among us which will be transmitted to remote posterity.
There is hardly a more enduring monument on which a
man can inscribe his name than a beneficent institution
founded on the principles of human nature, and which is
to act on large portions of society. Schemes of policy,
accumulations of power, and almost all the writings of
an age, pass away. The men who make most noise are
lost and forgotten like the blasts of a trumpet. But in-
stitutions wrought into a people's habits, and, especially,
incorporated with Christianity, that immortal truth, that
everlasting kingdom, endure for ages. Our friend has
left a name to live; — not that a name is worth an
anxious thought; — but the ambitious, who mistake for
it the shout of a brief day, may be usefully reminded
that it is the meed of those who are toiling in obscure
paths, and on whom they hardly deign to bestow a
passing lliought. Dr. Tuckerman was not wholly raised
above this motive ; and who of us is r But his work
was incomparably dearer to him than renown ; he toiled
for years without dreaming of the reputation it was to
bestow ; and in that season of small things he used to

OF THE REV. DR. TUCKERMAN. 127

say, that, if the rich and great who helped to sustain
him could understand the dignity and happiness of his
calling, they would covet it themselves, and choose to
partake the toil which they deputed to another.

There was one testimony to his usefulness which gave
him pleasure, and that was the sympathy of Christians
who differed from him in opinion. He went among the
poor to serve the purposes of no sect, but to breathe
into them the spirit and hopes of Jesus Christ ; and in
all sects he found hearty well-wishers, and perhaps he
left on none of us a deeper impression of his piety than
on those with whose pecuharities he had least com-
munion.

Among the propitious circumstances of the life of Dr.
Tuckerman I ought not to pass over his domestic ties.
He was tnice married, and each of these connexions
gave him an invaluable friend. I was particularly ac-
quainted with his last wife, with whom a large part of
his life was spent, and I am happy to pay this tribute to
her singular worth. Her reserve and shrinking delicacy
threw a veil over her beautiful character. She was little
known beyond her home ; but there she silently spread
around her that soft, pure light the preciousness of which
is never fully understood till it is quenched. The good
Providence which adapts blessings to our wants was
particularly manifested in giving to our friend such a
companion. Her calm, gentle wisdom, her sweet hu-
mility, her sympathy, which, though tender, was too
serene to disturb her clear perceptions, fitted her to act
mstinctively, and without the consciousness of either
party, on his more sanguine, ardent mind. She was
truly a spirit of good, diffusing a tranquillizing influence
too mildly to be thought of, and therefore more sure.

128 DISCOUllSE ON THE LIFE AA'D CHARACTER

The blow which took her from him left a wound which
time could not heal. Had his strength been continued,
so that he could have gone from the house of mourning
to the haunts of poverty, he would have escaped, for a
good part of the day, the sense of his bereavement.
But a few minutes' walk in the street now sent him
wearied home. There the loving eye whicli had so long
brightened at his entrance was to shed its mild beam on
him no more. There the voice that had daily inquired
into his labors, and like another conscience had whisp-
ered a sweet approval, was still. There the sympathy
which had pressed with tender hand his aching head,
and by its nursing care had postponed the hour of ex-
haustion and disease, was gone. Hgv was not, indeed,
left alone ; for filial love and reverence spared no sooth-
ing offices ; but these, though felt and spoken of as most
precious, could not take the place of what had been re-
moved. This grea-t loss produced no burst of grief. It
was a still, deep sorrow, the feeling of a mighty void,
the last burden which the spirit can cast olF. His at-
tachment to life from this moment sensibly declined. In
seasons of peculiar sensibility he wished to be gone.
He kept near him the likeness of his departed friend,
and spoke to me more than once of the solace which he
had found in it, as what I in my more favored lot could
not comprehend. He heard her voice from another
world, and his anticipations of that world, always strong,
became now more vivid and touching.

Enough has been said to illustrate the singular social
virtues of Dr. Tuckerman. It is, however, true, that,
in his casual intercourse with strangers, he did not make
as favorable an impression as might have been expected
from such a man. He seemed, to those who saw him

OF THE REV. DR. TUCKERMAN. 129

seldom, too self-conscious. His excitable temperament
sometimes hurried him into extravagance of speech. His
feelings sometimes prevailed over his judgment. He
wanted skill to detect the point beyond which the sym-
pathy of the hearer could not follow him, so that he some-
times seemed to exact undue attention. The truth is,
that human nature, even in very good men, is dispropor-
tioned, imperfect. We sometimes express our wonder
at the meeting of elements so incongruous in the same
character. But is there one of us so advanced as not
to know from inward experience the contradictions of
the human soul .'' It is cheering to think how little our
trust in superior goodness is impaired by these partial
obscurations. No man, perhaps, saw more distinctly
than myself the imperfections of the good man of whom
I speak. But my confidence in his great virtues was as
firm as if he had been faultless. There was a genuine-
ness in his love, his disinterestedness, of which I had no
more doubt than of his existence. If ever man gave
himself sincerely to the service of his race, it was he.
— I have made these remarks because I have long
questioned the morality and wisdom of the prevalent
style of indiscriminate praise of the dead. I fear we
give a suspiciousness to our delineations of our friends
by throwing over them the hues of unreal perfection. I
hold no man to be worthy of eulogy who cannot afford
to be spoken of as he was, who, after the worst is
known, cannot inspire reverence and love.

I have spoken of Dr. Tuckerman in relation to his
fellow-creatures ; I should wrong him greatly if I did
not speak of him in his highest relations. In these the
beauty of his character w-as most apparent to those who
saw farthest into his heart. Others admired his philan-

ISO DISCOURSE ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER

ihropy ; to me his piety was more impressive. It par-
took of the warmth of his nature, but was calmer, wiser,
purer, than his other emotions. It was simple, free,
omnipresent, coming out in unaffected utterance, color-
ing his common thoughts and feelings, and giving
strength and elevation to all his virtues. It was such
a piety as might be expected from its early history, a
piety breathed from the lips and caught from the beam-
ing countenance of an excellent mother.

His religion was of the most enlarged, liberal char-
acter. He did not shut himself up even in Christian-
ity. He took a lively interest in the testimony borne
to God by nature, and in the strivings of ancient philo-
sophy after divine truth. But Christianity was his rock,
his defence, his nutriment, his life. He understood the
character of Jesus by sympathy, as well as felt the need
of his "glad tidings." He had been a faithful student
of the Old Testament, and had once thought of pre-
paring a work on Jewish antiquities. But his growing
reverence for the New Testament led him to place a
vast distance between it and the ancient Scriptures. At
one period of his ministry, when the pressing demands
of the poor compelled him to forego study entirely, I
recollect his holding up to me a Greek Harmony of the
Four Gospels, and his saying, that here was his library,
that Christ's history was his theology, and that in the
morning he snatched a moment for this, when he could
find time for nothing else.

Religion in different individuals manifests itself in dif-
ferent forms. In him it shone forth peculiarly in faith
or filial trust, and in gratitude. His faith in God was
unbounded. It never wavered, never seemed to under-
go a momentary eclipse. I have seen him under an

OF THE REV. DR. TUCKERMAN. 131

affliction which in a few days wrought in his appearance
the change of years ; and his trust was hke a rock, his
submission entire. Much as he saw of the crimes and
miseries of hfe, no doubt of the merciful purposes of
God crossed his mind. Some ray of Divine goodness
streamed forth from the darkest trials and events. Un-
doubtedly his own love for the poor helped him to com-
prehend, as [ew do, how God loved them. The whole
creation spoke to him of the paternal character and in-
finite glory of its Author. His filial piety called forth
in him powers which would otherwise have slumbered.
He was naturally wanting in the poetical elenient. He
had little relish for music or the fine arts, and took no
great pleasure in the higher works of imagination. But
his piety opened his eye, ear, heart, to the manifesta-
tions of God in his works, revealed the beauty which
surrounded him, and in this way became a source of
sublime joy. On such a mind religious controversies
could take but a slight hold. He outgrew them, and
hardly seemed to know that they existed. That which
pervades, tranquillizes, and exalts the souls of all Chris-
tians he understood ; and in his busy life, which carried
him from his study, he was willing to understand nothing
more.

Congenial with this cheerful faith was the spirit of
gratitude. In this he was probably the more eminent
because it was favored by his temperament. He was
naturally happy. There were next to no seeds of
gloom, depression, in his nature. Life, as he first knew
it, was bright, joyous, unclouded ; and to this cause
mainly the volatility of his- early years was to be as-
cribed. As the magnet searches out and gathers round
itself the scattered ore with which it has affinity, so his

132 DISCOUKSE ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER

spirit selected and attached instinctively to itself the
more cheerful views of Providence. In such a nature
piety naturally took the form of gratitude. Thanks
were the common breathings of his spirit. His lot
seemed to him among the most favored on earth. His
blessings did not wait to be recalled to his thoughts by
a set, labored search. They started up of themselves,
and stood before him robed in celestial hght by associ-
ation with the Goodness which bestowed them.

From these elements of his piety naturally grew up
a hope of future glory, progress, happiness, more un-
mixed than I have known in others. The other world
is commonly said to throw a brightness over the present.
In his case the present also threw a brightness over the
future. His constant experience of God's goodness
awakened anticipations of a larger goodness hereafter.
He would talk with a swelling heart, and in the most
genuine language, of immortality, of heaven, of new
access to God. In truth, his language was such as
many good men could not always join in. The con-
scious unworthiness of many good men throws occa-
sional clouds over the future. But no cloud seemed
ever to dim his prospect ; not that he was unconscious
of unworthiness ; not that he thought of approaching
Infinite Purity with a claim of merit ; such a feeling
never crossed his mind. But it was so natural to him
to enjoy, his sense of God's constant goodness was so
vivid, and Christ's promises so accordant with his ex-
perience, that heaven came to him as a reality without
the ordinary effort which the faith and hope of most
men require.

In his last sickness his character came out in all its
beauty. He had not wholly lost the natural love of

OF THE REV. DR. TUCKER]VLA.N. 133

life. At times, when unpromising symptoms seemed to
be giving way, he would use the means of recovery
with hope. But generally he felt himself a dying man,
whose chief work was finished, who had little to do with
the world but to leave it. I have regretted that I did
not take notes of some of his conversations. It was
unsafe for him to talk, as the least excitement increased
his burning fever ; but when I would start an interesting
topic a flood of thoughts would rush into his mind and
compel him to give them utterance. The future state
was, of course, often present to him ; and his concep-
tions of the soul's life and progress, in its new and near-
er relations to God, to Christ, to the just made per-
fect, seemed to transport him, for a time, beyond the
darkness and pains of his present lot. To show that
tJiere was no morbidness in these views, I ought to ob-
serve that they were mingled with the natural tastes and
feelings which had grown from his past life. In his
short seasons of respite from exhaustion and suffering
he would talk with interest of the more important events
of the day, and would seek recreation in books which
had formerly entertained him. He was the same man
as in health, with nothing forced or unnatural in his ele-
vation of mind. He had always taken great pleasure
in the writings of the moralists of antiquity, and perhaps
the last book I put into his hands was Cicero's Tus-
culan Questions, which he read with avidity and delight.
So comprehensive was his spirit, that, whilst Christ was
his hope, and Christian perfection his aspiration, he still
rejoiced to discern in the great Roman, on whom Chris-
tian truth had not yet dawned, such deep reverence for
the majesty of virtue. As might be expected, " His
ruling passion was strong in death." To the last mo-
voL. vr. 12

134 DISCOURSE ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER

ment of my intercourse with him the poor were in his
heart. As he had given them his hfe, so death could
not divide him from them.

One affecting view remains to be given. Dr. Tuck-
erman was a martyr to his cause. That his hfe was
shortened by excessive toil cannot be doubted. His
friends forewarned him of this result. He saw the dan-
ger himself, and once and again resolved to diminish
his labors ; but when he retreated from the poor they
followed him to his house, and he could not resist their
supplicating looks and tones. To my earnest and fre-
quent remonstrance on this point he at times replied,
that his ministry might need a victim, that labors beyond
his strength might be required, to show what it was ca-
pable of effecting, and that he was willing to suffer and
to die for the cause. Living thus, he grew prematurely
old. His walks became more and more narrow. Then
he was imprisoned at home. The prostration of strength
was followed by a racking cough and burning fever.
As we have seen, his last sickness was a bright testi-
mony to his piety. But its end was sorrowful. By a
mysterious ordination of Providence, the capacity of suf-
fering often survives unimpaired, whilst the reason and
affections seem to decay. So was it here. In the last
hours of our friend the body seemed to prevail over the
power of thought. He died in fearful pain. He was
borne amidst agonies into the higher world. At length
his martyrdom ceased ; and who of us can utter or con-
ceive the blessedness of the spirit rising from this thick
darkness into the light of heaven ?

Such was the founder of the Ministry at Large in
this city; a man whom I thoroughly knew; a man whose
imperfections I could not but know, for they stood out

OF THE REV. DR. TUCKERMAN. 135

on the surface of his character ; but who had a great
heart, who was wilhngly a victim to the cause which in
the love and fear of God he had espoused, and who has
left behind him as a memorial, not this fleeting tribute
of friendship, but an institution which is to live for ages,
and which entitles him to be ranked among the benefac-
tors of this city and the world. When he began his
work he had no anticipation of such an influence and
such an honor. He thought that he was devoting him-
self to an obscure life. He did not expect that his
name would be heard beyond the dwellings of the poor.
He was contented with believing that here and there an
individual or a family would receive strength, hght, and
consolation from his ministry. But gradually the idea,
that he was beginning a movement that might survive
him, and might more and more repress the worst social
evils, opened on his mind. He saw more and more
clearly that the Ministry at Large, with other agencies,
was to change the aspect of a large portion of society.
It became his deliberate conviction, and one which he
often repeated, that great cities need not be haunts of
vice and poverty ; that in this city there were now
intelligence, virtue, and piety enough, could they be
brought into united action, to give a new intellectual
and moral life to the more neglected classes of society.
In this faith he acted, toiled, suffered, and died. His
gratitude to God for sending him into this field of labor
never failed him. For weeks before he left the coun-
try, never to return, T was almost the only visiter whom
he had strength to see ; and it was a joy to look on his
pale, emaciated face lighted up with thankfulness for the
work which had been given him to do, and with the
hope that it would endure and grow when he should

136 DISCOURSE ON THE LIFE AXD CHARACTER

sleep in the dust. From such a life and such a death
let us learn to love our poor and sufiering brethren ;
and as we have abihty let us send to them faithful and
living men, whose sympathy, counsels, prayers, will
assuage sorrow, awaken the conscience, touch the heart,
guide the young, comfort the old, and shed over the
dark paths of this life the brightness of the life to come.

OF THE REV. DR. TUCKERIVIAN. 137

APPENDIX.

In the preceding Discourse I have not spoken very dis-
tinctly of one part of Dr. Tuckerman's character, the
strength of his attachment to individuals. He was not
absoi'hed in one great object. The private and public
affections lived together in him harmoniously and with
equal fervor. His experience of life had not the common
effect of chilling his early enthusiasm or his susceptibility
of ardent attachment. He was true to old friends and
prepared for new ones. His strong interest and delight
in Dr. Follen and Dr. Spurzheim showed how naturally
his heart opened itself to noble-minded strangers. From
the latter his mind received a leaning towards phrenology.
When he went to England his sympathies created a home
for him wherever he stayed. Where other men would
have made acquaintance he formed friendships. One of
these was so precious to him, and contributed so much to
the happiness of both parties, that it deserves notice in a
memoir of him. I refer to his friendship with Lady By-
ron. Of his college classmates there were others as well
as myself who enjoyed much of his affection to the last.
One of these was Jonathan Phillips, Esq., whom he ac-
companied to Europe, and who had a true reverence for
his goodness. The other was Judge Story, so eminent as
a jurist at home and abroad. While the preceding Dis-
course was passing through the press I wrote to the latter,
] o *

138 DISCOURSE ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER

requesting him to communicate to me his t-eminiscences of
our friend ; and with characteristic kindness and warmth
of heart he sent me the following letter, written, as he
says, in haste, but which will give much pleasure to all
who have an interest in the deceased. I publish it the
more gladly because his views of our friend's life at col-
lege are more favorable than those which I have given.

TO THE REV. W. E. CHANNING, D. D.

Cambridge, April 10, 1841.

My Dear Sir : — I comply very cheerfully with your
request, although there are very few reminiscences of our
late lamented classmate and friend, the Rev. Dr. Tucker-
man, which I could supply, which are not already familiar
to your mind. During our collegiate life my acquaintance
with him was but slight until my junior year, when he be-
came my chum ; and so pleasant and confidential was our
intercourse during that year that we should undoubtedly
have continued chums during the remainder of our col-
lege studies, if some family arrangements had not made
it convenient for him to adopt a different course. The
change, however, did not prove the slightest interruption
to our intercourse and friendship ; and I feel great gratifi-
cation in saying, that, from that period until the close of
his life, I am not conscious that there was on either side
any abatement of mutual affection and respect ; and when-
ever and wherever we met, it was with the warm welcome
of early and unsuspected friendship.

Many of the characteristics so fully developed in his
later life were clearly manifested when our acquaintance
first commenced. During his college life he did not seem
to have any high relish for most of the course of studies
then pursued. He had an utter indifference, if not dislike,
to mathematics, and logic, and metaphysics ; and but a
slight inclination for natural philosophy. He read the pre-
scribed classical writers with moderate diligence, not so
much as a matter of taste or ambition as of duty and as a
task belonging to the recitation-room, the Latin being uni-
formly preferred to the Greek. And yet I should not say,

OF THE REV. DR. TUCKERMAN. ] 39

that he was idle or indolent, or without a strong desire of
improvement. His principal pleasure lay in a devotion to
the more open and facile branches of literature, and es-
pecially of English literature. History, moral philosophy,
poetry, the drama, and the class of studies generally known
by the name of belles-lettres, principally attracted his at-
tention ; and in these his reading was at once select and
various. The writings of Addison, Johnson, and Goldsmith
were quite familiar to him. The historical works of Robert-
son, and Gillies, and Ferguson, and other authors distin-
guished in that day, as well as the best biographical works,
were v/ithin the range of his studies. In poetry he was more
attached to those who addressed the feelings and imagina-
tion than to those who addressed the understanding, and
moralized their song in the severe language of the con-
densed expression of truth, or the pungent pointedness of
satire, or the sharp sallies of wit. Gray's Bard and Col-
lins's Ode to the Passions were his favorites ; and, above
all, Shakspeare, in whose writings he was thoroughly well
read ; and he often declaimed many of the most stirring pas-
sages with the spirit and interest of the dramatic action of
the stage. Young's Night Thoughts seemed to be almost
the only work which, from its deep and touching appeals,
and elevated devotion, and darkened descriptions of life,
and sudden bursts of eloquence and enthusiasm, made
him feel at that time the potency of genius employed in
unfolding religious truths. He possessed, also, a singular
readiness and facility in composition, perhaps what would
by some persons be deemed a dangerous facility. What
he wrote he threw off at once in the appropriate language,
rarely correcting his first sketch, and not ambitious of con-
densing or refining the materials by successive efforts.

I have thus far spoken of his tastes and intellectual pur-
suits and attachments in our college life. But what I most
delight to dwell on are his warm-hearted benevolence,
his buoyant and cheerful temper, his active, sympathetic
charity, his gentle and frank manners, and, above all, that
sunniness of soul whicii cast a bright light over all hours,
and made our fireside one of the most pleasant of all social
scenes. So uniform, indeed, was his kindness and desire
to oblige that I do not remember a single instance in which
he ever betrayed either a hastiness of temper or a flash
of resentment. He was accustomed to distribute a por-

140 DISCOURSE OJV THE LIFE AND CHARACTER

tion of his weekly allowance among the poor, and the
friendless, and the suffering. His love of morals and
virtue was as ardent as it was elevated. His conduct was
blameless and pure. I do not believe that he ever wrote
a word which, dying, he could have wished to blot on ac-
count of impurity of thought or allusion ; and his con-
versation was at all times that which might have been
heard by the most delicate and modest ears. Occasionally
his buoyancy of spirits might lead him to indulge in giddy
dreaminess, or romantic fervors, such as belong to the
untried hopes and inexperience of youth. But it might
with truth be said, that, even if he had any failings in this
respect, they leaned to virtue's side.

I confess, however, that the opening of his literary ca-
reer did not then impress me with the notion, that he
would afterwards attain in his profession and character
the eminence to which every one will now deem him justly
entitled. He seemed to want that steadiness of purpose
which looks difficulties in the face and overcomes obsta-
cles because a high object lies behind them. His mind
touched and examined many subjects, but was desultory
and varying in its efforts. I was in this view mistaken ;
and I overlooked the probable effects, upon a mind like
his, of deep religious sensibility, and, if I may so say, of
an enthusiasm for goodness, when combined with a spirit
of glowing benevolence.

When we quitted college our opportunities of familiar
intercourse, from the wide diversity of our pursuits, as well
as from our local distance, were necessarily diminished. I
saw him only at distant intervals while he was engaged in
his preparatory studies for the ministry ; and when, on
entering his study one day, 1 found him reading Gries-
bach's edition of the New Testament with intense atten-
tion, and in his comments on it, in our conversation, dis-
coursing with a force and discrimination which showed the
earnestness with which he was endeavouring to master
his profession, a new light struck upon me, and I began
to perceive that he was redeeming his time, and disciplin-
ing his thoughts to the highest purposes. During his
residence, after his settlement, at Chelsea, I saw him
frequently, either at Salem, where I then resided, or at
Chelsea, where I took occasion, on my visits to Boston,
to pass some time at his house. His improvement was

OF THE REV. DR. TUCKERMAN. 141

constantly visible ; his studies more expanded ; his knowl-
edge more exact, as well as various ; and his piety, that
beantitul ornament so deeply set in his character, shining
forth, with its deep, and mild, and benignant light, with a
peculiar attractiveness. I remember that for a long time
Tucker's Light of Nature was one of his favorite studies ;
and he made it the theme both of his praise and his criticism
at manv of our meetings. It was while he was at Chelsea,
the minister of a comparatively small and isolated parish,
that he nourished and matured the great scheme of his life
and ambition, the Ministry at Large for the Poor. I need
not dwell upon its beneficial effects, or its extraordinary
success. I deem it one of the most glorious triumphs of
Christian charity over the cold and reluctant doubts of
popular opinion. The task was full of difficulties, to ele-
vate the poor into a self-consciousness of their duty and
destiny, and to bring the rich into sympathy with them ;
to relieve want and suffering without encouraging indo-
lence or sloth ; to give religious instruction where it was
most needed, freely and without stint, and thus to widen
the sphere of virtue, as well as the motives to its practice,
among the desolate and the desponding. It ^vas, in fact,
doing what Burke has so beautifully expressed ; — it was
to remember the forgotten.

But I am wandering from my purpose, and speaking to
one who fully understands and has eagerly sirpported this
excellent institution ; and yet I think you will agree with
me in saying, that its establishment and practical success
were mainly owing to the uncompromising zeal and un-
tiring benevolence of Dr. Tuckerman. It was the crown-
ing labor of his life, and entitles him to a prominent rank
among the benefactors of mankind.

I do not know any one who exemplified in his life and
conduct a more fervent or unaffected piety than Dr.
Tuckerman did. It was cheerful, confiding, fixed, and
uniform. It was less an intellectual exercise than a hom-
age of the heart. It sprung from a profound feeling of
the mercy and goodness of God. It was reverential ;
but at the same time filial. His death was in perfect
keeping with his life ; it was a good man's end, with a
good man's Christian resignation, hope, and confidence.

It was in the summer which preceded his death, that,
on his recovery from a severe illness, he rode out to Cam-

142 DISCOURSE ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER

bridge. He came to my house, and in his warm, yet
anxious manner, said to me, "I could not pass your
house, my friend, without desiring to see you once more
before I died. I have been very ill, and, as I thought,
very near to death. But I was tranquil and resigned,
and ready to depart, if it was God's good pleasure. And
I felt no fears." He stayed with me some time, as long
as I would allow him in his then feeble state of health.
He talked over our long friendship, our youthful doings,
and our advancing years. And when we parted he bade
me a most affectionate farewell. It was our final farewell.
I saw his face no more.

I send you, my dear sir, these hasty sketches, such as
they are, with a flying pen. I cannot suppose that there
is any thing in them which would not have occurred more
forcibly to others who knew Dr. Tuckerman. But I was
unwilling to withhold my tribute to the great excellences
of his character, his zeal in all good works, and his dif-
fusive benevolence.

'' His saltern accumulem donis, et fungar inani
Munere."

Believe me, truly and affectionately,

Your Classmate and Friend,

Joseph Stort.

A friend has kindly translated the following from the
Introduction to Baron Degerando's late work on Public
Charity :

In a work recently published in Boston, by the respect-
able Dr. Tuckerman, we have a very remarkable exem-
plification of this assiduous, enlightened charity, quicken-
ed by religious sentiment. Dr. Tuckerman holds the
offices of minister at large and distributer of charity to
the indigent people of the city of Boston, and renders to
a society of which he is the delegate a yearly account of
his ministrations and observations. A work that he has
just published contains the substance of a series of pe-

OF THE REV. DR. TUOKERMAN. 143

riodical reports, which throw invaluable light upon the
condition and wants of the indigent, and the influence
which an enlightened charity can exert. As we read, we
follow the steps of the minister of the gospel, carrying
assistance and consolation into the bosom of families
overwhelmed with misfortune, and raising the debased,
reforming the depraved. In such a school we learn the
secrets of the art of benevolence. The author finds oc-
casion, in treating this subject, to rise to the highest
views of the theory and rules of this art. He makes his
readers feel all the power of Christianity for the moral
improvement of the lower classes ; he compares the legis-
lation in his own country in respect to the poor with that
of England and Scotland ;. discusses the rights of the in-
digent ; and compares the relative situations of the rich
and the poor, in order to the discovery of their mutual du-
ties. He particularly discriminates between poverty and
pauperism, and points out the grievous effects of the er-
ror which confounds them.

The following Biographical Sketch of Dr. Tuckerman
is taken from an article upon his life and character, by
Rev. E. S. Gannett, in the "Monthly Miscellany of Re-
ligion and Letters," July, 1840.

Joseph Tuckerman was born in Boston, January 18,
1778. Of the early instructions of his mother, a truly
pious woman, he always spoke with peculiar gratitude.
His youth was passed in preparation for college partly at
Phillips Academy in Andover, and partly in the family of
Rev. Mr. Thacher, of Dedham. In 1794 he entered
Harvard College, where he was graduated in 1798, as
one of the class to which Judge Story and Rev. Dr. Chan-
ning also belonged. His preparatory studies for the min-
istry were pursued under the direction of Rev. Mr.
Thacher, of Dedham. Soon after he began to preach he
received ap invitation to become the successor of Rev.
Dr. Payson at Chelsea, where he was ordained Novem-

144 DISCOURSE OS THE LIFE AND CHARACTER

ber 4, 1801. In June, 1803, he was married to a daugh-
ter of the late Samuel Parkman, Esq., of this city, who
died in the summer of 1807. In November, 1808, he
was again married, to Miss Sarah Gary, of Chelsea, who,
after thirty-one years of the most happy connexion, was
taken to a higher life, leaving a remembrance dear to the
hearts of a large circle of friends. In 1816 Mr. Tucker-
man visited England, in the hope of deriving benefit to
his health, but was absent only a short time ; after his
return he suffered much from dyspepsy, and never recov-
ered the full tone of health. He continued in the ac-
tive discharge of the duties of his ministry till the spring
of 1826, when he felt the necessity of relinquishing in
some measure the labors of the pulpit, and his mind,
which had become much interested in the condition of
the neglected poor of our cities, sought an opportunity
of conducting a ministry peculiarly suited to their Avants.
On the 4th of November, 18-6, just twenty-five years
from the day of his ordination, he preached his farewell-
sermon at Chelsea, and immediately commenced his ser-
vice in Boston, to which place he soon removed with his
family. He was at first assisted in this work by a private
association of gentlemen, who had for some time held
stated meetings for their own religious improvement and
for conference upon the means of benevolent action ; but
he was very soon appointed a Minister at Large in this
city by the Executive Committee of the American Unita-
rian Association, who became responsible for the small
salary which he received, and which for several years
was raised by the contributions of ladies in our different
congregations. In 1328 the Friend-Street Chapel was
erected for his use, as a place of worship for those whom
he had brought to a sense of the value of religious in-
stitutions, but who were unable to pay for the privileges
of the sanctuary. His untiring zeal in this ministry, the
success of his labors among the poor, and the extent of
his influence over the rich, evinced particularly in the
confidence which they reposed in him as the almoner of
their charities, were subjects of too familiar remark to
need any illustration. The ardor with which he prose-
cuted his labors was too much for his bodily strength, and
in 1833 he again visited Europe, in company with his
friend, Mr. Phillips, and passed a year abroad, princi-

OF THE REV. DR. TUCKERMAN. 145

pally in England, where he formed many valuable friend-
ships, and was instrumental in awakening much interest
in his favorite subject, the moral elevation of the neglect-
ed and vicious poor. On his return he found the Ministry
at Large placed on a more stable foundation than he had
left it, the Benevolent Fraternity of Churches having
been organized with a special view to its support. A
more commodious chapel was erected, and younger la-
borers were associated with him. His own ability to
render active service was, however, irretrievably im-
paired. The winter of 1836 — 7 he was obliged to spend
in the milder climate of St. Croix, from which he return-
ed, as it was thought, much benefited. But the vital force
was too nearly exhausted. Repeatedly prostrated by
disease, he rose only to show the steadfastness of those
principles and purposes which filled his soul, and sunk
again as if to prove the constancy of the faith which
seemed to gain new power from suffering and bereave-
ment. From a severe illness in the autumn of 1839 he
so far revived, that, after much hesitation, a voyage to
Cuba was recommended as the only means of prolong-
ing his life. He sailed for Havana, and soon sought the
interior of the island ; but a short trial proved the hope-
lessness of the attempt to recruit an exhausted frame,
and he returned, with the daughter who was his devoted
companion, to Havana, where, after some days of ex-
treme debility, attended with great suffering, he died,
April 20, 1840, in his sixty-third year.

Dr. Tuckerman received the honorary degree of Doc-
tor in Divinity from Harvard University in 1826. It was
a tribute to his ministerial fidelity. His published writings
are few, excepting those which arose from his connexion
with the Ministry at Large. One of the last services he
rendered to this institution was the preparation of a vol-
ume, which we fear has not obtained a wide circulation,
upon "The Principles and Results of the Ministry at
Large."

At a meeting of the Central Board of the Benevolent
Fraternity of Churches, May 10, 1840, the following res-
olution was unanimously passed :

" Resolved, That the death of Rev. Joseph Tuckerman, D. D.,
demands on the part of this Board an expression of their deep
sense of the value of his services to this community, and that,

VOL. VI. 13

146 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF DR. TUCKERMAN.

recognizing in him the first incumbent, if not the founder,* of the
present institution of the Ministry at Large, they cannot but ac-
knowledge the usefuhiess of a life the last years of which were
devoted to this institution, in whose service his strength was ex-
hausted ; and while they submit to the Divine will that has de-
prived tliem of the counsels and labors of this Christian philan-
thropist, they would cherish his spirit, and hold up his example
before themselves and others as a motive and a guide to future
exertions in behalf of the neglected and the sinful."

A resolution similar in character was passed at the an-
nual meeting of the American Unitarian Association,
May 26, 1840, namely :

^'■Resolved, That the death of Rev. Dr. Tuckerman, senior
Minister at Large in this city, an institution once under the care
of this Association, demands the expression of our sincere respect
for his memory, our deep gratitude for his services ; and while
we regret that his life of eminent usefulness and distinguished
Christian philanthropy is closed, we would bow with submission
to the Divine will, and gather from his example lessons to quick-
en and guide our own efforts in the cause of human happiness
and virtue."

Dr. Tuckerman 's remains were brought to this country,
and the funeral service was attended in King's Chapel,
where he had been accustomed to worship during the last
years of his life, in the afternoon of May 26. They were
afterwards deposited at Mount Auburn.

* In strictness of speech it might be doubted if Dr. Tuckerman should
be styled the founder of the Ministry at Large, as gratuitous instruction to
the poor had been given both by laymen and clergymen before his removal
to Boston. In 1822 the association to which we have adverted had estab-
lished evening religious lectures for those who attended no place of wor-
ship during the day ; and Rev. Dr. Jenks was employed by another society
in visiting and preaching to the poor. When Dr. Tuckerman came to
Boston his own mind had not clearly defined its plans of operation, and the
idea which was subsequently expanded into the institution of the Ministry
at Large had not, perhaps, proceeded beyond a general purpose of devoting
himself to the spiritual benefit of those who had no religious teacher or
friend. The Committee of tlie American Unitarian Association must also
share in the honor of establishing this ministry. But as it was his perse-
verance and success that gave both form and efficiency to the institution,
it is but a small deviation from accuracy to call him its founder.

THE PRESENT AGE.

AN ADDRESS

DELIVERED BEFORB

THE MERCANTILE LIBRARY COMPANY OF PHILADELPHIA,
May U, 184L

TO MY VENERABLE FRIEND,

JOHN VAUGHAN, Esa.,

WHO HAS MADE THE PAST GENERATION AND THE PRESENT HIS DEBTOM
BY UNWEARIED WELL-DOING,

THIS ADDRESS
IS AFFECTIONATELY AND RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED.

W. E. C.

ADDRESS ON THE PRESENT AGE.

Gentlemen of the Mercantile Library Company,

I BEG you to consider my appearance in this place
as an expression of my interest in this and in kindred in-
stitutions. I welcome them as signs of the times, as
promises and means of increased intellectual activity.
I shall be glad, if a good word or a friendly effort on
my part can serve them. I know that the lectures de-
livered before such societies are called superficial ; but
this does not discourage me. All human productions,
even those of genius, are very superficial, compared
with the unfathomable depths of truth. The simple
question is. Do these lectures rouse the mind to new
action ? Do they give it new objects of thought, and
excite a thirst for knowledge .'' I am sure that they do ;
and therefore, though the field is sometimes called hum-
ble, I enter it with pleasure. — Will you allow me to
observe, that to render lectures useful one condition is
necessary ; they must be frank, honest, free. He who
speaks must speak what he thinks ; speak courteously,
but uncompromisingly. What makes our communica-
tions unprofitable in this country is, the dread of giving
oflience, now to the majority, and now to the fashionable
or refined. We speak without force because not true
13*

150 THE PRESENT AGE.

to our convictions. A lecturer will, of course, desire
to wound no man's prejudices or feelings ; but his first
duty is to truth ; his chief power lies in simple, natural,
strong utterance of what he believes ; and he should put
confidence in his hearers that the tone of manly sincerity
will be responded to by candor and good-will.

The subject to which I call your attention is, the
Present Age ; a vast theme, demanding volumes. An
age is needed to expound an age ; and, of course, little
is to be expected in a brief hour. I profess no great
understanding of the subject, though I have given it
much thought. In truth, it cannot be grasped, as yet,
by the highest intellect. This age is the result, issue,
of all former ages. All are pouring themselves into it.
The struggles, passions, discoveries, revolutions of all
former time survive in their influences on the present
moment. To interpret the present thoroughly we must
understand and unfold all the past. This work I shall
not undertake. I am not now to be an historian. Do
not fear that I shall compel you to journey backward
to the Deluge or to Paradise. I shall look only at the
present ; nor do I think of unfolding all the present. I
shall seize on a single characteristic of our age, if not the
profoundest, yet the most prominent, and the best fitted
to an address like the present. In performing this task
my aim will be to speak the simple truth. I wish to say
what the age is, not to be its advocate ; and yet I hope
to lead you to look tenderly and trustfully on it, to love
it, and to resolve, with generous, stout hearts, that you
will serve it, as far as God may give you ability.

In looking at our age I am struck immediately with
one commanding characteristic, and that is, the tendency
in all its movements to expansion, to diffusion, to univer-

THE PRESENT AGE. 151

sality. To this I ask your attention. This tendency is
directly opposed to the spirit of exclusiveness, restric-
tion, narrowness, monopoly, which has prevailed in past
ages. Human action is now freer, more unconfined.
All goods, advantages, helps, are more open to all.
The privileged, petted individual is becoming less, and
the human race are becoming more. The multitude is
rising from the dust. Once we heard of the few, now
we hear of the many ; once of the prerogatives of a part,
now of the rights of all. We are looking as never be-
fore through the disguises, envelopments of ranks and
classes to the common nature which lies below them,
and are beginning to learn that every being who partakes
of it has noble powers to cultivate, solemn duties to per-
form, inalienable rights to assert, a vast destiny to accom-
plish. The grand idea of humanity, of the importance of
man as man, is spreading silently, but surely. Not that
the worth of the human being is at all understood as it
should be ; but the truth is glimmering through the dark-
ness. A faint consciousness of it has seized on the pub-
lic mind. Even the most abject portions of society are
visited by some dreams of a better condition for which they
were designed. The grand doctrine, that every human
being should have the means of self-culture, of progress
in knowledge and virtue, of health, comfort, and happiness,
of exercising the powers and affections of a man, this is
slowly taking its place as the highest social truth. That
the world was made for all, and not for a few ; that so-
ciety is to care for all ; that no human being shall perish
but through his own fault ; that the great end of govern-
ment is, to spread a shield over the rights of all, — these
propositions are growing into axioms, and the spirit of
them is coming forth in all the departments of life.

1 52 THE PRESENT AGE.

If we look at the various movements of our age, we
shall see in them this tendency to universality and dif-
fusion. Look first at Science and Literature. Where
is Science now ? Locked up in a few colleges, or royal
societies, or inaccessible volumes ? Are its experi-
ments mysteries for a few privileged eyes ? Are its
poitals guarded by a dark phraseology which to the
multitude is a foreign tongue ? No ; Science has now
left her retreats, her shades, her selected company of
votaries, and with familiar tone begun the work of in-
structing the race. Through the press, discoveries and
theories once the monopoly of philosophers have be-
come the property of the multitude. Its professors,
heard not long ago in the university or some narrow
school, now speak in the mechanic institute. The doc-
trine, that the laborer should understand the principles
of his art, should be able to explain the laws and pro-
cesses which he turns to account, that, instead of work-
ing as a machine, he should join intelligence to his toil,
is no longer listened to as a dream. Science, once the
greatest of distinctions, is becoming popular. A lady
gives us Conversations on Chemistry, revealing to the
minds of our youth vast laws of the universe which fifty
years ago had not dawned on the greatest minds. The
school-books of our children contain grand views of the
Creation. There are parts of our country in which Ly-
ceums spring up in almost every village for the purpose
of mutual aid in the study of natural science. The char-
acteristic of our age, then, is not the improvement of
science, rapid as this is, so much as its extension to
all men.

The same characteristic will appear, if we inquire into
the use now made of science. Is it simply a matter of

THE PRESENT AGE. 153

speculation, a topic of discourse, an employment of the
intellect ? In this case, the multitude, with all their
means of instruction, would find in it only a hurried
gratification. But one of the distinctions of our time is,
that science has passed from speculation into hfe. In-
deed, it is not pursued enough for its intellectual and
contemplative uses. It is sought as a mighty power, by
which nature is not only to be opened to thought, but to
be subjected to our needs. It is conferring on us that
dominion over earth, sea, and air, which was prophesied
in the first command given to man by his Maker ; and
this dominion is now employed, not to exalt a few, but
to multiply the comforts and ornaments of life for the
multitude of men. Science has become an inexhaustible
mechanician ; and by her forges, and mills, and steam-
cars, and printer's presses, is bestowing on millions, not
only comforts, but luxuries which were once the distinc-
tion of a few.

Another illustration of the tendency of science to ex-
pansion and universality may be found in its aims and
objects. Science has burst all bounds and is aiming to
comprehend the universe, and thus it multiplies fields of
inquiry for all orders of minds. There is no province
of nature which it does not invade. Not content with
exploring the darkest periods of human history, it goes
behind the birth of the human race, and studies the
stupendous changes which our globe experienced for
hundred of centuries, to become prepared for man's
abode. Not content with researches into visible nature,
it is putting forth all its energies to detect the laws of in-
visible and imponderable matter. Difficulties only pro-
voke it to new efforts. It would lay open the secrets
of the polar ocean and of untrodden barbarous lands.

154 THE PRESENT AGE.

Above all, it investigates the laws of social progress, of
arts and institutions of government and political econo-
my, proposing as its great end the alleviation of all hu-
man burdens, the weal of all the members of the human
race. In truth, nothing is more characteristic of our
age than the vast range of inquiry which is opening more
and more to the multitude of men. Thought frees the
old bounds to which men used to confine themselves. It
holds nothing too sacred for investigation. It calls the
past to account ; and treats hoary opinions as if they
were of yesterday's growth. No reverence drives it
back. No great name terrifies it. The foundations of
what seems most settled must be explored. Undoubted-
ly this is a perilous tendency. Men forget the limits of
their powers. They question the infinite, the unsearch-
able, with an audacious self-reliance. They shock pious
and revering minds, and rush into an extravagance of
doubt more unphilosophical and foolish than the weakest
credulity. Still, in this dangerous wildness we see
what I am stating, the tendency to expansion in the
movements of thought.

T have hitherto spoken of science ; and what is true
of science is still more true of Literature. Books are
now placed within reach of all. Works once too costly
except for the opulent are now to be found on the
laborer's shelf. Genius sends its light into cottages.
The great names of literature are become household
words among the crowd. Every party, religious or
political, scatters its sheets on all the winds. We may
lament, and too justly, the small comparative benefit
as yet accomplished by this agency ; but this ought not
to surprise or discourage us. In our present stage of
improvement, books of little worth, deficient in taste

THE PRESENT AGE. 155

and judgment, and ministering to men's prejudices and
passions, will almost certainly be circulated too freely.
Men are never very wise and select in the exercise of
a new power. Mistake, error, is the discipline through
which we advance. It is an undoubted fact, that, silent-
ly, books of a higher order are taking place of the worth-
less. Happily, the instability of the human mind works
sometimes for good as well as evil. Men grow tired at
length even of amusements. Works of fiction cease to
interest them ; and they turn from novels to books
which, having their origin in deep principles of our na-
ture, retain their hold of the human mind for ages. At
any rate, we see in the present diffusion of literature
the tendency to universality of which I have spoken.

The same tendency will appear, if we consider the
kind of literature which is obtaining the widest favor.
The works of genius of our age breathe a spirit of uni-
versal sympathy. The great poet of our times, Words-
worth, one of the few who are to live, has gone to com-
mon life, to the feelings of our universal nature, to the
obscure and neglected portions of society, for beautiful
and touching themes. Nor ought it to be said, that he
has shed over these the charms of his genius ; as if in
themselves they had nothing grand or lovely. Genius
is not a creator, in the sense of fancying or feigning
what does not exist. Its distinction is, to discern more
of truth than common minds. It sees under disguises
and humble forms everlasting beauty. This it is the
prerogative of Wordsworth to discern and reveal in the
ordinary walks of life, in the common human heart.
He has revealed the loveliness of the primitive feelings,
of the universal affections of the human soul. The
grand truth which pervades his poetry is, that the beau-

1 56 THE PRESENT AGE.

tiful is not confined to the rare, the "new, the distant, to
scenery and modes of life open only to the few ; but
that it is poured forth profusely on the common earth
and sky, that it gleams from the loneliest flower, that it
lights up the humblest sphere, that the sweetest affec-
tions lodge in lowly hearts, that there is sacredness,
dignity, and loveliness in lives which few eyes rest on,
that, even in the absence of all intellectual culture, the
domestic relations can quietly nourish that disinterest-
edness which is the element of all greatness, and with-
out which intellectual power is a splendid deformity.
Wordsworth is the poet of humanity ; he teaches reve-
rence for our universal nature ; he breaks down the
factitious barriers between human hearts.

The same is true, in an inferior degree, of Scott,
whose tastes, however, were more aristocratic. Scott
had a childish love of rank, titles, show, pageants, and,
in general, looked with keener eye on the outward life
than into the soul. Still, he had a human heart and
sympathized with his race. With few exceptions, he
was just to all his human brethren. A reconciling spir-
it breathes through his writings. He seizes on the in-
teresting and beautiful features in all conditions of life ;
gives us bursts of tender and noble feelings even from
rude natures ; and continually knits some new tie be-
tween the reader and the vast varieties of human nature
which start up under his teeming pen. He delighted,
indeed, in Highland chiefs, in border thieves and mur-
derers, in fierce men and fierce encounters. But he
had an eye to catch the stream of sweet affections, as
it wound its way through humble life. What light has
Jeanie Deans shed on the path of the obscure ! He
was too wanting in the religious sentiment to compre-

THE PRESENT AGE. 157

hend the solemn bearing, the stern grandeur of the Pu-
ritans. But we must not charge with narrowness a
writer who embodied in a Jewish maiden his highest
conceptions of female nobleness.

Another writer illustrating the liberalizing, all-harmon-
izing tendency of our times is Dickens, whose genius
has sought and found subjects of thrilling interest in the
passions, sufferings, virtues of the mass of the people.
He shows that life in its rudest forms may wear a tragic
grandeur ; that, amidst follies and sensual excesses pro-
voking laughter or scorn, the moral feelings do not
wholly die ; and that the haunts of the blackest crimes
are sometimes lighted up by the presence and influence
of the noblest souls. He has, indeed, greatly erred in
turning so often the degradation of humanity into matter
of sport ; but the tendency of his dark pictures is, to
awaken sympathy with our race, to change the unfeel-
ing indifference which has prevailed towards the de-
pressed multitude into sorrowful and indignant sensibil-
ity to their wrongs and woes.

The remarks now made on literature might be ex-
tended to the Fine Arts. In these we see, too, the ten-
dency to universality. It is said, that the spirit of the
great artists has died out ; but the taste for their works
is spreading. By the improvements of engraving, and
the invention of casts, the genius of the great masters is
going abroad. Their conceptions are no longer pent
up in galleries open to but few, but meet us in our
homes, and are the household pleasures of millions.
Works designed for the halls and eyes of emperors,
popes, and nobles, find their way, in no poor represen-
tations, into humble dwellings, and sometimes give a
consciousness of kindred powers to the child of pover-

VOL. VI. 14

158 THE PRESENT AGE.

ty. The art of drawing, which hes at the foundation
of most of the fine arts, and is the best education of
the eye for nature, is becoming a branch of common
education, and in some countries is taught in schools to
which all classes are admitted.

I am reminded by this remark of the most striking
feature of our times, and showing its tendency to uni-
versality, and that is, the unparalleled and constantly
accelerated diffusion of Education. This greatest of
arts, as yet little understood, is making sure progress,
because its principles are more and more sought in the
common nature of man ; and the great truth is spread-
ing, that every man has a right to its aid. Accordingly
education is becoming the work of nations. Even in
the despotic governments of Europe schools are open
for every child without distinction ; and not only the
elements of reading and writing, but music and drawing
are taught, and a foundation is laid for future progress
in history, geography, and physical science. The great-
est minds are at work on popular education. The rev-
enues of states are applied most liberally, not to the
universities for the few, but to the common schools.
Undoubtedly much remains to be done ; especially a
new rank in society is to be given to the teacher ; but
even in this respect a revolution has commenced, and
we are beginning to look on the guides of the young as
the chief benefactors of mankind.

I thought that I had finished my illustrations on this
point ; but there has suddenly occurred to me another
sign of the tendency to universal intellectual action in
this country, a sign which we are prone to smile at, but
whicli is yet worthy of notice. I refer to the common-
ness among us of Public Speaking. If we may trust

THE PRESENT AGE. 1 59

our newspapers, we are a nation of orators. Every
meeting overflows with eloquence. Men of all condi-
tions find a tongue for public debate. Undoubtedly
there is more sound than sense in our endless speeches
before all kinds of assemblies and societies. But no
man, I think, can attend our public meetings without
being struck with the force and propriety of expression
in multitudes whose condition has confined them to a
very imperfect culture. This exercise of the intellect,
which has almost become a national characteristic, is
not to be undervalued. Speech is not merely the dress,
as it is often called, but the very body of thought. It
is to the intellect what the muscles are to the principle
of physical life. The mind acts and strengthens itself
through words. It is a chaos, till defined, organized by
language. The attempt to give clear, precise utterance
to thought is one of the most eftectual processes of
mental discipline. It is, therefore, no doubtful sign of
the grovi^ing intelligence of a people, when the power
of expression is cultivated extensively for the purpose
of acting on multitudes. We have here one invaluable
influence of popular institutions. They present at the
same moment to a whole people great subjects of
thought, and bring multitudes to the earnest discussion
of them. Here are, indeed, moral dangers ; but still,
strong incitements to general intellectual action. It is
in such stirring schools, after all, that the mind of a
people is chiefly formed. Events of deep general in-
terest quicken us more than formal teaching ; and by
these the civilized world is to be more and more trained
to thought.

Thus we see in the intellectual movements of our
times the tendency to expansion, to universality ; and

160 THE PRESENT AGE,

this must continue. It is not an accident, or an inex
plicable result, or a violence on nature ; it is founded in
eternal truth. Every mind was made for growth, for
knowledge ; and its nature is sinned against when it is
doomed to ignorance. The divine gift of intelligence
was bestowed for higher uses than bodily labor, than to
make hewers of wood, drawers of water, ploughmen,
or servants. Every being so gifted is intended to ac-
quaint himself with God and his works, and to perform
wisely and disinterestedly the duties of life. Accord-
ingly, when we see the multitude of men beginning to
thirst for knowledge, for intellectual action, for some-
thing more than an animal life, we see the great design
of nature about to be accomplished ; and society having
received this impulse will never rest till it shall have
taken such a form as will place within every man's
reach the means of intellectual culture. This is the
revolution to which we are tending ; and without this all
outward political changes would be but children's play,
leaving the great work of society yet to be done.

I have now viewed the age in its Intellectual aspects.
If we look next at its Religious movements, we shall
see in these the same tendency to universality. It is
more and more understood that religious truth is every
man's property and right ; that it is committed to no
order or individual, to no priest, minister, student, or
sage, to be given or kept back at will ; but that every
man may and should seek it for himself; that every
man is to see with his own mind, as well as with his
own eyes ; and that God's illuminating spirit is alike
promised to every honest and humble seeker after truth.
This recognition of every man's right of judgment ap-
pears in the teachings of all denominations of Christians.

THE PRESENT AGE. 161

In all, the tone of authority is giving place to that of
reason and persuasion. Men of all ranks are more and
more addressed as those who must weigh and settle for
themselves the grandest truths of religion.

The same tendency to universality is seen in the
generous toleration which marks our times, in compari-
son with the past. Men, in general, cannot now endure
to think that their own narrow church holds all the good-
ness on the earth. Religion is less and less regarded as
a name, a form, a creed, a church, and more and more
as the spirit of Christ, which works under all forms and
all sects. True, much intolerance remains ; its separat-
ing walls are not fallen ; but, with a few exceptions,
they no longer reach to the clouds. Many of them have
crumbled away, till the men whom they sever can shake
hands, and exchange words of fellowship, and recognize
in one another's faces the features of brethren.

At the present day the grand truth of religion is more
and more brought out ; I mean the truth, that God is the
Universal Father, that every soul is infinitely precious
to him, that he has no favorites, no partial attachments,
no respect of persons, that he desires alike the virtue
and everlasting good of all. In the city of Penn I can-
not but remember the testimony to this truth borne by
George Fox and his followers, who planted themselves
on the grand principle, that God's illuminating spirit is
shed on every soul, not only within the bounds of Chris-
tendom, but through the whole earth. This universal,
impartial love of God is manifested to us more and more
by science, which reveals to us vast, all-pervading laws
of nature, administered with no favoritism and designed
for the good of all. I know that this principle is not
universally received. Men have always been inclined
14*

16^ THE PRESENT AGE.

to frame a local, partial, national, or sectarian God, to
shut up the Infinite One in some petty enclosure ; but
at this moment larger views of God are so far extended
that they illustrate the spirit of the age.

If we next consider by whom religion is taught, we
shall see the same tendency to diffusion and universality.
Religious teaching is passing into all hands. It has ceased
to be a monopoly. For example, what an immense
amount of instruction is communicated in Sunday
schools ! These are spreading over the Christian world,
and through these the door of teaching is open to
crowds, to almost all, indeed, who would bear a part in
spreading religion. In like manner associations of vast
extent are springing up in our cities for the teaching of
the poor. By these means woman, especially, is be-
coming an evangelist. She is not only a priestess in
her own home, instilling with sweet, loving voice the
first truths of religion into the opening mind, but she
goes abroad on missions of piety. Woman, in one age
made man's drudge, and in another his toy, is now sharing
more and more with him the highest labors. Through
the press, especially, she is heard far and wide. The
press is a mightier power than the pulpit. Books outstrip
the voice ; and woman, availing herself of this agency,
becomes the teacher of nations. In churches, where
she may not speak, her hymns are sung ; the inspirations
of her genius are felt. Thus our age is breaking down
the monopolies of the past.

But a more striking illustration remains. One of the
great distinctions of our times is found in the more clear
and vital perception of the truth, that the universal, im-
partial love which is the glory of God is the characteris-
tic spirit and glory of Christianity. To this we owe the
extension of philanthropic ana religious effort oeyond all

THE PRESENT AGE. 163

former experience. How much we are better on the
whole than former times I do not say ; but that benevo-
lence is acting on a larger scale, in more various forms,
to more distant objects, this we cannot deny. Call it
pretension, or enthusiasm, or what you will, the fact re-
mains ; and it attests the diffusive tendencies of our
times. Benevolence now gathers together her armies.
Vast associations are spread over whole countries for
assaihng evils which it is thought cannot be met by the
single-handed. There is hardly a form of evil which
has not awakened some antagonist effort. Associated
benevolence gives eyes to the blind and ears to the
deaf, and is achieving even greater wonders ; that is, it
approaches the mind without the avenues of eye and ear,
and gives to the hopelessly blind and deaf the invaluable
knowledge which these senses afford to others. Benevo-
lence now shuts out no human being, however low, from
its regard. It goes to the cell of the criminal with
words of hope, and is laboring to mitigate public punish-
ment, to make it the instrument, not of vengeance, but
reform. It remembers the slave, pleads his cause with
God and man, recognizes in him a human brother, re-
spects in him the sacred rights of humanity, and claims
for him, not as a boon, but as a right, that freedom with-
out which humanity withers and God's child is degraded
into a tool or a brute. Still more, benevolence now is
passing all limits of country and ocean. It would send
our own best blessing to the ends of the earth. It
would make the wilderness of heathenism bloom, and
join all nations in the bonds of one holy and loving faith.
Thus, if we look at the religious movements of the age,
we see in them that tendency to diffusion and universality
which I have named as its most striking characteristic.

164 THE PRESENT AGE.

Let me briefly point out this same tendency in Govern-
ment. Here, indeed, it is too obvious for illustration.
To what is the civilized world tending ? To popular
institutions, or, what is the same thing, to the influence
of the people, of the mass of men, over public afiairs.
A little while ago and the people were unknown as a
power in the state. Now they are getting all power into
their hands. Even in despotisms, where they cannot
act through institutions, they act through public opinion.
Intelligence is strength ; and in proportion as the many
grow intelligent they must guide the world. Kings and
nobles fill less and less place in history ; and the names
of men who once were lost amidst the glare of courts
and titles are now written there imperishably. Once
history did not know that the multitude existed, except
when they wiere gathered together on the field of battle
to be sabred and shot down for the glory of their mas-
ters. Now they are coming forward into the foreground
of her picture. It is now understood that government
exists for one end, and one alone ; and that is, not the
glory of the governor, not the pomp and pleasure of a
few, but the good, the safety, the rights of all. Once
government was an inherited monopoly, guarded by the
doctrine of divine right, of an exclusive commission
from the Most High. Now office and dignity are thrown
open as common things, and nations are convulsed by
the multitude of competitors for the prize of public
power. Once the policy of governments had no higher
end than to concentrate property into a few hands, and
to confirm the relation of dependent and lord. Now it
aims to give to each the means of acquiring property,
and of carving out his fortune for himself. Such is the
political current of our times. Many look on it with

THE PRESENT AGE. 165

dark forebodings, as on a desolating toiTent ; while others
hail it as a fertilizing stream. But in one thing both
agree ; whether torrent or stream, the mighty current
exists, and overflows, and cannot be confined ; and it
shows us in the political, as in the other movements of
our age, the tendency to universality, to diffusion.

I shall notice but one more movement of the age as
indicating the tendency to universality, and this is, its In-
dustry. How numberless are the forms which this takes !
Into how^ many channels is human labor pouring itself
forth ! How widely spread is the passion for acquisition,
not for simple means of subsistence, but for wealth !
What vast enterprises agitate the community ! What a
rush into all the departments of trade ! How next to
universal the insanity of speculation ! What new arts
spring up ! Industry pierces the forests, and startles
with her axe the everlasting silence. To you, Gentle-
men, commerce is the commanding interest ; and this
has no limits but the habitable world. It no longer
creeps along the shore, or lingers in accustomed tracks ;
but penetrates into every inlet, plunges into the heart of
uncivilized lands, sends its steam-ships up unexplored
rivers, girdles the earth with railroads, and thus breaks
down the estrangements of nations. Commerce is a noble
calling. It mediates between distant nations, and makes
men's wants, not, as formerly, stimulants to war, but
bonds of peace. The universal intellectual activity of
which I have spoken is due, in no small degree, to com-
merce, which spreads the thoughts, inventions, and WTit-
ings of great men over the earth, and gathers scien-
tific and literary men everywhere into an intellectual re-
public. So it carries abroad the missionary, the Bible,
the Cross, and is giving universality to true religion.

166 THE PRESENT AGE.

Gentlemen, allow me to express an earnest desire and
hope that the merchants of this country will carry on
their calling with these generous views. Let them not
pursue it for themselves alone. Let them rejoice to spread
improvements far and wide, and to unite men in more
friendly ties. Let them adopt maxims of trade which
will establish general confidence. Especially, in their
intercourse with less cultivated tribes, let them feel
themselves bound to be harbingers of civilization. Let
their voyages be missions of humanity, useful arts, sci-
ence, and religion. It is a painful thought, that com-
merce, instead of enlightening and purifying less privileged
communities, has too often made the name of Christian
hateful to them, has carried to the savage, not our useful
arts and mild faith, but weapons of war and the intoxi-
cating draught. I call not on God to smite with his
lightnings, to overwhelm with his storms, the accursed
ship which goes to the ignorant, rude native, freighted
with poison and death ; which goes to add new ferocity
to savage life, new licentiousness to savage sensuality.
I have learned not to call down fire from heaven. But,
in the name of humanity, of religion, of God, I implore
the merchants of this country not to use the light of a
higher civilization to corrupt, to destroy our uncivilized
brethren. Brethren they are, in those rude huts, in that
wild attire. Establish with them an intercourse of use-
fulness, justice, and charity. Before they can under-
stand the name of Christ, let them see his spirit in those
by whom it is borne. It has been said, that the com-
merce of our country is not only corrupting uncivilized
countries, but that it wears a deeper, more damning
stain ; that, in spite of the laws of the land and the pro-
test of nations, it sometimes lends itself to the slave-

THE PEESENT AGE. 167

trade ; tliat, by its capital, and accommodations, and
swift sailers, and false papers, and prostituted flag, it
takes part in tearing the African from his home and
native sliore, and in dooming him, first to the horrors
of the middle passage, and then to the hopelessness of
perpetual bondage. Even on men so fallen I call down
no curse. May they find forgiveness from God through
the pains of sincere repentance ; but, continuing what
they are, can I help shrinking from them as among the
most infamous of their race ?

Allow me to say a word to the merchants of our
country on another subject. The time is come when
they are particularly called to take yet more generous
views of their vocation, and to give commerce a uni-
versality as yet unknown. I refer to the juster princi-
ples which are gaining ground on the subject of free
trade, and to the growing disposition of nations to pro-
mote it. Free trade ! — this is the plain duty and plain
interest of the human race. To level all barriers to
free exchange ; to cut up the system of restriction, root
and branch ; to open every port on earth to every pro-
duct ; this is the office of enlightened humanity. To
this a free nation should especially pledge itself. Free-
dom of the seas ; freedom of harbours ; an intercourse
of nations, free as the winds ; — this is not a dream of
philanthropists. We are tending towards it, and let us
hasten it. Under a wiser and more Christian civiliza-
tion we shall look back on our present restrictions as
we do on the swaddling bands by which in darker times
the human body was compressed. The growing free-
dom of trade is another and glorious illustration of the
tendency of our age to universality.

168 THE PRESENT AGE,

I have thus aimed to show in the principal movements
of our time the character of diffusion and universaHty,
and in doing this I have used language implying my joy
m this great feature of our age. But you will not sup-
pose that I see in it nothing but good. Human affairs
admit no unmixed good. This very tendency has its
perils and evils. To take but one example ; the open-
ing of vast prospects of wealth to the multitude of men
has stirred up a fierce competition, a wild spirit of spec-
ulation, a feverish, insatiable cupidity, under which fraud,
bankruptcy, distrust, distress are fearfully multiplied, so
that the name of American has become a by-word be-
yond the ocean. I see the danger of the present state
of society, perhaps as clearly as any one. But still I
rejoice to have been born in this age. It is still true
that human nature was made for growth, expansion ;
this is its proper life, and this must not be checked be-
cause it has perils. The child, when it shoots up into
youth, exchanges its early repose and security for new
passions, for strong emotions, which are full of danger ;
but would we keep him for ever a child ? Danger we
cannot avoid. It is a grand element of human life. We
always walk on precipices. It is unmanly, unwise, it
shows a want of faith in God and humanity, to deny to
others and ourselves free scope and the expansion of
our best powers because of the possible collisions and
pains to be feared from extending activity. Many, in-
deed, sigh for security as the supreme good. But God
intends us for something better, for effort, conflict, and
progress. And is it not well to live in a stirring and
mighty world, even though we suffer from it ? If we
look at outward nature, we find ourselves surrounded
with vast and fearful elements, air, sea, and fire, which

THE PRESENT AGE. 169

sometimes burst all bounds, and overwhelm man and his
labors in ruin. But who of us would annihilate these
awful forces, would make the ocean a standing pool,
and put to silence the loud blast, in order that life may
escape every peril .'' This mysterious, infinite, irresis-
tible might of nature, breaking out in countless forms
and motions, makes nature the true school for man, and
gives it all its interest. In the soul still mightier forces
are pent up, and their expansion has its perils. But
all are from God, who has blended with them checks,
restraints, balances, reactions, by which all work to-
gether for good. Let us never forget, that, amidst this
fearful stir, there is a paternal Providence, under which
tlie education of our race has gone on, and a higher
condition of humanity has been achieved.

There are, however, not a few who have painful fears
of evil from the restless, earnest action which we have
seen spreading itself more and more through all depart-
ments of society. They call the age wild, lawless, pre-
sumptuous, without reverence. All men, they tell us,
are bursting their spheres, quitting their ranks, aspiring
selfishly after gain and preeminence. The blind mul-
titude are forsaking their natural leaders. The poor,
who are the majority, are contriving against the rich.
Still more, a dangerous fanaticism threatens destruction
to the world under the name of Reform ; society tot-
ters ; property is shaken ; and the universal freedom of
thought and action, of which so many boast, is the pre-
cursor of social storms which only despotism can calm.
Such are the alarms of not a kw ; and it is right that
fear should utter its prophecies, as well as hope. But
it is the true office of fear to give a wise direction to
human effort, not to chill or destroy it. To despair of

VOL. VI. 15

170 THE PRESENT AGE.

ihe race, even in the worst times, is unmanly, unchris-
tian. How much more so in times like the present !
What I most lament in these apprehensions is, the utter
distrust of human nature which they discover. Its high-
est powers are thought to be given only to be restrained.
They are thought to be safe only when in fetters. To
me, there is an approach. to impiety in thinking so mean-
ly of God's greatest work. Human nature is not a
tiger which needs a constant chain. In this case it is
the chain which makes the tiger. It is the oppressor
who has made man fit only for a yoke.

When I look into the great movements of the age,
particularly as manifested in our own country, they seem
to me to justify no overwhelming fear. True, they are
earnest and wide spreading ; but the objects to which
they are directed are pledges against extensive harm.
For example, ought the general diffusion of science and
literature and thought to strike dread .'' Do habits of
reading breed revolt .'' Does the astronomer traverse
the skies, or the geologist pierce the earth, to gather
materials for assault on the social state ? Does the
study- of nature stir up rebellion against its Author ? Is
it the lesson which men learn fi'om history, that they are
to better their condition by disturbing the state ? Does
the reading of poetry train us to insurrection .'' Does
the diffusion of a sense of beauty through a people in-
cline them to tumult ? Are not works of genius and
the fine arts soothing influences .'' Is not a shelf of
books in a poor man's house some pledge of his keep-
ing the peace ? It is not denied that thought, in its
freedom, questions and assails the holiest truth. But is
truth so weak, so puny, as to need to be guarded by
bayonets from assault ? Has truth no beauty, no might ?

THE PRESENT AGE. 17]

Has the human soul no power to weigh its evidence, to
reverence its grandeur ? Besides, does not freedom of
thought, when most unrestrained, carry a conservative
power in itself ? In sucli a state of things the erring do
not all embrace the same error. Wliilst truth is ons
and the same, falsehood is infinitely various. It is a
house divided against itself, and cannot stand. Error
soon passes away, unless upheld by restraint on thought.
History tells us, and the lesson is invaluable, that tl;o
physical force which has put down free inquiry has been
the main bulwark of the superstitions and illusions of
past ages.

In the next place, if we look at the chief direction of
the universal activity of the age, we shall find that it is
a conservative one, so as to render social convulsion
next to impossible. Qn what, after all, are the main
energies of this restlessness spent ? On property, on
wealth. High and low, rich and poor, are running the
race of accumulation. Property is the prize for which
all strain their nerves ; and the vast majority compass in
some measure this end. And is such a society in dan-
ger of convulsion .'* Is tumult the way to wealth .'* Is
a state of insecurity coveted by men who own some-
thing and hope for more .'' Are civil laws, which, after
all, have property for their chief concern, very likely to
be trodden under foot by its worshippers .'' Of all the
dreams of fear, few seem to me more baseless than the
dread of anarchy among a people who are possessed
almost to a man with the passion for gain. I am espe-
cially amused, when, among such a people, I sometimes
hear of danger to property and society from enthusias-
tic, romantic reformers who preach levelling doctrines,
equality of wealth, quaker plainness of dress, vegetable

172 THE PRESENT AGE.

food, and community-systems where all are to toil and
divide earnings alike. What ! Danger from romance
and enthusiasm in this money-getting, self-seeking, self-
indulging, self-displaying land ? I confess that to me it
is a comfort to see some outbreak of enthusiasm, wheth-
er transcendental, philanthropic, or religious, as a proof
that the human spirit is not wholly ingulfed in matter
and business, that it can lift up a little the mountains of
worldliness and sense with which it is so borne down.
It will be time enough to fear, when we shall see fanat-
icism of any kind stopping, ever so little, the wheels
of business or pleasure, driving, ever so little, from
man's mind the idea of gain, or from woman's the love
of display. Are any of you dreading an innovating en-
thusiasm ? You need only to step into the streets to be
assured that property and the world are standing their
ground against the spirit of reform as stoutly as the most
worldly man could desire.

Another view which quiets my fear as to social order,
from the universal activity of the times, is the fact, that
this activity appears so much in the form of steady la-
bor. It is one distinction of modern over ancient times,
that we have grown more patient of toil. Our danger
is from habits "of drudgery. The citizens of Greece
and Rome were above work. We seem to work with
something of the instinct of the ant and the bee ; and
this is no mean security against lawlessness and revolt.

Another circumstance of our times which favors a
quiet state of things is, the love of comforts which the
progress of arts and industry has spread over the com-
munity. In feudal ages and ancient times the mass of
the population had no such pleasant homes, no such
defences against cold and storms, no such decent ap-

THE PRESENT AGE. 173

parelj no such abundant and savory meals, as fall to the
lot of our population. Now it must be confessed,
though not very flattering to human nature, that men are
very slow to part with these comforts even in defence
of a good cause, much less to throw them away in wild
and senseless civil broils.

Another element of security in the present is, the
strength of domestic affection Christianity has given
new sacredness to home, new tenderness to love, new
force to the ties of husband and wife, parent and child.
Social order is dear to us all, as encircling and shelter-
ing our homes. In ancient and rude times the family
bond was comparatively no restraint. We should all
pause before we put in peril beings whom we hold most
dear.

Once more ; Christianity is a pledge of social order
which none of us sufficiently prize. Weak as its influ-
ence seems to be, there are vast numbers into whom it
has infused sentiments of justice, of kindness, of rever-
ence for God, and of deep concern for the peace and
order of the state. Rapine and bloodshed would awaken
now a horror altogether unknown in ages in which this
mild and divine truth had not exerted its power.

With all these influences in favor of social influence,
have we much to fear from the free, earnest, universal
movements of our times ? I believe that the very ex-
tension of human powers is to bring with it new checks
against their abuse.

The prosperous part of society are, of course, par-
ticularly liable to the fear of which I have spoken.
They see danger especially in the extension of power
and freedom of all kinds to the laboring classes of so-
ciety. They look with a jealous eye on attempts to ele-
15*

174 THE PRESENT AGE.

vate these, though one would think that to improve a
man was the surest way to disarm his violence. They
talk of agrarianism. They dread a system of universal
pillage. They dread a conspiracy of the needy against
the rich. Now the manual laborer has burdens enough
to bear without the load of groundless suspicion or re-
proach. It ought to be understood that the great ene-
mies to society are not found in its poorer ranks. The
mass may, indeed, be used as tools; but the stirring
and guiding powers of insurrection are found above.
Communities fall by the vices of the prosperous ranks.
We are referred to Rome, which was robbed of her
liberties and reduced to the most degrading vassalage by
the lawlessness of the Plebeians, who sold themselves to
demagogues, and gave the repubhc into the hands of a
dictator. But what made the Plebeians an idle, disso-
lute, rapacious horde ? It was the system of universal
rapine which, under the name of conquest, had been
carried on for ages by Patricians, by all the powers of
the state ; a system which glutted Rome with the spoils
of the pillaged world ; which fed her population without
labor, from the public treasures, and corrupted them by
public shows. It was this which helped to make the
metropolis of the earth a sink of crime and pollution
such as the world had never known. It was time that
the grand robber-state should be cast down from her
guilty eminence. Her brutish populace, which followed
Caesar's car with shouts, was not worse than the venal,
crouching senate which registered his decrees. Let not
the poor bear the burden of the rich. At this moment
we are groaning over the depressed and dishonored state
of our country ; and who, let me ask, have shaken its
credit, and made so many of its institutions bankrupt .'

THE PRESENT AGE. 175

The poor, or the rich ? Whence is it that the incomes
of the widow, the orphan, the aged have been narrowed,
and multitudes on both sides of the ocean brought to the
brink of want ? Is it from an outbreak of popular fury ?
Is it from gangs of thieves sprung from the mob ? We
knou^ the truth, and it shows us where the great danger
to property lies.

Communities fall by the vices of the great, not the
small. The French Revolution is perpetually sounded
in our ears as a warning against the lawlessness of the
people. But w^hence came this Revolution ? Who were
the regicides ? Who beheaded Louis the Sixteenth ?
You tell me the Jacobins ; but history tells a different tale.
I will show you the beheaders of Louis the Sixteenth.
They were Louis the Fourteenth, and the Regent who fol-
lowed him, and Louis the Fifteenth. These brought their
descendant to the guillotine. The priesthood who revoked
the edict of Nantz, and drove from France the skill and
industry and virtue and piety which were the sinews of her
strength ; the statesmen who intoxicated Louis the Four-
teenth w^ith the scheme of universal empire ; the profli-
gate, prodigal, shameless Orleans ; and the still more
brutalized Louis the Fifteenth, with his court of panders
and prostitutes ; these made the nation bankrupt, broke
asunder the bond of loyalty, and overwhelmed the
throne and altar in ruins. We hear of the horrors
of the Revolution ; but in this, as in other things, we
recollect the effect without thinking of the guiltier
cause. The Revolution was indeed a scene of horror ;
but when I look back on the reigns which preceded
it, and which made Paris almost one great stew and
gaming-house, and when I see altar and throne dese-
crated by a licentiousness unsurpassed in any former

176 THE PRESENT AGE.

age, I look on scenes as shocking to the calm and search-
ing eye of reason and virtue as the tenth of August and
the massacres of September. Bloodshed is indeed a
terrible spectacle ; but there are other things almost as
fearful as blood. There are crimes that do not make
us start and turn pale like the guillotine, but are deadlier
in their workings. God forbid, that I should say a word
to weaken the thrill of horror with which we contem-
plate the outrages of the French Revolution ! But
when I hear that Revolution quoted to frighten us from
reform, to show us the danger of lifting up the depressed
and ignorant mass, I must ask whence it came ; and the
answer is, that it came from the intolerable weight of
misgovernment and tyranny, from the utter want of cul-
ture among the mass of the people, and from a corrup-
tion of the great too deep to be purged away except by
destruction. I am also compelled to remember that the
people, in this their singular madness, wrought far less
woe than kings and priests have wrought, as a familiar
thing, in all ages of the world. All the murders of the
French Revolution did not amount, I think, by one fifth,
to those of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's. The
priesthood and the throne, in one short night and day,
shed more blood, and that the best blood of France,
than was spilled by Jacobinism and all other forms of
violence during the whole Revolution. Even the atheism
and infidelity of France were due chiefly to a licentious
priesthood and a licentioflis court. It was religion, so
called, that dug her own grave. In offering this plea
for the multitude I have no desire to transfer to the mul-
titude uncontrolled political power. I look at power in
all hands with jealousy. I wish neither rich nor poor to
be my masters. What I wish is, the improvement, the

THE PRESENT AGE. 177

elevation of all classes, and especially of the most
numerous class, because the most numerous, because the
many are mankind, and because no social progress can
be hoped but from influences \vhich penetrate and raise
the mass of men. The mass must not be confined and
kept down through a vague dread of revolutions. A
social order requiring such a sacrifice would be too
dearly bought. No order should satisfy us but that
which is in harmony with universal improvement and
freedom.

In the general tone of this Discourse it may be thought
that I have proposed to vindicate the present age. 1 have
no such thought. T would improve, not laud it. I feel its
imperfections and corruptions as deeply as any, though I
may be most shocked by features that give others little
pain. The saddest aspect of the age, to me, is that which
undoubtedly contributes to social order. It is the ab-
sorption of the multitude of men in outward, material
interests ; it is the selfish prudence which is never tired
of the labor of accumulation, and which keeps men
steady, regular, respectable drudges from morning to
night. The cases of a few murders, great crimes, lead
multitudes to exclaim. How wicked this age ! But the
worst sign is the chaining down of almost all the minds
of a community to low, perishable interests. It is a sad
thought, that the infinite energies of the soul have no
higher end than to cover the back, and fill the belly, and
keep caste in society. A few nerves, hardly visible, on
the surface of the tongue, create most of the endless
stir around us. Undoubtedly, eating and drinking, dress-
ing, house-building, and caste-keeping, are matters not
to be despised; most of them are essential. But surely
life has a higher use than to adorn this body which is so

178 THE PRESENT AGE.

soon to be wrapped in grave-clothes, than to keep warm
and flowing the blood which is so soon to be cold and
stagnant in the tomb. I rejoice in the boundless activi-
ty of the age, and I expect much of it to be given to
our outward wants. But over all this activity there
should preside the great idea of that which is alone
ourselves ; of our inward, spiritual nature ; of the think-
ing, immortal soul ; of our supreme good, our chief end,
which is, to bring out, cultivate, and perfect our highest
powers, to become wise, holy, disinterested, noble be-
ings, to unite ourselves to God by love and adoration,
and to revere his image in his children. The vast ac-
tivity of this age, of which I have spoken, is too much
confined to the sensual and material, to gain and pleas-
ure and show. Could this activity be swayed and puri-
fied by a noble aim, not a single comfort of life would
be retrenched, whilst its beauty and grace and interest
would be unspeakably increased.

There is another dark feature of this age. It is the
spirit of collision, contention, discord, which breaks
forth in religion, in politics, in business, in private af-
fairs ; a result and necessary issue of the selfishness
which prompts the endless activity of life. The mighty
forces which are this moment acting in society are not
and cannot be in harmony, for they are not governed by
Love. They jar ; they are discordant. Life now has
little music in it. It is not only on the field of battle that
men fight. They fight on the exchange. Business is
war, a conflict of skill, management, and too often
fraud ; to snatch the prey from our neighbour is the end
of all this stir. Religion is war ; Christians, forsaking
their one Lord, gather under various standards to gain
victory for their sects. Politics are war, breaking the

THE PRESENT AGE. 179

whole people into fierce and unscrupulous parties, which
forget their country in conflicts for office and power.
The age needs nothing more than peace-makers, men
of serene, commanding virtue, tg preach in life and
word the gospel of human brotherhood, to allay the fires
of jealousy and hate.

I have named discouraging aspects of our lime to
show that I am not blind to the world I live in. But T
still hope for the human race. Indeed, I could not live
without hope. Were I to look on the world as many
do, were I to see in it a maze without a plan, a whirl
of changes without aim, a stage for good and evil to
fight without an issue, an endless motion without pro-
gress, a world where sin and idolatry are to triumph for
ever, and the oppressor's rod never to be broken, I
should turn from it with sickness of heart, and care not
how soon the sentence of its destruction were fulfilled.
History and philosophy plainly show to me in human
nature the foundation and promise of a better era, and
Christianity concurs with these. The thought of a
higher condition of the world was the secret fire which
burned in the soul of the great Founder of our religion,
and in his first followers. That he was to act on all
future generations, that he was sowing a seed which was
to grow up and spread it§ branches over all nations, this
great thought never forsook him in life and death. That
under Christianity a civilization has grown up containing
in itself nobler elements than are found in earlier forms
of society, who can deny ? Great ideas and feelings,
derived from this source, are now at work. Amidst
the prevalence of crime and selfishness, there has sprung
up in the human heart a sentiment or principle unknown
in earlier ages, an enlarged and trustful philanthropy,

180 THE PRESENT AGE.

which recognizes the rights of every human being, which
is stirred by the terrible oppressions and corruptions of
the world, and which does not shrink from conflict with
evil in its worst forms. There has sprung up, too, a
faith, of which antiquity knew nothing, in the final vic-
tory of truth and right, in the elevation of men to a
clearer intelligence, to more fraternal union, and to a
purer worship. This faith is taking its place among the
great springs of human action, is becoming even a pas-
sion in more fervent spirits. I hail it as a prophecy
which is to fulfil itself. A nature capable of such an
aspiration cannot be degraded for ever. Ages rolled
away before it was learned that this world of matter
which we tread on is in constant motion. We are be-
gmning to learn that the intellectual, moral, social world
has its motion too, not fixed and immutable like that of
matter, but one which the free will of men is to carry
on, and which, instead of returning into itself like the
earth's orbit, is to stretch forward for ever. This hope
lightens the mystery and burden of life. It is a star
which shines on me in the darkest night ; and I should
rejoice to reveal it to the eyes of my fellow-creatures.

I have thus spoken of the Present Age. In these
brief words what a world of thought is comprehended !
what infinite movements ! what joys and sorrows ! what
hope and despair ! what faith and doubt ! what silent
grief and loud lament ! what fierce conflicts and subtle
schemes of policy ! what private and public revolutions
In the period through which many of us have passed
what thrones have been shaken ! what hearts have bled!
what millions have been butchered by their fellow-
creatures ! what hopes of philanthropy have been blight-
ed ! And at the same lime what magnificent enter-

THE PRESENT AGE. 181

prises have been achieved ! what new provinces won to
science and art ! what rights and hberties secured to
nations ! It is a privilege to have hved in an age so
stirring, so pregnant, so eventful. It is an age never to
be forgotten. Its voice of warning and encouragement
is never to die. Its impression on history is indelible.
Amidst its events, the American Revolution, the first
distinct, solemn assertion of the rights of men, and the
French Revolution, that volcanic force which shook the
earth to its centre, are never to pass from men's minds.
Over this age the night will, indeed, gather more and
more as time rolls away ; but in that night two forms
will appear, Washington and Napoleon, the one a lurid
meteor, the other a benign, serene, and undecaying star.
Another American name will live in history, your Frank-
lin ; and the kite which brought lightning from heaven
will be seen sailing in the clouds by remote posterity,
when the city where he dwelt may be known only by its
ruins. There is, however, something greater in the
age than its greatest men ; it is the appearance of a new
power in the world, the appearance of the multitude of
men on that stage where as yet the few have acted their
parts alone. This influence is to endure to the end of
time. What more of the present is to survive .'' Per-
haps much, of which we now take no note. The glory
of an age is often hidden from itself. Perhaps some
word has been spoken in our day which we have not
deigned to hear, but which is to grow clearer and louder
through all ages. Perhaps some silent thinker among
us is at work in his closet whose name is to fill the
earth. Perhaps there sleeps in his cradle some reform-
er who is to move the church and the world, who is to
open a new era in history, who is to fire the human soul

VOL. VI. 16

182 THE PRESENT AGE.

with new hope and new daring. What else is to sur-
vive the age ? That which the age has httle thought
of, but which is hving in us all ; I mean the Soul, the
Immortal Spirit. Of this all ages are the unfoldings,
and it is greater than all. We must not feel, in the con-
templation of the vast movements of our own and for-
mer times, as if we ourselves were nothing. I repeat it,
we are greater than all. We are to survive our age, to
comprehend it, and to pronounce its sentence. As yet,
however, we are encompassed with darkness. The
issues of our time how obscure ! The future into which
it opens who of us can foresee ? To the Father of all
Ages I commit this future with humble, yet courageous
and unfaltering hope.

THE CHURCH.

A DISCOURSE

DELIVERED IN THE

FffiST CONGREGATIONAL XJNITAKIAN CHURCH OF PHILADELPHIA,
Spnday, May 30, 184.1.

DISCOURSE ON THE CHURCH.

Matthew vii. 21 -27 : " Not every one that saith unto me, Lord,
Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven ; but he that doetli
the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to
me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy
name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name
done many wonderful works'! And then will I profess unto
them, I never knew you ; depart from me, ye that work iniquity

Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth
them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house
upon a rock ; and the rain descended, and the floods came, and
the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not ; for it
was founded upon a rock.

And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them
not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house
upon the sand ; and the rain descended, and the floods came, and
the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell ; and great
was the fall of it."

These words, which form the conclusion of Christ's
Sermon on the Mount, teach a great truth, namely,
that there is but one thing essential in religion, and this
is, the doing of God's will, the doing of those sayings
or precepts of Christ which constitute the substance of
that memorable discourse. We learn that it will avail
us nothing to call Christ, Lord, Lord, to profess our-
selves his disciples, to hear his words, to teach in his
name, to take our place in his church, or even to do
IG*

186 THE CHURCH.

»vonderful works or miracles in attestation of his truth, if
we neglect to cherish the spirit and virtues of his re-
ligion. God heeds not what we say, but what we are,
and what we do. The subjection of our wills to the
Divine, the mortification of sensual and selfish propen-
sities, the cultivation of supreme love to God, and of
universal justice and charity towards our neighbour,
— this, this is the very essence of religion; this alone
places us on a rock ; this is the end, the supreme and'
ultimate good, and is to be prized and sought above all
other things.

This is a truth as simple as it is grand. The child
can understand it ; and yet men, in all ages, have con-
trived to overlook it ; have contrived to find substitutes
for purity of heart and life ; have hoped by some other
means to commend themselves to God, to enter the
kingdom of heaven. Forms, creeds, churches, the
priesthood, the sacraments, these and other things have
been exalted into supremacy. The grand and only
qualification for heaven, that which in itself is heaven,
the virtue and the spirit of Jesus Christ, has been ob-
scured, depreciated ; whilst assent to certain mysteries,
or union with certain churches, has been thought the
narrow way that leads to life. I have not time in a
single discourse to expose all the delusions which have
spread on this subject. I shall confine myself to one,
which is not limited to the past, but too rife in our own
limes.

There has always existed, and still exists, a dispo-
sition to attach undue importance to "the church"
which a man belongs to. To be a member of " the
true church " has been insisted on as essential to hu-
man salvation. Multitudes have sought comfort, and not

THE CHURCH. ~ 187

seldom found their ruin, in the notion, that they were em-
braced in the motherly arms of " the true church" ; for
with this they have been satisfied. Professed Chris-
tians have fought about "the church" as if it were a
matter of hfe and death. The Roman Cathohc shuts
the gate of heaven on you because you will not enter his
"church." Among the Protestants are those who tell
you that the promises of Christianity do not belong to
you, be your character what it may, unless you receive
the Christian ordinances from the ministers of their
"church." Salvation is made to flow through a certain
priesthood, through an hereditary order, through par-
ticular rites administered by consecrated functionaries.
Even among denominations in which such exclusive
claims are not set up you will still meet the idea, that a
man is safer in their particular "church" than else-
where ; so that something distinct from Christian purity
of heart and life is made the way of salvation.

This error I wish to expose. I wish to show that
Christ's spirit, Christ's virtue, or "the doing of the
Sermon on the Mount," is the great end of our religion,
the only essential thing, and that all other things are im-
portant only as ministering to this. I know, indeed, that
very many acknowledge the doctrine now expressed.
But too often their conviction is not deep and living, and
it is impaired by superstitious notions of some mysterious
saving influence in "the church," or in some other
foreign agency. To meet these erroneous tendencies, I
shall not undertake to prove in a formal way, by logical
process, the supreme importance, blessedness, and glory
of righteousness, of sanctity, of love towards God and
man, or to prove that nothing else is indispensable. This
truth shines by its own light. It runs through the whole

188 THE CHURCH.

New Testament ; and is a gospel written in the soul by
a divine hand. To vindicate it against the claims set up
for "the church," nothing is needed but to offer a few
plain remarks in the order in which they rise up of them-
selves to my mind.

I begin with the remark, that in the Sermon on the
Mount Jesus said nothing about the " church " ; nor do
we find him, or his disciples, laying down anywhere a
definite plan for its organization, or a ritual for its wor-
ship. Nor ought this to surprise us. It was the very
thing to be expected in such a religion as Christianity.
Judaism was intended to educate a particular nation,
half civilized and surrounded with the grossest idolatry,
and accordingly it hedged them in by multiplied and rigid
forms. But Christianity proposes, as its grand aim, to
spread the inward, spiritual worship of God through all
nations, in all stages of society, under all varieties of
climate, government, and condition ; and such a religion
cannot be expected to confine itself to any particular
outward shape. Especially when we consider that it is
destined to endure through all ages, to act on all, to
blend itself with new forms of society and with the high-
est improvements of the race, it cannot be expected to
ordain an immutable mode of administration, but must
leave its modes of worship and communion to con-
form themselves silently and gradually to the wants and
progress of humanity. The rites and arrangements which
suit one period lose their significance or efficiency in
another. The forms which minister to the mind now
may fetter it hereafter, and must give place to its free
unfolding. A system wanting this freedom and flexible-
ness would carry strong proof in itself of not having been
intended for universality. It is one proof of Christ's

THE CHURCH. 189

having come to " inherit all nations," that he did not in-
stitute foi* all nations and all times a precise machinery
of forms and outward rules, that he entered into no mi-
nute legislation as to the worship and government of his
church, but left these outward concerns to be swayed by
the spirit and progress of successive ages. Of conse-
quence, no particular order of the church can be essen-
tial to salvation. No church can pretend that its consti-
tution is defined and ordained in the Scriptures so plainly
and undeniably that whoever forsakes it gives palpable
proof of a spirit of disobedience to God. All churches
are embraced by their members with equal religious
reverence, and this assures us that in all God's favor
may be equally obtained.

It is worthy of remark, that, from the necessity of
the case, the church assumed at first a form which it
could not long retain. It was governed by the apostles
who had founded it, men who had known Christ per-
sonally, and received his truth from his lips, and witnessed
his resurrection, and were enriched above all men by the
miraculous illuminations and aids of his Spirit. These
presided over the church with an authority peculiar to
themselves, and to which none after them could with any
reason pretend. They understood "the mind of Christ "
as none could do but those who had enjoyed so long and
close an intimacy with him ; and not only were they
sent forth with miraculous powers, but, by imposition of
their hands, similar gifts of the Spirit were conferred on
others. This presence of inspired apostles and super-
natural powers gave lo the primitive church obvious and
important distinctions, separating it widely from the form
which it was afterwards to assume. Of this we have a
remarkable proof in a passage of Paul, in which he sets

190 THE CHURCH.

before us the offices or functions exercised in the origi-
nal church. " God hath set in the church apostles,
prophets, teachers, miracles, gifts of healings, helps,
governments, diversities of tongues." * Now of all these
endowments or offices, one only, that of teacher, re-
mains in our day. The apostles, the founders and he-
roes of the primitive church, with their peculiar powers,
have vanished, leaving as their representatives their writ-
ings, to be studied alike by all. Teachers remain, not
because they existed in the first age, but because their
office, from its nature, and from the condition of human
nature, is needed still. The office, however, has under-
gone an important change. At first the Christian teach-
er enjoyed immediate communication with the apostles,
and received miraculous aids, and thus enjoyed means
of knowledge possessed by none of his successors.
The Christian minister now can only approach the apos-
tles as other men do, that is, through the Gospels and
Epistles which they have left us ; and he has no other
aid from above in interpreting them than every true
Christian enjoys. The promise of the Holy Spirit,
that greatest of promises, is made without distinction to
every man, of every office or rank, who perseveringly
implores the Divine help ; and this establishes an essen-
tial equality among all. Whether teachers are to con-
tinue in the brighter ages which prophecy announces is
rendered doubtful by a very striking prediction of the
times of the Messiah. " After those days," saith the
Lord, " I will put my law in their inward parts, and
write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they
shall be my people. And they shall teach no more
every man his neighbour, and every man his brother,

* 1 Cor. xii. 28.

THE CHURCH. 191

saying, ' Know the Lord ; ' for they shall all know me,
from the least of them unto the greatest of them." * Is
it possible that any man, with a clear comprehension of
the peculiarity of the primitive church, can loolc back to
this as an immutable form and rule, can regard any church
form as essential to salvation, can ascribe to outward or-
dinances, so necessarily fluctuating, an importance to be
compared with that which belongs to the immutable,
everlasting distinctions of holiness and virtue ?

The church as at first constituted presents interesting
and beautiful aspects. It was not a forced and arbi-
trary, but free, spontaneous union. It grew out of the
principles and feelings of human nature. Our nature is
social. We cannot live alone. We cannot shut up any
great feeling in our hearts. We seek for others to par-
take it with us. The full soul finds at once relief and
strength in sympathy. This is especially true in relig-
ion, the most social of all our sentiments, the only uni-
versal bond on earth. In this law of our nature the
Christian church had its origin. Christ did not establish
it in a formal way. If you consult the New Testament,
you do not find Jesus or his apostles setting about the
task of forming an artificial organization of the first dis-
ciples. Read in the book of Acts the simple, touch-
ing narratives of the union of the first converts. They
" were of one heart and of one soul." They could not
be kept asunder. The new truth melted them into one
mass, knit them into one body. In their mutual love
they could not withhold from one another their posses-
sions, but had all things in common. Blessed unity ! a
type of that oneness and harmony which a purer Chris-
tianity is to spread through all nations. Among those

* Jeremiah, xsxi. 33, 34.

192 THE CHURCH.

early converts the most gifted and enlightened were
chosen to be teachers in public assemblies. To these
assemblies the brotherhood repaired with eagerness, to
hear expositions of the new faith, to strengthen one
another's loyalty to Christ, and to be open witnesses of
him in the world. In their meetings they were left very
much to follow the usages of the synagogue, in which
they had been br-ought up ; so little did Christianity
trouble itself about forms. How simple, how natural
this association ! It is no mystery. It grew out of the
plainest wants of the human heart. The religious sen-
timent, the spirit of love towards God and man, awak-
ened afresh by Christ, craved for a new union through
which to find utterance and strength. And shall this
church union, the growth of the Christian spirit, and so
plainly subordinate to it, usurp its place, or in any way
detract from its sole sufficiency, from its supreme, un-
rivalled glory ?

The church, according to its true idea and purpose,
is an association of sincere, genuine followers of Christ;
and at first this idea was in a good degree realized.
The primitive disciples were drawn to Christ by con-
viction. They met together and confessed him, not
from usage, fashion, or education, but in opposition to
all these. In that, age, profession and practice, the form
and the spirit, the reality and the outward signs of re-
ligion went together. But with the growth of the church
its life declined ; its great idea was obscured ; the name
remained, and sometimes little more than the name. It
is a remarkable fact, that the very spirit to which Chris-
tianity is most hostile, the passion for power, dominion,
pomp, and preeminence, struck its deepest roots in the
church. The church became the very stronghold of

THE CHURCH. 193

the lusts and vices which Christianity most abhors. x\c-
cordingly i's history is one of the most melancholy rec-
ords of past times. It is sad enough to read the blood-
stained annals of worldly empires ; but when we see the
spiritual kingdom of Christ a prey for ages to usurping
popes, prelates, or sectarian chiefs, inflamed with big-
otry and theological hate and the lust of rule, and driven
by these fires of hell to grasp the temporal sword, to
persecute, torture, imprison, butcher their brethren, to
mix with and embitter national wars, and to convulse the
whole Christian world, we experience a deeper gloom,
and are more tempted to despair of our race. History
has not a darker page than that which records the perse-
cutions of the Albigenses, or the horrors of the Inqui-
sition. And when we come to later times, the church
wears any thing rather than " Holiness " inscribed on
her front. How melancholy to a Christian, the history
lately given us by Ranke of the reaction of Catholicism
against Protestantism ! Throughout we see the eccle-
siastical powers resorting to force as the grand instru-
ment of conversion ; thus proving their alliance, not
with heaven, but with earth and hell. If we take broad
views of the church in any age or land, how seldom do
we see the prevalence of true sanctity ! How many of
its ministers preach for lucre or display, preach what
they do not believe, or deny their doctrines in their
lives ! How many congregations are there, made up in
a great degree of worldly men and women, who repair
to the house of God from usage, or for propriety's sake,
or from a vague notion of being saved ; not from thirst
for the Divine Spirit, not from a fulness of heart which
longs to pour itself forth in prayer and praise ! Such
is the church. We are apt, indeed, to make it an ab-
VOL. VI. 17

194 THE CHURCH.

straction, or to separate it in our thoughts from the in-
dividuals who compose it ; and thus it becomes to us a
holy thing, and we ascribe to it strange powers. Theo-
logians speak of it as a unity, a mighty whole, one and
the same in all ages ; and in this way the imagination is
cheated into the idea of its marvellous sanctity and gran-
deur. But we must separate between the theory or the
purpose of the church and its actual state. When we
come down to facts, we see it to be, not a mysterious,
immutable unity, but a collection of fluctuating, divided,
warring individuals, who bring into it, too often, hearts
and hands any thing but pure. Painful as it is, we must
see things as they are ; and so doing, we cannot but be
struck with the infinite absurdity of ascribing to such a
church mysterious powers, of supposing that it can con-
fer holiness on its members, or that the circumstance
of being joined to it is of the least moment in compar-
ison with purity of heart and life.

Purity of heart and life, Christ's spirit of love towards
God and man ; this is all in all. This is the only es-
sential thing. The church is important only as it min-
isters to this ; and every church which so ministers is a
good one, no matter how, when, or where it grew up,
no matter whether it worship on its knees or on its feet,
or whether its ministers are ordained by pope, bishop,
presbyter, or people ; these are secondary things, and
of no comparative moment. The church which opens
on heaven is that, and that only, in which the spirit of
heaven dwells. The church whose worship rises to
God's ear is that, and that only, where the soul ascends.
No matter whether it be gathered in cathedral or barn ;
whether it sit in silence, or send up a hymn ; whether
the minister speak from carefully prepared notes, or

THE CHURCH. 195

from immediate, fervent, irrepressible suggestion. If
God be loved, and Jesus Christ be welcomed to the
soul, and his instructions be meekly and wisely heard,
and the solemn purpose grow up to do all duty amidst
all conflict, sacrifice, and temptation, then the true end
of the church is answered. " This is no other than the
house of God, the gate of heaven."

In these remarks I do not mean that all churches are
of equal worth. Some undoubtedly correspond more
than others to the spirit and purpose of Christianity, to
the simple usages of the primitive disciples, and to the
principles of human nature. All have their supersti-
tions and corruptions, but some are more pure than the
rest ; and we are bound to seek that which is purest,
which corresponds most to the Divine will. As far as
we have power to select, we should go to the church
where w-e shall be most helped to become devout, disin-
terested, and morally strong. 'Our salvation, however,
does not depend on our finding the best church on earth,
for this may be distant or unknown. Amidst diversities
of administrations there is the same spirit. In all re-
ligious societies professing Christ as their Lord, the
plainest, grandest truths of religion will almost certainly
be taught, and some souls may be found touched and
enlightened from above. This is a plain, undeniable
fact. In all sects, various as they are, good and holy
men may be found ; nor can we tell in which the holiest
have grown up. The church, then, answers its end in
all ; for its only end is, to minister to human virtue. It
is delightful to read in the records of all denominations
the lives of eminent Christians who have given up every
thing for their religion, who have been faithful unto
death, uho have shed around them the sweet light and

196 THE CHURCH.

fragrance of Christian hope and love. We cannot, then,
well choose amiss, if we choose the church which, as it
seems to us, best represents the grand ideas of Christ,
and speaks most powerfully, to our consciences and
hearts. This church, however, we must not choose
for our brother. He differs from us, probably, in tem-
perament, in his range of intellect, or in the impressions
which education and habit have given him. Perhaps the
worship which most quickens you and me may hardly
keep our neighbour awake. He must be approached
through the heart and imagination ; we through the rea-
son. What to him is fervor passes with us for noise.
What to him is an imposing form is to us vain show.
Condemn him not. If, in his warmer atmosphere, he
builds up a stronger faith in God and a more steadfast
choice of perfect goodness than ourselves, his church is
better to him than ours to us.

One great error in regard to churches contributes to
the false estimate of them as essential to salvation. We
imagine that the church, the minister, the worship can
do something for us mechanically ; that there are certain
mysterious influences in what we call a holy place, which
may act on us without our own agency. It is not so.
The church and the minister can do little for us in com-
parison with what we must do for ourselves, and nothing
for us without ourselves. They become to us blessings
through our own activity. Every man must be his own
priest. It is his own action, not the minister's, it is the
prayer issuing from his own heart, not from another's lips,
which aids him in the church. The church does him
good only as by its rites, prayers, hymns, and sermons
it wakes up his spirit to think, feel, pray, praise, and re-
solve. The church- is. a help, not a force. It acts on us

THE CHURCH. 197

by rational and moral means, and not by mystical opera-
tions. Its influence resembles precisely that which is
exerted out of church. Its efficiency depends chiefly
on the clearness, simplicity, sincerity, love, and zeal
with which the minister speaks to our understandings,
consciences, and hearts ; just as in common life we are
benefited by the clearness and energy with which our
friends set before us what is good and pure. The church
is adapted to our free moral nature. It acts on us as
rational and responsible beings, and serves us through
our own efficiency. From these views we learn that the
glory of the church does not lie in any particular govern-
ment or form, but in the wisdom with which it com-
bines such influences as are fitted to awaken and purify
the soul.

Am I asked to state more particularly what these in-
fluences are to which the church owes its efficacy .'' I
reply, that they are such as may be found in all church-
es, in all denominations. The first is, the character of
the minister. This has an obvious, immediate, and
powerful bearing on the great spiritual purpose of the
church. I say, his character, not his ordination. Ordi-
nation has no end but to introduce into the sacred office
men qualified for its duties, and to give an impression of
its importance. It is by his personal endowments, by
his intellectual, moral, and religious worth, by his faith-
fulness and zeal, and not through any mysterious cere-
mony or power, that the minister enlightens and edifies the
church. What matters it how he is ordained or set apart,
if he give himself to his work in the fear of God ? What
matters it who has laid hands on him, or whether he stand
up in surplice or drab coat ? I go to church to be bene-
fited, not by hand-s or coats, but by the action of an en-
17*

198 THE CHURCH.

lightened and holy teacher on my mind and heart ; not an
overpowering, irresistible action, but such as becomes
effectual through my own free thought and will. I go to
be convinced of what is true, and to be warmed with
love of what is good ; and he who thus helps me is a true
minister, no matter from what school, consistory, or
ecclesiastical body he comes. He carries h-is com-
mission in his soul. Do not say, that his ministry has
no " validity," because Rome, or Geneva, or Lambeth,
or Andover, or Princeton, has not laid hands on him.
What ! Has he not opened my eyes to see, and roused
my conscience to reprove .'' As I have heard him has
not my heart burned within me, and have I not silently
given myself to God with new humility and love ? Have
I not been pierced by his warnings, and softened by his
looks and tones of love ? Has he not taught and helped
me to deny myself, to conquer the world, to do good to
a foe ? Has he done this ; and yet has his ministry no
" validity " ? What other validity can there be than
this ? If a generous friend gives me water to drink
when I am parched with thirst, and I drink and am re-
freshed, will it do to tell me, that, because he did not
buy the cup at a certain licensed shop, or draw the water
at a certain antiquated cistern, therefore his act of kind-
ness is " invalid," and I am as thirsty and weak as I was
before .'' What more can a minister with mitre or tiara do
than help me, by wise and touching manifestations of
God's truth, to become a holier, nobler man ? If my soul
be made alive, no matter who ministers to nie ; and if not,
the ordinances of the church, whether high or low, ortho-
dox or heretical, are of no validity so far as I am con-
cerned. The diseased man who is restored to health
cares little whether his physician wear wig or cowl, or

THE CHURCH. 199

receive his diploma from Paris or London ; and so to
the regenerate man it is of little moment where or by
what processes he became a temple of the Holy Spirit.
According to these views a minister deriving power
from his intellectual, moral, and religious worth is one
of the chief elements of a true and quickening church.
Such a man will gather a true church round him ; and
we here learn that a Christian community is bound to
do what may aid, and to abstain from what may impair,
the virtue, nobleness, spiritual energy of its minister.
It should especially leave him free, should wish him to
wear no restraints but those of a sense of duty. His
office is, to utter God's truth according to his apprehen-
sion of it, and he should be encouraged to utter it
honestly, simply. He must follow his own conscience,
and no other. How can he rebuke prevalent error w'ith-
out an unawed spirit .'' Better that he should hold his
peace than not speak from his own soul. Better that
the pulpit be prostrated than its freedom be taken away.
The doctrine of " instructions " in politics is of very
doubtful expediency ; but that instructions should issue
from the congregation to the minister we all with one
voice pronounce wrong. The religious teacher com-
pelled to stifle his convictions grows useless to his peo-
ple, is shorn of his strength, loses self-respect, shrinks
before his own conscience, and owes it to himself to re-
frain from teaching. If he be honest, upright, and pure,
worthy of trust, worthy of being a minister, he has a
right to freedom ; and when he uses it conscientiously,
though he may err in judgment, and may give pain to
judicious hearers, he has still a right to respect. There
are, indeed, kw religious societies which would know-
ingly make the minister a slave. Many err on the side

200 THE CHURCH.

of submission, and receive his doctrines with blind, un-
questioning faith. Still, the members of a congregation,
conscious of holding the support of their teacher in their
hands, are apt to expect a cautious tenderness. towards
their known prejudices or judgments, which, though not
regarded as servility, is very hostile to that firm, bold
utterance of truth on which the success of his ministry
chiefly depends.

I have mentioned the first condition of the most use-
ful church ; it is the high cl-aracter of its minister. The
second is to be found in the spiritual character of its
members. This, like the former, is, from the very prin-
ciples of human nature, fitted to purify and save. It
was the intention of Christ that a quickening power
should be exerted in a church, not by the minister alone,
but also by the members on one another. Accordingly
we read of the " working of every part, every joint,"
in his spiritual body. We come together in our places
of worship that heart may act on heart ; that in the
midst of the devout a more fervent flame of piety may be
kindled in our own breasts ; that we may hear God's word
more eagerly by knowing that it is drunk in by thirsty
spirits around us ; that our own purpose of obedience
may be confirmed by the consciousness that a holy ener-
gy of will is unfolding itself in our neighbours. To this
sympathy the church is dedicated ; and in this its highest
influence is sometimes found. To myself the most
effectual church is that in which I see the signs of Chris-
tian afi^ection in those around me, in which warm hearts
are beating on every side, in which a deep stillness
speaks of the absorbed soul, in which I recognize
fellow-beings v»-ho in common life have impressed me
with their piety. One look from a beaming counte-

THE CHURCH. 201

nance, one tone in singing from a deeply moved heart,
perhaps aids me more than the sermon. When nothing
is said, I feel it good to be among the devout ; and I
wonder not that the Quakers in some of their still meet-
ings profess to hold the most intimate union, not only
with God, but with each other. It is not with the voice
only that man communicates with man. Nothing is so
eloquent as the deep silence of a crowd. A sigh, a low
breathing, sometimes pours into us our neighbour's soul
more than a volume of words. There is a communica-
tion more subtile than freemasonry between those who
feel alike. How contagious is holy feeling ! On the
other hand, how freezing, how palsying, is the gathering
of a multitude who feel nothing, who come to God's
house without reverence, without love, who gaze around
on each other as if they were assembled at a show,
whose restlessness keeps up a slightly disturbing sound,
whose countenances reveal no collectedness, no earnest-
ness, but a frivolous or absent mind ! The very sanctity
of the place makes this indifference more chilling. One
of the coldest spots on earth is a church without devo-
tion. What is it to me that a costly temple is set apart,
by ever so many rites, for God's service, that priests
who trace their lineage to apostles have consecrated it,
if I find it thronged by the worldly and undevout .'* This
is no church to me. T go to meet, not human bodies,
but souls ; and if I find them in an upper room like that
where the first disciples met, or in a shed, or in a street,
there I find a church. There is the true altar, the sweet
incense, the accepted priest. These all I find in sancti-
fied souls.

True Christians give a sanctifying power, a glory, to
the place of worship where they come together In

202 THE CHURCH.

them Christ is present and manifested in a far higher
sense than if he were revealed to the bodily eye. We
are apt, indeed, to think differently. Were there a place
of worship in which a glory like that which clothed
.Tesus on the Mount of Transfiguration were to shine
forth, how should we throng to it as the chosen spot on
earth ! how should we honor this as eminently his church !
But there is a more glorious presence of Christ than
this. It is Christ formed in the souls of his disciples.
Christ's bodily presence does not make a church. He
was thus present in the thronged streets of Jerusalem,
present in the synagogues and temples ; but these were
not churches. It is the presence of his spirit, truth,
likeness, divine love, in the souls of men which attracts
and unites them into one living body. Suppose that we
meet together in a place consecrated by all manner of
forms, but that nothing of Christ's spirit dwells in us.
With all its forms, it is a synagogue of Satan, not a
chiu'ch of .Jesus. Christ in the hearts of men, I repeat
it, is the only church bond. The Catholics, to give
them a feeling of the present Saviour, adorn their tem-
ples with paintings representing him in the most affect-
ing scenes of his life and death ; and had worship never
been directed to these, I should not object to them.
But there is a far higher likeness to Christ than the artist
ever drew or chiselled. It exists in the heart of his true
disciple. The true disciple surpasses Raphael and
Michael Angelo. The latter have given us Christ's
countenance from fancy, and, at best, having little hke-
ness to the mild beauty and majestic form which moved
through Judea. But the disciple who sincerely con-
forms himself to the disinterestedness, and purity, and
filial worship, and all-sacrificing love of Christ gives us

THE cHur.eH. 203

no fancied representation, but the true, divine lineaments
of his soul, the very spirit which beamed in his face,
vvhicli spoke in his voice, which attested his glory as the
Son of God. The truest church is that which has in
the highest degree this spiritual presence of our Lord,
this revelation of Jesus in his followers. This is the
church in which we shall find the greatest aid to our vir-
tue which outward institution can afFord us.

I have thus spoken of the two chief elements of a
living and efi'ectual church ; a pure, noble-minded minis-
ter, and faithful followers of Christ. In the preceding
remarks I have had chiefly in view particular churches,
organized according to some particular forms ; and I
have maintained that these are important only as minis-
tering to Christian holiness or virtue. There is, how-
ever, a grander church, to which I now ask your atten-
tion ; and the consideration of this will peculiarly con-
firm the lesson on which I am insisting, namely, tliat
there is but one essential thing, true holiness, or dis-
interested love to God and man. There is a grander
church than all particular ones, however extensive ; the
Church Caiholic or Universal, spread over all lands, and
one with the church in heaven. That all Christ's fol-
lowers form one body, one fold, is taught in various pas-
sages in the Xew Testament. You remember the earn-
estness of his last prayer, " that they might all be One,
as he and his Father are one." Into this church all who
partake the spirit of Christ are admitted. It asks not
who has baptized us ; whose passport we carry ; what
badge we wear. If " baptized by the Holy Ghost," its
W'ide gates are opened to us. Within this church are
joined those whom different names have severed or still

204 THE CHUKCH.

sever. We hear nothing of Greek, Roman, English
churches, but of Christ's church only. My friends, this
is not an imaginary union. The Scriptures in speaking
of it do not talk rhetorically, but utter the soberest truth.
All sincere partakers of Christian virtue are essentially
one. In the spirit which pervades tliem dwells a uniting
power found in no other tie. Though separated by
oceans, they have sympathies strong and indissoluble.
Accordingly, the clear, strong utterance of one gifted, in
spired Christian flies through the earth. It touches kin-
dred chords in another hemisphere. The word of such
a man as Fenelon, for instance, finds its way into the
souls of scattered millions.- Are not he and they of one
church .'' I thrill with joy at the name of holy men who
lived ages ago. Ages do not divide us. I venerate
them more for their antiquity. Are we not one body .''
Is not this union something real .'' It is not men's com-
ing together into one building which makes a church.
Suppose that in a place of worship I sit so near a fel-
low-creature as to touch him ; but that there is no com-
mon feeling between us, that the truth which moves me
he inwardly smiles at as a dream of fancy, that the dis-
interestedness which I honor he calls weakness or wild
enthusiasm. How far apart are we, though visibly so
near ! We belong to different worlds. How much
nearer am I to some pure, generous spirit in another
continent whose word has penetrated my heart, whose
virtues have kindled me to emulation, whose pure thoughts
are passing through my mind w^hilst I sit in the house of
prayer ! With which of these two have I church union .''
Do not tell me that I surrender myself to a fiction
of imagination, when I say, that distant Christians, that
all Christians and myself, form one body, one church,

THE CRUKCH 205

just as far as a common love and piety possess our
hearts. Nothing is more real than this spiritual union.
There is one grand, all-comprehending church ; and if I
am a Christian, I belong to it, and no man can shut me
out of it. You may exclude me from your Roman
church, your Episcopal church, and your Calvinistic
church, on account of supposed defects in my creed or
iny sect, and I am content to be excluded. But I will
not be severed from the great body of Christ. Who
shall sunder me from such men as Fenelon, and Pascal,
and Borromeo, from Archbishop Leighton, Jeremy Tay-
lor, and John Howard .'' Who can rupture the spiritual
bond between these men and myself .'' Do I not hold
them dear .'' Does not their spirit, flowing out through
their writings and lives, penetrate my soul .'' Are they
not a portion of my being ? Am I not a different man
from what T should have been,- had not these and other
like spirits acted on mine .'' And is it in the power of
synod, or conclave, or of all the ecclesiastical combina-
tions on earth, to part me from them ? I am bound to
them by thought and affection ; and can these be sup-
pressed by the bull of a pope or the excommunication
of a council .'' The soul breaks scornfully these bar-
riers, these webs of spiders, and joins itself to the great
and good ; and if it possess their spirit, will the great and
good, living or dead, cast it off because it has not en-
rolled itself in this or another sect ? A pure mind is
free of the universe. It belongs to the church, the
family of the pure, in all worlds. Virtue is no local
thing. It is not honorable because born in this com-
munity or that, but for its own independent, everlasting
beauty. This is the bond of the universal church. No
man can be excommunicated from it but by himself, by
VOL. VI, 18

206 THE CHURCH.

the death of goodness in his own breast. All sentences
of exclusion are vain, if he do not dissolve the tie of
jTjrity which binds him to all holy souls.

I honor the Roman Catholic church on one account ;
it clings to the idea of a Universal Church, though it
has mutilated and degraded it. The word Catholic
means Universal. Would to God that the church which
has usurped the name had understood the reality ! Still,
Romanism has done something to give to its members
the idea of their connexion with that vast spiritual com-
munity, or. church, which has existed in all times and
spread over all lands. It guards the memory of great
and holy men who in all ages have toiled and suffered
for religion, asserts the honors of the heroes of the faith,
enshrines them in heaven as beatified saints, converts
their legends into popular literature, appoints days for
the celebration of their virtues, and reveals them almost
as living to the eye by the pictures in which genius has
immortalized their deeds. In doing this Rome has fallen,
indeed, into error. She has fabricated exploits for these
spiritual persons, and exalted them into objects of wor-
ship. But she has also done good. She has given to
her members the feeling of intimate relation to the ho-
liest and noblest men in all preceding ages. An inter-
esting and often a sanctifying tie connects the present Ro-
man Catholic with martyrs, and confessors, and a host of
men whose eminent piety and genius and learning have
won for them an immortality of fame. It is no mean ser-
vice thus to enlarge men's ideas and affections, to awaken
their veneration for departed greatness, to teach them
their connexion with the grandest spirits of all times. It
was this feature of Catholicism which most interested
me in visiting Catholic countries. The services at the

THE CIIURCH. 207

altar did not move, but rather pained me. But wlien 1
cast my eyes on the pictures on the walls, which placed
before me the holy men of departed ages, now absorbed
in devotion and lost in rapture, now enduring with meek
courage and celestial hope the agonies of a painful death
in defence of the truth, 1 was touched, and I hope made
better. The voice of the officiating priest I did not
hear ; but these sainted dead spoke to my heart, and I
was sometimes led to feel as if an hour on Sunday spent
in this communion were as useful to me as if it had been
spent in a Protestant church. These saints never rose
to my thoughts as Roman Catholics. I never connect-
ed them with any particular church. They w^ere to me
living, venerable witnesses to Christ, to the power of
religion, to tlie grandeur of the human soul. I saw what
men might suffer for the truth, how they could rise above
themselves, how real might become the ideas of God
and a higher life. This inward reverence for the de-
parted good helped me to feel myself a member of the
church universal. I wanted no pope or priest to estab-
lish my unity with them. My own heart was witness
enough to a spiritual fellowship. Is it not to be desired
that all our churches should have services to teach us
our union with Christ's whole body ? Would not this break
our sectarian chains, and awaken reverence for Christ's
spirit, for true goodness, under every name and form .'' It
is not enough, to feel that we are members of this or that
narrow communion. Christianity is universal sympathy
and love. I do not recommend that our churches should
be lined WMth pictures of saints. This usage must come
in, if it come at all, not by recommendation, but by
gradual change of tastes and feelings. But why may
not the pulpit be used occasionally to give us the lives

208 THE CHURCH.

and virtues of eminent disciples in former ages ? It is
customary to deliver sermons on the history of Peter,
John, Paul, and of Abraham, and Elijah, and other
worthies of the Old Testament ; and this we do because
their names are written in the Bible. But goodness
owes nothing to the circumstance of its being recorded
in a sacred book, nor loses its claim to grateful, rever-
ent commemoration because not blazoned there. Moral
greatness did not die out with the apostles. Their lives
were reported for this, among other ends, that their vir-
tues might be propagated to future times, and that men
might spring up as worthy a place among the canonized
as themselves. What I wish is, that we should learn to
regard ourselves as members of a vast spiritual com-
munity, as joint heirs and fellow-worshippers with the
goodly company of Christian heroes who have gone
before us, instead of immuring ourselves in particular
churches. Our nature delights in this consciousness of
vast connexion. This tendency manifests itself in the
patriotic sentiment, and in the passionate clinging of men
to a great religious denomination. Its true and noblest
gratification is found in the deep feeling of a vital, ever-
lasting connexion with the universal church, with the in-
numerable multitude of the holy on earth and in heaven.
This church we shall never make a substitute for virtue.

I have spoken of the Roman Catholic Church. My
great objection to this communion is, that it has fallen
peculiarly into the error which I am laboring to expose
in this Discourse, that it has attached idolatrous impor-
tance to the institution of the Church, that it virtually
exalts this above Christ's spirit, above inward sanctity.
Its other errors are of inferior importance. It does not

THE CHLTECH. 209

offend me, that the Romanist maintains that a piece of
bread, a wafer, over which a priest has pronounced some
magical words, is the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ.
I learn, indeed, in this error, an humbling lesson of hu-
man credulity, of the weakness of human reason ; but I
see nothing in it which strikes at the essential principles
of religion. When, however, the Roman Catholic goes
farther, and tells me that God looks with abhorrence on
all who will not see in the consecrated wafer Christ's
flesh and blood ; and when he makes the reception of
this from the hands of a consecrated priest the door into
Christ's fold, then I am shocked by the dishonor he
casts on God and virtue, by his debasing conceptions of
our moral nature and of the Divine, and by his cruel dis-
ruption of the ties of human and Christian brotherhood.
How sad and strange that a man educated under Chris-
tianity should place religion in a church-connexion, in
church-rites, should shut from God's family the wisest
and the best because they conscientiously abstain from
certain outward ordinances ! Is not holiness of heart
and life dear to God for its own sake, dear to him with-
out the manipulations of a priest, without the agency of a
consecrated wafer } The grand error of Roman Cathol-
icism is, its narrow church-spirit, its blind sectarianism,
its exclusion of virtuous, pious men from God's favor
because they cannot eat, drink, or pray according to
certain prescribed rites. Romanism has to learn that
nothing but the inward life is great and good in the sight
of the Omniscient, and that all who cherish this are mem-
bers of Christ's body. Romanism is any thing but what
it boasts to be, the Universal Church. I am too much
a Catholic to enlist under its banner.

I belong to the Universal Church ; nothing shall sep-
18*

210 THE CHURCH.

arate me from it. In saying this, however, I am no
enemy to particular churches. In the present age of
the world it is perhaps best that those who agree in
theological opinions should worship together ; and I do
not object to the union of several such churches in one
denomination, provided that all sectarian and narrow
feeling be conscientiously and scrupulously resisted. I
look on the various churches of Christendom with no
feelings of enmity. I have expressed my abhorrence of
the sectarian spirit of Rome ; but in that, as in all other
churches, individuals are better than their creed ; and,
amidst gross error and the inculcation of a narrow spirit,
noble virtues spring up, and eminent Christians are
formed. It is one sign of the tendency of human na-
ture to goodness, that it grows good under a thousand
bad influences. The Romish church is illustrated by
great names. Her gloomy convents have often been
brightened by fervent love to God and man. Her St.
Louis, and Fenelon, and Massillon, and Cheverus ; her
missionaries who have carried Christianity to the ends
of the earth ; her sisters of charity who have carried
rehef and solace to the most hopeless want and pain ;
do not these teach us that in the Romish church the
Spirit of God has found a home ? How much, too,
have other churches to boast ! In the English church
we meet the names of Latimer, Hooker, Barrow, Leigh-
ton, Berkeley, and Heber ; in the Dissenting Calvinistic
church, Baxter, Howe, Watts, Doddridge, and Robert
Hall ; among the Quakers, George Fox, William Penn,
Robert Barclay, and our own Anthony Benezet, and
John Woolman ; in the Anti-trinitarian church, John
Milton, John Locke, Samuel Clarke, Price, and Priest-
ley. To repeat these names does the heart good. Thev

THE CHURCH. 211

breathe a fragrance through the common air. They lift
up the whole race to which they belonged. With the
churches of which they were pillars or chief ornaments
T have many sympathies ; nor do T condemn the union
of ourselves to these or any other churches whose doc-
trines we approve, provided that we do it without sever-
ing ourselves in the least from the universal church. On
this point we cannot be too earnest. We must shun the
spirit of sectarianism as from hell. We must shudder
at the thought of shutting up God in any denomina-
tion. We must think no man the better for belonging
to our communion ; no man the worse for belonging to
another. We must look with undiminished joy on good-
ness, though it shine forth from the most adverse sect.
Christ's spirit must be equally dear and honored, no
matter where manifested. To confine God's love or
his good Spirit to any party, sect, or name is to sin
against the fundamental law of the kingdom of God, to
break that living bond with Christ's universal church
which is one of our chief helps to perfection.

I have now given what seem to me the most important
views in relation to the church ; and in doing this I have
not quoted much from Scripture, because quotations
cannot be given fully on this or on any controverted
point in the compass of a discourse. I have relied on
what is vastly more important, on the general strain and
tone of Scripture, on the spirit of the Christian religion,
on the sum and substance of Christ's teachings, which
is plainly this, that inward holiness, or goodness, or dis-
interested love, is all in all. I also want time to con-
sider at large the arguments or modes of reasoning by
which this or that church sets itself forth as the only true

212 THE CHURCH.

church, and by which the necessity of entering it is
thought to be proved. I cannot, however, abstain from
offering a few remarks on these.

The principal arguments on which exclusive churches
rest their claims are drawn from Christian history and
literature, in other words, from the records of the primi-
tive ages of our faith, and from the writings of the early
Fathers. These arguments, I think, may be disposed
of by a single remark, that they cannot be comprehended
or weighed by the mass of Christians. How very, very
few in our congregations can enter into the critical study
of ecclesiastical history, or wade through the folios of
the Greek and Latin Fathers ! Now if it were neces-
sary to join a particular church in order to receive the
blessings of Christianity, is it to be conceived that the
discovery of this church should require a learning plainly
denied to the mass of human beings ? Would not this
church shine out with the brightness of the sun ? Would
it be hidden in the imperfect records of distant ages, or
in the voluminous writings of a body of ancient authors,
more remarkable for rhetoric than for soundness of judg-
ment .'' The learned cannot agree about these authori-
ties. How can the great multitudes of believers inter-
pret them ? Would not the Scriptures guide us by sim-
ple, sure rules to the only true church, if to miss it were
death .'' To my own mind this argument has a force
akin to demonstration.

I pass to another method of defending the claims
which one or another church sets up to exclusive ac-
ceptance with God. It is an unwarrantable straining of
the figurative language of Scripture. Because the church
is spoken of as one body, vine, or temple, theologians
have argued that it is one outward organization, to which

THE CHURCH. 213

all men must be joined. But a doctrine built on meta-
phor is north little. Every kind of absurdity may find
a sanction in figures of speech, explained by tame, pro-
saic, cold-hearted commentators. The beautiful forms
of speech to which I have referred were intended to ex-
press the peculiarly close and tender unions which ne-
cessarily subsist among all the enlightened and sincere
disciples of such a religion as Christ's, a religion whose
soul, essence, and breath of life is love, which reveals
to us in Jesus the perfection of philanthropy, and which
calls to us to drink spiritually of that blood of self-sacri-
fice which was shed for the whole human race. How
infinitely exalted is the union of minds and hearts formed
by such a religion above any outward connexion estab-
lished by rites and forms ! Yet the latter has been
seized on by the earthly understanding as the chief mean-
ing of Scripture, and magnified into supreme importance.
Has not Paul taught us that there is but one perfect
bond, Love ? * Has not Christ taught us that the seal
set on his disciples, by which all men are to know them,
is Love ?f Is not this the badge of the true church, the
life of the true body of Christ .'' And is not every dis-
ciple, of every name and form, who is inspired with this,
embraced indissolubly in the Christian union .''

It is sometimes urged by those who maintain the
necessity of connexion with what they call " the true
church," that God has a right to dispense his blessings
through what channels or on what terms he pleases ; that,
if he sees fit to communicate his Holy Spirit through a
certain priesthood or certain ordinances, we are bound
to seek the gift in his appointed way ; and that, having
actually chosen this method of imparting it, he may just-

* Colossians, iii. 14. t John, xiii. 35

214 THE CHURCH.

]y withhold it from those who refuse to comply with his
appointment. I reply, that the right of the Infinite
Father to bestow his blessings in such ways as to his in-
finite wisdom and love may seem best no man can be so
irreverent as to deny. But is it not reasonable to ex-
pect that he will adopt such methods or conditions as
will seem to accord with his perfection .'' And ought
we not to distrust such as seem to dishonor him .'' Sup-
pose, for example, that I were told that the Infinite
Father had decreed to give his Holy Spirit to such as
should bathe freely in the sea. Ought I not to require
the most plain, undeniable proofs of a purpose apparently
so unworthy of his majesty and goodness, before yield-
ing obedience to it .'' The presumption against it is ex-
ceedingly strong. That the Infinite Father, who is ever
present to the human soul, to whom it is unspeakably
dear, who has created it for communion with himself,
who desires and delights to impart to it his grace, that he
should ordain sea-bathing as a condition or means of
spiritual communication is so improbable that I must insist
on the strongest testimony to its truth. Now I meet pre-
cisely this difficulty in the doctrine, that God bestows his
Holy Spirit on those who receive bread and wine, or flesh
and blood, or a form of benediction or baptism, or any
other outward ministration, from the hands or lips of cer-
tain privileged ministers or priests. It is the most glori-
ous act and manifestation of God's power and love, to im-
part enlightening, quickening, purifying influences to the
immortal soul. To imagine that these descend in con-
nexion with certain words, signs, or outward rites, ad-
ministered by a frail fellow-creature, and are withheld or
abridged in the absence of such rites, seems, at first, an
insult to his wisdom and goodness ; seems to bring dovn

THE CHURCH. 215

his pure, infinite throne, to set arbitrary Hniits to his
liighest agency, and to assimilate his worship to that of
false gods. The Scriptures teach us that " God giveth
grace to the humble ;" that "he giveth his Holy Spirit
to them that ask him." This is the great law of Divine
communications ; and we can see its wisdom, because
the mind which hungers for Divine assistances is most
prepared to use them aright. And can we really be-
lieve that the prayers and aspirations of a penitent, thirst-
ing soul need to be seconded by the outward offices of
a minister or priest ? or that for want of these they find
less easy entrance into the ear of the ever-present, all-
loving Father .'' My mind recoils from this doctrine as
dishonorable to God, and I ought not to receive it with-
out clear proofs. I want something more than meta-
phors, or analogies, or logical inferences. I want some
express Divine testimony. And where is it given .'* Do
we not know that thousands and millions of Christians,
whose lives and deaths have borne witness to their faith,
have been unable to find it in the Scriptures, or anywhere
else ? And can we believe that the spiritual communi-
cation of such men with the Divinity has been forfeited
or impaired, because they have abstained from rites
which in their consciences they could not recognize as
of Divine appointment .'' That so irrational and extrava-
gant a doctrine should enter the mind of a man who has
the capacity of reading the New Testament would seem
an impossibility, did not history show us that it has been
not only believed, but made the foundation of the bitter-
est intolerance and the bloodiest persecutions.

The notion, that, by a decree of God's sovereign
will, his grace or Spirit flows through certain rites to
those who are in union with a certain church, and that

205 THE CmjRCH.

it is promised to none besides, has no foundation in
Scripture or reason. The church, as I have previously-
suggested, is not an arbitrary appointment ; it does not
rest on Will, but is ordained on account of its obvious
fitness to accomplish the spiritual improvement which is
the end of Christianity. It corresponds to our nature.
It is a union of means, and influences, and offices which
rational and moral creatures need. It has no affinity
with the magical operations so common in false re-
ligions ; its agency is intelligible and level to the com-
mon mind. Its two great rites, baptism and the Lord's
supper, are not meant to act as charms. When freed
from the errors and superstitions which have clung to
them for ages, and when administered, as they should
be, with tenderness and solemnity, they are powerful
means of bringing great truths to the mind and of touch-
ing the heart, and for these ends they are ordained. The
adaptation of the church to the promotion of holiness
among men is its grand excellence ; and where it ac-
complishes this end its work is done, and no greater can
be conceived on earth or in heaven. The moment we
shut our eyes on this truth, and conceive of the church
as serving us by forms and ordinances which are effect-
ual only in the hands of privileged officials or priests,
we plunge into the region of shadows and superstitions ;
we have no ground to tread on, no light to guide us.
This mysterious power, lodged in the hands of a few fel-
low-creatures, tends to give a servile spirit to the mass
of Christians, to impair manliness and self-respect, to
subdue the intellect to the reception of the absurdest
dogmas. Religion loses its simple grandeur, and de-
generates into mechanism and form. The conscience
is quieted by something short of true repentance ; some-

THE CHURCH. 217

thing besides purity of heart and life is made the qualifi-
cation for heaven. The surest device for making the
mind a coward and a slave is a wide-spread and closely-
cemented church the powers of which are concentrated
in the hands of a " sacred order," and which has suc-
ceeded in arrogating to its rites or ministers a sway over
the future world, over the soul's everlasting weal or woe.
The inevitably degrading influence of such a church is
demonstrative proof against its Divine original.

There is no end to the volumes written in defence of
this or that church which sets itself forth as the only
true church, and claims exclusive acceptance with God.
But the unlettered Christian has an answer to them all.
He cannot and need not seek, it in libraries. He finds
it, ahiiost without seeking, in plain passages of the New
Testament, and in his own heart. He reads, and he
feels, that religion is an Inward Life. This he knows,
not by report, but by consciousness, by the prostration
of his soul in penitence, by the surrender of his will to
the Divine, by overflowing gratitude, by calm trust,
and by a new love to his fellow-creatures. Will it do
to tell such a man that the promises of Christianity do
not belong to him, that access to God is denied him,
because he is not joined with this or that exclusive
church ? Has not this access been granted to him al-
ready ? Has he not prayed in his griefs, and been con-
soled .'' in his temptations, and been strengthened ? Has
he not found God near in his solitudes and in the great
congregation ? Does he thirst for any thing so fervently
as for perfect assimilation to the Divine purity ? And
can he question God's readiness to help him, because
he is unable to find in Scripture a command to bind him-
self to this or another self-magnifying church .'' How

VOL. VI. 19

218 THE CHURCH.

easily does the experience of the true Christian brush
away the cobwebs of theologians ! He loves and re-
veres God, and in this spirit has a foretaste of heaven ;
and can heaven be barred against him by ecclesiastical
censures ? He has felt the power of the cross and
resurrection and promises of Jesus Christ ; and is there
any "height or depth" of human exclusiveness and
bigotry which can separate him from his Lord ? He
can die for truth and humanity ; and is there any man so
swelled by the conceit of his union with the true church
as to stand apart and say, "I am holier than thou" ?
When, by means of the writings or conversations of
Christians of various denominations, you look into their
hearts, and discern the deep workings, and conflicts,
and aspirations of piety, can you help seeing in them
tokens of the presence and operations of God's Spirit
more authentic and touching than in all the harmonies
and beneficent influences of the outward universe ? Who
can shut up this Spirit in any place or any sect ? Who
will not rejoice to witness it in its fruits of justice, good-
ness, purity, and piety, wherever they meet the eye ?
Who will not hail it as the infallible sign of the accepted
worshipper of God ?

One word more respecting the arguments adduced
in support of one or another exclusive church. They
are continually, and of necessity, losing their force.
Arguments owe their influence very much to the mental
condition of those to whom they are addressed. What
is proof to one man is no proof to another. The evi-
dence which is triumphant in one age is sometimes
thought below notice in the next.' Men's reasonings
on practical subjects are not cold, logical processes,
standing separate in the mind, but are carried on in in-

THE CHURCH. 219

timate connexion with their prevalent feelings and modes
of thoLioht. Generally speaking, that, and that only, is
truth to a man which accords with the common tone of
his mind, with the mass of his impressions, with the re-
sults of his experience, with his measure of intellectual
development, and especially with those deep convic-
tions and biases which constitute what we call character.
Now it is the tendency of increasing civilization, refine-
ment, and expansion of mind, to produce a tone of
thought and feeling unfriendly to the church spirit, to re-
liance on church forms as essential to salvation. As the
world advances it leaves matters of form behind. In
proportion as men get into the heart of things they are
less anxious about exteriors. In proportion as religion
becomes a clear reality we grow tired of shows. In
the progress of ages there spring up in greater numbers
men of mature thought and spiritual freedom, who unite
self-reverence with reverence of God, and who cannot,
without a feeling approaching shame and conscious degra-
dation, submit to a church which accumulates outward,
rigid, mechanical observances towards the Infinite Father.
A voice within them, which they cannot silence, pro-
tests against the perpetual repetition of the same signs,
motions, words, as unworthy of their own spiritual pow-
ers, and of Him who deserves the highest homage of the
reason and the heart. Their filial spirit protests against
it. In common life, a refined, lofty mind expresses it-
self in simple, natural, unconstrained manners ; and the
same tendency, though often obstructed, is manifested in
religion. The progress of Christianity, which must go
on, is but another name for the growing knowledge and
experience of that spiritual worship of the Father which
Christ proclaimed as the end of his mission ; and before

220 THE CHURCH.

this the old idolatrous reliance on ecclesiastical forms
and organizations cannot stand. There is thus a perjDet-
ually swelling current which exclusive churches have to
stem, and which must sooner or later sweep away their
proud pretensions. What avails it, that this or another
church summons to its aid fathers, traditions, venerated
usages ? The spirit, the genius of Christianity is stronger
than all these. The great ideas of the religion must
prevail over narrow, perverse interpretations of it. On
this ground I have no alarm at reports of the triumphs
of the Catholic church. The spirit of Christianity is
stronger than popes and councils. Its venerableness and
divine beauty put to shame the dignities and pomps of a
hierarchy ; and men must more and more recognize it
as alone essential to salvation.

From the whole discussion through which I have now
led you you will easily gather how I regard the Church,
and what importance I attach to it. In its true idea, or
regarded as the union of those who partake in the spirit
of Jesus Christ, I revere it as the noblest of all associa-
tions. Our common social unions are poor by its side.
In the world we form lies of interest, pleasure^ and am-
bition. We come together as creatures of time and
sense, for transient amusement or display. In the church
we meet as God's children ; we recognize in ourselves
something higher than this animal and worldly life. We
come that holy feeling may spread from heart to heart.
The church, in its true idea, is a retreat from the world.
We meet in it, that, by union with the holy, we may
get strength to withstand our common intercourse with
the impure. We meet to adore God, to open our souls
to his Spirit, and, by recognition of the common Fa-

THE CHURCH. 221

ther, to forget all distinction among ourselves, to embrace
all men as brothers. This spiritual union with the holy
who are departed and who yet live is the beginning of
that perfect fellowship which constitutes heaven. It is
to survive all ties. The bonds of husband and wife,
parent and child, are severed at death ; the union of the
virtuous friends of God and man is as eternal as virtue,
and this union is the essence of the true church.

To the church relation, in this broad, spiritual view
of it, I ascribe the highest dignity and importance. But
as to union with a particular denomination or with
a society of Christians for public worship and instruc-
tion, this, however important, is not to be regarded as
the highest means of grace. We ought, indeed, to seek
help for ourselves, and to give help to others, by up-
holding religious institutions, by meeting together in the
name of Christ. The influence of Christianity is per-
petuated and extended, in no small degree, by the pub-
lic offices of piety, by the visible " communion of
saints." But it is still true that the public means of
religion are not its chief means. Private helps to piety
are the most efficacious. The great work of religion is
to be done, not in society, but in secret, in the retired
soul, in the silent closet. Communion with God is emi-
nently the means of religion, the nutriment and life of
the soul, and we can commune with God in solitude as
nowhere else. Here his presence may be most felt.
It is by the breathing of the unrestrained soul, by the
opening of the whole heart to " Him who seeth in
secret " ; it is by reviewing our own spiritual history, by
searching deeply into ourselves, by solitary thought, and
solitary solemn consecration of ourselves to a new vir-
tue ; it is b) these acts, and not by public gatherings,
19*

222 THE CHURCH.

that we chiefly make progress in the religious h"fe. It
is common to speak of the house of pubHc worship as a
holy place ; but it has no exclusive sanctity. The ho-
liest spot on earth is that where the soul breathes its
purest vows, and forms or executes its noblest pur-
poses ; and on this ground, were I to seek the holiest
spot in your city, I should not go to your splendid sanc-
tuaries, but to closets of private prayer. Perhaps the
" Holy of Holies " among you is some dark, narrow
room from which most of us would shrink as unfit for
human habitation ; but God dwells there. He hears
there music more grateful than the swell of all your or-
gans, sees there a beauty such as nature, in these her
robes of spring, does not unfold ; for there he meets,
and sees, and hears the humblest, most thankful, most
trustful worshipper ; sees the sorest trials serenely borne,
the deepest injuries forgiven ; sees toils and sacrifices
cheerfully sustained, and death approached through
poverty and lonely illness with a triumphant faith. The
consecration which such virtues shed over the obscurest
spot is not and cannot be communicated by any of those
outward rites by which our splendid structures are dedi-
cated to God.

You see the rank which belongs to the church, wheth-
er gathered in one place or spread over the whole earth.
It is a sacred and blessed union ; but must not be magni-
fied above other means and helps of religion. The
great aids of piety are secret, not pubhc. The Chris-
tian cannot live without private prayer ; he may live and
make progress without a particular church. Providence
may place us far from the resorts of our fellow-disciples,
beyond the sound of the Sabbath-bell, beyond all ordi-
nances ; and we may find Sabbaths and ordinances in

THE CHURCH. 223

our own spirits. Illness may separate us from the out-
ward church as well as from the living world, and the
soul may yet be in health and prosper. There have been
men of eminent piety who, from conscience, have separat-
ed themselves from all denominations of Christians and
all outward worship. INIilton, that great soul, in the latter
years of his life forsook all temples made with hands, and
worshipped wholly in the inuard sanctuary. So did Wil-
liam Law, the author of that remarkable book, " The
Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life." His excess
of devotion (for in him devotion ran into excess) led
him to disparage all occasional acts of piety. He lived
in solitude, that he might make hfe a perpetual prayer.
These men are not named as models in this particular.
They mistook the wants of the soul, and misinterpreted
the Scriptures. Even they, with all their spirituality,
would have found moral strength and holy impulse in re-
ligious association. But, with such examples before us,
we learn not to exclude men from God's favor because
severed from the outward church.

The doctrine of this Discourse is plain. Inward sanc-
tity, pure love, disinterested attachment to God and
man, obedience of heart and life, sincere excellence of
character, this is the one thing needful, this the essential
thing in rehgion ; and all things else, ministers, churches,
ordinances, places of worship, all are but means, helps,
secondary influences, and utterly worthless when separat-
ed from this. To imagine that God regards any thing
but this, that he looks at any thing but the heart, is to
dishonor him, to express a mournful insensibility to his
pure character. Goodness, purity, virtue, this is the
only distinction in God's sight. This is intrinsically.

224 THE CHURCH.

essentially, everlastingly, and by its own nature, lovely,
beautiful, glorious, divine. It owes nothing to time, to
circumstance, to outward connexions. It shines by its
own light. It is the sun of the spiritual universe. It is
God himself dwelling in the human soul. Can any man
think lightly of it because it has not grown up in a cer-
tain church, or exalt any church above it .'' My friends,
one of the grandest truths of religion is, the supreme
importance of character, of virtue, of that divine spirit
which shone out in Christ. The grand heresy is, to
substitute any thing for this, whether creed, or form, or
church. One of the greatest wrongs to Christ is, to
despise his character, his virtue, in a disciple who hap-
pens to wear a different name from our own.

When I represent to myself true virtue or goodness ;
not that which is made up of outward proprieties and pru-
dent calculations, but that which, chooses duty for its own
sake and as the first concern ; which respects impartially
the rights of every human being ; which labors and suffers
with patient resolution for truth and others' welfare ; which
blends energy and sweetness, deep humility and self-
reverence ; which places joyful faith in the perfection
of God, communes with him intimately, and strives to
subject to his pure will all thought, imagination, and
desire ; .which lays hold on the promise of everlasting
life, and in the strength of this hope endures calmly and
firmly the sorest evils of the present state ; when I set
before me this virtue, all the distinctions on which men
value themselves fade away. Wealth is poor ; worldly
honor is mean ; outward forms are beggarly elements.
Condition, country, church, all sink into unimportance.
Before this simple greatness I bow, I revere. The
robed priest, the gorgeous altar, the great assembly, the

THE CHURCH. 225

pealing organ, all the exteriors of religion, vanish from
my sight as I look at the good and great man, the holy,
disinterested soul. Even I, with vision so dim, with
heart so cold, can see and feel the divinity, the grandeur
of true goodness. How, then, must God regard it ?
To his pure eye how lovely must it be ! And can any
of us turn from it, because some water has not been
dropped on its forehead, or some bread put into its lips
by a minister or priest ; or because it has not learned to
repeat some mysterious creed which a church or human
council has ordained .''

My friends, reverence virtue, holiness, the upright
will which inflexibly cleaves to duty and the pure law
of God. Reverence nothing in comparison with it.
Regard this as the end, and all outward services as the
means. Judge of men by this. Think iio man the better,
no man the worse, for the church he belongs to. Try him
by his fruits. Expel from your breasts the demon of sec-
tarianism, narrowness, bigotry, intolerance. This is not,
as we are apt to think, a slight sin. It is a denial of the
supremacy of goodness. It sets up something, wheth-
er a form or dogma, above the virtue of the heart and
the life. Sectarianism immures itself in its particular
church as in a dungeon, and is there cut off from the
free air, the cheerful light, the goodly prospects, the
celestial beauty of the church universal.

My friends, I know that I am addressing those who
hold various opinions as to the controverted points of
theology. We have grown up under different influ-
ences. We bear different names. But if we purpose
solemnly to do God's will, and are following the precepts
and example of Christ, we are one church, and let noth-
ing divide us. Diversities of opinion may incline us to

226 THE CHURCH.

worship under different roofs ; or diversities of tastes or
habit, to worship with different forms. But these va-
rieties are not schisms ; they do not break the unity of
Christ's church. We may still honor and love and re-
joice in one another's spiritual life and progress as truly
as if we were cast into one and the same unyielding
form. God loves variety in nature and in the human
soul, nor does he reject it in Christian worship. In
many great truths, in those which are most quickening,
purifying, and consoling, we all, I hope, agree. There
is, too, a common ground of practice, aloof from all
controversy, on which we may all meet. We may all
unite hearts and hands in doing good, in fulfiUing God's
purposes of love towards our race, in toiling and suffer-
ing for the cause of humanity, in spreading intelligence,
freedom, and virtue, in making God known for the rever-
ence, love, and imitation of his creatures, in resisting
the abuses and corruptions of past ages, in exploring and
drying up the sources of poverty, in rescuing the fallen
from intemperance, in succouring the orphan and widow,
in enlightening and elevating the depressed portions of
the community, in breaking the yoke of the oppressed
and enslaved, in exposing and withstanding the spirit
and horrors of war, in sending God's Word to the ends
of the earth, in redeeming the world from sin and
woe. The angels and pure spirits who visit our earth
come not to join a sect, but to do good to all. May
this universal charity descend on us, and possess our
hearts ; may our narrowness, exclusiveness, and bigotry
melt away under this mild, celestial fire. Thus we shall
not only join ourselves to Christ's Universal Church on
earth, but to the Invisible Church, to the innumerable
company of the just made perfect, in the mansions of
everlasting; purity and peace.

THE CHURCH. 227

NOTES,

I HAVE spoken in this Discourse of the Romish church
as excluding from salvation those who do not submit to it.
I know, and rejoice to know, that many Catholics are too
wise and good to hold this doctrine ; but the church, in-
terpreted by its past words and acts, is not so liberal.

I have also expressed my reverence for the illustrious
names which have adorned the English church. This
church sets up higher claims than any other in the Protes-
tant world ; but by a man acquainted with its early history
it will be seen to be clothed with no peculiar authority. If
any Protestant church deserves to be called a creature of
the state, it is this. It was shaped by the sovereign very
much after his own will. It is a problem in history, how
the English people, so sturdy and stout-hearted in the main,-
could be so tame and flexible in matters of religion, under
Henry the Eighth, Edward the Sixth, Mary, and Eliza-
beth. They seem to have received, almost as unresisting-
ly as the coin, the image and superscription of the king.
The causes of this yieldingness are to be found in the
averseness to civil broils to which the nation had been
bi'ought by the recent bloody and exhausting wars of the
Roses ; in the formidable power of the Tudor sovereigns ;
in the insular position of England, and her distance from
Rome, which checked the domination of the papacy ; in
the ignorance of the people ; in the ravenousness of the
nobles for the property of the church in the first instance,

228 THE CHURCH.

and afterwards in their greediness for court favor. This
strange pliancy is a stain on the annals of the country.
It was in the Puritans that the old national sturdiness re-
vived, that England became herself again. These men
were rude in aspect, and forbidding in manners ; but, with
all their sternness, narrowness, frowning theology, and
high religious pretensions, they were the master spirits of
their times. To their descendants it is delightful to think
of the service they rendered to the civil and religious
liberties of England and the world, and to recall their
deep, vital piety, a gem most rudely set, but too precious
to be overvalued.

Since the preceding Discourse has been printed, the
following extract from an article in the Edinburgh Review
for July, 1841, entitled "The Port-Royalists," has been
deemed so strikingly coincident that it is herewith ap-
pended,

" But for every labor under the sun, says the Wise Man,
there is a time. There is a time for bearing testimony
against the errors of Rome ; why not also a time for testify-
ing to the sublime virtues with which those errors have been
so often associated ? Are we for ever to admit and never
to practise the duties of kindness and mutual forbearance ?
Does Christianity consist in a vivid perception of the faults,
and an obtuse blindness to the merits of those who differ
from us ? Is charity a virtue only when we ourselves are
the objects of it ? Is there not a church as pure and more
catholic than that of Oxford or Rome, — a church com-
prehending within its limits every human being who, ac-
cording to the measure of the knowledge placed within
his reach, strives habitually to be conformed to the will
of the common Father of us all ? To indulge hope be-
yond the pale of some narrow communion has, by each
Christian society in its turn, been denounced as a daring
presumption. Yet hope has come to all ; and with her,
faith and charity, her inseparable companions. Amidst

THE CHURCH. 229

the shock of contending creeds and the uproar of anathe-
mas, they wlio have ears to hear and hearts to understand
have listened to gentler and more kindly sounds. Good
men may debate as polemics, but they will feel as Chris-
tians. On the universal mind of Christendom is indelibly
engraven one image, towards which the eyes of all are
more or less earnestly directed. Whoever has himself
caught any resemblance, however faint and imperfect, to
that divine and benignant Original, has, in his measure,
learned to recognize a brother wherever he can discern
the same resemblance.

"There is an essential unity in that kingdom which is
not of this world. But within the provinces of that mighty
state there is room for endless varieties of administration,
and for local laws and customs widely differing from each
other. The unity consists in the one object of worship,
the one object of affiance, the one source of virtue, the
one cementing principle of mutual love which pervades
and animates the whole. The diversities are, and must
be, as numerous and intractable as are the essential dis-
tinctions which nature, habit, and circumstances have cre-
ated amongst men. Uniformity of creeds, of discipline, of
ritual, and of ceremonies, in such a world as ours ! a
world where no two men are not as distinguishable in
their mental as in their physical aspect ; where every petty
community has its separate system of civil government ;
where all that meets the eye, and all that arrests the ear
has the stamp of boundless and inlinite variety ! What
are the harmonies of tone, of color, and of form, but the
result of contrasts ; of contrasts held in subordination to
one pervading principle, which reconciles without con-
founding the component elements of the music, the paint-
ing, or the structure ? In the physical works of God
beauty could have no existence without endless diversities.
Why assume that in religious society — a work not less
surely to be ascribed to the supreme Author of all things
— this law is absolutely reversed ? Were it possihle to
subdue that innate tendency of the human mind which
compels men to difi"er in religious opinions and observan-
ces, at least as widely as on all other subjects, what would
be the results of such a triumph ? Where would then be
the free comparison and the continual enlargement of
thought ; where the self-distrusts which are the springs of

VOL. VI. 20

230 THE CHURCH.

humility, or the mutual dependencies which are the bonds
of love ? He who made us with this infinite variety in our
intellectual and physical constitution must have foreseen,
and foreseeing, must have intended, a corresponding dis-
similarity in the opinions of his creatures on all questions
submitted to their judgment and proposed for their ac-
ceptance. For truth is his law ; and if all will profess to
think alike, all must live in the habitual violation of it.

"Zeal for uniformity attests the latent distrusts, not
the firm convictions of the zealot. In proportion to the
strength of our self-reliance is our indifference to the
multiplication of suffrages in favor of our own judgment.
Our mipds are steeped in imagery ; and where the visible
form is not, the impalpable spirit escapes the notice of the
unreflecting multitude. In common hands analysis stops
at the species or the genus, and cannot rise to the order
or the class. To distinguish birds from fishes, beasts from
insects, limits the efforts of the vulgar observer of the face
of nature. • But Cuvier could trace the sublime unity, the
universal type, the fontal Idea existing in the creative In-
telligence, which connects as one the mammoth and the
snail. So, common observers can distinguish from each
other the different varieties of religious society, and can
rise no higher. Where one assembly worships with har-
monies of music, fumes of incense, ancient liturgies, and
a gorgeous ceremonial, and another listens to the unaided
voice of a single pastor, they can perceive and record the
differences ; but the hidden ties which unite them both
escape such observation. All appears as contrast, and all
ministers to antipathy and discord. It is our belief that
these things may be rightly viewed in a different aspect,
and yet with the most severe conformity to the Divine
will, whether as intimated by natural religion, or as re-
vealed in Holy Scripture. We believe, that, in the judg-
}nent of an enlightened charity, many Christian societies
who are accustomed to denounce each other's errors will
at length come to be regarded as members in common of
the one great and comprehensive church, in which diver-
sities of forms are harmonized by an all-pervading unity
of spirit. For ourselves, at least, we should deeply re-
gret to conclude that we are aliens from that great Chris-
tian commonwealth of which the nuns and recluses of the
valley of Poi-t-Royal were members, and members assured-
ly of no common excellence."

THE

DUTY OF THE FREE STATES

OR

REMARKS

SUGGESTED BY THE CASE OF THE CREOLE.
PART I.

The Author is aware that the following argument might have been more
condensed, had circumstances allowed; but he is reconciled to publishing
it in the present form by the belief that a degree of expansion and even of
repetition may adapt it to its end, which is, to bring the subject within the
comprehension of all who desire to know the truth. He now presents the
first part of his work, in the hope that the second will soon follow.

Boston, March 26, 1842.

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

I RESPECTFULLY ask your attention, fellow-citizens
of the Free States, to a subject of great and pressing
importance. The case of the Creole, taken by itself, or
separated from the principles which are complicated with
it, however it might engage my feelings, would not have
moved me to the present Address. I am not writing to
plead the cause of a hundred or more men, scattered
through the West Indies, and claimed as slaves. In a
world abounding with so much wrong and woe, we at
this distance can spend but a few thoughts on these
strangers. I rejoice that they are free ; I trust that they
will remain so ; and with these feelings, I dismiss them
from my thoughts. The case of the Creole involves
great and vital principles, and as such I now invite to it
your serious consideration.

The case is thus stated in the letter of the American
Secretary of State to the American Minister in London :

"It appears that the brig Creole, of Richmond, Vir-
ginia, Ensor master, bound to New Orleans, sailed from
Hampton roads with a cargo of merchandise, principally
tobacco, and slaves, about one hundred and thirty-five in
number ; that, on the evening of the 7th of November,
some of the slaves rose upon the crew of the vessel, mur-
dered a passenger named Hevvell, who owned some of tlie
negroes, wounded the captain dangerously, and the first
mate and two of the crew severely ; that the slaves soon
20^

234 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

obtained complete possession of the brig, which, under
their direction, was taken into the port of Nassau, in the
island of New Providence, where she arrived on the
morning of the 9th of the same month ; that, at the re-
quest of the American consul in that place, the governor
ordered a guard on board, to prevent the escape of the
mutineers, and with a view to an investigation of the cir-
cumstances of the case ; that such investigation was ac-
cordingly made by two British magistrates, and that an
examination also took place by the consul ; that, on the
report of the magistrates, nineteen of the slaves were
imprisoned by the local authorities, as having been con-
cerned in the mutiny and murder ; and their surrender to
the consul, to be sent to the United States for trial for
these crimes, was refused, on the ground, that the gov-
ernor wished first to communicate with the government in
England on the subject ; that, through the interference
of the colonial authorities, and even before the military
guard was removed, the greater number of the slaves
were liberated, and encouraged to go beyond the power
of the master of the vessel, or the American consul, by
proceedings which neither of them could control. This is
the substance of the case, as stated in two protests, one
made at Nassau, and one at New Orleans, and the con-
sul's letters, together with sundry depositions taken by
him ; copies of all which are herewith transmitted."

This statement of the case of the Creole is derived
chiefly from the testimony of the officers and crew of
the vessel, and very naturally falls under suspicion of
being colored, in part, by prejudice and passion. We
must hear the other side, and compare all the witnesses,
before we can understand the whole case. The main
facts, however, cannot be misunderstood. The shipping
of the slaves at Norfolk, the rising of a part of their
number against the officers of the vessel, the success of
the insurrection, the carrying of the vessel into the port
of Nassau, and the recognition and treatment of the
slaves as free by the British authorities of that place *
these material points of the case cannot be questioned.

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 235

The letter of our government, stating these facts as
grounds of complaint against England, is written with
much caution, and seems wanting in the tone of earnest-
ness and confidence which naturally belongs to a good
cause. It does not go to the heart of the case. It re-
lies more on the comity of nations than on principles of
justice and natural law. Still, in one respect it is de-
cided. It protests against, and complains of, the British
authorities, and "calls loudly for redress." It maintains
that "it was the plain and obvious duty" of the authori-
ties at Nassau to give aid and succour to the officers of
the Creole in reducing the slaves to subjection, in re-
suming their voyage with their cargo of men as well as
of tobacco, and in bringing the insurgents to trial in this
country. It maintains that the claims of the American
masters to their slaves existed and were in force in the
British port, and that these claims ought to have been
acknowledged and sustained by the British magistrate.
The plain inference is, that the government of the United
States is bound to spread a shield over American slavery
abroad as well as at home. Such is the letter.

This document I propose to examine, and I shall do
so chiefly for two reasons : First, because it maintains
morally unsound and pernicious doctrines, and is fitted
to deprave the public mind ; and secondly, because it
tends to commit the Free States to the defence and
support of slavery. This last point is at this moment of
peculiar importance. The Free States are gradually
and silently coming more and more into connexion with
slavery ; are unconsciously learning to regard it as a
national interest ; and are about to pledge their wealth
and strength, their bones and muscles and lives, to its
defence. Slavery is mingling more and more with the

236 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

politics of the country, determining more and more th j
individuals who shall hold office, and the great measures
on which the public weal depends. It is time for the
Free States to wake up to the subject ; to weigh it de-
liberately ; to think of it, not casually, when some start-
ling fact forces it up into notice, but with earnest, con-
tinued, solemn attention ; to inquire into their duties in
regard to it ; to lay down their principles ; to mark out
their course ; and to resolve on acquitting themselves
righteously towards God, towards the South, and to-
wards themselves. The North has never come to this
great matter in earnest. We have trifled with it. We
have left things to take their course. We have been too
much absorbed in pecuniary interests to watch the bear-
ing of slavery on the government. Pei'haps we have
wanted the spirit, the manliness, to look the subject fully
in the face. Accordingly, the slave-power has been
allowed to stamp itself on the national policy, and to
fortify itself with the national arm. For the pecuniary
injury to our prosperity which may be traced to this
source I care little or nothing. There is a higher view
of the case. There is a more vital question to be settled
than that of interest, the question of duty ; and to this
my remarks will be confined.

The letter which is now to be examined may be re-
garded either as the work of an individual, or as the
work of the government. I shall regard it in the latter
light alone. Its personal bearings are of no moment.
No individual will enter my thoughts in this discussion.
I regard the letter as issuing from the Cabinet, as an Ex-
ecutive document, as laying down the principles to which
the public policy is in danger of being conformed, as
fitted to draw the whole country into support of an in-

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 237

stitution which the Free States abhor. With the opin-
ions of an individual I have nothing to do. Corrupt
principles adopted by the government, — these, and
these alone, it will be my object to expose.

There is a difficulty lying at the threshold of such a
discussion, which I should be glad to remove. A North-
ern man writing on slavery is supposed to write as a
Northern man, to be swayed by State feelings and local
biases ; and the distrust thus engendered is a bar to the
conviction which he might otherwise produce. But the
prejudices which grow out of the spot where we live are
far from being necessary or universal. There are per-
sons whose peculiarity, perhaps whose infirmity it is, to
be exceedingly alive to evils in their neighbourhood, to-
defects in the state of society in which they live, whilst
their imaginations are apt to cast rosy hues over distant
scenes. There are persons who, by living in retirement
and holding intercourse with gifted minds in other re-
gions, are even in danger of wanting a proper local at-
tachment, and of being unjust to their own homes.
There are also worthier causes which counteract the
bigotry of provincial feelings. A man, then, is not
necessarily presumptuous in thinking himself free from
local biases. In truth, slavery never presents itself to
me as belonging to one or another part of the country.
It does not come to me in its foreign relations. I regard
it simply and nakedly in itself, and on this account feel
that I have a right to discuss it.

IMay I be allowed one more preliminary remark .'' The
subject of slavery is separated in my mind not only from
local considerations, but from all thought of the indi-
viduals by whom it is sustained. I speak against this in-
stitution freely, earnestly, some may think, vehemently ;

238 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

but I have no thought of attaching the same reproach to
all who uphold it ; and this I say, not to propitiate the
slave-holder, who cannot easily forgive the irreconcil-
able enemy of his wrong-doing, but to meet the prepos-
sessions of not a few among ourselves, who, from esteem
towards the slave-holder, repel what seems to them to
involve an assault on his character. I do, indeed, use,
and cannot but use, strong language against slavery. No
greater wrong, no grosser insult on humanity can well be
conceived ; nor can it be softened by the customary plea
of the slave-holder's kindness. The first and most es-
sential exercise of love towards a human being is, to
respect his rights. It is idle to talk of kindness to a hu-
man being whose rights we habitually trample under foot.
" Be just before you are generous." A human being
is not to be loved as a horse or a dog, but as a being
having rights ; and his first grand right is that of free ac-
tion ; the right to use and expand his powers ; to im-
prove and obey his higher faculties ; to seek his own
and others' good ; to better his lot ; to make himself a
home ; to enjoy inviolate the relations of husband and
parent ; to live the life of a man. An institution deny-
ing to a being this right, and virtually all rights, which
degrades him into a chattel, and puts him beneath the
level of his race, is more shocking to a calm, enlightened
philanthropy than most of the atrocities which we shud-
der at in history ; and this for a plain reason. These
atrocities, such as the burning of heretics, and the im-
molation of the Indian woman on the funeral pile of her
husband, have generally some foundation in ideas of duty
and religion. The inquisitor murders to do God ser-
vice ; and the Hindoo widow is often fortified against
the flames by motives of inviolable constancy and gener-

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 239

ous self-sacrifice. The Indian in our wilderness, when
he tortures his captives, thinks of making an offering, of
making compensation, to his own tortured friends. But
in slavery, man seizes his brother, subjects him to brute
force, robs him of all his rights, for purely selfish ends,
— as selfishly as the robber fastens on his prey. No
generous affections, no ideas of religion and self-sacrifice
f hrow a gleam of light over its horrors. As such I must
peak of slavery, when regarded in its own nature, and
especially when regarded in its origin. But when I look
on a community among whom this evil exists, but who
did not originate it ; who grew up in the midst of it ;
who connect it with parents and friends ; who see it in-
timately entwined with the whole system of domestic,
social, industrial, and political life ; who are blinded by
long habit to its evils and abuses ; and who are alarmed
by the possible evils of the mighty change involved in its
abolition ; I shrink from passing on such a community
the sentence which is due to the guilty institution. All
history furnishes instances of vast wrongs inflicted, of
cruel institutions upheld, by nations or individuals who in
other relations manifest respect for duty. That slavery
has a blighting moral influence, where it exists, is, in-
deed, unquestionable ; but in that bad atmosphere so
much that is good and pure may and does grow up as to
forbid us to deny esteem and respect to a man simply
because he is a slave-holder. I offer these remarks be-
cause I wish that the subject may be approaclied with-
out the association of it with individuals, parties, or lo-
cal divisions, which blind the mind to the truth.

I now return to the Executive document with which I
began. T am first to consider its doctrines, to show their
moral unsoundness and inhumanity ; and then I shall con-

240 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

sider the bearing of these doctrines on the Free States
in general, and the interest which the Free States have
at this critical moment in the subject of slavery. Thus
my work divides itself into tvi^o parts, the first of which
is now offered to the public.

In regard to the reasonings and doctrines of the docu-
ment, it is a happy circumstance, that they come within
the comprehension of the mass of the people. The
case of the Creole is a simple one, which requires no
extensive legal study to be understood. A man who has
had little connexion with public affairs is as able to de-
cide on it as the bulk of politicians. The elements of
the case are so few, and the principles on which its de-
termination rests are so obvious, that nothing but a sound
moral judgment is necessary to the discussion. Nothing
can darken it but legal subtlety. None can easily doubt
it, but those who surrender conscience and reason to
arbitrary rules.

The question between the American and English
governments turns mainly on one point. The English
government does not recognize within its bounds any
property In man. It maintains that slavery rests wholly
on local, municipal legislation ; that it is an institution not
sustained and enforced by the law of nature, and, still
more, that It is repugnant to this law ; and that, of course,
no man who enters the territory or is placed under the
jurisdiction of England can be regarded as a slave, but
must be treated as free. The law creating slavery, it is
maintained, has and can have no force beyond the state
which creates it. No other nation can be bound by it.
Whatever validity this ordinance, which deprives a man
oF all his rights, may have within the jurisdiction of the
community in which It had its birth, it can have no va-

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 241

lidily anywhere else. This is the principle on which
the Enghsh government founds itself.

This principle is so plain that it has been established
and is acted upon among ourselves, and in the neigh-
bouring British provinces. When a slave is brought by
his master into jMassachusetts, he is pronounced free,
on the ground, that the law of slavery has no force be-
yond the State which ordains it, and that the right of
every man to liberty is recognized as one of the funda-
mental laws of the Commonwealth. A slave flying from
his master to this Commonwealth is, indeed, restored,
but not on account of the validity of the legislation of the
South on this point, but solely on the ground of a posi-
tive provision of the Constitution of the United States ;
and he is delivered, not as a slave, but as a "person
held to service by law in another State." We should
not think, for a moment, of restoring a slave flying to us
from Cuba or Turkey. We recognize no right of a
foreign master on this soil. The moment he brings his
slave here his claim vanishes into air ; and this takes
place because we recognize freedom as the right of every
human being.

By the provision of the Constitution, as we have said,
the fugitive slave from the South is restored by us, or,
at least, his master's claim is not annulled. But we have
proof at our door that this exception rests on positive,
not natural law. Suppose the fugitive to pass through
our territory undiscovered, and to reach the soil of
Canada. The moment he touches it he is free. The
master finds there an equal in his slave. The British
authority extends the same protection over both. Ac-
cordingly, a colony of fugitive slaves is growing up se-
curely, beyond our border, in the enjoyment of all the

VOL. VI. 21

242 ' THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

rights of British subjects. And this good work has been
going on for years, without any complaint against Eng-
land as violating national law, and without any claim for
compensation. These are plain facts. We ourselves
construe the law of nature and nations as England does.
But the question is not to be settled on the narrow
ground of precedent alone. Let us view it in the light
of eternal, universal truth. A grand principle is in-
volved in the case, or rather lies at its very foundation,
aod to this I ask particular attention. This principle is,
that a man, as a man, has rights, has claims on his race,
which are in no degree touched or impaired on account
of the manner in which he may be regarded or treated
by a particular clan, tribe, or nation of his fellow-crea-
tures. A man, by his very nature, as an intelligent,
moral creature of God, has claims to aid and kind regard
from all other men. There is a grand law of humanity
more comprehensive than all others, and under which
every man should find shelter. He has not only a right,
but is bound, to use freely and improve the powers
which God has given him ; and other men, instead of
obstructing, are bound to assist their development and
exertion. These claims a man does not derive from the
family or tribe in which he began his being. They are
not the growth of a particular soil ; they are not ripened
under a peculiar sky ; they are not written on a particu-
lar complexion ; they belong to human nature. The
ground on which one man asserts them all men stand on,
nor can they be denied to one without being denied to
all. We have here a common interest. We must all
stand or fall together. We all have claims on our race,
claims of kindness and justice, claims grounded on our
relation to our common Father, and on the inheritance
of a common nature.

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 243

Because a number of men invade the rights of a
fellow-creature, and pronounce him destitute of rights,
his claims are not a whit touched by this. He is as much
a man as before. Not a single gift of God on which his
rights rest is taken away. His relations to the rest of
his race are in no measure affected. He is as truly
their brother as if his tribe had not pronounced him a
brute. If, indeed, any change takes place, his claims
are enhanced, on the ground that the suffering and in-
jured are entitled to peculiar regard. If any rights
should be singularly sacred in our sight, they are those
which are denied and trodden in the dust.

It seems to be thought by some that a man derives all
his rights from the nation to which he belongs. They
are gifts of the state, and the state may take them away,
if it will. A man, it is thought, has claims on other
men, not as a man, but as an Englishman, an American,
or a subject of some other state. He must produce his
parchment of citizenship, before he binds other men to
protect him, to respect his free agency, to leave him
the use of his powers according to his own will. Local,
municipal law is thus made the fountain and measure
of rights. The stranger must tell us where he was born,
what privileges he enjoyed at home, or no tie links us
to one another.

In conformity to these views, it is thought, that, when
one community declares a man to be a slave, other com-
munities must respect this decree ; that the duties of a
foreign nation to an individual are to be determined by
a brand set on him on his own shores ; that his relations
to the whole race may be affected by the local act of a
community, no matter how small or how unjust.

This is a terrible doctrine. It strikes a blow at all

244 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

the rights of human nature. It enables the political
body to which we belong, no matter how wicked or
weak, to make each of us an outcast from his race. It
makes a man nothing in himself. As a man, he has no
significance. He is sacred only as far as some state has
taken him under its care. Stripped of his nationality,
he is at the mercy of all who may incline to lay hold on
him. He may be seized, imprisoned, sent to work in
galleys or mines, unless some foreign state spreads its
shield over him as one of its citizens.

This doctrine is as false as it is terrible. Man is not
the mere creature of the state. Man is older than na-
tions, and he is to survive nations. There is a law of
humanity more primitive and divine than the law of the
land. He has higher claims than those of a citizen.
He has rights which date before all charters and com-
munities ; not conventional, not repealable, but as eter-
nal as the powers and laws of his being.

This annihilation of the individual by merging him in
the state lies at the foundation of despotism. The
nation is too often the grave of the man. This is the
more monstrous, because the very end of the state, of
the organization of the nation, is, to secure the individual
in all his rights, and especially to secure the rights of the
weak. Here is the fundamental idea of political asso-
ciation. In an unorganized society, widi no legislation,
no tribunal, no empire, rights have no security. Force
predominates over right. This is the grand evil of
what is called the state of nature. To repress this, to
give right the ascendancy over force, this is the grand
idea and end of government, of country, of pohtical con-
stitutions. And yet we are taught that it depends on
the law of a man's country, whether he shall have rights,

THE DUTY OF THE FJIEE STATES. 245

and whether other states shall regard him as a man.
When cast on a foreign shore, his country, and not his
humanity, is to be inquired into, and the treatment he re-
ceives is to be proportioned to what he meets at home.

Men worship power, worship great organizations, and
overlook the individual ; and few things have depraved
the moral sentiment of men more, or brought greater
woes on the race. The state, or the ruler in whom the
state is embodied, continues to be worshipped, notwith-
standing the commission of crimes which would inspire
horror in the private man. How insignificant are the
robberies, murders, piracies, which the law makes capi-
tal, in comparison with an unjust or unnecessary war,
dooming thousands, perhaps millions, of the innocent to
the most torturing forms of death, or with the law of an
autocrat or of a public body, depriving millions of all the
rights of men ! But these, because the acts of the state,
escape the execrations of the world.

In consequence of this worship of governments it is
thought that their relations to one another are alone im-
portant. A government is too great to look at a stran-
ger, except as he is incorporated with some state. It
can have nothing to do but with political organizations
like itself. But the humble stranger has a claim on it
as sacred as another state. Standing alone, he yet has
rights, and to violate them is as criminal as to violate
stipulations with a foieign power. In one view it is
baser. It is as true of governments as of individuals,
that it is base and unmanly to trample on the weak.
He who invades the strong shows a courage which does
something to redeem his violence ; but to tread on the
neck of a helpless, friendless fellow-creature is to add
meanness to wrong.
21 *

246 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

If the doctrine be true, that the character impressed
on a man at home follows him abroad, and that he is to
be regarded, not as a man, but as the local laws which
he has left regard him, why shall not this apply to the
peculiar advantages as well as disadvantages which a
man enjoys in his own land ? Why shall not he whom
the laws invest with a right to universal homage at home
receive the same tribute abroad ? Why shall not he
whose rank exempts him from the ordinary restraints
of law on his own shores claim the same lawlessness
elsewhere ? Abroad these distinctions avail him nothing.
The local law which makes him a kind of deity deserts
him the moment he takes a step beyond his country's
borders ; and why shall the disadvantages, the terrible
wrongs, which that law inflicts, follow the poor sufferer
to the end of the earth ?

I repeat it, for the truth deserves reiteration, that all
nations are bound to respect the rights of every human
being. This is God's law, as old as the world. No lo-
cal law can touch it. No ordinance of a particular state,
degrading a set of men to chattels, can absolve all na-
tions from the obligation of regarding the injured beings
as men, or bind them to send back the injured to their
chains. The character of a slave, attached to a man by
a local government, is not and cannot be incorporated
into his nature. It does not cling to him, go where he
will. The scar of slavery on his back does not reach
his soul. The arbitrary relation between him and his
master cannot suspend the primitive, indestructible rela-
tion by which God binds him to his kind.

The idea, that a particular state may fix enduringly
this stigma on a human being, and can bind the most
just and generous men to respect it, should be rejected

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 247

with scorn and indignation. It reminds us of those hor-
rible fictions in which some demon is described a.s
stamping an indehble mark of hell on his helpless vic-
tims. It was the horrible peculiarity of .the world in the
reign of Tiberius, that it had become one vast prison.
The unhappy man on whom the blighting suspicion of
the tyrant had fallen could find no shelter or escape
through the whole civilized regions of the globe. Every-
where his sentence followed him like fate. And can
the law of a despot, or of a chamber of despots, extend
now the same fearful doom to the ends of the earth ?
Can a little State at the South spread its web of cruel,
wrongful legislation over both continents ? Do all com-
munities become spellbound by a law in a single coun-
try creating slavery .'' Must they become the slave's
jailers .-' Must they be less merciful than the storm
which drives off the bondman from the detested shore
of servitude and casts him on the soil of freedom ? Must
even that soil become tainted by an ordinance passed
perhaps in another hemisphere ? Has oppression this
terrible omnipresence ? Must the whole earth register
the slave-holder's decree ? Then the earth is blighted
indeed. Then, as some ancient sects taught, it is truly
the empire of the Principle of Evil, of the Power of
Darkness. Then God is dethroned here ; for where
injustice and oppression are omnipotent God has no
empire.

I have thus stated the great principle on which the
English authorities acted in the case of the Creole, and
on which all nations are bound to act. Slavery is the
creature of a local law, having power not a handbreadth
beyond the jurisdiction of the country which ordains it.
Other nations know nothing of it, are bound to pay it

248 THE DUTY OF THE FKEE STATES.

no heed. I might add that other nations are bound to
tolerate it within the bounds of a particular state only on
the grounds on which they suffer a particular state to
establish bloody, superstitions, to use the rack in juris-
prudence, or to practise other enormities. They might
much more justifiably put down slavery where it ex-
ists than enforce a foreign slave-code within their own
bounds. Such is the impregnable principle which we of
the Free States should recognize and earnestly sustain.*
This pi'inciple our government has not explicitly de-
nied in its letter to our minister in London. The letter
is chiefly employed in dilating on various particular cir-
cumstances which, it is said, entitled the Creole to as-
sistance from the British authorities in the prosecution
of the voyage with her original freight and passengers.
The strength of the document lies altogether in the skilful
manner in which these circumstances are put together.
I shall therefore proceed to consider them with some
minuteness. They are briefly these. The vessel was
engaged in a voyage " perfectly lawful." She was
taken to a British port, "not voluntarily, by those who
had the lawful authority over her," but forcibly and vio-
lently, "against the master's will," without any agency
or solicitation on the part of the great majority of the
slaves, and, indeed, solely by the few " mutineers " who
had gained possession of her by violence and bloodshed.
The slaves were " still on board " the American vessel.
They had not become " incorporated with the English
population" ; and from these facts it is argued that they
had not changed their original character, that the vessel
containing them ought to have been regarded as " still
on her voyage," and should have been aided to resume

* See Note A.

THE DUTY OF TJHE FREE STATES. 249

it, according to that law of comity and hospitality by
which nations are bound to aid one another's vessels in
distress.

It is encouraging to see in this reasoning of the letter
a latent acknowledgment, that, had the vessel been car-
ried with the slaves into the British port by the free will
of the captain, the slaves would have been entitled to
liberty. The force and crime involved in the transac-
tion form the strength of the case as stated by ourselves.
The whole tone of the communication undesignedly re-
cognizes important rights in a foreign state in regard
to slaves carried voluntarily to their shores ; and by this
concession it virtually abandons the whole ground.

But let us look at the circumstances which, it is said,
bound the British authorities to assist the captain in send-
ing back the slaves to their chains ; and one general re-
mark immediately occurs. These circumstances do not
touch, in the slightest degree, the great principle on
which the authorities were bound by British and natural
law to act. This principle, as we have stated, is, that
a nation is bound by the law of nature to respect the
rights of every human being, that every man within its
jurisdiction is entitled to its protection as long as he
obeys its laws, that the private individual may appeal to
the broad law of humanity and claim hospitality as truly
as a state.

Now how did the peculiar circumstances of the Creole
bear on this fundamental view of the case ? Did the
manner in which the slaves of the Creole were carried
to Nassau in any measure affect their character as men .''
Did they cease to be men, because the ship was seized
by violence, the captain imprisoned, and the vessel turned
from its original destination .'' Did the shifting of the

250 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

vessel's course by a few points of the compass, or did
the government of the helm by a "mutineer," transmute
a hundred or more men into chattels ? To the eye of
the British officer, the slaves looked precisely as they
would have done, had they been brought to the island by
any other means. He could see nothing but human
beings ; and no circumstances, leaving this character on
them, could have authorized him to deny them human
rights. It mattered nothing to him how they came to
the island ; for this did not touch at all the ground of
their claim to protection.

A case, indeed, is imagined in the document, in which
it is said that the manner of transportation of slaves to a
foreign port must determine the character in which they
shall be viewed. " Suppose an American vessel with
slaves lawfully on board were to be captured by a British
cruiser, as belonging to some belligerent, while the Uni-
ted States were at peace ; suppose such prize carried
into England, and the neutrality of the vessel fully made
out in the proceedings in Admiralty, and a restoration
consequently decreed ; in such case must not the slaves
be restored exactly in the condition in which they were
v^'hen the capture was made ? Would any one contend
that the fact of their having been carried into England
by force set them free ? " T reply, undoubtedly they
would be free the moment they should enter English
jurisdiction. A writ of habeas corpus could and would
and must be granted them, if demanded by themselves
or their friends, and no court would dare to remit them
to their chains ; and this is not only English law, but in
the spirit of universal law. In this case, however, com-
pensation would undoubtedly be made by the captors for
the slaves, not on the ground of any claim in the slave-

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 251

holder, but because of the original wrong by the captors,
and of their consequent obligation to replace the vessel,
as much as possible, in the condition in which she was
found at the moment of being seized on the open ocean,
where she was captured on groundless suspicion, where
she had a right to prosecute her voyage without obstruc-
tion, and whence she ought not to have been brought
by the capturing state within its jurisdiction and made
subject to its laws.

Let us now consider particularly the circumstances on
which the United States maintain that the British authori-
ties were bound to replace the slaves under the master
of the Creole, and violated their duty in setting them
free.

It is insisted, first, that " the Creole was passing from
one port to another in a voyage perfectly lawful.'^'' We
cannot but lament, that, to sustain this point of the law-
fulness of the voyage, it is affirmed that "slaves are re-
cognized as property by the Constitution of the United
States in those States in which slavery exists." Were
this true, it is one of those truths which respect for our
country should prevent our intruding on the notice of
strangers. A child should throw a mantle over the
nakedness of his parent. But the language seems to me
stronger than the truth. The Constitution was intended
not to interfere with the laws of property in the States
where slaves had been held. But the recognition of a
moral right in the slave-holder is most carefully avoided
in that instrument. Slaves are three times referred to,
but always as persons, not as property. The Free States
are, indeed, bound to deliver up fugitive slaves ; but these
are to be surrendered, not as slaves, but as "persons
held to service." The clause applies as much to fugi-

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

tive apprentices from the North as to fugitive slaves
from the South. The history of this clause is singular.
In the first draught of the Constitution it stood thus :
" No person, legally held to service or labor in one
State, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of
regulations subsisting therein, be discharged from such
service or labor, but shall be delivered up," &c. Mr.
Madison tells us that " the term ' legally ' was struck
out ; and the words, ' under the laws thereof,' in-
serted after the word ' State,' in compliance with the
wish of some who thought the term legal equivo-
cal, and favoring the idea that slavery was legal in
a moral vieio."* It ought also to be added, that,
in the debate in the Convention on that clause of the
Constitution which conferred power on Congress to abol-
ish the importation of slaves in 1808, " Mr. Madison
thought it wrong to admit in the Constitution the idea
that there could be property in men." f Most mem-
orable testimony to the truth from this greatest constitu-
tional authority ! With the knowledge of these facts,
our government had no apology for holding up the great
national charter as recognizing property in man. The
phraseology and history of the Constitution afford us
some shelter, however insufficient, from the moral con-
demnation of the world ; and we should not gratuitously
cast it away.

Whilst, however, we censure this clause in the Ex-
ecutive document, we rejoice that on one point it is ex-
pHcit. It affirms that " slaves are recognized as proper-
ty by the Constitution of the United States in those
States in which slavery exists.''^ Here we have the
limit precisely defined within which the Constitution

* Madison Papers, p. 1589. f Ibid. p. 1429, 30.

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 253

spreads its shield over slavery. These limits are, "the
States in which slavery exists." Beyond these it re-
cognizes no property in man, and, of course, beyond
these it cannot take this property under its protection.
The moment the slave leaves the States within which
slavery exists, the Constitution knows nothing of him as
property. Of consequence, the national government has
no right to touch the case of the Creole. As soon as
that vessel passed beyond the jurisdiction of the State
where she received her passengers, the slaves ceased to
be property, in the eye of the Constitution. The na-
tional authorities were no longer bound to interfere with
and to claim them as such. The nation's force was no
longer pledged to subject them to their masters. Its
relation to them had wholly ceased. On this point we
are bound to adopt the strictest construction of the in-
strument. The Free States should not suffer them-
selves to be carried a hair's breadth beyond the line
within which th-ey are pledged to the dishonorable office
of protecting slavery.

But, leaving this clause, I return to the first consider-
ation adduced to substantiate the claim of the Creole to
the assistance of the British authorities. The voyage,
we are told, was " perfectly lawful." Be it so. But
this circumstance, according to the principles of the
Free States, involves no obligation of another commu-
nity to enforce slavery, or to withhold from the slave
the rights of a man. Suppose that the Creole had
sailed to Massachusetts with her slaves. The voyage
would have been "lawful"; but on entering the port
of Boston her slaves would have been pronounced free.
The " right of property " in them conferred by a Slave
State would have ceased. The lawfulness of the voyage,

VOL. VI. 22

254 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

then, gives the slave-holder no claim on another govern
ment into the ports of which his slave may be carried.

Again, what is meant by the " perfect lawfulness "
of the voyage ? Does it mean that the Creole shipped
the slaves under the law of nature or the law of Great
Britain ? Certainly not ; but solely under the law of
America ; so that the old question recurs, Whether a
local, municipal law, authorizing an American vessel to
convey slaves, binds all nations, to whose territory these
unhappy persons may be carried, to regard them as
property, to treat them as the Farias of the human race.
This is the simple question, and one not hard of solu-
tion.

" The voyage was perfectly lawful," we are told.
So would be the voyage of a Turkish ship freighted with
Christian slaves from Constantinople. Suppose such a
vessel driven by storms or carried by force into a Chris-
tian port. Would any nation in Europe, or would
America, feel itself bound to assist the Turkish slaver,
to replace the chains on Christian captives whom the
elements or their own courage had set free, to sacrifice
to the comity and hospitality and usages of nations the
law of humanity and Christian brotherhood ?

" The voyage," we are told, " was perfectly lawful."
Suppose now that a slave-holding country should pass a
law ordaining and describing a chain as a badge of bon-
dage, and authorizing the owner to carry about his slave
fastened to himself by this sign of property. Suppose
the master to go with slave and chain to a foreign
country. His journey would be "lawful" ; but would
the foreign government be bound to respect this ordi-
nance of the distant state .'' Would the authorized chain
establish property in the slave over the whole earth ?

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 255

We know it would not ; and why should the authorized
vessel impose a more real obligation ?

It seems to be supposed by some that there is a pe-
culiar sacredness in a vessel, which exempts it from all
control in the ports of other nations. A vessel is some-
times said to be "an extension of the territory" to
which it belongs. The nation, we are told, is present
in the vessel, and its honor and rights are involved in
the treatment which its flag receives abroad. These
ideas are in the mam true in regard to ships on the high
seas. The sea is the exclusive property of no nation.
It is subject to none. It is the common and equal prop-
erty of all. No state has jurisdiction over it. No state
can write its laws on that restless surface. A ship at
sea carries with her and represents the rights of her
country, rights equal to those which any other enjoys.
The slightest application of the laws of another nation
to her is to be resisted. She is subjected to no law but
that of her own country, and to the law of nations,
which presses equally on all states. She may thus be
called, with no violence to language, an extension of the
territory to which she belongs. But suppose her to
quit the open sea and enter a port. What a change is
produced in her condition ! At sea she sustained the
same relations to all nations, those of an equal. Now
she sustains a new and peculiar relation to the nation
which she has entered. She passes at once under its
jurisdiction. She is subject to its laws. She is entered
by its officers. If a criminal flies to her for shelter, he
may be pursued and apprehended. If her own men
violate the laws of the land, they may be seized and
punished. The nation is not present in her. She has
left the open highway of the ocean, where all nations

256 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

are equals, and entered a port where one nation alone is
clothed with authority. What matters it that a vessel in
the harbour of Nassau is owned in America .'' This does
not change her locahty. She has contracted new duties
and obligations by being placed under a new jurisdiction.
Her relations differ essentially from those which she sus-
tained at home or on the open sea. These remarks
apply, of course, to merchant vessels alone. A ship of
war is "an extension of the territory " to which she
belongs, not only w^hen she is on the ocean, but in a
foreign port. In this respect she resembles an army
marching by consent through a neutral country. Neither
ship of war nor army falls under the jurisdiction of
foreign states. Merchant vessels resemble individuals.
Both become subject to the laws of the land which they
enter.

We are now prepared to consider the next circum-
stance, on which much stress is laid to substantiate the
claim of our government. " The vessel was taken to a
British port, not voluntarily, by those who had the lawful
authority over her, but forcibly and violently, against the
master's will, by mutineers and murderers," &c.

To this various replies are contained in the preceding
remarks. The first is, that the local laws of one coun-
try are not transported to another, and do not become
of force there, because a vessel of the former is carried
by violence into the ports of the latter. Another is,
that a vessel entering the harbour of a foreign state,
through mutiny or violence, is not on this account ex-
empted from its jurisdiction or laws. She may not set
its authorities at defiance because brought within its
waters against her own will. There may, indeed, be
local laws intended to exclude foreia;ners, which it would

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 257

be manifestly unjust and inhuman to enforce on such as
may be driven to the excluding state against their own
consent. But as to the laws of a country founded on
the universal principles of justice and humanity, these
are binding on foreign vessels under whatever circum-
stances they may be brought within its jurisdiction.
There is still another view of this subject, which I have
already urged, but which is so important as to deserve
repetition. The right of the slaves of the Creole to
liberation was not at all touched by the mode in which
they were brought to Nassau. No matter how they got
there, whether by sea, land, or air, whether by help of
saint or sinner. A man's right to freedom is derived
from none of these accidents, but inheres in him as a
man, and nothing which does not touch his humanity
can impair it. The slaves of the Creole were not a whit
the less men because "mutiny " had changed their course
on the ocean. They stood up in the port of Nassau
with all the attributes of men, and the government could
not without wrong have denied their character and cor-
responding claims.

We are now prepared for the consideration of another
circumstance in the case of the Creole on which stress
is laid. We are told by our government that they were
"still in the ship" when they were declared free, and
on this account their American character, that is, the
character of slavery, adhered to them. This is a view
of the case more fitted perhaps than any other to im-
press the inconsiderate. The slaves had not changed
their position, had not touched the shore. The vessel
was American. They trod on American pknks ; they
slept within American walls. They of course belonged
to America, and were to be viewed only in their Amer-
22*

258 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

ican character. To this reasoning the principles already
laid down furnish an easy answer. It is true that the
slaves were in an American ship ; but there is another
truth still more pregnant ; they were also in another
country, where American law has no power. The ves-
sel had not carried America to the port of Nassau.
The slaves had changed countries. What though they
were there in an American ship ? They were therefore
not the less within English territory and English jurisdic-
tion. The two or three inches of plank which sepa-
rated them from the waves had no miraculous power to
prevent them from being where they were. The water
which embosomed the vessel was English. The air
they breathed was English. The laws under which they
had passed were English. One would think, from the
reasoning to which I am replying, that the space occu-
pied by a vessel in a foreign port is separated for a time
from the country to which it formerly belonged ; that it
takes the character of the vessel, and falls under the
laws of the land to which she appertains ; that the au-
thorities which have controlled it for ages must not enter
it, whilst the foreign planks are floating in it, to repress
crime or enforce justice. But this is all a fiction. The
slaves, whilst in the ship, were in a foreign country as
truly as if they had plunged into the waves or set foot
on shore.

We will now consider another circumstance to which
importance is attached in the document of our Execu-
tive. We are told that " the slaves could not be re-
garded as having become mixed up or incorporated with
the British population, or as having changed character
at all, either in regard to country or personal condition."
To this it is replied, that no one pretends that the slaves

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 259

had become Englishmen, or had formed a special rela-
tion to Great Britain, on account of which she was com-
pelled to hberate them. It was not as a part of the
British population that they were declared free. Had
the authorities at Nassau taken this ground, they might
have been open to the complaints of our government.
The slaves were pronounced free, not because of any
national character which they sustained, but because
they were men, and because Great Britain held itself
bound to respect the law of nature with regard to men.
It was not necessary for them to be incorporated with
the British population in order to acquire the common
rights of human beings. One great error in the docu-
ment is, that a government is supposed to owe nothing
to a human being who lands on its shores, any farther
than his nation may require. It is thought to have
nothing to do but to inquire into his nationality and to
fulfil the obligations which this imposes. He has no
rights to set up, unless his own government stand by
him. Thus the fundamental principles of the law of
nature are set at naught. Thus all rights are resolved
into benefactions of the state, and man is nothing, unless
incorporated, mixed up, with the population of a particu-
lar country. This doctrine is too monstrous to be. open-
ly avowed, but it lies at the foundation of most of the
reasonings of the document. The man, I repeat it, is
older and more sacred than the citizen. The slave of
the Creole had no other name to take. His own coun-
try had declared him not to be a citizen. He had been
scornfully refused a place among the American people.
He was only a Man ; and was that a low title on which
to stand up among men ? Nature knows no higher on
earth. English law knows no higher. Shall we find

260 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

fault with a country, because an outcast man landing on
its shore is declared free without the formality of becom-
ing incorporated with its population ?

The slaves, we are told in the argument which we are
considering, as they had no claim to be considered as
mixed up with the British population, had not, therefore,
changed their character either in regard to " country or
condition." The old sophistry reigns here. It is taken
for granted that a man has no character but that of coun-
try and condition. In other words, he must be regarded
by foreign states as belonging to a particular nation, and
treated according to this view, and no other. Now the
truth is, that there is a primitive, indelible "character"
fastened on a man, far more important than that of
"country or condition" ; and, looking at this, I joyfully
accord with our Cabinet in saying that the slaves of the
Creole did not " change their character " by touching
British soil. There they stood with the character which
God impressed on them, and which man can never
efface. The British authorities gave them no new char-
acter, but simply recognized that which they had worn
from the day of their birth, the only one which cannot
pass away.

T have now considered all the circumstances stated in
the document as grounds of complaint, with one excep-
tion, and this I have deferred on account of its uncer-
tainty, and in the hope of obtaining more satisfactory in-
formation. The circumstance is this, " that the slaves
were liberated by the interference of the colonial author-
ities" ; that these "not only gave no aid, but did actu-
ally interfere to set free the slaves, and to enable them
to disperse themselves beyond the reach of the master
of the vessel or their owners." This statement is taken

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 261

from the protest of the captain and crew made at New
Orleans, which, indeed, uses much stronger language,
and charges on the British authorities much more ex-
ceptionable interference. This, as I have said, is to be
suspected of exaggeration or unjust coloring, not on the
ground of any peculiar falseness in the men who signed
it, but because of the tendency of passion and interest to
misconstrue the offensive conduct of others. But admit-
ting the correctness of the protest, we cannot attach im-
portance to the complaint of the document. This insists
that the English authorities "interfered to set free the
slaves." I reply that the authorities did not and could
not set the colored men free, and for the plain reason,
that they were in no sense slaves in the British port.
The authorities found them in the first instance both le-
gally and actually free. How, then, could they be lib-
erated ? They stood before the magistrates free at the
first moment. They had passed beyond the legislation
of the state which had imposed their chains. They had
come under a jurisdiction which knew nothing of prop-
erty in man, nothing of the relation of master and slave.
As soon as they entered the British waters the legal
power of the captain over them, whatever it might have
been, ceased. They were virtually " beyond his reach,"
even whilst on board. Of course, no act of the authori-
ties was needed for their liberation.

But this is not all. The colored men were not only
legally free on entering the British port, they were so
actually and as a matter of fact. The British authorities
had not the merit of exerting the least physical power to
secure to them their right to liberty. The slaves had
liberated themselves. They had imprisoned the captain.
They had taken the command of the vessel. The Brit-

262 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

ish authorities interfered to liberate, not the colored
people, but the captain ; not to uphold, but arrest " the
mutineers." Their action was friendly to the officers
and crew. In all this action, however, they did noth-
ing, of course, to reduce the slaves a second time to
bondage. Had they, in restoring the vessel to the cap-
tain, replaced, directly or indirectly, the Uberated slaves
under the yoke, they would have done so at their peril.
How, then, could they free those whom they knew only
as free .'' They simply declared them free, declared a
matter of fact which could not be gainsaid. If they per-
suaded them to leave the ship, they plainly acted in
this as counsellors and friends, and exerted no official
power.

It is said, indeed, in the protest, that the magistrates
"commanded" the slaves to go on shore. If this be
true, and if the command were accompanied with any
force, they indeed committed a wrong ; but one, I fear,
for which our government will be slow to seek redress.
They wronged the liberated slaves. These were free,
and owed no obedience to such a command. They had
a right to stay where they were, a right to return to
America ; and in being compelled to go on shore they
received an injury for which our government, if so dis-
posed, may make complaint. But the slaves alone were
the injured party. The right of the owner was not
violated, for he had no right. His claim was a nullity
in the British port. He was not known there. The
law on which he stood in his own country was there a
dead letter. Who can found on it a complaint against
the British government .''

It is said that the " comity of nations " forbade this
interference. But this comity is a vague, unsettled law,

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 263

and ought not to come into competition with the obliga-
tions of a state to injured men thrown on its protection,
and whose lives and liberties are at stake.* We must
wait, however, for farther light from Nassau, to compre-
hend the whole case. It is not impossible that the au-
thorities at that port exerted an undue influence, and
took on themselves an undue responsibility. Among the
liberated slaves there were undoubtedly not a few so
ignorant and helpless as to be poorly fitted to seek their
fortune in the West Indies, among strangers little dis-
posed to sympathize with their sufferings or aid their
inexperience. These ought to have been assured of
their liberty ; but they should have been left to follow,
without any kind of resistance, their shrinking from an
unknown shore, and their desire to return to the land of
their birth, whenever these feelings were expressed.

I know not that I have overlooked any of the consid-
erations which are urged in the Executive document in
support of our complaints against Great Britain in the
case of the Creole. I have labored to understand and
meet their full force. I am sorry to have been obliged
to enter into these so minutely, and to repeat what I
deem true principles so often. But the necessity was
laid on me. The document does not lay down explicit-
ly any great principle with which our claim must stand
or fall. Its strength lies in the skilful suggestion of vari-
ous circumstances which strike the common reader, and
which must successively be examined, to show their in-
sufficiency to the end for which they are adduced. It is
possible, however, to give something of a general form
to the opinions expressed in it, and to detect under these

* See Note B.

264 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

a general principle. This I shall proceed to do, as
necessary to the full comprehension of this paper. The
opinions scattered through the document may be thus
expressed: — "Slaves, pronounced to be property by
American law, and shipped as such, ought to be so
regarded by a foreign government on whose shores they
may be thrown. This government is bound to regard
the national stamp set on them. It has no right to in-
quire into the condition of these persons. It cannot give
to them the character or privileges of the country to
which they are carried. Suppose a government to have
declared opium a thing in which no property can lawfully
exist or be asserted. Would it, therefore, have a right
to take the character of property from opium, when
driven in a foreign ship into its ports, and to cast it into
the sea ? Certainly not. Neither, because it declares
that men cannot be property, can it take this character
from slaves, when they are driven into its ports from a
country which makes them property by its laws. They
still belong to the distant claimant ; his right must not be
questioned or disturbed ; and he must be aided in hold-
ing them in bondage, if his power over them is endan-
gered by distress or mutiny." Such are the opinions
of the document, in a condensed form, and they involve
one great principle, namely, this : that property is an
arbitrary thing, created by governments ; that a govern-
ment may make any thing property at its will ; and that
what its subjects or citizens hold as property, under this
sanction, must be regarded as such, without inquiry, by
the civilized world. According to the document, a na-
tion may attach the character of property to whatever it
pleases ; may attach it alike to men and women, beef
and pork, cotton and rice ; and other nations, into whose

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 265

ports its vessels may pass, are bound to respect its laws
in these particulars, and in case of distress to assist in
enforcing them. Let our country, through its established
government, declare our fathers or mothers, sons or
daughters, to be property ; and they become such, and
the right of the master must not be questioned at home
or abroad.

Now this doctrine, stated in plain language, needs no
labored refutation ; it is disproved by the immediate tes-
timony of conscience and common sense. Property is
not an arbitrary thing, dependent wholly on man's will.
It has its foundation and great laws in nature, and these
cannot be violated without crime. It is plainly the in-
tention of Providence that certain things should be
owned, should be held as property. They fulfil their
end only by such appropriation. The material world
was plainly made to be subjected to human labor, and
its products to be moulded by skill to human use. He
who wins them by honest toil has a right to them, and is
wronged when others seize and consume them. The
document supposes a government to declare that opium
is an article in which property cannot exist or be assert-
ed, and on this ground to wrest it from the owner and
throw it into the sea ; and this it considers a parallel case
to the declaration that property in man cannot exist.
But who does not see that the parallel is absurd ? The
poppy, which contains the opium, is by its nature fitted
and designed to be held as property. The man who
rears it by his capital, industry, and skill thus establishes
a right to it, and is injured if it be torn from him, except
in the special case where some higher right supersedes
that of property. The poppy is not wronged by being
owned and consumed. It has no intelligence, no con-

voL. VI. 23

266 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

science for its own direction, no destiny to fulfil by the
wise use and culture of its powers. It has therefore no
rights. By being appropriated to an individual it does
good, it suffers no wrong.

Here are the grounds of property. They are found
in the nature of the articles so used ; and where these
grounds are wholly wanting, as in the case of human
beings, it cannot exist or be asserted. A man was made
to be an owner, not to be owned ; to acquire, not to be-
come property. He has faculties for the government of
himself. He has a great destiny. He sustains tender
and sacred relations, especially those of parent and hus-
band, and with the duties and blessings of these no one
must interfere. As such a being, he has rights. These
belong to his very nature. They belong to every one
who partakes it ; all here are equal. He therefore may
be wronged, and is most grievously wronged, when forci-
bly seized by a fellow-creature, who has no other nature
and rights than his own, and seized by such a one to
live for his pleasure, to be bowed to his absolute will, to
be placed under his lash, to be sold, driven from home,
and torn from parent, wife, and child, for another's gain.
Does any parallel exist between such a being and opium ?
Can we help seeing a distinction between the nature of
a plant and a man which forbids their being confounded
under the same character of property ? Is not the dis-
tinction recognized by us in the administration of our
laws ? When a man from the South brings hither his
watch and trunk, is his right to them deemed a whit the
less sacred because the laws of his State cease to protect
them ? Do we not recognize them as his, as intuitively
and cheerfully as if they belonged to a citizen of our own
State ? Are they not his, here and everywhere ? Do

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 267

we not feel that he would be wronged were they torn
from him ? But when he brings a slave, we do not
recognize his property in our fellow-creature. We pro-
nounce the slave free. Whose reason and conscience
do not intuitively pronounce this distinction between a
man and a watch to be just ?

It may be urged, however, that this is a distinction for
moralists, not for governments ; that, if a government
establishes property, however unjustly, in human being?,
this is its own concern, and the concern of no other ;
and that articles on board its vessels must be recognized
by other nations as what it declares them to be, without
any question as to the morality or fitness of its measures.
One nation, we are told, is not to interfere with another.
T need not repeat, in reply, what I have so often said,
that a government has solemn duties towards every hu-
man being entering its ports, duties which no local law
about property in another country can in any degree im-
pair. I would only say, that a government is not bound
in all possible cases to respect the stamp put by another
government on articles transported in the vessels of the
latter. The comity of nations supposes that in all such
transactions respect is paid to common sense and com-
mon justice. Suppose a government to declare cotton
to be horses, to write "Horse" on all the bales within
its limits, and to set these down as horses in its custom-
house papers ; and suppose a cargo of these to enter a
port where the importation of cotton is forbidden. Will
the comity of nations forbid the foreign nation to ques-
tion the character which has been affixed by law to the
bales in the country to which they belong .'' Can a law
change the nature of things, in the intercourse of nations ?
Must officers be stone-bHnd through " comity " .'* Would

268 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

It avail anything to say, that, by an old domestic institu-
tion in the exporting country, cotton was pronounced
horse, and that such institution must not be interfered
with by foreigners ? Now, in the estimation of England
and of sound morality, it is as hard to turn man into prop-
erty as horses into cotton, and this estimation England
has embodied in its laws. Can we expect such a coun-
try to reverence the stamp of property on men, because
attached to them by a foreign land ?

The Executive document not only maintains the obli-
gation of the English authorities to respect what the
South had stamped on the slave, but maintains earnestly
that " the English authorities had no right to inquire into
the cargo of the vessel, or the condition of persons on
board." Now it is unnecessary to dispute about this
right ; for the British authorities did not exercise it, did
not need it. The truth of the case, and the whole truth,
they could not help seeing, even had they wished to re-
main blind. Master, crew, passengers, colored people,
declared with one voice that the latter were shipped as
slaves. Their character was thus forced on the govern-
ment, which of course had no liberty of action in the
case. By the laws of England, slavery could not be
recognized within its jurisdiction. No human being could
be recognized as property. The authorities had but one
question to ask : Are these poor creatures men .'' and to
solve this question no right of search was needed. It
solved itself. A single glance settled the point. Of
course we have no ground to complain of a busy inter-
meddling with cargo and persons, to determine their
character, by British authorities.

I have thus finished my examination of the document,

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 269

and shall conclude with some general remarks. And
first, I cannot but express my sorrow at the tone of in-
humanity which pervades it. I have said at the begin-
ning that I should make no personal strictures ; and I
have no thought of charging on our Cabinet any singular
want of human feeling. The document bears witness,
not to individual hardness of heart, but to the callous-
ness, the cruel insensibility, which has seized the com-
munity at large. Our contact with- slavery has seared in
a measure almost all hearts. Were there a healthy tone
of feeling among us, certain passages in this document
w^ould call forth a burst of displeasure. For example,
what an outrage is offered to humanity in instituting a
comparison between man and opium, in treating these as
having equal rights and equal sanctity, in degrading an
immortal child of God to the level of a drug, in placing
both equally at the mercy of selfish legislators ! To an
unsophisticated man there is not only inhumanity, but
irreligion, in thus treating a being made in the image of
God and infinitely dear to the Universal Father.

In the same tone, the slaves, who regained their free-
dom by a struggle which cost the life of a white man,
and by which one of their own number perished, are set
down as " nfiutineers and murderers." Be it granted
that their violence is condemned by the Christian law.
Be it granted that the assertion of our rights must not be
stained with cruelty ; that it is better for us to die slaves
than to inflict death on our oppressor. But is there a
man, having a manly spirit, who can withhold all sym-
pathy and admiration from men who, having grown up
under the blighting influence of slavery, yet had the
courage to put life to hazard for liberty .'' Are freemen
slow to comprehend and honor the impulse which stirs
23*

270 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

men to break an unjust and degrading chain ? Would
the laws of any free state pronounce the taking of life
in such a case " murder " ? Because a man, under co-
ercion, whilst on his way to a new yoke, and in the act
of being carried by force from wife and children and
home, sheds blood to escape his oppressor, is he to be
confounded with the vilest criminals ? Does a republic,
whose heroic age was the Revolution of 1776, and whose
illustrious men earned their glory in a sanguinary con-
flict for rights, find no mitigation of this bloodshed in
the greater wrongs to which the slave is subjected ?
This letter would have lost nothing of its force, it
would at least have shown better taste, had it consulted
humanity enough to be silent about " opium " and
" murder."

I cannot refrain from another view of the document.
This declaration of national principles cannot be too
much lamented and disapproved for the dishonor it has
brought on our country. It openly arrays us, as a peo-
ple, against the cause of human freedom. It throws us
in the way of the progress of liberal principles through
the earth. The grand distinction of our Revolution was,
that it not only secured the independence of a single
nation, but asserted the rights of mankind. It gave to
the spirit of freedom an impulse, which, notwithstanding
the dishonor cast on the cause by the excesses of France,
is still acting deeply and broadly on the civilized world.
Since that period a new consciousness of what is due
to a human being has been working its way. It has
penetrated into despotic states. Even in countries
where the individual has no constitutional means of con-
trolling government personal liberty has a sacredness
and protection never known before. Among the tri-

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 271

umphs of this spirit of freedom and humanity, one of the
most signal is the desire to put an end to slavery. The
cry for Emancipation swells and spreads from land to
land. And whence comes the opposing cry .'' From
St. Petersburg ? From Constantinople ? From the
gloomy, jealous cabinets of despotism ? No ; but from
republican America ! from that country whose Declara-
tion of Independence was an era in human history ! The
nations of the earth are beginning to proclaim, that slaves
shall not breathe their air, that whoever touches their
soil shall be free. Republican America protests against
this reverence for right and humanity, and summons the
nations to enforce her laws against the slave. 0 my
country ! hailed once as the asylum of the oppressed,
once consecrated to liberty, once a name pronounced
with tears of joy and hope ! now a by-word among the
nations, the scorn of the very subjects of despotism !
How art thou fallen, morning-star of freedom ! And has
it come to this ? Must thy children blush to pronounce
thy name ? Must we cower in the presence of the
Christian world ? Must we be degraded to the lowest
place among Christian nations .'' Is the sword which
wrought out our liberties to be unsheathed now to en-
force the claims of slavery on foreign states .'' Can we
bear this burning shame ? Are the Free States pre-
pared to incur this infamy and crime .''

" Slaves cannot breathe in England." I learned this
line when I was a boy, and in imagination I took flight
to the soil which could never be tainted by slaves.
Through the spirit which spoke in that hne England has
decreed that slaves cannot breatlie in her islands. Ought
we not to rejoice in this new conquest of humanity ?
Ought not the tidings of it to have been received with

272 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

beaming eyes and beating hearts ? Instead of this, we
demand that Humanity shall retrace her steps, and Lib-
erty resign her trophies. We call on a great nation to
abandon its solemnly pronounced conviction of duty, its
solemnly pledged respect for human rights, and to do
what it believes to be unjust, inhuman, and base. Is
there nothing of insult in such a demand ? This case is
no common one. It is not a question of policy, not an
ordinary diplomatic concern. A whole people, from no
thought of policy, but planting itself on the ground of
justice and of Christianity, sweeps slavery from its soil,
and declares that no slave shall tread there. This pro-
found religious conviction, in which all Christian nations
are joining her, we come in conflict with, openly and
without shame. Is this an enviable position for a coun-
try which would respect itself or be respected by the
world .'' It is idle, and worse than idle, to say, as is
sometimes said, that England has no motive but policy
in her movements about slavery. He who says so talks
ignorantly or recklessly. I have studied abolitionism in
England enough to assure those who have neglected it
that it was the act, not of the politician, but of the peo-
ple. In this respect it stands alone in history. It was
a disinterested movement of a Christian nation in behalf
of oppressed strangers, beginning with Christians, car-
ried through by Christians. The government resisted it
for years. The government was compelled to yield to
the voice of the people. No act of the English nation
was ever so national, so truly the people's act, as this.
And can we hope to conquer the conscience as well as
the now solemnly adopted policy of a great nation ?
Were England to concede this point, she would prove
herself false to known, acknowledged truth and duty.

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 273

Her freshest, proudest laurel would wither. The toils
and prayers of her Wilberforces, Clarksons, and a host
of holy men, which now invoke God's blessings on her,
would be turned to her reproach and shame, and call
down the vengeance of Heaven.

In bearing this testimony to the spirit of the English
people in the abolition of the slave-trade and of slavery,
nothing is farther from my mind than a disposition to de-
fend the public poHcy or institutions of that country. In
this case, as in most others, the people are better than
their rulers. England is one of the last countries of
which I am ready to become a partisan. There must
be something radically wrong in the policy, institutions,
and spirit of a nation which all other nations regard with
jealousy and dishke. Great Britain, with all her pro-
gress in the arts, has not learned the art of inspiring con-
fidence and love. She sends forth her bounty over the
earth, but, politically considered, has made the world her
foe. Her Chinese war, and her wild extension of do-
minion over vast regions which she cannot rule well or
retain, give reason to fear that she is falling a prey to
the disease under which great nations have so often
perished.

To a man who looks with sympathy and brotherly re-
gard on the mass of the people, who is chiefly interested
in the "lower classes," England must present much
which is repulsive. Though a monarchy in name, she
is an aristocracy in fact ; and an aristocratical caste, how-
ever adorned by private virtue, can hardly help sinking
an infinite chasm between itself and the multitude of men.
A privileged order, possessing the chief power of the
state, cannot but rule in the spirit of an order, cannot
respect the mass of the people, cannot feel that for them

274 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

government chiefly exists and ought to be administered,
and that for them the nobleman holds his rank as a trust.
The condition of the lower orders at the present moment
is a mournful commentary on English institutions and
civilization. The multitude are depressed in that coun-
try to a degree of ignorance, want, and misery which
must touch every heart not made of stone. In the civil-
ized worhd there are few sadder spectacles than the con-
trast, now presented in Great Britain, of unbounded
wealth and luxury with the starvation of thousands and
ten thousands, crowded into cellars and dens without
ventilation or light, compared with which the wigwam of
the Indian is a palace. Misery, famine, brutal degrada-
tion, in the neighbourhood and presence of stately man-
sions which ring with gayety and dazzle with pomp and
unbounded profusion, shock us as no other wretchedness
does ; and this is not an accidental, but an almost neces-
sary effect of the spirit of aristocracy and the spirit of
trade acting intensely together. It is a striking fact, that
the private charity of England, though almost incredible,
makes little impression on this mass of misery ; thus
teaching the rich and titled to be "just before being
generous," and not to look to private munificence as a
remedy for the evils of selfish institutions.

Notwithstanding my admiration of the course of Eng-
land in reference to slavery, I see as plainly as any the
wrongs and miseries under which her lower classes groan.
I do not on this account, however, subscribe to a doc-
trine very common in this country, that the poor Chart-
ists of England are more to be pitied than our slaves.
Ah, no ! Misery is not slavery ; and, were it greater than
it is, it would afford the slave-holder no warrant for tramp-
ling on the rights and tlie souls of his fellow-creatures.

THE rUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 275

The Chartist, depressed as he is, is not a slave. The
blood would rush to his cheek, and the spirit of a man
swell his emaciated form, at the suggestion of relieving
his mi'sery by reducing him to bondage ; and this sensi-
bility shows the immeasurable distance between him and
the slave. He has rights, and knows them. He pleads
his own cause, and just and good men plead it for him.
According to the best testimony, intelligence is spread-
ing among the Chartists ; so is temperance ; so is self-
restraint. They feel themselves to be men. Their
wives and children do not belong to another. They
meet together for free discussion, and their speeches are
not wanting in strong sense and strong expression. Not
a few among them have seized on the idea of the eleva-
tion of their class by a new intellectual and moral culture,
and here is a living seed, the promise of immeasurable
good. Shall such men, who aspire after a better lot,
and among whom strong and generous spirits are spring-
ing up, be confounded with slaves, whose lot admits no
change, who must not speak of wrongs or think of re-
dress, whom it is a crime to teach to read, to whom
even the ^ible is a sealed book, who have no future, no
hope on this side death ?

I have spoken freely of England ; yet I do not forget
our debt or the debt of the world to her. She was the
mother of our freedom. She has been the bulwark of
Protestantism. What nation has been more fruitful in
great men, in men of genius .'' What nation can com-
pare with her in munificence }' What nation but must
now acknowledge her unrivalled greatness .'' That little
island sways a wider empire than the Roman, and has a
power of blessing mankind never before conferred on a
people. Would to God she could learn, what nation

276 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

never yet learned, so to use power as to inspire confi-
dence, not fear, so as to awaken the world's gratitude,
.not its jealousy and revenge !

But whatever be the claims of England or of any other
state, I must cling to my own country with strong pre-
ference, and cling to it even now, in this dark day, this
day of her humiliation, when she stands before the world
branded, beyond the truth, with dishonesty, and, too
truly, with the crime of resisting the progress of freedom
on the earth. After all, she has her glory. After all, in
these Free States a man is still a Man. He knows his
rights, he respects himself, and acknowledges the equal
claim of his brother. We have order without the dis-
play of force. We have government without soldiers,
spies, or the constant presence of coercion. The rights
of thought, of speech, of the press, of conscience, of
worship are enjoyed to the full without violence or dan-
gerous excess. We are even distinguished by kindliness
and good temper amidst this unbounded freedom. The
individual is not lost in the mass, but has a consciousness
of self-subsistence, and stands erect. That character
which we call Manliness is stamped on the multitude
here as nowhere else. No aristocracy interferes with the
natural relations of men to one another. No hierarchy
weighs down the intellect, and makes the church a prison
to the soul, from which it ought to break every chain.
I make no boast of my country's progress, marvellous
as it has been. I feel deeply her defects. But, in the
language of Cowper, I can say to her, —

" Yet, being free, I love thee ; for the sake
Of that one feature can be well content,
Disgraced as thou hast been, poor as thou art,
To seek no sublunary rest beside."

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 277

Our country is free ; this is its glory. How deeply to
De lamented is it that this glory is obscured by the pres-
ence of slavery in any part of our territory ! The dis-
tant foreigner, to whom America is a point, and who
communicates the taint of a part to the whole, hears
with derision our boast of liberty, and points with a sneer
to our ministers in London not ashamed to plead the
rights of slavery before the civilized world. He ought
to learn that America, which shrinks in his mind into
a narrow unity, is a league of sovereignties stretching
from the Bay of Fundy to the Gulf of Mexico, and des-
tined, unless disunited, to spread from ocean to ocean ;
that a great majority of its citizens hold no slaves ; that
a vast proportion of its wealth, commerce, manufactures,
and arts belongs to the wide region not blighted by this
evil ; that we of the Free States cannot touch slavery,
where it exists, with one of our fingers ; that it exists
without and against our will ; and that our necessity is
not our choice and crime.* Still, the cloud hangs over
us as a people, the only dark and menacing cloud. Can
it not be dispersed ? Will not the South, so alive to
honor, so ardent and fearless, and containing so many
elements of greatness, resolve on the destruction of what
does not profit and cannot but degrade it ? Must sla-
very still continue to exist, a firebrand at home and our
shame abroad ? Can we of the Free States brook that
it should be thrust perpetually by our diplomacy on the
notice of a reproving world ? that it should become our
distinction among the nations ? that it should place us
behind all .'' Can we endure that it should control our
public councils, that it should threaten war, should

» See Note C.

VOL. VI. 24

278 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

threaten to assert its claims in the thunder of our artil-
lery ? Can we endure that our peace should be broken,
our country exposed to invasion, our cities stormed, our
fields ravaged, our prosperity withered, our progress
arrested, our sons slain, our homes turned into deserts,
not for rights, not for liberty, not for a cause which hu-
manity smiles on and God will bless, but to rivet chains
on fellow-creatures, to extend the law of slavery through-
out the earth ? These are great questions for the Free
Slates. I must defer the answer of them to another
time. The duties of the Free States in relation to sla-
very deserve the most serious regard. Let us implore
Him who was the God of our fathers, and who has
shielded us in so many perils, to open our minds and
hearts to what is true and just and good, to continue our
union at home and our peace abroad, and to make our
country a living witness to the blessings of freedom, of
Reverence for Right on our own shores and in our in-
tercourse with all nations.

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 279

NOTES.

JVb/e A. page 248.

To the preceding remarks it is in vain to oppose "the
comity of nations." England, in her public acts having
pronounced slavery unjust, pronounces also that "com-
ity" cannot prevail against justice. And is not this right
and true .'' Can a nation be bound by comity to recog-
nize within its borders, and to carry into effect by its
judicial or executive machinery, the laws of another coun-
try which it holds to be violations of the law of nature or
of God ? Would not our own courts indignantly refuse
to enforce a contract or relation between foreigners here,
which, however valid in their own land where it was
made, is contrary to our own institutions, or to the ac-
knowledged precepts of morality and religion ?

JVote B. page 263.

"It is said that this alleged interference by the British
authorities was contrary to the comity of nations, and that
therefore the British government is bound to indemnify the
owners of the slaves. But indemnity for what .'' for their
asserted property in these men .'' But that government
does not recognize property in men. Suppose the slaves
were dispersed by reason of its interference ; yet the mas-
ter and owners received no damage thereby, for they had
no title to the slaves. Their property had ceased when
these men came under the benign influence of English
law."

280 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

J^ote C. page 277.

I have spoken of the great majority in our country who
have no participation whatever in slavery. Indeed, it is
Uttle suspected at home, any more than abroad, how
small is the number of slave-holders here. I learn from a
judicious correspondent at the South that the slave-holders
in that region cannot be rated at more than 300,000.
Some make them less. Supposing each of them to be the
head of a family, and each family to consist of five mem-
bers ; then there will be 1 ,500,000 having a direct inter-
est in slaves as property. This is about one eleventh of
the population of the United States. The 300,000 actual
slave-holders are about a fifty-seventh part of our whole
population. These govern the South entirely, by acting
in concert, and by the confinement of the hest education
to their ranks ; and, still more, to a considerable extent
they have governed the whole country. Their cry rises
above all other sounds in the land. Few as they are,
their voices well-nigh drown the quiet reasonings and re-
monstrances of the North in the House of Representatives.

DUTY OF THE FREE STATES,

PART II.

24*

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

The first part of this Tract was devoted to an exam-
ination of the affair of the Creole. Its object, however,
as the reader may easily discern, was not so much to
determine the merits of a particular case as to set forth
general principles of justice and humanity which have
been too much overlooked in the intercourse of indi-
viduals and nations. I shall keep the same object in
view in this second part of my remarks, which will have
no reference to the Creole, but be devoted to the con-
sideration of the Duties of the Free States. My great
aim, in what I have written and now write on matters of
public interest is, to reunite politics and morality ; to
bring into harmony the law of the land and the law of
God. Among the chief causes of the miseries of nations
is the divorce which has taken place between politics and
morality ; nor can we hope for a better day, till this
breach be healed. Men intrusted with government have
always been disposed to regard themselves as absolved
from the laws of justice and humanity. Falsehoods and
frauds are allowed them for their country or their party.
To maintain themselves against their opponents, they
may even involve nations in war ; and the murders and
robberies which follow this crime are not visited on
their heads by human justice. In all times government

284 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

has been the grand robber, the grand murderer, and has
yet escaped the deep reprobation which breaks forth
against private guilt. Such profligacy pervades the
sphere of poHtical action, that the confidence of the peo-
ple is wellnigh withdrawn from public men ; and a vir-
tuous statesman is involved in the suspicions which his
unprincipled associates have drawn upon his vocation.
Public life is thought to release men not only from the
obligations of justice, but from the restraints of good
manners ; and accordingly the debates of Congress are
too often polluted by vulgar abuse, threats, and brawls.
So low is the standard of political life that a man is smiled
at for his simpHcity who talks of introducing religion into
the conduct of pubhc affairs. Religion, it is thought,
belongs to Sabbaths and churches, and would be as much
out of place in cabinets or halls of legislation as a deli-
cate lady on a field of batde. A stranger might be
tempted to think that the Sergeant-at-arms was stationed
at the doors of legislative chambers to forbid entrance to
the everlasting law of God, and that nothing but man's
impotence prevents the exclusion of Him whose holy
presence fills the universe.

Nothing is so needed as to revive in citizens and rulers
the conviction of the supremacy of the moral, Christian
law. Could this be done, the earth would cease to be
what in a measure it now is, the image of hell, and would
begin to grow green again with the plants of paradise.
Religion, the only true guide of life, the guardian and
inspirer of all the virtues, should especially reign over
the deliberations of governments, by which the weal and
woe of nations, the solemn questions of peace and war,
of fife and death, are determined. On this account
every man who has studied human duty, human perfec-

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 285

tion, human happiness, has a right and is bound to speak
on matters of public concern, though his judgment may
be contemned by hackneyed pohticians. It seems, in-
deed, to be thought by some that politics are mysteries,
which only the initiated must deal with. But in this
country they belong to the people. Public questions
are and ought to be subjected to the moral judgment of
the community. They ought to be referred to the re-
ligion which we profess. Christianity was meant to be
brought into actual life. The high and the low, private
and public men, are alike to bow before it. To remove
any sphere of human action from its cognizance is virtu-
ally to deny its divinity, and to absolve all men from its
control. Under these impressions I shall speak of the
Duties of the Free States. Duties rank higher than
interests, and deserve the first regard. It is my par-
ticular object to consider the obligations of the Free
Stales in regard to slavery ; but I shall not stop at these.
Other obligations need to be pressed. It is not, indeed,
easy to confine one's self within rigid bounds, when the
subject of Duty is discussed ; and accordingly I shall
add remarks on a few topics not intimately connected
with slavery, though, in truth, this subject will be found
to insinuate itself into all.

I am to speak of the Duty of the Free States ; but it
is important to observe that I mean by these, not merely
communities represented in legislatures, but much more,
the individuals, the people, who compose them. I shall
speak, not of what we are bound to do as sovereignties,
but as men, as Christians. T shall speak not merely of
the action of government, but of the influence which
every man is bound to exert in the sphere in which
Providence has placed him ; of the obligations of the

286 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

individual to bring public opinion and public affairs, as
far as he may, to the standard of truth and rectitude.

I insist on this, because the feeling of individual re-
sponsibility is very much lost, in consequence of the
excessive deference of the private man to the govern-
ment under which he lives. On the subject of slavery
in particular, the responsibility both at the North and
South is shifted very much from the individual to the
state. The private conscience is merged in the public.
What the government determines, the multitude of men
are apt to think right. We do not exercise our moral
judgment, because it has been forestalled by the consti-
tution and by the laws. We are members of a commu-
nity, and this relation triumphs over all others.

Now the truth is, that no decision of the state ab-
solves us from the moral law, from the authority of con-
science. It is no excuse for our wrong-doing, that the
artificial organization, called society, has done wrong.
It is of the highest moment that the prevalent notions
of a man's relation to the state should be rectified. The
idea of this relation is so exaggerated and perverted as
to impair the force of every other. A man's country is
more thought of than his nature. His connexion with
a particular community is more respected than his con-
nexion with God. His alliance with his race is reduced
to a nullity by his alliance with the state. He must be
ready to give up his race, to sacrifice all its rights and
interests, that the little spot where he was born may
triumph or prosper. The history of nations is very
much the history of the immolation of the individual to
the country. His nationality stands out before all his
other attributes. The nation, represented by one or a
few individuals, has arrogated to itself the dignity of

I

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 287

being the fountain of all his rights. It has made his
religion for him. Its will, called law, has taken place
of all other laws. It has seized on the individual as its
tool, and doomed him to live and die for its most selfish
purposes. The sacredness of the individual is even yet
so little understood that the freest country on earth is
talking of war, because a local law, enslaving the indi-
vidual, is not recognized by the whole earth. But the
nation is not every thing. The nation is not the fountain
of right. Our first duties are not to our country. Our
first allegiance is not due to its laws. We belong first to
God, and next to our race. We were, indeed, made for
partial, domestic, and national ties and affections, and
these are essential means of our education and happiness
in this first stage of our being ; but all these are to be
kept in subjection to the laws of universal justice and
humanity. They are intended to train us up to these.
In these consists our likeness to the Divinity. From
these considerations it will be seen that the following
remarks are not addressed to bodies politic so much as
to individuals.

The Duty of the Free States in regard to slavery may
be classed under two heads. First, these States are
bound to construe with the utmost strictness all the
articles of the Constitution which in any way touch on
slavery, so that they may do nothing in aid of this insti-
tution but what is undeniably demanded by that instru-
ment ; and secondly, they are bound to seek earnestly
such amendments of the Constitution as will remove this
subject wholly from the cognizance of the general gov-
ernment ; such as will be just alike to the North and
South ; siTch as will release the North from all obUga-
tion whatever to support or sanction slavery, and as will

aSft THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

insure the South from all attempts by the Free Stctes to
stir up the slaves.

First ; the Free States are bound to confine all action
in regard to slavery to the narrowest limits which will
satisfy the Constitution. Underthis head, our attention
is naturally drawn first to the chief, and I may say, the
only express provision of the instrument relating to this
subject. I refer to the clause requiring that a slave
escaping into the Free States shall be delivered up, on
the claim of his master. This provision may seem
clear ; but the execution of it in such a manner as to
accomplish its end, and yet to prevent the encroach-
ments of slavery on the Free States, is not easy. The
provision was designed to give authority to the master
to claim the fugitive slave. But, in doing this, a far
higher good than the recovery of a thousand slaves fly-
ing from the South is put in peril, and that is, the free-
dom of the colored population of the North ; and we
are bound to insist that this freedom shall be placed
beyond the reach of peril. This danger is not imagi-
nary. Kidnapping in the Free States is one of the evils
which have grown out of our connexion with slavery,
and it has been carried on with circumstances of great
barbarity. Thus slavery has been recruited from the
North.

The law of Congress framed to carry into effect the
constitutional provision to which we have referred al-
most seems to have been designed to give shelter to this
crime. No care has been taken to shield the colored
man at the North. The slave-holder or slave-hunter
may carry him before a justice of the peace as a fugi-
tive, and may himself be a witness in the case, and this
tribunal may send the accused to perpetual bondage.

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATEa 289

We all know how and by whom a commission of justice
of the peace is often obtained. We know that a claim of
more than twenty dollars is not left to the decision of a
justice's court. We know the advantage which may be
enjoyed before such a magistrate by the rich slave-holder
over a poor, perhaps friendless laborer. And yet to
this tribunal it is given to pass a sentence on a human
being as terrible as death. An officer not trusted with
the adjudication of property exceeding twenty dollars is
allowed to make a man a slave for life.

To repair this great injustice, to prevent the transpor-
tation of our citizens to slavery, some of the State legis-
latures have held themselves bound to supply the defi-
ciencies of the law of Congress, and for this end have
referred the suspected slave to a higher tribunal, and
given him the benefit of trial by jury. To our great
sorrow, this State legislation has been pronounced un-
constitutional by a recent decree of the Supreme Court
of the United States ; so that the colored man is driven
back to the court to which he had been unjustly doomed
before. On this decree it becomes me not to pass sen-
tence ; but one thing is clear, that the Free States are
now bound to the most earnest efforts to protect that
portion of their citizens exposed to the peril of being
carried into bondage.

The grand principle to be laid down is, that it is in-
finitely more important to preserve a free citizen from
being made a slave than to send back a fugitive slave to
his chain. This idea is to rule over and determine all
the legislation on this subject. Let the fugitive be de-
livered up, but by such processes as will prevent a free-
man from being delivered up also. For this end full
provision must be made. On this point the Constitution,

VOL. VI. 25

290 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

and a still higher law, that of nature and God, speak
the same language ; and we must insist that these high
authorities shall be revered.

The Constitution opens with these memorable words :
'^ We, the people of the United States, in order to form
a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic
tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote
the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty
to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish
this Constitution for the United States of America." It
is understood and conceded that this preamble does not
confer on the national government any powers but such
as are specified in the subsequent articles of the instru-
ment ; but it teaches, and was designed to teach, the spirit
in which these powers are to be interpreted and brought
into action. " To secure the blessings of liberty " is
enumerated among the purposes of the national com-
pact ; and whoever knows the history of the Constitution
knows that this was the grand purpose for which the
powers of the Constitution were conferred. That the
liberty of each man, of the obscurest man, should be in-
violate ; this was the master-thought in the authors of
this immortal charter. According to these views we
have a right to demand of Congress, as their highest
constitutional duty, to carry into the enactment of every
law a reverence for the freedom of each and all. A law
palpably exposing the freeman to be made a slave, and
even rendering his subjection to this cruel doom nearly
sure, is one of the most unconstitutional acts, if the
spirit of the Constitution be regarded, which the national
legislature can commit. The Constitution is violated,
not only by the assumption of powers not conceded, but
equally by using conceded powers to the frustration of

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 291

the end for which they were conferred. In the law
regulating the delivery of supposed fugitives the great
end of the national charter is sacrificed to an accidental
provision. This Constitution was not established to
send back slaves to chains. The article requiring this
act of the Free States was forced on them by the cir-
cumstances of the times, and submitted to as a hard
necessity. It did not enter into the essence of the in-
strument ; whilst the security of freedom was its great,
living, all-pervading idea. We see the tendency of
slavery to warp the Constitution to its purposes in the
law for restoring the flying bondman. Under this not
a few, having not only the same natural but legal rights
with ourselves, have been subjected to the lash of the
overseer.

But a higher law than the Constitution protests against
the act of Congress on this point. According to the
law of nature no greater crime against a human being
can be committed than to make him a slave. This is
to strike a blow at the very heart and centre of all his
rights as a man ; to put him beneath his race. On the
ground of the immutable law of nature our government
has pronounced the act of making a man a slave on the
coast of Africa to be piracy, a capital crime. And shall
the same government enact or sustain a law which ex-
poses the freeman here to be reduced to slavery, which
gives facilities to the unprincipled for accomplishing
this infinite wrong .'' And what is the end for which
the freeman is so exposed .'' It is that a man flying
from an unjust yoke may be forced back to bondage, an
end against which natural and divine justice protests ;
so that, to confirm and perpetuate one violation of the
moral law, another still greater is left open and made
easy to the kidnapper.

292 THE DUTY OP THE FREE STATES,

There seems no need of enlarging on this point.
Every man who enjoys liberty can understand what it is
to be made a slave, to be held and treated as property,
to be subjected to arbitrary will, to arbitrary punishment,
to the loss of wife and child, at another's pleasure.
Every man knows what he would feel at having a son or
a daughter torn from him and sent to slavery. And lib-
erty is not a whit dearer to us than it is to a human
brother whose only misfortune it is to wear a darker
skin. We are bound to extend to him the same protec-
tion of law as to our own child.

To condemn a man to perpetual slavery is as solemn
a sentence as to condemn him to death. Before being
thus doomed he has a right to all the means of defence
which are granted to a man who is tried for his life. All
the rules, forms, solemnities by which innocence is se-
cured from being confounded with guilt he has a right
to demand. In the present case the principle is emi-
nently applicable, that many guilty should escape rather
than that one innocent man should suffer ; because the
guilt of running away from an " owner " is of too faint a
color to be seen by some of the best eyes, whilst that of
enslaving the free is of the darkest hue.

The Constitution provides that no man shall " be de-
prived of life, liberty, or property, without due process
of law." A man delivered up as a slave is deprived of
all property, all liberty, and placed in a condition where
life and limb are held at another's pleasure. Does he
enjoy the benefits of "a due process of law," when a
common justice of the peace, selected by the master,
and receiving the master as a witness, passes sentence
on him without jury and without appeal ?

It is of great importance that a new and satisfactory

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 293

law on this subject should be passed by Congress. It is
a serious evil to perpetuate legislation against which the
moral sense of the community protests. In this country
public opinion is the strength of the laws, is the grand
force with which the public authorities must surround
themselves. The present law for the recovery of fu-
gitive slaves is reprobated, not by the passions, but by
the deliberate moral judgments of large portions of the
Free States ; and such being the case, it cannot be ex-
ecuted. There are a thousand ways of evading it with-
out force. In some parts of the country, I fear, it
might be resisted by force, should its execution be
urged ; and although a law demanded by justice should
never be yielded to the fear of tumult ; though we ought
to encounter violence rather than make a sacrifice of
duty ; yet, on the other hand, it is most unwise to
uphold a palpably unrighteous law, which by its un-
righteousness endangers the public peace. In such a
case the chief responsibility for the danger rests on the
obstinacy of the legislator. The appointed guardian of
social order proves its foe.

A trial by jury ought to be granted to the suspected
fugitive, as being the most effectual provision for inno-
cence known to our laws. It is said, that, under such
a process, the slave will not be restored to his master.
Undoubtedly the jury is an imperfect tribunal, and may
often fail of a wise and just administration of the laws.
But, as we have seen, the first question to be asked is.
How shall the freeman be preserved from being sen-
tenced to slavery ? This is an infinitely greater evil
than the escape of the fugitive ; and to avert this, a trial
by jury should be granted, unless some other process
as safe and effectual can be devised.
25*

^94 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

In these remarks I would not intimate that the slave-
holders as a body desire a loose law, which will place
the innocent at their mercy, in order to be kidnappers.
The South is as incapable of this baseness as the North.
But in both regions there are too many men profligate
enough to use such a law for the perpetration of the
greatest crime. We know that the existing law has
been so used that the facilities and temptations which it
ministers to the grossest violation of right have whetted
cupidity and instigated to cruelty. Then it must be
changed.

The slave-holder must not say that a change will
annul his claim on the flying slave. He ought to con-
sider, that, in insisting on processes for enforcing his
claim which cannot but result in enslaving the free, he
virtually enrols himself among kidnappers. Still more,
he should understand that his only chance of asserting
his claim rests on the establishment of such a law as
will secure the rights of the colored man of the Free
States. There is a jealousy on this point among us,
which, as it is righteous, must be respected. It is a
spreading jealousy, and will obstruct more and more
the operation of the existing law. It must not be
spoken of as a fever which has reached its height. It
is a sign of returning moral health, and its progress will
be aided by perseverance in immoral means of reclaim-
ing the flying slave-
Having shown how the Free States are bound to con-
strue the clause of the Constitution relating to fugitive
slaves, or, rather, " persons held to service in other
States," I proceed, in the second place, to show the
Strict construction which should be given to those parts
of the Constitution under which the general government

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 295

has been led to take slavery into its protection, in its
intercourse icitli foreign nations. This agency is be-
lieved to be wholly without warrant ; and it threatens so
to extend itself, and to disturb so much our relations
with foreign states, that we are bound, not only by con-
siderations of morality, but of our essential interests, to
reduce it within the precise limits of the Constitution.

By this instrument the powers of declaring war, ap-
pointing ambassadors, raising armies, and making treaties
are conferred on the national government. The protec-
tion of our rights against foreign powers was undoubted-
ly a principal end of the Union. Every part of the
country expects and requires it "to provide for the
common defence." But it is plain that this duty of the
national government, to watch over our rights abroad,
cannot go beyond those rights. It cannot seek redress
but for wrongs inflicted by foreign powers. To insist
on groundless, unreasonable claims is an unwarrantable
abuse of power ; and to put in peril our national peace
by assertion of these is to violate at once the national
charter, and the higher law of universal justice and
good-will.

The grand principle to be adopted by the North is
this, that, because certain States of this Union see fit to
pronounce certain human beings within their territory to
be property, foreign nations are not bound to regard and
treat these persons as property, when brought within
their jurisdiction. Of consequence, the national govern-
ment has no claim on foreign governments in regard to
slaves carried beyond the limits of the South and found
in other countries. The master has no authority over
them in a foreign land. They appear there as men.
They have rights there as real, as sacred, as the country

296 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

has from which they came, and these must on no account
be sported with.

The rights of the individual lie at the very foundation
of civil society; and society, truly constituted, confirms,
instead of taking them away. The simple idea of a na-
tion is, that it is the union of a multitude to establish and
enforce laws for the protection of every right. A nation
is not to depart from this, its true idea, its primitive end,
and deny to human beings entering its borders the com-
mon rights of humanity, because these men have been
seized in another part of the world and reduced to the
condition of chattels or brutes. One injustice does not
induce the necessity of another. Because a man is
wronged in one place, it does not follow that he must be
wronged everywhere. A particular state cannot by its
form of legislation bind the whole earth to become par-
takers with it in a crime. It would seem as if the fact
of a man's having been injured on one spot were rather
a reason for his enjoying peculiar protection elsewhere.

The local, municipal law which ordains slavery in a
state does not make it just, does not make man rightful
property, even in the particular country where it is es-
tablished. This law, however, is to be respected in a
certain sense by foreign nations. These must not enter
the slave-holding country to enforce emancipation. But,
in thus restraining themselves, they acknowledge no
moral right in the master, no moral validity in the law
declaring man property. They act simply on the prin-
ciple, that one nation is not to intermeddle with the
legislation of another, be it wise or foolish, just or unjust.
Foreign nations are not to touch a law creating slavery
in a particular country, because they touch none of tho
laws there. If that country choose to ordain polygamy,

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 297

as in the Eastern world, or stealing, as in Sparta, or
prostitution, as in some established religions of antiquity,
no other nations can interfere to repeal these ordinances.
But, because unmolested in the place of their birth, are
these institutions to be carried beyond it, to be regarded
as sacred by other governments, and not only to be al-
lowed, but to be enforced in foreign regions ? Shall a
Mahometan country hold itself wronged and declare
war, because one of its subjects, carrying with him a
hundred wives, cannot set up a harem in a Christian
country, or cannot receive the aid and succour of the
authorities of a foreign port in recovering fifty of his
women who had found their way to the shore ? Are
the tribunals of a country to lend themselves to the exe-
cution of foreign laws which are opposed to its own, and
which, not only its policy, but its religion and moral
sense condemn ?

The sum of these remarks is, that slavery is not to be
spoken of as recognized in any sense whatever by na-
tions which disclaim it ; that to them it does not exist as
a right anywhere ; that in their own jurisdiction it can-
not exist as a fact ; and from these views it follows that
no nation, allowing or ordaining slavery within its limits,
has a right to demand any recognition of it in any shape
or degree beyond its own borders. To attempt to pro-
tect it or to require protection for it in the ports of an-
other country is to set up not merely a groundless, but
an iniquitous claim. To charge another country with
wrong-doing for not aiding us to retain this property is
to do wrong ourselves, and to offer an insult to a more
righteous community.

The Constitution, then, which commits to the national
authorities the maintenance of our rights abroad, is

298 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

transcended, its powers are unwarrantably stretched,
when the government goes abroad to claim respect in
any form or degree to the slave-laws of a part of this
country, or when it introduces slavery at all as a matter
of controversy into our discussions with foreign powers.
To these slavery does not exist. In their own sphere
they do not become accountable to us by utter disregard
of the slave-laws of the South, or by refusing to see any
thing but men in the slaves of that region, when carried
by any means whatever within their bounds. Slavery
is a word which should never be uttered between us and
foreign states. It is as local a matter as the licensing of
gambling houses at New Orleans, and can with no more
fitness be made a matter of diplomacy. It is we who
are guilty of encroachment, when we deny the right of
other nations to follow their own laws, rather than ours,
within their own limits, and to regard as men all human
beings who enter their ports.

When we look into the Constitution, we see not one
express obligation imposed in regard to slavery. "Per-
sons held to service or labor in one State under the laws
thereof," and who escape from it, are to be restored.
This language, as we have seen in the first part of this
Tract, was adopted to exclude the recognition of the
lawfulness of slavery " in a moral point of view." The
Constitution, in requiring the surrender of slaves in one
case only, leaves them in all other cases to come under
the operation of the laws of the Free States, when found
within the limits of the same. Does not the Constitu-
tion, then, plainly expect that slaves from the South, if
carried into foreign ports, will fall under the operation
of the laws established there .''

There is still another view. Slavery is limited in this

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 299

country to one region. In the rest of the country it does
not exist ; and, still more, it is regarded as a violation of
the law of nature and of God. Now the general govern-
ment, when it calls on foreign nations to respect the
claims of the slave-holder, speaks in the name, not mere-
ly of the Slave States, but of the Free ; in the name of
the whole people. And ought the whole people to be
thus committed to the cause of slavery, unless an un-
doubted, unequivocal obligation is imposed on them by
the Constitution to assume its defence ? unless a clear
case can be made out against the Free States ? The
Constitution is to be explained in part by the known
views of its authors. We have seen how slow they
were to recognize a moral right in slavery. Did they
intend that we should assert its claims to the ends of the
earth .''

It is true the national government has interfered to
claim slaves thrown on a foreign shore, and this consid-
eration is of weight. But in so grave an affair it does
not decide the constitutional question. That the admin-
istration of the national government has been unduly
swayed by the slave-holding portion of the country we
of the North believe. That under this influence an un-
warrantable extension of constitutional powers has taken
place is very conceivable. False interpretations of such
an instrument, which favor the interests of one part of
the people without apparently touching the rest of the
community, easily steal into the public policy. Time
alone exposes them, and time ought not to be alleged as
a reason for their continuance.

In interpreting the Constitution it is not only necessary
to consult the history of the period of its formation, but
to apply to it the principles of universal justice. Its

300 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

authors honored these, and did not intend to establish a
government in hostility to them. They acted in the
spirit of reverence for human rights. This is eminently
the spirit of the Constitution, and by this it should be
construed. Doubtful articles should receive an inter-
pretation which will bring them into harmony with the
immutable laws of duty. Any other construction vir-
tually falls to the ground. It is of no force, for it cannot
shake the authority of God. On these principles we
maintain that the Constitution does not and cannot bind
the government to demand from the whole human race
respect to the municipal law of Southern slavery.

This topic is not a merely speculative one, but of
great practical importance. Our honor as a people is
involved in the construction of the Constitution now
pleaded for. This is not the day for setting up preten-
sions in favor of slavery, for demanding from the whole
civilized world succour and countenance in enforcing our
property in man. We disgrace ourselves in sending
abroad ministers on such a message. We should regard
our character too much to thrust the deformity and
stench of slavery into the eyes and nostrils of the world.
We should regard too much the reputation of honorable
men, who represent us in foreign countries, to employ
them in this low work. An American, alive to his coun-
try's honor, cannot easily bear this humiliation abroad.
It is enough, that, in our private intercourse with foreign-
ers, we are set down as citizens of a slave-holding coun-
try. But we need not and ought not to hold up our
shame in the blaze of courts, in the high places of the
world. We ought not industriously to invite men every-
where to inspect our wounds and ulcers. Let us keep
our dishonor at home. The Free States especially

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 301

should shrink from this exposure. They should insist
that slavery shall be a State interest, not a national con-
cern ; that this brand shall not be fixed on our diplo-
macy, on our foreign policy ; that the name of American
shall not become synonymous everywhere with op-
pression.

But something more than dishonor is to be feared, if
our government shall persevere in its efforts for main-
taining the claims of slave-holders in foreign countries.
Such claims, if asserted in earnest, must issue in war,
for they cannot be acceded to. England has taken her
ground on this matter ; so ought the Free States. On
this point we ought to speak plainly, unconditionally,
without softening language. We ought to say to the
South, to Congress, to the world : " We will not fight
for slavery. We can die for Truth, for Justice, for
Rights. We will not die, or inflict death, in support of
wrongs." In truth, this spirit, this determination, exists
now so extensively in the Free Stales that it is utterly
impossible for a war to be carried on in behalf of slavery ;
and such being the fact, all diplomacy in its behalf be-
comes a mockery. It is a disgraceful show for no pos-
sible benefit. Even could war be declared for this end,
the deep moral feeling of a large part of the community
would rob it of all energy, and would insure defeat and
shame. Bad as we think men, they cannot fight against
their consciences. The physical nature finds its strength
in the moral. The rudest soldiers are sustained by the
idea of acting under some lawful authority ; and on this
account have an advantage over pirates, who either
cower, or abandon themselves to a desperation which,
by robbing them of a guiding intelligence, makes them
an easier prey. In proportion as a people become en-

roL. VI. 2G

302 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

lightened, and especially in proportion as they recognize
the principles of Christianity, it is harder to drive them
into a war. The moral sense, which in an ignorant age
or community is easily blinded, cannot in their case be
imposed on without much skilful sophistry. They take
the justice of a war less and less on trust. They must
see that they have right on their side, or they are no
match for a foe. This country has the best materials
for an army in a righteous cause, and the worst in a
wicked one. No martial law could drive us to battle for
the slave-holder's claim to the aid or countenance of
foreign powers. We could not fight in such a quarrel.
Our "hands would hang down " as truly as if loaded
with material chains. To fight for a cause at which we
blush ! for a cause which conscience protests against !
for a cause on which we dare not ask the blessing of
God ! The thing is impossible. Our moral sympathies
would desert to our foe. We should honor him for not
suffering a slave to tread his soil. God keep us from
being plunged into a war of any kind ! But if the evil
is to be borne, lei us have, at least, the consolation that
our blood is shed for undoubted rights ; that we have
truth, justice, honor on our side ; that religion, freedom,
and humanity are not leagued with our foe.

" Thrice is he armsd who hath his quarrel just,
And he but naked, though locked up in steel,
Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted."

I proceed, in the third place, to another topic, which
will complete my remarks on the Duties of the Free
States in relation to slavery under the present provisions
of the Constitution. These States are bound to insist
on the abolition of slavery and the slave-trade in the

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 303

District of Columbia. Their power in this regard is
unquestionable. To Congress is committed exclusively
the government of the District, and it is committed with-
out any restrictions. In this sphere of its action the
general government has no Hmitations, but those which
are found in the principles of the Constitution and of
universal justice. The power of abolishing slavery in
the District is a rightful one, and must be lodged some-
where, and can be exercised by Congress alone. And
this authority ought not to sleep.

Slavery in the District of Columbia is not Southern
slavery. It has no local character. It is the slavery of
the United States ! It belongs equally to the free and to
the slave-holding portion of the country. It is our insti-
tution as truly as if it were planted in the midst of us ;
for this District is the common ground of the nation.
Its institutions exist solely by authority of the nation.
They are as truly expressions of the national will as any
acts of Congress whatever. We all uphold the slave-
code under which men are bought and sold and whipped
at their masters' pleasure. Every slave-auction in the
District is held under our legislation. We are even told
that the prison of the District is used for the safe-keep-
ing of the slaves who are brought there for sale. In the
former part of these remarks I said that the Free States
had no participation in this evil. I forgot the District
of Columbia. There we sustain it as truly as we sup-
port the navy or army. It ought, then, to be abolished at
once. And in urging this action we express no hostility
towards Southern institutions. We do not think of the
South. We see within a spot under our jurisdiction a
great wrong sustained by law. For this law we are re-
sponsible. For all its fruits we must give account. We

304 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

owe, then, to God, to conscience, to rectitude, our best
efforts for its abolition. We have no thought of hmiting
Southern institutions. It is our own unjust, unhallowed
institution which we resolve no longer to maintain. Can
the Free States consent to continue their partnership in
this wrong .'' They have not even the poor consolation
of profiting by the crime. The handful of slaves in the
District may be of some worth to a few masters, but
are utterly insignificant in their relation to the country.
They might be bought by the government and set free
at less expense than is incurred in passing many an act
of Congress.

Emancipation in the present case is opposed by the
South, not on account of any harm to be endured by
the District or the country, but simply because this
measure would be a public, formal utterance of the moral
conviction of the Free States on the subject of slavery.
Our case is a hard one indeed. We are required to
support what we abhor, because by withdrawing our
support we shall express our abhorrence of it. We
must go on sinning, lest we become witnesses against
sin. Could we root slavery out of the District without
declaring it to be evil, emancipation would be compara-
tively easy ; but we are required to sustain it, because
we think it evil, and must not show our thoughts. We
must cling to a wrong, because our associates at the
South will not consent to the reproof implied in our de-
sertion of it. And can it be that we are so wanting in
moral principle and force as to yield to these passionate
partners } Is not our path clear .'' Can any thing au-
thorize us to sanction slavery by solemn acts of legisla-
tion .'' Are any violations of right so iniquitous as those
which are perpetrated by law, by that function of sov-

THE DLTY OF THE FREE STATES. 305

ereignty which has the maintenance of right for its foun-
dation and end ? Can it be that the Free States send
their most illustrious men to Congress to set their seal
to slavery ? that the national government, intended to
be the centre of what is most august and imposing in
our land, should be turned into a legislature of a slave-
district, and should put forth its vast powers in sustain-
ing a barbarous slave-code ? Tf this must be, then does
it not seem fit, that the national eagle should add the
whip of the overseer to the arrows and olive-branch
which he now grasps in his talons ?

But this is not all. The District of Columbia is not
only tainted with slavery, but it is a great, I believe the
greatest, slave-market in our country. To this human
beings are driven as cattle ; driven sometimes, if not
often, in chains. It is even reported that the slave-
coffle is sometimes headed by the flag of the United
States. To this spot, the metropolis of our nation, are
brought multitudes of our fellow-creatures, torn from
their homes by force and for others' gain, and heart-
stricken by the thought of birth-place and friends to be
seen no more. Here women are widowed and children
made orphans, whilst the husband and the parent still
live. A more cruel minister than death has been at
work in their forsaken huts. These wronged fellow-
beings are then set up for sale, and women, as well as
men, are subjected to an examination like that which
draught-horses undergo at an auction. That the seat
of the national government should be made a mart for
this shameful traffic is not to be endured. On this point
some deference is due to the Free States and the char-
acter of the country. The spot on which we all meet
as equals, and which is equally under the jurisdiction of
26*

306 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

all, ought to be kept clean from a trade which the ma-
jority think inhuman and a disgrace to the land. On
this point there can be no doubt as to the constitutional
power of Congress. That body may certainly remove a
nuisance from a spot which is subject to its unrestricted
authority. A common townshij) may abate nuisances.
In many of the States the municipal authorities may
prohibit, if they see fit, the sale of ardent spirits within
their hmits. Congress may certainly say, that the " ten-
miles square " ceded to the United States shall not be
a market for slaves. Washington holds a peculiar re-
lation to the country. Foreigners repair to it as the
spot in which to observe our institutions. That slavery,
our chief stain, should be exposed most ostentatiously
at the seat of government is a violation of national de-
cency, a sign of moral obtuseness, of insensibility to
the moral judgment of mankind, which ought immedi-
ately to cease.

I have now spoken of the Duties of the Free States
under the Constitution as it now exists. I proceed to a
still higher duty incumbent on them, which is, to seek
earnestly and resolutely for such amendments of the
Constitution as shall entirely release them from the obli-
gation of yielding support in any way or degree to slav-
ery, and shall so determine the relation between the
Free and Slave States as to put an end to all collision
on this subject.

This I have said is a Duty, and as such it should be
constantly regarded. The Free States should act in it
with the calmness and inflexibleness of Principle, avoid-
ing on the one hand passionateness, vehemence, invec-
tive, and on the other a spirit of expediency. It is a

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 307

question, not of interest, but of Rights, and consequent-
ly above expediency. Happily, interest and duty go
together in this matter ; and were it not so, our first
homage should be paid to the Right. The Free States
should say, calmly, but firmly, to the South : " We
cannot participate in slavery. It is yours, wholly and
exclusively. On you alone the responsibility rests.
You must maintain and defend it by your own arms.
As respects slavery we are distinct communities, as
truly as in respect to institutions for the support of the
poor or for the education of our children. Your slavery
is no national concern. The nation must know nothing
of it, must do nothing in reference to it. We will not
touch your slaves, to free or restore them. Our pow-
ers in the State or National Governments shall not be
used to destroy or to uphold your peculiar institutions.
(Ve only ask such modifications of the national charter
as shall set us free from all obligation to uphold what
we condemn. In regard to slavery, the line between
the Slave and the Free States is a great gulf. You
must not pass it to enforce your supposed rights as
slave-holders, nor will we cross it to annul or violate
the laws on which this evil system rests."

The reasons for thus modifying the Constitution are
numerous. The first has been again and again intimat-
ed. The moral sentiment of the North demands it.
Since the adoption of the Constitution a new state of
mind in regard to slavery has spread through the civil-
ized world. It is not of American growth only, but
subsists and acts more powerfully abroad than at home.
Slavery, regarded formerly as a question of great inter-
est, is now a question of conscience. Vast numbers in
the Free States cannot without self-reproach give it

308 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

sanction or aid. From many family altars the prayer
rises to God for our bretliren in bonds. The anti-
slavery principle finds utterance in our churches, by our
firesides, and in our public meetings. Now the Consti-
tution ought to be brought into harmony with the moral
convictions of the people. A government resisting these
deprives itself of its chief support. If we were to call
on the South for a modification of the Constitution, un-
der the influence of any private motives, any interests,
any passions, we ought not to be heard. But the slave-
holders, as men of principle and of honor, should shrink
from asking us to do what we deliberately and conscien-
tiously condemn. Allow it, that our moral sense is too
scrupulous. We must still reverence and obey it. We
have no higher law than our conviction of duty. We
ought especially not to be asked to resist it in a case
like the present, when our conscience is in unison with
the conscience of the civilized world. Christendom re-
sponds to our reprobation of slavery ; and can we be
expected to surrender our principles to a handful of men
personally interested in the evil .'' We say to the South:
" We are willing to be joined with you as a nation for
weal or for woe. We reach to you the hand of fellow-
ship. We ask but one thing ; do not require us to sur-
render what is dearer than life or nation, our sense of
duty, our loyalty to conscience and God." Will an
honorable people demand this sacrifice from us .'' Great
deference is due to the moral sense of a community.
This should take rank above political considerations.
To ask a people to trifle with and slight it is to invite
them to self-degradation. No profit can repay their
loss, no accession of power can hide their shame.

Another reason for modifying the Constitution, so

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 309

that slavery shall be wholly excluded from the class of
national objects, is found in the fact, that this interest,
if allowed to sustain itself by the national arm, will in-
tertwine itself more and more with public measures, and
will color our whole policy, so that the Free States will
be more and more compelled to link themselves with its
support. Could the agency of the government in re-
gard to this subject be rigidly defined, the evil would be
more tolerable. But it is natural that the Slave-holding
States should seek to make the national power as far as
possible a buttress of their " peculiar institution." It
is as slave-holders, rather than as Americans, that they
stand in Congress ; slavery must be secured, whatever
befall other interests of the country. The people of
the North little understand what the national govern-
ment has done for the "peculiar institution" of the
South. It has been, and is, the friend of the slave-
holder, and the enemy of the slave. The national gov-
ernment authorizes not only the apprehension and im-
prisonment in the District of Columbia of a colored
man suspected of being a runaway, but the sale of him
as a slave, if within a certain time he cannot prove his
freedom. The national government has endeavoured to
obtain by negotiation the restoration of fugitive slaves,
who had sought and found freedom in Canada, and has
offered in return to restore fugitives from the West In-
dies. It has disgraced itself, in the view of all Europe,
by claiming, as property, slaves who have been ship-
wrecked on the British islands, and who by touching
British soil had become free. It has instructed its rep-
resentative at Madrid to announce to the Spanish Court
" that the emancipation of the slave population of Cuba
would be very severely felt in the adjacent shores of the

310 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

United States." It has purchased a vast unsettled ter-
ritory which it has given up to be overrun with slavery.
Are we willing that the national power, in which all the
States have a common interest and share, and for the
use of which we are all responsible, should be so em-
ployed .'*

How far slavery doe§ and will sway the national gov-
ernment may be judged from the fact, that it is a bond
of union to all who participate in it ; that the South is
prepared by it for a cooperation unknown at the North ;
and that, of consequence, it gives to the South, in no
small degree, the control of the country. The jealous-
ies of the slave-holder never sleep. They mix with
and determine our public policy in matters which we
might think least open to this pernicious influence. Of
late, one of the most distinguished men in the country,*
the citizen of a Free State, was nominated as Minister
to the English Court. He had one qualification, per-
haps, above any man who could have been selected for
the office ; that is, a thorough acquaintance with our
controversy with Great Britain as to the northern bound-
ary. His large intellectual culture, his literary emi-
nence, his admirable powers, and his experience in pub-
lic affairs, fitted him to represent the United States in the
metropolis of Europe, where a man of narrow education
and ordinary powers would dishonor his country. But
the nomination of this gentleman was resisted vehe-
mently in the Senate, on the ground that he had ex-
pressed his moral opposition to slavery ; and that he
would not, therefore, plead the cause of slavery at
the Court of St. James. For a time his appointment
was despaired of, and it was confirmed at last only by a

* Edward Everett.

THE DUTY OF THE FEEE STATES. 311

firmness of remonstrance which the South could not
safely oppose. The action of the slave-holdejs on this
subject, though not carried through, does not the less
manifest their spirit and policy. They have virtually
expressed their purpose to exclude from all places of
trust and honor every man from the North who ex-
presses his moral feelings against slavery. And as these
feelings are spreading among us and gaining strength,
the slave-holder has virtually passed a sentence of pro-
scription on the North. If possible, the door of the
Cabinet is to be shut in our faces. The executive
power must be lodged in other hands. Our most en-
lightened and virtuous citizens must not represent the
country abroad. This rejection of a man on the ground
of a moral conviction which pervades the North is
equivalent to a general disfranchisement. A new test
for office, never dreamed of before, is to exclude us
from the service of the country in those high public
trusts which are the chief instruments of public influence.
And can we consent to become a proscribed race .''
Shall our adherence to great principles be punished by
civil degradation ? Can we renounce all kindred with
our fathers, and suffer our very love of freedom and jus-
tice to be a brand of disqualification for offices which by
the Constitution are thrown equally open to all ?

The nomination of our Minister to England was all
but rejected, and in this we see how slavery has com-
plicated itself with our most important national affairs ;
how it determines the weightiest acts of the general gov-
ernment ; how it taints our foreign as well as domestic
policy. The North cannot hope to escape with lending
a helping hand now and then to Southern institutions.
We must put our shoulders to the wheel. We must be

312 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

governed throughout with reference to slavery. "Were
this the place, it would be easy to show how the South,
by a skilful management of the parties of the North, has
bent and may continue to bend the general government
to its purposes ; how slavery has been made a means of
concentrating power into the hands of those who uphold
it. This institution is not a narrow interest, seldom in-
truding itself, too trifling to quarrel about ; but a poison-
ous element, acting subtly on public affairs when it
seems to be quiet, and sometimes breaking out into vio-
lences dishonorable to our national councils and men-
acing to the Union. Its influences are not concealed ;
and the time has come for solemn, earnest effort to
sever it from the government which it would usurp.

1 proceed to offer another reason for so modifying the
Constitution as to exclude slavery from its objects,
which is akin to the last, but so important as to deserve
distinct consideration. The slave-power in Congress
not only mixes with and controls public measures, but it
threatens our dearest rights and Hberties. It is natural
for every power to act and manifest itself according to
its peculiar character. We ought not, then, to wonder
that slavery should set at nought all rights with which it
comes in conflict. And yet that it should be so bold,
so audacious, as it has proved itself, awakens some as-
tonishment. We believed that the Constitution had
placed some rights above the reach of any party or
power ; yet on these especially slavery has laid its hand.
The Right of Petition is one of the last we might sup-
pose to be denied to a people. It has such a founda-
tion in nature that it is respected where other rights are
trodden dov.-n. The despot opens his ears to the pe-
titions of his subjects. But in the Congress of a free

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 313

people petitions and memorials from large numbers of
citizens, and even from public bodies, have been treated
with indignity, and refused a hearing. But this is not
all. The slave-power has, if possible, taken a more
daring step. A member of the House of Representa-
tives * has been censured by that body for presenting a
series of grave resolutions asserting the relation of the
government to slavery, and denying the extension of its
powers to slaves removed beyond our jurisdiction.

Liberty of speech has been secured to us by an ex-
press provision of the Constitution ; and if this right is
especially inviolable in any person, it is in the repre-
sentative of the people standing up in Congress to utter
his own views and those of his constituents on great
questions of public policy. That such a man should be
put to silence, should be subjected to censure for ex-
pressing his conviction in the calmest st3de, is a stretch
of power, an excess of tyranny, which would have been
pronounced impossible a few years since. This is to
invade Liberty in her holiest place, her last refuge. It
was not the individual who was wronged, but the con-
stituents in whose name he spoke ; the State from which
he came ; the whole nation, who can only be heard
through its representatives.

This act stands alone, we conceive, in representative
bodies. I have inquired, and cannot learn that the Eng-
lish Parliament, omnipotent as it declares itself, ever
offered this outrage to freedom, this insult to the people.
Until this moment the liberty of speech in Congress has
been held so sacred that the representative in debate
has been left to violate without reproof good manners
and the decencies of social life ; to bring dishonor on

* Joshua R. Giddings.

VOL. VI. 27

314 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

himself and his country by coarseness and ribaldry ; to
consume hour after hour, perhaps the day, in declama-
tions which have owed their inspiration less to wisdom
than to wine. During this very session we have wit-
nessed the spectacle of members of the House of Repre-
sentatives denouncing and insulting the President of the
United States, a coordinate power of the government,
and entitled to peculiar respect, as embodying and repre-
senting the nation to foreign countries ; and this indeco-
rum has been submitted to, lest the freedom of speech
in that chamber should be encroached on. But because
a representative of high character has thought fit to ex-
press, in the most unexciting style, his deliberate convic-
tions on a solemn question which threatens the country
with war, he has been subjected to the indignity of a
public rebuke. And why is he selected above all oth-
ers for punishment .'' Because he has so interpreted the
Constitution as to deny both the right and the obliga-
tion of the government to protect slavery beyond the
limit of the United States. For this sound exposition
of the national charter he is denied an immunity extend-
ed to the brawler and traducer. Can a precedent more
fatal to freedom be conceived .'' Where is this tyranny
to stop ? Is there any doctrine, any construction of
the Constitution, any vindication of the rights of his con-
stituents, that may chance to be unpopular, for which
a representative may not incur this public rebuke ? Is
the tameness of the Free States under this usurpation
the way to suppress it ? If even in Congress unpopulai
truth may not be spoken, what pledge have we that it
may be uttered anywhere else .'' A blow has been
struck at freedom of speech in all its forms ; and in re-
gard to no other right should we be so jealous as in

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 315

regard to this. As long as we retain this we retain the
means of defending all our other rights, of redressing all
wrongs. Take this away and we have no redress but
in force.

By the Constitution each house of Congress has power
to punish a member for disorderly behaviour. In Eng-
land, too, members may be punished for " contempt of
the house." But in these cases it is not intended to
lay the least restraint on the discussion of public meas-
ures. In these cases the sacredness of the representa-
tive character is not violated. On the contrary, the
individual is punished for insulting the representative
body, the honor of which is, indeed, his own. It is
to preserve the house from disorders which would in-
fringe its privilege of free discussion that this power
over its members is chiefly required. The act of pun-
ishing a member for speaking his mind on general topics,
on the principles of the Constitution, is an unprecedent-
ed tyranny, which ought to have raised a burst of in-
dignation from one end of the country to the other.
What right may not be invaded next ? If the freedom
of the press, if the right of worshipping God, shall be
thought to come in conflict with slavery, what reason
have we to hope that these, or any other of our liberties,
will escape violation .'' Nothing is more common in life
than to see men who are accustomed to one outrage
on rights emboldened to maintain this by others and
more flagrant. This experience of the usurpations of
the slave-power should teach us to avoid all contact
with it, to exclude it from our national government.
On this point, of slavery, the two sections of the country
should be separate nations. They should hold no com-
munion.

316 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

These remarks suggest another reason for so modify-
ing the Constitution as to release the Free States from
all action on slavery. It is almost too plain a reason to
be named, and yet too important to be overlooked. Un-
til such modification be made, the country can know no
peace. The Free and Slave-holding States will meet
in Congress, not to maintain peace, not to provide for
the common liberty, the common welfare, the common
defence, but for war. Subjects of pubhc interest will
not be looked at simply, nakedly, according to their own
merits, but through the medium of jealousy and hatred,
and according to their apparent bearing on slavery.
The " peculiar institution " of the South is peculiarly
sensitive and irritable. It detects signs and menaces
of danger in harmless movements, and does not weigh
its words in resenting supposed injury. With this root
of bitterness in our government, we must expect dis-
tracted public councils ; we must witness fiery passions
in the place of wise deliberations. The different sec-
tions of the country will become hostile camps.

It is painful to advert to the style of debate which
the subject of slavery almost always excites in Con-
gress, because it can hardly be spoken of without stir-
ring up unpleasant feeling. On this subject the fiery
temperament of the South disdains control. The North,
it is true, has the comfort of knowing that it is better to
be insulted than to insult ; and yet it is a position not
very favorable to the temper or to self-respect, to be
compelled to listen to such language as Northern men
hear on the floor of Congress. The consequences are
inevitable. Forbearance has limits ; and reproach awak-
ens reaction. Already a venerable representative from

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 317

a Free State,* whose moral courage, in union with his
great powers, places him at the head of the public men
of the country, has presented a front of stern opposi-
tion to the violence of the South. We thank him for
his magnanimity. It is, perhaps, the greatest public
service ever rendered in Congress to the North ; for no
man serves his country like him who exalts its spirit.
Still, we must allow that the eloquence of this illustrious
statesman has not tended to heal the wounds of the na-
tion ; and, as friends of the Union, we must earnestly
desire to banish from our public councils the irritating
subject which has given birth to the conflicts in which
he has borne so distinguished a part. No remedy short
of this will meet the evil, nor can the remedy be ap-
plied too suddenly. The breach is widening every day.
The unwillingness of the North to participate in slavery
grows stronger every day. The love of the Union has
suppressed as yet the free utterance of this feeling ; but
the restraints of prudence are continually giving way.
Slavery will not much longer have the floor of the Sen-
ate to itself, or rule the House with an iron hand. Free-
dom will find tongues there. The open advocates of
human rights, as yet a small, heroic band, will spring up
as a host. Is it not the part of wisdom to put an end
to these deadly feuds ? Is the Union to become a
name .'' Is its chief good, concord, to be given up in
despair ? And must not concord be despaired of as
long as slavery shall enter into the discussions of Con-
gress .'' The dissensions growing out of slavery throw
a fearful uncertainty over the fortunes of this country.
Let us end them at once by dissolving wholly the con-
nexion between slavery and our national concerns.

* John Quincy Adams.

318 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

There is one consideration which should reconcile
the South to such an arrangement. The Constitution,
if not so modified, can render little service to slavery.
In this country, no law, no constitution can prevail
against the moral convictions of the people. These
are stronger than parchments, statutes, or tribunals.
There is a feeling in regard to slavery, spreading rapid-
ly, which cannot be withstood. It is not a fanaticism,
a fever, but a calm, moral, religious persuasion ; and
whatever in our institutions opposes this will be a dead
letter. No violence is needed to annul a law which the
moral feelings of a free community condemn. The sim-
ple abstinence of the people from action in favor of an
unrighteous law, and the displeasure with which they
visit such as are officious in its support, will avail more
than armies. The South, then, in admitting such
changes of the Constitution as are proposed, will make
no great sacrifice. Slavery must at any rate cease to
look Northward for aid. Let it, then, consent to retire
within its own bounds. Let it not mix itself with our
national afl:airs. Let the word slavery no longer be
named within the walls of Congress. Such is the good
now to be sought. The North should be stirred up to
demand it with one voice. Petitions, memorials, direct-
ed to this end, should be poured in upon Congress as a
flood. The Free States should employ political action
in regard to slavery for one purpose alone, and that is,
to prevent all future political action on the subject ; to
sever it wholly from the government ; to save the coun-
try from its disturbing influence.

Such seems to me to be the urgent duty of the Free
States. But it is not their whole duty. They are not
to think of themselves only in the changes which are to

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 319

be made. The South has claims as well as ourselves.
Whilst we say we cannot give aid in holding the slaves
in bondage, we are bound to pledge ourselves to abstain
from all action on the slaves to set them free. We must
not use the Union as a means of access to that part of
the Southern population. We must regard them as be-
longing to foreign states, and must interfere with them
no more than with the serfs of Russia or the bondmen
of Turkey. On this point we should consent to enter
'nto strict terms with the South. The best human feel-
ings have tendencies to excess. The hostility to slavery
at the North may pass its due bounds, and adopt modes
of action which the South has a right to repel ; and
from these we should bind ourselves to abstain. For
example ; we have heard of men who have entered the
Southern States to incite and aid the slave to take flight.
We have also seen a convention at the North of highly
respected men preparing and publishing an address to
the slaves, in which they are exhorted to fly from bond-
age, and to feel no scruple in seizing and using horse or
boat which may facilitate their escape. All such inter-
ference with the slave is wrong, and should cease. It
gives some countenance to the predictions of cautious
men as to the issues of the anti-slavery movement. It
is a sign that the enemies of slaver}- are losing their pa-
tience, calmness, and self-controlling wisdom ; that they
cannot wait for the blessing of Providence on holy ef-
forts ; that the grandeur of the end is in danger of blind-
ing them as to the character of the means.

We are bound to abstain from all such action on the
slaves, not because the master has a rightful property in
them, but on the plain ground that a Slave-holding State
is a body politic, a civil community, the peace and or-

320 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

der of which must not be invaded by the members of a
foreign state. It is plain, that, if the action of a foreign
community on the slave begin and be allowed, no limits
to it can be prescribed, and insurrection and massacre
are its almost necessary effects. I certainly wish the
slave to flee, if he can do it without bloodshed and vio-
lence, and can find a shelter for his rights without ex-
posing his character to overwhelming temptation. But
were the Free States to incite the whole mass of slaves
to fly ; were one united, thrilling, exasperating cry from
the North to ring through the South, and to possess the
millions who are in bondage with the passion for escape;
would not society be convulsed to its centre .'' and who
of us could avert the terrible crimes which would be
perpetrated in the name of liberty ? No. Earnestly
as I oppose slavery, I deprecate all interference with
the slave within the jurisdiction of the Slave-holding
States. I will plead his cause with whatever strength
God has given me. But I can do no more. God for-
bid that I should work out his deliverance by force and
blood !

These remarks are the more important because there
seem to be growing up among us looser ideas than for-
merly prevailed on the subject of inciting the slaves to
vindicate their rights. The common language leads to
error. We are told, and told truly, that the slave-
holder has no property in the man whom he oppresses ;
that the slave has a right to immediate freedom ; and
the inference which some make is, that the slave is au-
thorized to use, without regard to consequences, the
means of emancipation. The next inference is, that he
is to be urged and aided to break his chain. But these
views are too sweeping, and need important modifications.

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 321

The slave has a right to liberty ; but a right does not
imply that it may be asserted by any and every means.
There is a great law of humanity to which all are sub-
ject, the bond as well as the free, and which we must
never lose sight of in redressing wrongs, or in claiming
and insisting on our due. The slave cannot innocently
adopt any and every expedient for vindicating his liber-
ty. He is bound to waive his right, if in maintaining it
he is to violate the law of humanity, and to spread gen-
eral ruin. Were I confined unjustly to a house, I
should have no right to free myself by setting it on fire,
if thereby a family should be destroyed. An impressed
seaman cannot innocently withhold his service in a
storm, and would be bound to work even in ordinary
weather, if this were needed to save the ship from
foundering. We owe a debt of humanity even to him
who wrongs us, and especially to those who are linked
with him, and who must suffer, perhaps perish with him,
if we seek to redress our wrong.

The slave is not property. He owes nothing, as a
slave, to his master. On the contrary, the debt is on
his master's side. But, though owing nothing as a
slave, he owes much as a man. He must not, for the
sake of his own liberty, involve a household in destruc-
tion. He must not combine with fellow-slaves and ex-
pose a community of men, women, children, to brutal
outrage and massacre. When the chain can be brok-
en only by inhumanity, he has no right to break it. A
higher duty than that of asserting personal rights is laid
on him. He is bound by Divine authority, by the
Christian law, by enlightened conscience, to submit to
his hard fate.

The slave's right to liberty, then, is a qualified one ;

322 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

qualified, not in the slightest degree by any righi of
property in his master, but solely by the great law jf
humanity. He is a man, under all the obligations of a
member of the human family, and therefore bound at all
times to unite a regard for others with a regard to him-
self. His master, indeed, denies his humanity, and
treats him as a brute ; and were he what his master,
deems him, he might innocently at any moment cut the
throats of his master and master's wife and child. But
his human nature, though trampled on, endures, and
lays on him obligation to refrain from cruelty. From
these views we learn that the right of the slave to free
himself is not to be urged on him without reserve.

In these remarks I do not mean to say that I should
blame the slave for rising at any moment against his
master. In so doing he would incur no guilt ; for in
his ignorance he cannot comprehend why he should for-
bear. He would vindicate an undoubted right. His
rude conscience would acquit him ; and far be it from
me to condemn ! But we, who are more enlightened,
who know the consequences of revolt, should beware
of rousing that wild mass of degraded men to the asser-
tion of their rights. Such consequences humanity com-
mands us to respect. Were it not for these, I would
summon that mass as loudly as any to escape. Could I
by my words so awaken and guide the millions of slaves
that without violence and bloodshed they could reach
safely a land of freedom and order, I would shout in
thunder-tones, " Fly! Fly ! " But it is not given us thus
to act in human affairs. It is not given us to enter and
revolutionize a state, to subvert old institutions and plant
new, without carrying with us strife, tumult, bloodshed,
horrible crimes. The law of humanity, then, restrains

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 323

US from this direct agency on other states. It restrains
us from abandoning ourselves to our zeal for the op-
pressed. It restrains us from kindling the passions of
the slave. It commands us to teach him patience and
love.

May I here be allowed a moment's digression, which,
indeed, has important connexions with the whole sub-
ject .'' The principle now laid down helps us to com-
prehend the language of the New Testament on the
subject of slavery. The slave is again and again com-
manded by the Apostle to obey, and forbidden to pur-
loin, or to answer rudely ; and from such passages it
has been argued that Christianity sanctions slavery.
But the great question is. On what grounds, for what
reasons, do the Scriptures enjoin obedience on the
slave ? Do they do so on the ground of any right of
property in the master ? This is the single question.
Not an intimation to this effect is found in the Scrip-
tures. They teach the slave to obey, not because he is
a chattel, not because he is bound by human laws of
property, but because he is bound by the Christian law
of humanity and love ; because he is bound everywhere
to manifest a spirit of mildness and charity, and in this
way to express the divine, elevating influences of his
new religion.

At the introduction of Christianity slavery was ah un-
utterable abomination, more horrible than what exists
now. Good and great men, refined women, were then
liable to be reduced to bondage. On the conquest of a
country not only were prisoners of war sold as slaves
without regard to rank or character, but, as in the case
of Judea, the mass of the peaceful population were
doomed to the yoke. To suppose that the apostles of

324 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

Christ intended to sanction this infernal system is an in-
sult to those generous men, and a blasphemy against our
pure and merciful faith. But slavery was then so in-
woven into the institutions of society, the dangers and
horrors of a servile war were so great, the consequences
of a proclamation of universal liberty would have been
so terrible, the perils to the cause of Christianity, had it
been so taught, would have been so imminent, and the
motives for manifesting Christianity, at its birth, as a
spirit of unbounded meekness and love, were so urgent
that the apostles inculcated on the slaves an obedience
free from every taint of dishonesty, wrath, or revenge.
Their great motive, as they stated it, was, that Chris-
tianity might not be spoken against, that it might be
seen breathing love and uprightness into men whose cir-
cumstances were peculiarly fitted to goad them to anger
and revenge.

To suppose that the apostles recognized the right of
the master, because they taught mildness and patience
to the slave, is to show a strange ignorance of the New
Testament. Our religion, in its hostility to a spirit of
retaliation, violence, and revenge, enforces submission
and patience as strongly on the free as on the slave.
It says to us : " If a man smite thee on thy right cheek,
turn to him the other also. If he take away thy coat,
let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall com-
pel thee to go a mile, go with him twain." Is this a
recognition of our neighbour's right to smite us, to take
our coat, and compel us to go a mile for his con-
venience .''

Christianity has extended the law of humanity to a
degree never dreamed of in earlier times, and but faintly
comprehended now. It requires us all to love and serve

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 325

our enemies, and to submit to unjust government, in lan-
guage so strong and unqualified as to furnish an objec-
tion to its opposers ; and in all these requisitions it has
but one end, which is, to inspire the sufferer with for-
bearance and humanity, not to assert a right in the
wrong-doer.

When I consider the tenderness which Christianity
enjoins towards the injurious, I cannot but shrink from
the lightness with which some speak of insurrection at
the South. Were I to visit the slave, I should in every
way discourage the spirit of violence and revenge. I
should say : " Resist not evil ; obey your master ; for-
give your enemies ; put off wrath and hatred ; put on
meekness and love ; do not lie or steal ; govern your
passions ; be kind to one another ; by your example and
counsels lift up the degraded around you ; be true to
your wives, and loving to your children. And do not
deem your lot in every view the worst on earth ; the
time is coming when it will be found better to have been
a slave than a master ; better to have borne the yoke
than to have laid it on another. God regards you with
mercy ; He ofiers you his best blessings ; ' He resisteth
the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.' "

From all these views I am bound to discourage all
action on the slaves on the part of those who reside in
other States. When the individual slave flees to us, let
us rejoice in his safe and innocent flight. But with the
millions of slaves in the land of bondage we cannot in-
termeddle without incurring imminent peril. The evil
is too vast, rooted, complicated, terrible, for strangers
to deal with, except by that moral influence which we
are authorized and bound to oppose firmly and fearlessly
to all oppression. We may and ought to mourn over

VOL. VI, 28

326 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

the chain which weighs down millions of our brethren,
and to rouse the sympathies and convictions of the
world in aid of their violated rights. Our moral power
we must not cease to oppose to the master's claim ; but
the Free States must not touch this evil by legislation
or physical power, or by any direct agency on the ser-
vile population. God has marked out our sphere of
duty ; and no passionate sense of injustice, no burning
desire to redress wrong, must carry us beyond it. Hav-
ing fully done the work given us to do, we must leave
the evil to the control of Him who has infinite means of
controlling it, whose almighty justice can shiver the
chain of adamant as a wreath of mist is scattered by the
whirlwind.

I have thus set forth what seem to me the chief duties
of the Free States in regard to slavery. First, they
must insist on such constructions of the Constitution as
will save our own citizens from the grasp of this institu-
tion, as will prevent the extension of the powers of the
government for its support beyond our own shores, and
as will bring to an end slavery and the slave-trade in the
District of Columbia ; and secondly, we must insist on
such modifications of the Constitution as will exempt us
from every obligation to sustain and strengthen slavery,
whilst at the same time we give every pledge not to use
our relation to the slave-holder as a means of acting on
the slave. These are solemn duties, not to the slaves
only or chiefly, but to ourselves also. They involve
our peace at home and abroad. They touch alike our
rights and interests. On our performance of these de-
pend the perpetuity of the Union and our rank among
nations. Slavery, if it shall continue to be a national
concern, and to insinuate itself into our domestic policy.

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 327

w I. prove more and more a firebrand, a torch of the
Furies. The agitation which it has produced is but the
beginning of evils. Nothing but the separation of it
from our federal system can give us peace.

The immediate purpose of these remarks has been
answered. But the topic of the Duties of the Free
States in relation to slavery has started various thoughts,
and brought to view other duties more or less connected
with my primary object ; and as I have no desire to
communicate again my thoughts on public affairs, I shall
be glad to use this opportunity of disburdening my mind.
My thoughts will arrange themselves under three heads,
which, however imperfectly treated, deserve serious at-
tention.

In the first place, the Free States are especially
called to uphold the great Ideas or Principles which dis-
tinguish our country, and on which our Constitution
rests. This may be said to be our highest political
duty. Every country is characterized by certain great
Ideas which pervade the people and the government,
and by these chiefly its rank is determined. When
one idea predominates strongly above all others, it is a
key to a nation's history. The great idea of Rome,
that which the child drank in with his mother's milk,
was Dominion. The great Idea of France is Glory.
In despotisms the idea of the King or the Church pos-
sesses itself of the minds of the people, and a super-
stitious loyalty or piety becomes the badge of the in-
habitants. The most interesting view of this country is
the grandeur of the idea which has determined its his-
tory, and which is expressed in all its institutions.
Take away this, and we have nothing to distinguish us.

328 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

In the refined arts, in manners, in woi'ks of genius, we
are as yet surpassed. From our youth and insulated
position, our history has no dazzhng briUiancy. But
one distinction belongs to us. A great idea from the
beginning has been working in the minds of this people,
and it broke forth with peculiar energy in our Revolu-
tion. This is the idea of Human Rights. In our Revo-
lution Liberty was our watchword ; but not a lawless
liberty, not freedom from all restraint, but a moral free-
dom. Liberty was always regarded as each man's
right, imposing on every other man a moral obligation to
abstain from doing it violence. Liberty and law were
always united in our minds. By Government we under-
stood the concentration of the power of the whole com-
munity to protect the rights of each and all its members.
This was the grand idea on which all our institutions
were built. We believed that the rights of the people
were safest, and alone safe, in their own keeping, and
therefore we adopted popular forms. We looked, in-
deed, to government for the promotion of the public
welfare, as well as for the defence of rights. But we
felt that the former was included in the latter ; that, in
securing to every man the largest liberty, the right to
exercise and improve all his powers, to elevate himself
and his condition, and to govern himself, subject only to
the limitation which the equal freedom of others im-
poses, we were providing most efFectually for the com-
mon good. It was felt that under this moral freedom
men's powers would expand, and would secure to them
immeasurably greater good than could be conferred by
a government intermeddling perpetually with the subject,
and imposing minute restraints.

These views of human rights, which pervade and light

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 329

up our history, may be expressed in one word. They
are summed up in respect for the Individual Man. In
all other countries the man has been obscured, over-
powered by rulers, merged in the state, made a means
or tool. Here every man has been recognized as hav-
ing rights on which no one can trench without crime.
The nation has recognized something greater than the
nation's prosperity, than outward, material interests ; and
that is. Individual Right. In our Revolution a dignity
was seen in human nature ; a generous confidence was
placed in men. It was believed that they would attain
to greater nobleness by being left to govern themselves ;
that they would attain to greater piety by being left to
worship God according to their own convictions ; that
they would attain to greater energy of intellect, and to
higher truths, by being left to freedom of thought and
utterance, than by the wisest forms of arbitrary rule. It
was believed that a universal expansion of the higher
faculties was to be secured by increasing men's responsi-
bilities, by giving them higher interests to watch over,
by throwing them very much on themselves. Such is
the grand idea which lies at the root of our institutions ;
such the fundamental doctrines of the political creed into
which we have all been baptized.

It is to the Free States that the guardianship of this
true faith peculiarly belongs. Their institutions are most
in harmony with it ; and they need to be reminded of
this duty, because, under the happiest circumstances, the
idea of Human Rights is easily obscured ; because there
is always a tendency to exalt worldly, material interests
above it. The recent history of the country shows the
worship of wealth taking the place of reverence for lib-
erty and universal justice. The Free States are called
28*

330 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

to watch against this peril, to regard government, not l4
a machine for creating wealth, for subserving individual
cupidity, for furnishing facilities of boundless specula-
tion, but as a moral institution, designed to secure Uni-
versal Right, to protect every man in the liberties and
immunities through which he is to work out his highest
good.

It must not, however, be imagined that the great idea
of our country is to be wrought out or realized by gov-
ernment alone. This' is, indeed, an important instru-
ment, but it does not cover the whole field of human
rights. The most precious of these it can hardly touch.
Government is, after all, a coarse machine, very narrow
in its operations, doing little for human advancement in
comparison with other influences. A man has other
rights than those of property and person, which the gov-
ernment takes under its protection. He has a right to
be regarded and treated as a man, as a being who has
ejfcellent powers and a high destiny. He has a right to
sympathy and deference, a right to be helped in the im-
provement of his nature, a right to share in the intelli-
gence of the community, a right to the means, not only
of bodily, but of spiritual well-being. These rights a
government can do little to protect or aid. Yet on
these human progress chiefly rests. To bring these into
clear light, to incorporate a reverential feeling for these,
not only into government, but into manners and social
life ; this is the grand work to which our country is
called.

In this country the passion for wealth is a mighty
force, acting in hostility to the great idea which rules in
our institutions. Property continually tends to become
a more vivid idea than right. In the struggle for private

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 331

accumulation the worth of every human being is over-
looked, the importance of every man's progress is for-
gotten. We must contend for this great idea. They
who hold it must spread it around them. The truth must
be sounded in the ears of men, that the grand end of
society is, to place within reach of all its members the
means of improvement, of elevation, of the true happi-
ness of man. There is a higher duty than to build alms-
houses for the poor, and that is, to save men from being
degraded to the blighting influence of an almshouse.
Man has a right to something more than bread to keep
him from starving. He has a right to the aids and en-
couragements and culture by which he may ful61 the
destiny of a man ; and until society is brought to recog-
nize and reverence this, it will continue to groan under
its present miseries.

Let me repeat, that government alone cannot realize
the great idea of this country ; that is, cannot secure to
every man all his rights. Legislation has its limits. It
is a power to be wielded against a few evils only. It
acts by physical force, and all the higher improvements
of human beings come from truth and love. Govern-
ment does little more than place society in a condition
which favors the action of higher powers than its own.
A great idea may be stamped on the government, and
be contradicted in common life. It is very possible un-
der popular forms that a spirit of exclusiveness and of
contempt for the multitude, that impassable social bar-
riers, and the degradation of large masses, may continue
as truly as under aristocratic forms. The spirit of soci-
ety, not an outward institution, is the mighty power by
which the hard lot of man is to be meliorated. The
great idea, that every human being has a right to the

332 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

means of exercising and improving his highest powers,
must pass from a cold speculation into a living convic-
tion, and then society will begin in earnest to accomplish
its end. This great idea exists as yet only as a germ, in
the most advanced communities, and is working faintly.
But it cannot die. We hear, indeed, much desponding
language about society. The cant of the day is the cant
of indifference or despair. But let it not discourage us.
It is, indeed, possible that this country may sink beneath
the work imposed on it by Providence, and, instead of
bringing the world into its debt, may throw new darkness
over human hope. But great ideas, once brought to
light, do not die. The multitude of men through the
civilized world are catching some glimpses, however in-
distinct, of a higher lot ; are waking up to something
higher than animal good. There is springing up an as-
piration among them, which, however dreaded as a dan-
gerous restlessness, is the natural working of the human
spirit, whenever it emerges from gross ignorance, and
seizes on some vague idea of its rights. Thank God ! it
is natural for man to aspire ; and this aspiration ceases
to be dangerous just in proportion as the intelligent mem-
bers of society interpret it aright, and respond to it, and
give themselves to the work of raising their brethren.
If, through self-indulgence or pride, they decline this
work, the aspiration will not cease ; but growing up
under resistance or contempt, it may become a spirit of
hostility, conflict, revenge.

The fate of this country depends on nothing so much
as on the growth or decline of the great idea which lies
at the foundation of all our institutions : the idea of the
sacredness of every man's right, the respect due to
every human being. This exists among us. It has

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 333

stamped itself on government. It is now to stamp itself
on manners and common life ; a far harder work. It
will then create a society such as men have not antici-
pated, but which is not to be despaired of, if Christianity
be divine, or if the highest aspirations of the soul be
true. It is only in the Free States that the great idea
of which I have spoken can be followed out. It is de-
nied openly, flagrantly, where slavery exists. To be
true to it is our first political, social duty.

I proceed to another important topic, and that is, the
duty of the Free States in relation to the Union. They
and the Slave-holding States constitute one people. Is
this tie to continue, or to be dissolved .'' It cannot be
disguised that this subject is growing into importance.
The South has talked recklessly about disunion. The
more quiet North has said little, but thought more ; and
there are now not a few who speak of the Union as
doomed to dissolution, whilst a hw seem disposed to
hasten the evil day. Some approach the subject, not as
politicians, but as religious men, bound first to inquire
into the moral fitness of political arrangements ; and they
have come to the conclusion, that a union with States
sustaining slavery is unjust, and ought to be renounced,
at whatever cost. That the Union is in danger is not to
be admitted. Its strength would be made manifest by
the attempt to dissolve it. But any thing which men-
aces it deserves attention. So great a good should be
exposed to no hazard which can be shunned.

The Union is an inestimable good. It is to be prized
for its own sake, to be prized, not merely or chiefly for
its commercial benefits or any pecuniary advantages, but
simply as Union, simply as a pacific relation between

334 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

communilies which without this tie would be exposed to
ruinous colhsions. To secure this boon we should wil-
lingly make great sacrifices. So full of crime and mis-
ery are hostile relations between neighbouring rival states
that a degree of misgovernment should be preferred to
the danger of conflict. Disunion would not onl^ em-
broil us with one another, but with foreign nations ; for
these States, once divided, would connect themselves
with foreign powers, which would profit by our jeal-
ousies, and involve our whole policy in inextricable con-
fusion.

There are some among us who are unwilling to be
connected with States sustaining so great a wrong as
slavery. But if the North can be exempted from obli-
gation to sustain it, we ought not to make its existence
at the South a ground of separation. The doctrine, that
intimate political connexion is not to be maintained with
men practising a great wrong, would lead to the dissolu-
tion of all government, and of civil society. Every na-
tion, great or small, contains multitudes who practise
wrongs, nor is it possible to exclude such from political
power. Injustice, if not the ruling element in human
affairs, has yet a fearful influence. In popular govern-
ments the ambitious and intriguing often bear sway.
Men, who are ready to sacrifice quiet and domestic com-
forts and all other interests to political place and promo-
tion, will snatch the prize from uncompromising, modest
virtue. In our present low civilization a community has
no pledge of being governed by its virtue. In free gov-
ernments parties are the means of power, and a country
can fall under few more immoral influences than party
spirit. Without a deep moral revolution in society, we
must continue to be ruled very imperfectly. In truth,

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 335

among the darkest mysteries of Providence are the
crimes and woes flowing from the organization of men
into states, from our subjection to human rule. The
very vices of men which make government needful un-
fit them to govern. Government is only to be endured
on account of the greater evils of anarchy which it pre-
vents. It is no sufficient reason, then, for breaking
from the Slave-holding States, that they practise a great
wrong.

Besides, are not the purposes of Providence often
accomplished by the association of the good with the
comparatively bad ? Is the evil man, or the evil com-
munity, to be excluded from brotherly feeling, to be
treated as an outcast by the more innocent .'' Would
not this argue a want of faith and love, rather than a just
abhorrence of wrong ? Undoubtedly the good are to
free themselves from participation in crime ; but they
are not therefore to sever human ties, or renounce the
means of moral influence.

With whom can we associate, if we will have no fel-
lowship with wrong-doing ? Can a new confederacy be
formed which will exclude selfishness, jealousy, intrigue .''
Do not all confederacies provoke among their members
keen competitions for power, and induce unjust means
of securing it .' On the whole, has not our present
Union been singularly free from the collisions which
naturally spring from such close political connexion .''
Would a smaller number of States be more likely to
agree .'' Do we not owe to the extent of the Union the
singular fact, that no State has inspired jealousy by dis-
proportionate influence or power .''

The South, indeed, is wedded to an unjust institution.
But the South is not therefore another name for injus-

336 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

tice. Slave-holding is not the only relation of its inhab-
itants. They are bound together by the various and
most interesting ties of life. They are parents and chil-
dren, husbands and vuives, friends, neighbours, members
of the state, members of the Christian body ; and in all
these relations there may be found models of purity and
virtue. How many among ourselves, who must at any
rate form part of a political body, and fill the highest
places in the State, fall short of multitudes at the South
in moral and religious principle ! *

Form what confederacy we may, it will often pledge
us to the wrong side. Its powers will often be perverted.
The majority will be seduced again and again into crime ;
and incorruptible men, politically weak, will be com-
pelled to content themselves with what will seem wasted
remonstrance. No paradise opens itself, if we leave our
Union with the corrupt South. A corrupt North will
be leagued together to act out the evil, as well as the
good, which is at work in its members. A mournful
amount of moral evil is to be found through this part of
the countr}^ The spirit of commerce, which is the
spirit of the North, has lately revealed the tendencies to
guilt which it involves. We are taught, that, however
covered up with the name of honor, however restrained
by considerations of reputation and policy, trade may
undermine integrity to an extent which shakes the con-
fidence of the unthinking in all human virtue.

The fiery passions which have broken out at the
South since the agitation of the slavery question have
alienated many among us from that part of the country.
But these prove no singular perverseness or corruption.

* See Note B.

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 337

What else could have been expected ? Was it to be
imagined that a proud, fiery people could hear patiently
one of their oldest and most rooted institutions set down
among the greatest wrongs and oppressions ? that men
holding the highest rank would consent to bear the re-
proach of trampling right and humanity in the dust ? Do
men at the North, good or bad, abandon without a strug-
gle advantages confirmed to them by long prescription ?
Do they easily relinquish gainful vocations on which the
moral sentiment of the community begins to frown ? Is
it easy to bring down the exalted from the chief seats in
society ? to overcome the pride of caste ? to disarm the
prejudices of a sect ? Is human nature among ourselves
easily dispossessed of early prepossessions, and open to
rebuke ? That the South should react with violence
against anti-slavery doctrines was the most natural thing
in the \Vorld ; and the very persons whose consciences
were the most reconciled to the evil, who least suspected
wrong in the institution, were likely to feel themselves
most aggrieved. The exasperated jealousies of the
South in regard to the North are such as spring up uni-
versally towards communities of different habits, prin-
ciples, and feelings, which have got the start of their
neighbours, and take the liberty to reprove them. Allow
the South to be passionate. Passion is not the worst
vice on the earth, nor are a fiery people the greatest
offenders. Such evils are not the most enduring. Con-
flagrations in communities, as in the forest, die out sooner
or later.

Perhaps we have not felt enough how tender are the
points which the anti-slavery movement has touched at
the South. The slave is property ; and to how many
men everywhere is property dearer than fife ! Nor is

VOL. vr. 29

338 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

this all. The slave is not only the object of cupidity,
but of a stronger passion, the passion for power. The
slave-holder is not only an owner, but a master. He
rules, he wields an absolute sceptre ; and when have
men yielded empire without conflict .'* Would the North
make such a sacrifice more cheerfully than the South ?

To judge justly of the violence of the South, another
consideration must not be overlooked. It must be ac-
knowledged that abundant fuel has been ministered to
the passions of the slave-holder by the vehemence with
which his domestic institutions were assailed at the
North. No deference was paid to his sensitiveness, his
dignity. The newly awakened sympathy with the slave
not only denied the rights, but set at nought all the feel-
ings of the master. That a gentle or more courteous
approach would have softened him is not said ; but that
the whole truth might have been spoken in tones less
offensive cannot be questioned ; so that we who have
opposed slavery are responsible in part for the violence
which has offended us.

No ! the spirit of the South furnishes no argument for
dissolving the Union. That States less prosperous than
ourselves should be jealous of movements directed from
this quarter against their institutions is not strange. We
must imagine ourselves in the position of the South, to
judge of the severity of the trial. We must not forget,
that, to the multitude there, slavery seems, if not right in
itself, yet an irremediable evil. They look at it in the
light of habit, and of opinions which prevailed in times
of darkness and despotism. With such prepossessions,
how could they but repel the zeal of Northern reformers ?

It seems to be thought by some that the diversities of
character between the South and North unfit them for

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 339

political union. That diversities exist is true ; but they
are such as by mutual action and modification may ulti-
mately form a greater people. It is by the fusion of
various attributes that rich and noble characters are
formed. The different sections of our country need to
be modified by one another's influence. The South is
ardent ; the North calmer and more foreseeing. The
South has quicker sympathies ; the North does more
good. The South commits the individual more to his
own arm of defence ; at the North the idea of law has
greater sanctity. The South has a freer and more
graceful bearing, and a higher aptitude for genial social
intercourse ; the North has its compensation in supe-
rior domestic virtues and enjoyments. The courage of
the South is more impetuous ; of the North more stub-
born. The South has more of the self-glorifying spirit
of the French ; the North, like England, is at once too
proud and too diffident to boast. We of the North are
a more awkward, shy, stiff, and steady race, with a lib-
eral intermixture of enthusiasm, enterprise, reflection,
and quiet heroism ; whilst the South is franker, bolder,
more fervent, more brilliant, and of course more attract-
ive to strangers, and more fitted for social influence.

Such comparisons must, indeed, be made with large
allowances. The exceptions to the common character
are numerous at the North and the South, and the shades
of distinction are growing fainter. But climate, that
mysterious agent on the spirit, will never suffer these
diversities wholly to disappear ; nor is it best that they
should be lost. A nation with these different elements
will have a richer history, and is more likely to adopt a
wise and liberal poHcy that will do justice to our whole
nature. The diversities between the two sections of the

340 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

community are inducements, rather tiian objections to
union ; for narrow and homogeneous communities are
apt to injure and degrade themselves by stubborn preju-
dices, and by a short-sighted, selfish concern for their
special interests ; and it is well for them to form con-
nexions which will help or force them to look far and
wide, to make compromises and sacrifices, and to seek
a larger good.

We have a strong argument for continued union in the
almost insuperable difficulties which would follow its dis-
solution. To the young and inexperienced the forma-
tion of new confederacies and new governments passes
for an easy task. It seems to be thought that a political
union may be got up as easily as a marriage. But love
is the magician which levels all the mountains of diffi-
culty in the latter case ; and no love, too often nothing
but selfishness, acts in the former.

Let the Union be dissolved, and new federal govern-
ments must be framed ; and we have little reason to
anticipate better than we now enjoy. Not that our
present Constitution is, what it is sometimes called, the
perfection of political skill. It is the first experiment of
a purely representative system ; and first experiments
are almost necessarily imperfect. Future ages may smile
at our blameless model of government, A more skilful
machinery, more effectual checks, wiser distributions and
modifications of power, are probably to be taught the
world by our experience. But our experience has as
yet been too short to bring us this wisdom, whilst the
circumstances of the present moment are any thing but
propitious to an improvement on the work of our fathers.

The work of framing a government, even in favorable
circumstances, is one of the most arduous committed to

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 341

man. The construction of the simplest form of pohty,
or of institutions for a single community in rude stages
of society, demands rare wisdom ; and accordingly the
renown of legislators transcends all other fame in his-
tory. But to construct a government for a confederacy
of states, of nations, in a highly complex and artificial
state of society, is .a Herculean task. The Federal
Constitution was a higher achievement than the assertion
of our independence in the field of battle. If we can
point to any portion of our history as indicating a spe-
cial Divine Providence, it was the consent of so many
communities to a frame of government combining such
provisions for human rights and happiness as we now
enjoy.

Break up this Union, reduce these States, now doub-
led in number, to a fragmentary form, and who can hope
to live long enough to see a harmonious reconstruction
of them into new confederacies .'' We know how the
present Constitution was obstructed by the jealousies
and passions of States and individuals. But if these
were so formidable at the end of a struggle against a
common foe which had knit all hearts, what is not to
be dreaded from the distrusts which must follow the
conflicts and exasperations of the last fifty years, and
the agony of separation ? It is no reproach on the peo-
ple to say, that nearly fifty years of peace and trade
and ambition and prosperity have not nourished as ar-
dent a patriotism as the revolutionary struggle ; for this
is a necessary result of the principles of human nature.
We should come to our work more selfishly than our
fathers approached theirs. Our interests, too, are now
more complicated, various, interfering, so that a com-
promise would be harder. We have lost much of the
29^

342 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

simplicity of a former time, and our public men are
greater proficients in intrigue. Were there natural divis-
ions of the country which would determine at once the
new arrangements of power, the difficulty would be
less ; but the new confederacies would be sufficiently
arbitrary to open a wide field to selfish plotters. Who
that knows the obstacles which passion, selfishness, and
corruption throw in the way of a settled government
will desire to encounter the chances and perils of con-
structing a new system under all these disadvantages ?

There is another circumstance which renders it unde-
sirable now to break up the present order of things.
The minds of men everywhere are at this moment more
than usually unsettled. There is much questioning of
the past and the established, and a disposition to push
principles to extremes, without regard to the modifica-
tions which other principles and a large experience de-
mand. There is a blind confidence in the power of
man's will and Vv^isdora over society, an overweening
faith in legislation, a disposition to look to outward ar-
rangements for that melioration of human affaiis which
can come only from the culture and progress of the
soul, a hope of making by machinery what is and must
be a slow, silent growth. Such a time is not the best
for constructing governments and new confederacies.

We are, especially, passing though a stage of politi-
cal speculation or opinion, which is, indeed, necessary
under such institutions, and which may be expected to
give place to higher wisdom, but which is not the most
propitious for the formation of political institutions. I
refer to false notions as to democracy, and as to its dis-
tinctive benefits ; notions which ought not to surprise
us, because a people are slow to learn the true charac-

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 343

ter and spirit of their institutions, and generally acquire
this, as all other knowledge, by some painful experience.
It is a common notion here, as elsewhere, that it is a
grand privilege to govern, to exercise political power ;
and that popular institutions have this special benefit,
tliat they confer the honor and pleasure of sovereignty
on the greatest number possible. The people are
pleased at the thought of being rulers ; and hence all
obstructions to their immediate, palpable ruling are re-
garded with jealousy. It is a grand thing, they fancy,
to have their share of kingship. Now this is wrong, a
pernicious error. It is no privilege to govern, but a
fearful responsibility, and seldom assumed without guilt.
The great good to be sought and hoped from popular
institutions is, to be freed from unnecessary rule, to be
governed with no reference to the glory or gratification
of the sovereign power. The grand good of popular
institutions is Liberty, or the protection of every man's
rights to the full, with the least possible restraint. Sov-
ereignty, wherever lodged, is not a thing to be proud of,
or to be stretched a hand's-breadth beyond need. If I
am to be hedged in on every side, to be fretted by the
perpetual presence of arbitrary will, to be denied the
exercise of my powers, it matters nothing to me wheth-
er the chain is laid on me by one or many, by king or
people. A despot is not more tolerable for his many
heads.

Democracy, considered in itself, is the noblest form
of government, and the only one to satisfy a man who
respects himself and his fellow-creatures. But if its ac-
tual operation be regarded, we are compelled to say that
it works very imperfectly. It is true of people, as it is
of king and nobles, that they have no great capacity of

344 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

government. They ought not to exult at the thought
of being rulers, 'but to content themselves with swaying
the sceptre within as narrow limits as the public safety
may require. They should tremble at this function of
government, should exercise it with self-distrust, and be
humbled by the defects of their administration.

I am not impatient of law. One law I reverence ;
that divine, eternal lavv written on the rational soul, and
revealed with a celestial brightness in the word and life
of Jesus Christ. But human rulers, be they many or
few, are apt to pay little heed to this law. They do not
easily surrender to it their interests and ambition. It is
dethroned in cabinets, and put to silence in halls of le-
gislation. In the sphere of politics, even men generally
good dispense unscrupulously with a pure morality, and
of consequence we all have an interest in the limitation
of political power.

Such views teach us that one of the first lessons to
be taught to a people in a democracy is self-distrust.
They should learn that to rule is the most difficult work
on earth ; that in all ages and countries men have sunk
under the temptations and difficulties of the task ; that
no power is so corrupting as public power, and that
none should be used with greater fear.

By democracy, we understand that a people governs
itself ; and the primary, fundamental act required of a
people is, that it shall lay such restraints on its own
powers as will give the best security against their abuse.
This is the highest purpose of a popular constitution.
A constitution is not merely a machinery for ascertain-
ing and expressing a people's will, but much more a
provision for keeping that will within righteous bounds.
It is the act of a people imposing limits on itself, setting

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 345

guard on its own passions, and throwing obstructions in
tiie way of legislation, so as to compel itself lo pause,
to deliberate, to hear all remonstrances, to weigh all
rights and interests, before it acts. A constitution not
framed on these principles must fail of its end. Now at
the present moment these sound maxims have lost much
of their authority. The people, flattered into blind
ness, have forgotten their passionateness, and proneness
to abuse power. The wholesome restraints laid by the
present Constitution on popular impulse are losing their
force, and we have reason to fear that new constitutions
formed at the present moment would want, more than
our present national charter, the checks and balances
on which safety depends.

A wise man knows himself to be weak, and lays
down rules of life which meet his peculiar temptation.
So should a people do. A people is in danger from
fickleness and passion. The great evil to be feared in
a popular government is instability, or the sacrifice of
great principles to momentary impulses. A constitution
which does not apply checks and restraints to these per-
ils cannot stand. Our present Constitution has many
wise provisions of this character. The division of the
legislature into two branches, and the forms which retard
legislation, are of great value. But what constitutes the
peculiar advantage of the distinction of legislative cham-
bers is, that the Senate has so different a character from
the House of Representatives ; that it represents States,
not individuals ; that it is chosen by legislatures, not by
primary assemblies ; and that the term of a senator's
service is three times the length of that of the popular
branch. The Senate is one of the chief conservative
powers in the government. It has two grand functions ;

346 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

one to watch the rights of the several States, and the
other, not less important, to resist the fluctuations of the
popular branch. The Senate is a power raised for a
time by the people above their own passions, that it
may secure stability to the administration of affairs.
Now this function of the Senate has been seriously im-
paired by the doctrine of " Instructions," a doctrine
destroying moral independence, and making the senator
?. I assive recipient of momentary impulses which it may
be his highest duty to withstand. This doctrine is in
every view hurtful. A man in public life should as far
as possible be placed under influences which give him
dignity of mind, self-respect, and a deep feeling of re-
sponsibility. He should go to the nation's council with a
mind open to all the light which is concentrated there,
to study and promote the broad interests of the nation.
He is not to work as a mere tool, to be an echo of the
varying voices at a distance, but to do what seems to
him right, and to answer to his constituents for his con-
duct at the appointed hour for yielding up his trust.
Yet were new institutions to be framed at this moment,
would not the people forget the restraint which they
should impose on themselves, and the respect due to
their delegates .'' and, from attaching a foolish self-im-
portance to the act of governing, would they not give to
their momentary feelings more and more the conduct
of public affairs ?

The Constitution contains another provision of wise
self-distrust on the part of the people, in the power of
the veto intrusted to the President. The President is
the only representative of the people's unity. He is the
head of the nation. He has nothing to do with Districts
or States, but to look with an equal eye on the whole

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 347

country. To him Is intrusted a limited negative on the
two chambers, a negative not simply designed to guard
his own power from encroachment, but to correct par-
tial legislation, and to be a barrier against invasions of
the Constitution by extensive combinations of interest or
ambition. Every department should be a check on
legislation ; but this salutary power there is a disposition
to wrest from the Executive, and it would hardly find
a place in a new confederacy.

The grand restraining, conservative power of the state
remains to be mentioned ; it is the Judiciary. This is
w^orth more to the people than any other department*
The impartial administration of a good code of laws is
the grand result, the paramount good, to which all po-
litical arrangements should be subordinate. The reign
of justice, which is the reign of rights and liberty, is
the great boon we should ask from the state. The ju-
dicial is the highest function. The Chief Justice should
rank before King or President. The pomp of a palace
may be dispensed with ; but every imposing solemnity
consistent with the simplicity of our manners should be
combined in the hall where the laws which secure every
man's rights are administered. To accomplish the great
end of government, nothing is so important as to secure
the impartiality and moral independence of judges ;
and for this end they should be appointed for life, sub-
ject to removal only for violation of duty. This is es-
sential. A judge should not hang on the smiles of king
or people. In him the people should erect a power
above their own temporary will. There ought to be
in the state something to represent the majesty of that
stable, everlasting law to which all alike should bow ;
some power above the sordid interests, and aloof from

348 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

the Struggles and intrigues of ordinary public life. The
dependence of the judge on the breath of party or the
fleeting passions of the people is a deformity in the
state, for which no other excellence in popular institu-
tions can make compensation. The grandest spectacle
in this country is the judiciary power, raised by the
people to independence of parties and temporary major-
ities, taking as its first guide the national charter, the
fundamental law, which no parties can touch, which
stands like a rock amidst the fluctuations of opinion, and
determining by this the validity of this laws enacted by
transient legislatures. Here is the conservative element
of the country. Yet it is seriously proposed to destroy
the independence of the judiciary power, to make the
judge a pensioner on party, by making the office elec-
tive for a limited time ; and it is not impossible that this
pernicious feature might be impressed on new institutions
which might spring up at the present time.

This language will not win me the name of Democrat.
But I am not anxious to bear any name into which
Government enters as the great idea. I want as little
government as consists with safety to the rights of all.
'I wish the people to govern no farther than they must.
I wish them to place all checks on the legislature which
consist with its efficiency. I honor the passion for
power and rule as little in the people as in a king. It
is a vicious principle, exist where it may. ' If by de-
mocracy be meant the exercise of sovereignty by the
people under all those provisions and self-imposed re-
straints which tend most to secure equal laws and the
rights of each and all, then I shall be proud to bear its
name. But the unfettered multitude is not dearer to
me than the unfettered king. And yet at the present

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 340

moment there is a tendency to remove the restraints on
which the wise and righteous exertion of the people's
power depends.

The sum of what I have wished to say is, that the
union of these Stales should, if possible, be kept invio-
late, on the ground of the immense difficulty of con-
structing new confederacies and new governments. The
present state of men's minds is not favorable to this
most arduous task. Other considerations might be urged
against disunion. But in all this I do not mean that
union is to be held fast at whatever cost. Vast sacrifices
should be made to it, but not the sacrifice of duty. For
one, I do not wish it to continue, if, after earnest, faith-
ful effort, the truth should be made clear, that the Free
States are not to be absolved from giving support to
slavery. Better that we should part, than be the police
of the slave-holder, than fight his battles, than wage
war to uphold an oppressive institution.

So I say, let the Union be dissevered rather than re-
ceive Texas into the confederacy. This measure, be-
sides entailing on us evils of all sorts, would have for its
chief end to bring the whole country under the slave-
power, to make the general government the agent of
slavery ; and this we are bound to resist at all hazards.
The Free States should declare that the very act of ad-
mitting Texas will be construed as a dissolution of the
Union.

This act would be unconstitutional. The authors of
the Constitution never dreamed of conferring a power
on Congress to attach a foreign nation to the country,
and so to destroy entirely the original balance of power.
It is true, that the people acquiesced in the admission
of Louisiana to the Union by treaty ; but the necessity

VOL. VI. 30

350 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

of the case reconciled them to that dangerous precedent.
It was understood, that, by fair means or foul, by nego-
tiation or war, the Western States would and must pos-
sess themselves of the Mississippi and New Orleans.
This was regarded as a matter of life or death ; and
therefore the people allowed this great inroad to take
place in the fundamental conditions of the union, without
the appeal which ought to have been made to the several
State sovereignties. But no such necessity now exists,
and a like action of Congress ought to be repelled as
gross usurpation.

We are always in danger of excessive jealousy in
judging of the motives of other parts of the country, and
this remark may apply to the present case. The South,
if true to its own interests, would see in Texas a rival
rather than an ally ; but at the North it is suspected
that political motives outweigh the economical. It is
suspected that the desire of annexing Texas has been
whetted by the disclosures of the last census as to the
increase of population and wealth at the North. The
South, it is said, means to balance the Free States by
adding a new empire to the confederacy. But on this
point our slave-holding brethren need not be anxious.
Without Texas, the South will have very much its own
way, and will continue to exert a disproportionate influ-
ence over public affairs. It has within itself elements
of political power more efficient than ours. The South
has abler politicians, and almost necessarily, because its
most opulent class make politics the business of life.
The North may send wiser statesmen to Congress, but
not men to marshal and govern parties, not political
leaders. 'The South surpasses us, not in true eloquence,
which is little known anywhere, but in prompt, bold

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 351

speech, a superiority due not only to greater ardor of
feeling, but to a state of society encouraging the habit,
and stimulating by constant action the faculty of free
and strong utterance on political subjects ; and such elo-
quence is no mean power in popular bodies. The
South has a bolder and more unscrupulous character,
for which the caution and prudence of the North are
not a match. Once more, it has union, common feel-
ing, a peculiar bond in slavery, to which the divided
North can make no adequate opposition. At the North
politics occupy a second place in men's minds. Even
in what we call seasons of public excitement the people
think more of private business than of public affairs.
We think more of property than of political power ;
and this, indeed, is the natural result of free institutions.
Under these political power is not suffered to accumu-
late in a few hands, but is distributed in minute portions ;
and even w4ien thus limited, it is not permitted to en-
dure, but passes in quick rotation from man to man.
Of consequence, it is an inferior good to property.
Every wise man among us looks on property as a more
sure and lasting possession to himself and his family, as
conferring more ability to do good, to gratify generous
and refined tastes, than the possession of political power.
In the South an unnatural state of things turns men's
thoughts to political ascendancy ; but in the Free States
men think little of it. Property is the good for which
they toil perseveringly from morning to night. Even
the political partisan among us has an eye to property,
and seeks office as the best, perhaps only way of sub-
sistence. In this state of things, the South has little to
fear from the North. For one thing we may contend,
that is, for a tariff, for protection to our moneyed in-

352 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

terests ; but if we may be left to work and thrive, we
shall not quarrel for power.

The little sensibility at the North to the present move-
ments on the subject of Texas is the best commentary
on the spirit of the Free States. That the South
should be suffered to think for a moment of adding a
great country to the United States for the sake of
strengthening slavery demonstrates an absence of wise
political jealousy at the North to which no parallel can
be found in human history.

The union of Texas to us must be an unmixed evil.
We do not need it on a single account. We are already
too large. The machine of government hardly creeps
on under the weight of so many diverse interests and
such complex functions as burden it now. Our own
natural increase is already too rapid. New States are
springing up too fast ; for in these there must exist,
from the nature of the case, an excess of adventurous,
daring spirits, whose influence over the government can-
not but be perilous for a time ; and it is madness to add
to us a new nation to increase the wild impulses, the
half civilized forces, which now mingle with our national
legislation.

To unite with Texas would be to identify ourselves
with a mighty wrong ; for such was the seizure of that
province by a horde of adventurers. It would be to
insure the predominance of the slave-power, to make
slavery a chief national interest, and to pledge us to the
continually increasing prostitution of the national power
to its support. It would be to begin a career of en-
croachment on Mexico which would corrupt and dis-
honor us, would complicate and disturb the movements
of government, would create a wasteful patronage, and

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 353

enlarge our military establishments. Tt would be to
plunge us into war, not only with Mexico, but with
foreign powers, which will not quietly leave us to add
the Gulf of Mexico to our vast stretch of territory along
the Atlantic coast.

To unite Texas to ourselves would be to destroy our
present unity as a people, to sow new seeds of jealousy.
It would be to spread beyond bounds the space over
which the national arm must be extended ; to present
new points of attack and new reasons for assault, and at
the same time to impair the energy to resist them. Can
the Free States consent to pour out their treasure and
blood like water in order to defend against Mexico and
her European protectors the slave-trodden fields of dis-
tant Texas ? Would the South be prompt to exhaust
itself for the annexation to this country of the vast Brit-
ish possessions of the North .'' Is it ready to pledge itself
to carry the "star-spangled banner" to the pole, in ex-
change for our readiness to carry slavery to Darien .''
There must be some fixed limits to our country. We
at the North do not ask for Canada. We would not, I
hope, accept it as a gift ; for we could not rule it well.
And is the country to spread itself in one direction
alone .'' Are we willing to place ourselves under the rule
of adventurers whom a restless spirit or a dread of jus-
tice drives to Texas .'' What possible boon can we
gain .'' The Free States are not only wanting in com-
mon wisdom, but in those instincts by which other com-
munities shrink from connexions that diminish their im-
portance and neutralize their power. We shall deserve
to be put under guardianship, if we receive Texas to our
embrace. Such suicidal policy would place us among
those whom "God infatuates before he destroys."
30*

354 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

I have now spoken of the National Union, and of the
danger to which it is exposed. The duty of the Free
States is, to keep their attachment to it unimpaired by
local partialities, jealousies, and dislikes, by supposed
inequalities of benefits or burdens, or by the want of self-
restraint manifested in the other part of the country.
They cannot, however, but see and feel one immense
deduction from its blessings. They are bound by it to
give a degree of sanction and support to slavery, and are
threatened with the annexation of another country to our
own for the purpose of strengthening this institution.
Their duty is, to insist on release from all obligations,
and on security against all connexions, which do or may
require them to uphold a system which they condemn.
No blessings of the Union can be a compensation for
taking part in the enslaving of our fellow-creatures ; nor
ought this bond to be perpetuated, if experience shall
demonstrate that it can only continue through our par-
ticipation in wrong-doing. To this conviction the Free
States are tending ; and in this view their present subser-
viency to the interests of slavery is more endurable.

I proceed, in the last place, to offer a few remarks on
the Duties of the Free States as to a subject of infinite
importance, the subject of War. To add to the dis-
tresses of the country, a war-cry is raised ; and a person
unaccustomed to the recklessness with which the pas-
sions of the moment break out among us in conversation
and the newspapers would imagine that we were on the
brink of a conflict with the most powerful nation on
earth. That we are indeed to fight cannot easily be
believed. That two nations of a common origin, having
so many common interests, united by so many bonds,

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 355

speaking one language, breathing the same free spirit^
holding the same faith, to whom war can bring no good,
and on whom it must inflict terrible evils ; that such na-
tions should expose themselves and the civilized world
to the chances, crimes, and miseries of war, for the set-
tlement of questions which may be adjusted honorably
and speedily by arbitration ; this implies such an absence
of common sense, as well as of moral and religious prin-
ciple, that, bad as the world is, one can hardly believe,
without actual vision, that such a result can take place.
1 et the history of the world, made up of war, teaches us
that we may be too secure ; and no excitement of war-
like feeling should pass without a word of warning.

In speaking of our duties on this subject I can use
but one language, that of Christianity. I do believe that
Christianity was meant to be a law for society, meant
to act on nations ; and, however I may be smiled at for
my ignorance of men and things, I can propose no stand-
ard of action to individuals or communities but the law
of Christ, the law of Eternal Rectitude, the law, not
only of this nation, but of all worlds.

The great duty of God's children is, to love one an-
other. This duty on earth takes the name and form of
the law of humanity. We are to recognize all men as
brethren, no matter where born, or under what sky, or
institution, or religion, they may live. Every man be-
longs to the race, and owes a duty to mankind. Every
nation belongs to the family of nations, and is to desire
the good of all. Nations are to love one another. It
is true that they usually adopt towards one another prin-
ciples of undisguised selfishness, and glory in successful
violence or fraud. But the great law of humanity is un-
repealed. Men cannot vote this out of the universe by

356 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

acclamation. The Christian precepts, "Do to others
as you would they should do to you," "Love your
neighbour as yourself," "Love your enemies," apply
to nations as well as individuals. A nation renouncing
them is a heathen, not a Christian nation. Men cannot
by combining themselves into narrower or larger socie-
ties sever the sacred, blessed bond which joins them to
their kind. An evil nation, like an evil man, may, in-
deed, be withstood, but not in hatred and revenge. The
law of humanity must reign over the assertion of all hu-
man rights. The vindictive, unforgiving spirit which
prevails in the earth must yield to the mild, impartial
spirit of Jesus Christ.

I know that these principles will receive little hearty
assent. Multitudes who profess to believe in Christ
have no faith in the efficacy of his spirit, or in the ac-
complishment of that regenerating work which he came
to accomplish. There is a worse skepticism than what
passes under the name of infidelity, a skepticism as to
the reality and the power of moral and Christian truth ;
and accordingly a man who calls on a nation to love the
great family of which it is a part, to desire the weal and
the progress of the race, to blend its own interests with
the interests of all, to wish well to its foes, must pass
for a visionary, perhaps in war would be called a traitor.
The first teacher of Universal Love was nailed to the
cross for withstanding the national spirit, hopes, and pre-
judices of Judea. His followers, in these better days,
escape with silent derision or neglect.

It is a painful thought, that our relations to foreign
countries are determined chiefly by men who are signally
wanting in reverence for the law of Christ, the law of
humanity. Should we repair to the seat of government,

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 357

and listen to the debates of Congress, we should learn
that the ascendant influence belongs to men who have no
comprehension of the mild and generous spirit of our re-
ligion ; who exult in what they are pleased to call a
quick sense of honor, which means a promptness to re-
sent, and a spirit of vengeance. And shall Christians
imbrue their hands in the blood of their brethren at the
bidding of such men ?

At this moment our chief exposure to war arises from
sensibility to what is called the honor of the nation. A
nation cannot, indeed, -be too jealous of its honor. But,
unhappily, few communities know what this means.
There is but one true honor for men or nations. This
consists in impartial justice and generosity ; in acting up
fearlessly to a high standard of Right. The multitude
of men place it chiefly in courage ; and in this, as in all
popular delusions, there is a glimpse of truth. Courage
is an essential element of true honor. A nation or an
individual without it is nothing worth. Almost any thing
is better than a craven spirit. Better be slaughtered
than be cowardly and tame. What is the teaching of
Christianity but that we must be ready at any moment
to lay down life for truth, humanity, and virtue .'' All
the virtues are naturally brave. The just and disinter-
ested man dreads nothing that man can do to him. But
courage standing alone, animal courage, the courage of
the robber, pirate, or duellist, this has no honor. This
only proves that bad passions are strong enough to con-
quer the passion of fear. Yet this low courage is that
of which nations chiefly boast, and in which they make
their honor to consist.

Were the spirit of justice and humanity to pervade
this country, we could not be easily driven into war.

358 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

England and Mexico, the countries with which we are
in danger of being embroiled, have an interest in peace.
The questions on which we are at issue touch no vital
point, no essential interest or right, which we may not
put to hazard ; and consequently they are such as may
and ought to be left to arbitration.

There has of late been a cry of war with Mexico ;
and yet, if the facts are correctly stated in the papers, a
more unjust war cannot be conceived. It seems that a
band of Texans entered the territory of Mexico during
a state of war between the two countries. They entered
it armed. They were met and conquered by a Mexican
force ; and certain American citizens, found in the num-
ber, were seized and treated as prisoners of war. This
is pronounced an injury which the nation is bound to re-
sent. We are told that the band in which the Ameri-
cans were found was engaged in a trading, not a military
expedidon. Such a statement is, of course, very sus-
picious ; but allow it to be true. Must not the entrance
of an armed band from one belligerent country into the
other be regarded as a hostile invasion .'' Must not a
citizen of a neutral state, if found in this armed compa-
ny, be considered as a party to the invasion ? Has he
not, with eyes open, engaged in an expedition which can-
not but be regarded as an act of war .'' That our nation
should demand the restoration of such a person as a right,
which must not be denied without the hazard of a war,
would seem to show that we have studied international
law in a new edition, revised and corrected for our
special benefit. It is the weakness of Mexico which
encourages these freedoms on our part. Yet their
weakness is a claim on our compassion. We ought to
look on that distracted country as an older brother on a

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 359

wayward child, and should blush to make our strength
a ground for aggression.

There is another ground, we are told, for war with
Mexico. She has treated our citizens cruelly, as well
as made them prisoners of war. She has condemned
them to ignominious labor in the streets. This is not
unlikely. Mexico sets up no pretension to signal hu-
manity, nor has it been fostered by her history. Per-
haps, however, she is only following, with some exagger-
ations, the example of Texas ; for after the great victory
of San Jacinto we were told that the Texans set their'
prisoners to work. At the worst, here is no cause for
war. If an American choose to take part in the hostile
movements of another nation, he must share the fate of
its citizens. If Mexico indeed practises cruelties to-
wards her prisoners, of whatever country, we are bound
by the law of humanity to remonstrate against them ;
but we must not fight to reform her. The truth, how-
ever, is, that we can place no great reliance on what we
hear of Mexican cruelty. The press of Texas and the
South, in its anxiety to involve us in war with that coun-
try, does not speak under oath. In truth, no part of
our country seems to think of Mexico as having the
rights of a sovereign state. We hear the politician in
high places exhoi'ting us to take part in raising "the
single Star of Texas " above the city of Montezuma,
and to gorge ourselves with the plunder of her churches ;
and we see armed bands from the South hurrying in
time of peace towards that devoted land, to realize these
dreams of unprincipled cupidity. That Mexico is more
sinned against than sinning, that she is as just as her
foes, one can hardly help believing.

We proceed to consider our difficulties with Great

§60 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

Britain, which are numerous enough to alarm us) but
which are all of a character to admit arbitration. The
first is the Northeast boundary question. This, indeed,
may be said to be settled in the minds of the people.
As a people, we have no doubt that the letter of the
treaty marks out the line on which we insist. The
great majority also believe that England insists on anoth-
er, not from respect for the stipulations of the treaty,
but because she needs it to secure a communication be-
tween her various provinces. The land, then, is legally
ours, and ought not to be surrendered to any force.
But in this, as in other cases, we are bound by the law
of humanity to look beyond the letter of stipulations, to
inquire, not for legal, but for moral right, and to act up
to the principles of an enlarged justice and benevolence.
The territory claimed by England is of great importance
to her ; of none, comparatively, to us ; and we know,
that, when the treaty was framed, no thought existed on
either side of carrying the line so far to the North as to
obstruct the free and safe communication between her
provinces. The country was then unexplored. The
precise effect of the stipulation could not be foreseen.
It was intended to secure a boundary advantageous to
both parties Under these circumstances the law of
equity and humanity demands that Great Britain be put
in possession of the territory needed to connect her
provinces together. Had nations risen at all to the idea
of generosity in their mutual dealings, this country might
be advised to present to England the land she needs.
But prudence will stop at the suggestion, that we ought
to offer it to her on terms which impartial men may
pronounce just. And in doing this we should not mere-
ly consult equity and honor, but our best interest. It

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 361

is the interest of a nation to establish, on all sides,
boundaries which will be satisfactory ahke to itself and
its neighbours. This is almost essential to enduring
peace. Wars have been waged without number for the
purpose of uniting the scattered provinces of a country,
of giving it compactness, unity, and the means of com-
munication. A nation prizing peace should remove the
irritations growing out of unnatural boundaries ; and this
we can do in the present case without a sacrifice.

According to these views one of the most unwise
measures ever adopted in this country was the rejection
of the award of the King of the Netherlands. A better
award could not have been given. It ceded for us what
a wise policy teaches us to surrender, gave us a natural
boundary, and gave us compensation for the territory to
be surrendered. If now some friendly power would by
its mediation effectually recommend to the two coun-
tries this award as the true interest of both, it would
render signal service to justice and humanity.

Still, it is true that the territory that we claim is ours.
The bargain made by England was a hard one ; but an
honest man does not on this account shrink from his
contract ; nor can England lay hands on what she un-
wisely surrendered, without breach of faith, without
committing herself to an unrighteous war.

A way of compromise in a case like this is not diffi-
cult to honest and friendly nations. For example, let
impartial and intelligent commissioners, agreed to by
both countries, repair to the disputed territory with the
treaty in their hands, and with the surveys made by the
two governments ; and let them go with full authority to
determine the line which the treaty prescribes, to draw
a,nother line, if such shall seem to them required by

VOL. VI. 31

362 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

principles of equity, or by the true interests of both
countries, and to "make ample compensation to the na-
tion which shall relinquish part of its territory. It is
believed, that, generally speaking, men of distinguished
honor, integrity, and ability would execute a trust of
this nature more wisely, impartially, and speedily than a
third government, and that the employment of such
would facilitate the extension of arbitration to a greater
variety of cases than can easily be comprehended under
the present system. I have suggested one mode of
compromise. Others and better may be devised, if the
parties will approach the difficulty in a spirit of peace.

The case of the Caroline next presents itself. In
this case our territory was undoubtedly violated by Eng-
land. But the question arises, whether nothing justified
or mitigated the violation. According to the law of na-
tions, when a government is unable to restrain its sub-
jects from continued acts of hostility towards a neigh-
bouring state, this state is authorized to take the defence
of its rights into its own hands, and may enter the terri-
tory of the former power with such a force as may be
required to secure itself against aggression. The ques-
tion is, Did such a state of things exist on the Cana-
dian frontier ? That we Americans, if placed in the
condition of the English, would have done as they did
admits little doubt. This, indeed, is no justification of
the act ; for both nations in this condition would act
more from impulse than reason. But it shows us that
the question is a complicated one ; such a question as
even well-disposed nations cannot easily settle by nego-
tiation, and which may and ought to be committed to an
impartial umpire.

I will advert to one more difficulty between this coun-

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 363

I

try and England, which is intimately connected with the
subject of this Tract. I refer to the question, whether
England may visit our vessels to ascertain their nation-
ality, in cases where the American flag is suspected of
being used by foreigners for the prosecution of the slave-
trade. On this subject we have two duties to perform.
One is, to protect our commerce against claims on the
part of other nations, which may silently be extended,
and may expose it to interference and hinderance injuri-
ous alike to our honor and prosperity. The other, not
less clear and urgent, is, to afford efiectual assistance to
the great struggle of European nations for the suppres-
sion of the slave-trade, and especially to prevent our
flag from being made a cover for the nefarious trafiic.
These are two duties which we can and must reconcile.
We must not say that the slave-trade is to be left to it-
self, and that we have no obligation to take part in its
abolition. We cannot without shame and guilt stand
neutral in this war. The slave-trade is an enormous
crime, a terrible outrage on humanity, an accumulation
of unparalleled wrongs and woes, and the civilized world
is waking up to bring it to an end. Every nation is
bound by the law of humanity to give its sympathies,
prayers, and cooperation to this work. Even had our
commerce no connexion with this matter, we should be
bound to lend a helping hand to the cause of the human
race. But the fact is, that the flag of our country,
prostituted by infamous foreigners, is a principal shelter
to the slave-trade. Vile men wrap themselves up in
our garments, and in this guise go forth to the work of
robbery and murder. Shall we suffer this .'' Shall the
nations of the earth, when about to seize these outlaws,
be forbidden to touch them, because they wear the

364 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

American garb ? It is said, indeed, that foreign pow-
ers, if allowed to visit our vessels for such a purpose,
will lay hands on our own citizens, and invade our com-
mercial rights. But vague suspicions of this kind do
not annul a plain obligation. Uncertain consequences
do not set aside what we know ; and one thing we know,
that the slave-trade ought not to be left to live and grow
under the American flag. We are bound some way or
other to stay this evil. We ought to say to Europe :
" We detest this trade as much as you. We will join
heart and hand in its destruction. We will assent to
the mutual visitation which you plead for, if arrange-
ments can be made to secure it against abuse. We will
make sacrifices for this end. We will shrink from no
reasonable concession. Your efforts shall not be frus-
trated by the prostitution of our flag." If in good faith
we follow up these words, it can hardly be doubted that
a safe and honorable arrangement may be made with for-
eign powers.

Some of our politicians protest vehemently against
the visitation of vessels bearing our flag for the purpose
of determining their right to assume it. They admit
that there are cases, such as suspicion of piracy, in
which such visitation is authorized by the law of nations.,
But this right, they say, cannot be extended at pleasure,
by the union of several nations in treaties or conventions
which can only be executed by visiting the vessels of
other powers. This is undoubtedly true. Nations, by
union for private advantage, have no right to subject the
ships of other powers to inconvenience, or to the possi-
bility of molestation, in order to compass their purpose.
But when several nations join together to extirpate a
widely extended and flagrant crime against the human

1

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 365

race, to put down a public and most cruel wrong, they
have a right to demand that their labors shall not be
frustrated by the fraudulent assumption of the flags of
foreign powers. Subjecting their own ships to visita-
tion as a means of preventing this abuse of their flags,
they are authorized to expect a like subjection from
other states, on condition that they profler every possible
security against the abuse of the power. A state, in de-
clining such visitation, virtually withdraws itself from the
commonwealth of nations. Christian states may be said,
w-ithout any figure, to form a commonwealth. They are
bound together by a common faith, the first law of which
is universal good-will. They recognize mutual obliga-
tions. They are united by interchange of material and
intellectual products. Through their common religion
and literature, and their frequent intercourse, they have
attained to many moral sympathies ; and when by these
any portion of them are united in the execution of jus-
tice against open, fearful crime, they have a right to the
good wishes of all other states ; and especially a right to
be unobstructed by them in their efforts. In the present
case we have ourselves fixed the brand of piracy on the
very crime which certain' powers of Europe have joined
to suppress. Ought we not to consent that vessels
bearing our flag, but faUing under just suspicion of as-
suming it for the perpetration of this piracy, should be
visited, according to stipulated forms, that their nation-
ality may be judged ? Have we any right, by denying
this claim, to give to acknowledged, flagrant crime an
aid and facility under which it cannot but prevail ?
There seems no reason for apprehension that in assent-
ing to visitation we shall expose ourselves to great
wrongs. From the nature of the case, strict and sim-
31*

366 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

pie rules of judgment may be laid down, and the re-
sponsibility of the visiting officers may be made so
serious as to give a moral certainty of caution. Un-
doubtedly injuries may chance to be inflicted, as is the
case in the exercise of the clearest rights ; but the
chance is so small, whilst the effects of refusing visi-
tation are so fatal and so sure, that our country, should
it resist the claim, will take the attitude of hostility to
the human race, and will deserve to be cut off from the
fellowship of the Christian world.

It is customary, I know, to meet these remarks by
saying that the crusade of England against this traffic is
a mere show of philanthropy ; that she is serving only
her own ends ; and that there is consequently no obli-
gation to cooperate with her. This language might be
expected from the South, where almost universal igno-
rance prevails in regard to the anti-slavery efl:brts of
England ; but it does httle honor to the North, where
the means of knowledge are possessed. That England
is blending private views with the suppression of the
slave-trade is a thing to be expected ; for states, like in-
dividuals, seldom act from unmixed motives. But when
we see a nation for fifty years keeping in sight a great
object of humanity ; when we see this enterprise, begin-
ning with the peaceful Quaker, adopted by Christians
of other names, and thus spreading through and moving
the whole population ; when we see the reluctant gov-
ernment compelled by the swelling sensibility of the
people to lend itself to the cause, and to forward it by
liberal expenditure and vast efforts on sea and land ; can
we help feeling that the moral sentiment of the nation is
the basis and spring of this great and glorious effort ?
On this subject I may speak from knowledge. In Eng-

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 3(57

land, many years ago, I met the patriarchs of the anti-
slavery cause. I was present at a meeting of the abo-
lition committee, a body which has won an imperishable
name in history. I saw men and women, eminent for
virtue and genius, who had abstained from the products
of slave-labor to compel the government to suppress the
traffic in men. Tf ever Christian benevolence wrought
a triumph, it was in that struggle ; and the efforts of the
nation from that day to this have been hallowed by the
same generous feeling. Alas ! the triumphs of humani-
ty are not so numerous that we can afford to part wit^
this. History records but one example of a nation
fighting the battle of the oppressed, with the sympathy,
earnestness, and sacrifices of a generous individual ; and
we will not give up our faith in this. And now is our
country prepared to throw itself in the way of these holy
efforts .'' Shall our flag be stained with the infamy of
defending the slave-trade against the humanity of other
countries ? Better that it should disappear from the
ocean than be so profaned.

It must not be said that the slave-trade cannot be an-
nihilated. The prospect grows brighter. One of its
chief marts, Cuba, is now closed. The ports of Brazil,
we trust, will next be shut against it ; and these meas-
ures on land, aided by well concerted operations at sea,
will do much to free the world from this traffic. It
must not. find its last shelter under the American flag.
We must not talk of difficulties. Let the nation's heart
be opened to the cry of humanity, to the voice of re-
ligion, and difficulties will vanish. In every good work
for the freedom and melioration of the world we ought
to bear our part. We ought to be found in the front
rank of the war against that hideous traffic which we

368 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

first branded as piracy. God save us from suffering our
flag to be spread as a screen between the felon, the
pirate, the kidnapper, the murderer, and the ministers
of justice, of humanity, sent forth to cut short his
crimes !

We have thus considered the most important of our
difficulties with Mexico and England which have been
thought to threaten war. With a spirit of justice and
peace, it seems impossible that we should be involved in
hostilities. The Duties of the Free States, and of all
the States, are plain. We should cherish a spirit of
humanity towards all countries. We should resist the
false notions of honor, the false pride, the vindictive
feelings, which are easily excited by supposed injuries
from foreign powers, and are apt to spread like a pesti-
lence from breast to breast, till they burst forth at length
in a fierce, uncontrollable passion for war.

I have now finished ray task. I have considered the
Duties of the Free States in relation to slavery, and to
other subjects of great and immediate concern. In this
discussion I have constantly spoken of Duties as more
important than Interests ; but these in the end will be
found to agree. The energy by which men prosper is
fortified by nothing so much as by the lofty spirit which
scorns to prosper through abandonment of duty.

I have been called by the subjects here discussed to
speak much of the evils of the times and the dangers of
the country ; and in treating of these a writer is almost
necessarily betrayed into what may seem a tone of de-
spondence. His anxiety to save his country from crime
or calamity leads him to use unconsciously a language
of alarm which may excite the apprehension of inev-

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 369

table misery. But I would not infuse such fears. I
do not sympathize with the desponding tone of the day.
It may be that there are fearful woes in store for this
people ; but there are many promises of good to give
spring to hope and effort ; and it is not wise to open
our eyes and ears to ill omens alone. It is to be la-
mented that men who boast of courage in other trials
should shrink so weakly from public difficulties and dan-
gers, and should spend in unmanly reproaches or com-
plaints the strength which they ought to give to their
country's safety. But this ought not to surprise us in
the present case ; for our lot until of late has been sin-
gularly prosperous, and great prosperity enfeebles men's
spirits, and prepares them to despond when it shall have
passed away. The country, we are told, is "ruined."
What ! the country ruined, when the mass of the popu-
lation have hardly retrenched a luxury .'' We are in-
deed paying, and we ought to pay, the penalty of reck-
less extravagance, of wild and criminal speculation, of
general abandonment to the passion for sudden and
enormous gains. But how are we ruined ? Is the kind,
nourishing earth about to become a cruel step-mother .''
Or is the teeming soil of this magnificent country sinking
beneath our feet .'' Is tlie ocean dried up .'' Are our
cities and villages, our schools and churches, in ruins ?
Are the stout muscles which have conquered sea and
land palsied .'' Are the earnings of past years dissi-
pated, and the skill which gathered them forgotten .'' I
open my eyes on this ruined country, and I see around
me fields fresh with verdure, and behold on all sides the
intelligent countenance, the sinewy limb, the kindly look,
the free and manly bearing, which indicate any thing
but a fallen people. Undoubtedly we have much cause

370 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

to humble ourselves for the vices which our recent
prosperity warmed into being, or rather brought out
from the depths of men's souls. But in the reprobation
which these vices awaken have we no proof that the
fountain of moral life in the nation's heart is not ex-
hausted ? In the progress of temperance, of education,
and of religious sensibility in our land have we no proof
that there is among us an impulse towards improvement
which no temporary crime or calamity can overpower ?
I shall be pointed undoubtedly to our political corrup-
tions, to the inefficiency and party passions which dis-
honor our present Congress, and to the infamy brought
on the country by breach of faith and gross dishonesty
in other legislatures. In sight of this an American must
indeed " blush, and hang his head." Still it is true,
and the truth should be told, that, in consequence of the
long divorce between morality and politics, public men
do not represent the character of the people ; nor can
we argue from profligacy in public affairs to a general
want of private virtue. Besides, we all know that it is
through errors, sins, and sufferings that the individual
makes progress ; and so does a people. A nation can-
not learn to govern itself in a day. New institutions
conferring great power on a people open a door to many
and great abuses, from which nothing but the slow and
painful discipline of experience can bring deliverance.
After all, there is a growing intelligence in this commu-
nity ; there is much domestic virtue ; there is a deep
working of Christianity ; there is going on a struggle
of higher truths with narrow traditions, and of a wider
benevolence with social evils ; there is a spirit of free-
dom, a recognition of the equal rights of men ; there are
profound impulses received from our history, from the

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 371

virtues of our fathers, and especially from our revolution-
ary conflict ; and there is an indomitable energy, which,
after rearing an empire in the wilderness, is fresh for
new achievements. Such a people are not ruined be-
cause Congress leaves the treasury bankrupt for weeks
and months, and exposes itself to scorn by vulgar man-
ners and ruffian abuse. In that very body how many
men may be found of honor, integrity, and wisdom, who
watch over their country with sorrow, but not despair,
and who meet an answer to their patriotism in the breasts
of thousands of their countrymen !

There is one Duty of the Free States of which I have
not spoken ; it is the duty of Faith in the intellectual and
moral energies of the country, in its high destiny, and
in the good Providence which has guided it through so
many trials and perils to its present greatness. We in-
deed suffer much, and deserve to suffer more. Many
dark pages are to be written in our history. But gen-
erous seed is still sown in this" nation's mind. Noble
impulses are working here. We are called to be wit-
nesses to the world of a freer, more equal, more humane,
more enlightened social existence than has yet been
known. May God raise us to a more thorough compre-
hension of our work ! May he give us faith in the good
which we are summoned to achieve ! May he strengthen
us to build up a prosperity not tainted by slavery, self-
ishness, or any wrong ; but pure, innocent, righteous,
and overflowing, through a just and generous intercourse,
on all the nations of the earth !

372 THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES.

NOTES,

Mte A.

In the first part of these remarks I said that the free-
dom of speech and of the press was fully enjoyed in this
country. I overlooked the persecutions to which the Abo-
litionists have been exposed for expressing their opinions.
That I should have forgotten this is the more strange
because my sympathy with these much injui-ed persons
has been one motive to me for writing on slavery. The
Free States, as far as they have violated the rights of the
Abolitionists, have ceased to be fully free. They have
acted as the tools of slavery, and have warred against
freedom in its noblest form. No matter what other lib-
erties are conceded, if liberty of speech and the press be
denied us. We are robbed of our most precious right,
of that without which all other rights are unprotected and
insecure.

JYote B. page 336.

Since the publication of the first edition of this Tract I
have been sorry to learn that this paragraph has been
considered by some as showing an insensibility to the de-
praving influences of slavery. My purpose was, to be just
to the South ; and I did not dream that in doing this I
was throwing a veil over the deformity of its institutions.
I feel deeply, what I have again and again said, that sla-
very does and must exert an exceedingly depraving influ-

THE DUTY OF THE FREE STATES. 373

ence. So wrongful an exercise of power cannot but injure
the character. All who sustain the relation are the worse
for it. But it is a plain fact, taught by all history and ex-
perience, that under depraving institutions much virtue
may exist ; and were not this the case, the condition of
our race would be hopeless indeed, for everywhere such
institutions are found. The character is not determined
by a single relation or circumstance in our lot. Most of
us believe that Roman Catholicism exerts many influences
hostile to true Christianity, and yet how many sincere
Christians have grown up under that system ! In the
midst of feudal barbarism, in the palaces of despotism,
noble characters have been formed. Slavery, I believe,
does incalculable harm to the slave-holders. It spreads
licentiousness of manners to a fearful extent ; and in the
case of the good it obscures their perception of those most
important teachings of Christianity which unfold the inti-
mate relation of man to man, and which enjoin universal
love. Still, it cannot be denied, that, under all these dis-
advantages, God finds true worshippers within the bounds
of slavery, that many deeds of Christian love are per-
formed there, and that there are not wanting examples of
eminent virtue. This is what I meant to say. I am
bound, however, to add, that, the more I become ac-
quainted with the Slave-holding States, the more I am
impressed with the depraving influence of slavery ; and I
shall grieve, if my desire to be just to the South, and my
joy at witnessing virtue there, should be construed as a
negative testimony in favor of this corrupting institution.

VOL. VI. 32

AN ADDRESS
DELIVERED AT LENOX,

ON THE

FIRST OF AUGUST, 1842,

BEING THE

ANNIVERSARY OF EMANCIPATION

IN THE

BRITISH WEST-INDIES.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

I HAVE been encouraged to publish the following Ad-
dress by the strong expressions of sympathy with which it
was received. I do not, indeed, suppose that those who
listened to it with interest, and who have requested its
publication, accorded with me in every opinion which it
contains. Such entire agreement is not to be expected
among intelligent men, who judge for themselves. But I
am sure that the spirit and substance of the Address met
a hearty response. Several paragraphs, which I wanted
strength to deliver, are now published, and for these of
course I am alone responsible.

I dedicate this Address to the Men and Women of
Berkshire. I have found so much to delight me in the
magnificent scenery of this region, in its peaceful and
prosperous villages, and in the rare intelligence and vir-
tues of the friends whose hospitality I have here enjoyed,
that I desire to connect this little work with this spot. I
cannot soon forget the beautiful nature and the generous
spirits with which I have been privileged to commune in
the Valley of the Housatonic.

Lenox, Mass., Aug. 9, 1842.

32*

ADDRESS.

This day is the anniversary of one of the great events
of modern times, the Emancipation of the Slaves in the
British West-India Islands. This emancipation began
August 1st, 1834, but it was not completed until August
21st, 1838. The event, indeed, has excited httle atten-
tion in our country, partly because we are too much
absorbed in private interests and local excitements to be
alive to the triumphs of humanity at a distance, partly
because a moral contagion has spread from the South
through the North and deadened our sympathies with the
oppressed. But West-India emancipation, though re-
ceived here so coldly, is yet an era in the annals of
philanthropy. The greatest events do not always draw
most attention at the moment. When the Mayflower,
in the dead of winter, landed a few pilgrims on the ice-
bound, snow-buried rocks of Plymouth, the occurrence
made no noise. Nobody took note of it, and yet how
much has that landing done to change the face of the
civilized world ! Our fathers came to establish a pure
church ; they little thought of revolutionizing nations.
The emancipation in the West Indies, whether viewed
in itself, or in its immediate results, or in the spirit from
which it grew, or in the light of hope which it sheds on
the future, deserves to be commemorated. In some

380 ADDRESS ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF

respects it stan(fs alone in human history. I therefore
invite to it your serious attention.

Perhaps I ought to begin with some apology for my
appearance in this place ; for I stand here unasked, un-
invited. I can plead no earnest solicitation from few or
many for the service I now render. I come to you
simply from an impulse in my own breast ; and, in truth,
had I been solicited, I probably should not have con-
sented to speak. Had I found here a general desire to
celebrate this day, I should have felt that another speaker
might be enlisted in the cause, and I should have held
my peace. But finding that no other voice would be
raised, I was impelled to lift up my own, though too
feeble for any great exertion. I trust you will accept
with candor what I have been obliged to prepare in
haste, and what may have little merit but that of pure
intention.

I have said that T speak only from the impulse of my
own mind. T am the organ of no association, the rep-
resentative of no feelings but my own. But I wish it to
be understood that I speak from no sudden impulse,
from no passionate zeal of a new convert, but from de-
liberate and long-cherished conviction. In truth, my
attention was directed to slavery fifty years ago, that is,
before most of you vi^ere born ; and the first impulse came
from a venerable man, formerly of great reputation in
this part of our country and in all our churches, the
Rev. Dr. Hopkins, who removed more than a century
ago from Great Barrington to my native town, and there
bore open and strong testimony against the slave-trade,
a principal branch of the traffic of the place. I am re-
minded by the spot where I now stand of another inci-
dent which may show how long I have taken an interest

EMANCIPATION IN THE BRITISH WEST-INDIES. 381

in this subject. More than twenty years ago I had an
earnest conversation with that noble-minded man and
fervent philanthropist, Henry Sedgwick, so well and
honorably known to most who hear me, on which occa-
sion we deplored the insensibility of the North to the
evils of slavery, and inquired by what means it might be
removed. The circumstance which particularly gave
my mind a direction to this subject was a winter's resi-
dence in a West- Indian island more than eleven years
ago. I lived there on a plantation. The piazza in
which I sat and walked almost from morning to night
overlooked the negro village belonging to the estate. A
few steps placed me in the midst of their huts. Here
was a volume on slavery opened always before my eyes,
and how could I help learning some of its lessons ? The
gang on this estate (for such is the name given to a com-
pany of slaves) was the best on the island, and among
the best in the West Indies. The proprietor had la-
bored to collect the best materials for it. His gang had
been his pride and boast. The fine proportions, the
graceful and sometimes dignified bearing of these people,
could hardly be overlooked. Unhappily, misfortune had
reduced the owner to bankruptcy. The estate had been
mortgaged to a stranger, who could not personally su-
perintend it ; and I found it under the care of a passion-
ate and licentious manager, in whom the poor slaves
found a sad contrast to the kindness of former days.
They sometimes came to the house where I resided,
with their mournful or indignant complaints ; but were
told that no redress could be found from the hands of
their late master. In this case of a plantation passing
into strange hands I saw that the mildest form of slavery
might at any time be changed into the worst. On

382 ADDRESS ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF

returning to this country I delivered a discourse on
Slavery, giving the main views which I have since com-
municated ; and this was done before the cry of Aboli-
tionism was heard among us. I seem, then, to have a
peculiar warrant for now addressing you. I am giving
you, not the ebullitions of new, vehement feelings, but
the results of long and patient reflection ; not the
thoughts of others, but my own independent judgments.
I stand alone ; I speak in the name of no party. I
have no connexion, but that of friendship and respect,
with the opposers of slavery in this country or abroad.
Do not mix me up with other men, good or bad ; but
listen to me as a separate witness, standing on my own
ground, and desirous to express with all plainness what
seems to be the truth.

On this day, a few years ago, eight hundred thousand
human beings were set free from slavery ; and to com-
prehend the greatness of the deliverance, a few words
must first be said of the evil from which they were res-
cued. You must know slavery, to know emancipation.
But in a single discourse how can I set before you the
wrongs and abominations of this detestable institution .''
I must pass over many of its features, and will select
one which is at present vividly impressed on my mind.
Different minds are impressed with different evils. Were
I asked, what strikes me as the greatest evil inflicted by
this system, I should say, it is the outrage offered by
slavery to human nature. Slavery does all that lies in
human power to unmake men, to rob them of their hu-
manity, to degrade men into brutes ; and this it does by
declaring them to be Property. Here is the master
evil. Declare a man a chattel, something which you
may own and may turn to your use, as a horse or a

EMANCIPATION IN THE BRITISH WEST-INDIES. 383

tool ; strip him of all right over himself, of ali right to
use his own powers, except what you concede to him
as a favor and deem consistent with your own profit ;
and you cease to look on him as a Man. You may call
him such ; but he is not to you a brother, a fellow-being,
a partaker of your nature, and your equal in the sight
of God. You view him, you treat him, you speak to
him, as infinitely beneath you, as belonging to another
race. You have a tone and a look towards him which
you never use towards a Man. Your relation to him
demands that you treat him as an inferior creature. You
cannot, if you would, treat him as a Man. That he
may answer your end, that he may consent to be a
slave, his spirit must be broken, his courage crushed ;
he must fear you. A feeling of his deep inferiority
must be burnt into his soul. The idea of his rights
must be quenched in him by the blood of his lashed and
lacerated body. Here is the damning evil of slavery.
It destroys the spirit, the consciousness of a man. I
care little, in comparison, for his hard outward lot, his
poverty, his unfurnished house, his coarse fare ; the ter-
rible thing in slavery is the spirit of a slave, the extinc-
tion of the spirit of a man. He feels himself owned, a
chattel, a thing bought and sold, and held to sweat for
another's pleasure, at another's will, under another's
lash, just as an ox or horse. Treated thus as a brute,
can he take a place among men .'' A slave ! Ts there
a name so degraded on earth, a name which so sepa-
rates a man from his kind ? And to this condition mil-
lions of our race are condemned in this land of liberty.
In what is the slave treated as a Man ? The great
right of a Man is, to use, improve, expand his powers,
for his own and others' good. The slave's powers be-

384 ADDRESS ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF

long to another, and are hemmed in, kept down, not
cherished, or suffered to unfold. If there be an infernal
system, one especially hostile to humanity, it is that
which deliberately wars against the expansion of men's
faculties ; and this enters into the essence of slavery.
The slave cannot be kept a slave, if helped or allowed
to improve his intellect and higher nature. He must
not be taught to read. The benevolent Christian, who
tries, by giving him the use of letters, to open to him
the word of God and other good books, is punished as
a criminal. The slave is hedged round so that philan-
thropy cannot approach him to awaken in him the intel-
ligence and feelings of a man. Thus his humanity is
trodden under foot.

Again, a Man has the right to form and enjoy the re-
lations of domestic life. The tie between the brute
and his young endures but a few months. Man was
made to have a home, to have a wife and children, to
cleave to them for life, to sustain the domestic relations
in constancy and purity, and through these holy ties to
refine and exalt his nature. Such is the distinction of
a man. But slavery violates the sanctity of home. It
makes the young woman property, and gives her no
protection from licentiousness. It either disallows mar-
riage, or makes it a vain show. It sunders husband and
wife, sells them into distant regions, and then compels
them to break the sacred tie, and contract new alliances,
in order to stock the plantation with human slaves.
Scripture and nature say, "What God hath joined, let
not man put asunder " ; but slavery scorns God's voice
in his Word and in the human heart. Even the Chris-
tian church dares not remonstrate against the wrong, but
sanctions it, and encourages the poor ignorant slave to

EMANCIPATION IN THE BRITISH WEST-INDIES. 386

form a new, adulterous connexion, that he may minister
to his master's gain. The slave-holder enters the hut
of his bondsman to do the work which belongs only to
death, and to do it with nothing of the consolatory,
healing influences which Christianity sheds round death.
He goes to tear the wife from the husband, the child
from the mother, to exile them from one another, and
to convey them to unknown masters. Is this to see a
man in a slave ? Is not this to place him beneath hu-
manity .''

Again, it is the right, privilege, and distinction of a
INIan, not only to be connected with a family, but with
his race. He is made for free communion with his
fellow-creatures. One of the sorest evils of life is, to
be cut off from the mass of men, from the social body ;
to be treated by the multitude of our fellow-creatures
as outcasts, as Parias, as a fallen race, unworthy to be
approached, unworthy of the deference due to men ; and
this infinite wrong is done to the slave. A slave ! that
names severs all his ties except with beings as degraded
as himself. He has no country, no pride or love of na-
tion, no sympathy with the weal or woe of the land
which gave him birth, no joy in its triumphs, no gener-
ous sorrow for its humiliation, no feeling of that strong
unity with those around him which common laws, a
common government, and a common history create.
He is not allowed to go forth, as other men are, and to
connect himself with strangers, to form new aUiances
by means of trade, business, conversation. Society is
everywhere barred against him. An iron wall forbids
his access to his race. The miscellaneous intercourse
of man with man, which strengthens the feeling of our
common humanity, and perhaps does more than all

VOL. VI. 33

386 ADDRESS ON THE ANNIVERSAHY OF

things to enlarge the intellect, is denied him. The
world is nothing to him ; he does not hear of it. The
plantation is his world. To him the universe is nar-
rowed down almost wholly to the hui where he sleeps,
and the fields where he sweats for another's gain. Be-
yond these he must not step without leave ; and even if
allowed to wander, who has a respectful look or word
for the slave ? In that name he carries with him an at-
mosphere of repulsion. It drives men from him as if
he were a leper. However gifted by God, however
thirsting for some higher use of his powers, he must
hope for no friend beyond the ignorant, half-brutalized
caste with which bondage has united him. To him
there is no race, as there is no country. In truth, so
fallen is he beneath sympathy that multitudes will smile
at hearing him compassionated for being bereft of these
ties. Still, he suffers great wrong. Just in proportion
as you sever a man from his country and race he ceases
to be a man. The rudest savage, who has a tribe with
which he sympathizes, and for which he is ready to die,
is far exalted above the slave. How much more exalt-
ed is the poorest freeman in a civilized land, who feels
his relation to a wide community ; who lives under
equal laws to which the greatest bow ; whose social ties
change and enlarge with the vicissitudes of life ; whose
mind and heart are open to the quickening, stirring in-
fluences of this various world ! Poor slave ! humani-
ty's outcast and orphan ! to whom no door is open, but
that of the naked hut of thy degraded caste ! Art
thou indeed a man .'' Dost thou belong to the human
brotherhood .'' What is thy whole life but continued in-
sult ? Thou meetest no look which does not express
thy hopeless exclusion from human sympathies. Thou

EMANCIPATION IN THE BRITISH WEST-INDIES. 387

mayest, indeed, be pitied in sickness and pain; and so is
the animal. The deference due to a man, and which
keeps alive a man's spirit, is unknown to thee. The
intercourse which makes the humblest individual in oth-
er spheres partaker more or less in the improvements of
his race, thou must never hope for. May I not say,
then, that nothing extinguishes humanity like slavery .''

In reply to these and other representations of the
wrongs and evils of this institution, we are told that
slaves are well fed, well clothed, at least better than the
peasantry and operatives in many other countries ; and
this is gravely adduced as a vindication of slavery. A
man capable of offering it ought, if any one ought, to
be reduced to bondage. A man who thinks food and
raiment a compensation for liberty, who would counsel
men to sell themselves, to become property, to give up
all rights and power over themselves, for a daily mess
of pottage, however savory, is a slave in heart. He
has lost the spirit of a man ; and would be less wronged
than other men, if a slave's collar were welded round
his neck.

The domestic slave is well fed, we are told, and so
are the domestic animals. A nobleman's horse in Eng-
land is better lodged and more pampered than the oper-
atives in Manchester. The grain which the horse con-
sumes might support a starving family. How sleek and
shining his coat ! How gay and rich his caparison !
But why is he thus curried, and pampered, and bedeck-
ed .'' To be bitted and curbed ; and then to be mount-
ed by his master, who arms himself with whip and spur
to put the -animal to his speed ; and if any accident mar
his strength or swiftness, he is sold from his luxuriant
stall to be flayed, overworked, and hastened out of hfe

388 ADDRESS ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF

by the merciless drayman. Suppose the nobleman
should say to the half-starved, ragged operative of
Manchester, " I will give up my horse, and feed and
clothe you with like sumptuousness, on condition that I
may mount you daily with lash and spurs, and sell you
when I can make a profitable bargain." Would you
have the operative, for the sake of good fare and clothes,
take the lot of the brute ? or, in other words, become a
slave ? What reply would the heart of an Old-England
or New-England laborer make to such a proposal .'' And
yet, if there be any soundness in the argument drawn
from the slave's comforts, he ought to accept it thank-
fully and greedily.

Such arguments for slavery are insults. The man
capable of using them ought to be rebuked as mean in
spirit, hard of heart, and wanting all true sympathy with
his race. I might reply, if I thought fit, to this ac-
count of the slave's blessings, that there is nothing very
enviable in his food and wardrobe, that his comforts
make no approach to those of the nobleman's horse,
and that a laborer of New-England would prefer the
fare of many an almshouse at home. But I cannot
stoop to such reasoning. Be the comforts of the slave
what they may, they are no compensation for the degra-
dation, insolence, indignities, ignorance, servility, scars,
and violations of domestic rights to which he is exposed.

I have spoken of what seems to me the grand evil of
slavery, — the outrage it ofi:ers to human nature. It
would be easy to enlarge on other fatal tendencies and
effects of this institution. But I forbear, not only for
want of time, but because I feel no need of- a minute
exposition of its wrongs and miseries to make it odious.
I cannot endure to go through a labored proof of its

EMANCIPATION IN THE BRITISH WEST-INDIES. 389

iniquitous and injurious nature. No man wants such
proof. He carries the evidence in his own heart. I need
nothing but the most general view of slavery, to move
my indignation towards it. I am more and more accus-
tomed to throw out of sight its particular evils, its details
of wrong and suffering, and to see in it simply an institu-
tion which deprives men of freedom ; and when I thus
view it, I am taught immediately, by an unerring instinct,
that slavery is an intolerable wrong. Nature cries aloud
for freedom as our proper good, our birthright and our
end, and resents nothing so much as its loss. It is true
that we are placed at first in subjection to others' wills,
and spend childhood and youth under restraint. But we
are governed at first that we may learn to govern our-
selves ; we begin with leading-strings that we may learn to
go alone. The discipline of the parent is designed to train
up his children to act for themselves, and from a princi-
ple of duty in their own breasts. The child is not sub-
jected to his father to be a slave, but to grow up to the
energy, responsibility, relations, and authority of a man.
Freedom, courage, moral force, efficiency, indepen-
dence, the large, generous action of the soul, these are
the blessings in store for us, the grand ends to which the
restraints of education, of family, of school, and college
are directed. Nature knows no such thing as a perpetual
yoke. Nature bends no head to the dust, to look for
ever downward. Nature makes no man a chattel. Na-
ture has implanted in all souls the thirst, the passion for
liberty. Nature stirs the heart of the child, and prompts
it to throw out its little limbs in restlessness and joy, and
to struggle against restraint. Nature impels the youth to
leap, to run, to put forth all his powers, to look with
impatience on prescribed bounds, to climb the steep, to

390 ADDRESS ON THE ANNIVERSAKY OF

dive into the ocean, to court danger, to spread himself
through the new world which he was born to inherit.
Nature's life, nature's impulse, nature's joy is Freedom.
A greater violence to nature cannot be conceived than
to rob man of liberty.

What is the end and essence of life ? It is, to ex-
pand all our faculties and affections. It is, to grow, to
gain by exercise new energy, new intellect, new love.
It is, to hope, to strive, to bring out what is within us,
to press towards what is above us. In other words, it
is, to be Free. Slavery is thus at war with the true
life of human nature. Undoubtedly there is a power in
the soul which the loss of freedom cannot always subdue.
There have been men doomed to perpetual bondage who
have still thought and felt nobly, looked up to God with
trust, and learned by experience that even bondage, like
all other evils, may be made the occasion of high virtue.
But these are exceptions. In the main, our nature is
too weak to grow under the weight of chains.

To illustrate the supreme importance of Freedom, I
would offer a remark which may sound like a paradox,
but will be found to be true. It is this, that even Des-
potism is endurable only because it bestows a degree of
freedom. Despotism, bad as it is, supplants a greater
evil, and that is anarchy ; and anarchy is worse, chiefly
because it is more enslaving. In anarchy all restraint is
plucked from the strong, who make a prey of the weak ;
subduing them by terror, seizing on their property, and
treading every right under foot. When the laws are
prostrated, arbitrary, passionate, lawless will, the will
of the strongest, exasperated by opposition, must pre-
vail ; and under this the rights of person as well as prop-
erty are cast down, and a palsying fear imposes on men's

EMANCIPATION IN THE BRITISH WEST-INDIES. 391

spirits a heavier chain than was ever forged by an organ-
ized despotism. In the whole history of tyranny in
France, hberty was never so crushed as in the Reign of
Terror in the Revolution, when mobs and lawless com-
binations usurped the power of the state. A despot, to
be safe, must establish a degree of order, and this im-
plies laws, tribunals, and some administration of justice,
however rude ; and still more, he has an interest in pro-
tecting industry and property to some degree, in order
that he may extort the more from his people's earnings
under the name of revenue. Thus despotism is an
advance towards liberty ; and in this its strength very
much lies ; for the people have a secret consciousness
that their rights suffer less under one than under many
tyrants, under an organized absolutism than under wild,
lawless, passionate force ; and on this conviction, as
truly as on armies, rests the despot's throne. Thus
freedom and rights are ever cherished goods of human
nature. Man keeps them in sight even when most
crushed ; and just in proportion as civilization and intel-
ligence advance he secures them more and more. This
is infallibly true notwithstanding opposite appearances.
The old forms of despotism may, indeed, continue in a
progressive civihzation, but their force declines ; and
pubUc opinion, the will of the community, silently estab-
lishes a sway over what seems and is denominated abso-
lute power. We have a striking example of this truth
in Prussia, where the king seems unchecked, but where
a code of wise and equal laws insures to every man his
rights to a degree experienced in few other countries,
and where the administration of justice cannot safely be
obstructed by the will of the sovereign. Thus freedom,
man's dearest birthright, is the good towards which civil

392 ADDRESS ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF

institutions tend. It is at once the sign and the means,
the cause and the effect of human progress. It exists in
a measure under tyrannical governments, and gives them
their strength. Nowhere is it wholly broken down but
under domestic slavery. Under this, man is made
Property. Here lies the damning taint, the accursed,
blighting power, the infinite evil of bondage.

On this day, four years ago, eight hundred thousand
human beings were set free from the terrible evil of
which I have given a faint sketch. Eight hundred thou-
sand of our brethren, who had lived in darkness and the
shadow of death, were visited with the light of liberty.
Instead of the tones of absolute, debasing command, a
new voice broke on their ears, calling them to come
forth to be free. They were undoubtedly too rude, too
ignorant, to comprehend the greatness of the blessing
conferred on them this day. Freedom to them undoubt-
edly seemed much what it is not. Children in intellect,
they seized on it as a child on a holyday. But slavery
had not wholly stifled in them the instincts, feelings,
judgments of men. They felt on this day that the whip
of the brutal overseer was broken ; and was that no
cause for exulting joy ? They felt that wife and child
could no longer be insulted or scourged in their sight,
and they be denied the privilege of lifting up a voice
in their behalf. Was that no boon ? They felt that
henceforth they were to work from their own wills,
for their own good, that they might earn perhaps a
hut, which they might call their own, and which the
foot of a master could not profane, nor a master's in-
terest lay waste. Can you not conceive how they
stretched out their limbs, and looked on them with a
new joy, saying, " These are our own" ? Can you not

EMANCIPATION IN THE BRITISH WEST-INDIES. 393

conceive how they leaped with a new animation, exult-
ing to put forth powers which were from that day to be
"their own" ? Can you not conceive how they looked
round them on the fields and hills, and said to them-
selves, "We can go now where we will"? and how
they continued to live in their huts with new content,
because they could leave them if they would ? Can you
not conceive how dim ideas of a better lot dawned on
their long-dormant minds ; how the future, once a blank,
began to brighten before them ; how hope began to
spread her unused pinions ; how the faculties and feel-
ings of men came to a new birth within them ? The
father and mother took their child to their arms and said,
" Nobody can sell you from us now." Was not that
enough to give them a new life ? The husband and wife
began to feel that there was an inviolable sanctity in
marriage ; and a glimpse, however faint, of a moral,
spiritual bond began to take place of the loose sensual
tie which had held them together. Still more, and what
deserves special note, the colored man raised his eyes
on this day to the white man, and saw the infinite chasm
between himself and the white race growing narrower ;
saw and felt that he, too, was a Man ; that he, too, had
rights ; that he belonged to the common Father, not to
a frail, selfish creature ; that, under God, he was his
own master. A rude feeling of dignity, in strange con-
trast with the abjectness of the slave, gave new courage
to that look, gave a firmer tone, a manlier tread. This,
had I been there, would have interested me especially.
The tumult of joyful feeling bursting forth in the broken
language which slavery had taught I should have sympa-
thized with. But the sight of the slave rising into a man,
looking on the white race with a steady eye, with the

394 ADDRESS ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF

secret consciousness of a common nature, and beginning
to comprehend his heaven-descended, inalienable rights,
would have been the crowning joy.

It was natural to expect that the slaves, on the first
of August, receiving the vast, incomprehensible gift of
freedom, would have rushed into excess. It would
not have surprised me, had I heard of intemperance,
tumult, violence. Liberty, that mighty boon, for which
nations have shed rivers of their best blood, for which
they have toiled and suffered for years, perhaps for ages,
was given to these poor, ignorant creatures in a day, and
given to them after lives of cruel bondage, immeasura-
bly more cruel than any political oppression. Wouldit
have been wonderful, if they had been intoxicated by the
sudden, vast transition .'' if they had put to shame the
authors of their freedom by an immediate abuse of it .''
Happily, the poor negroes had enjoyed one privilege in
their bondage. They had learned something of Chris-
tianity ; very little indeed, yet enough to teach them that
liberty was the gift of God. That mighty power, re-
ligion, had begun a work within them. The African
nature seems singularly susceptible of this principle.
Benevolent missionaries, whom the anti-slavery spirit of
England had sent into the colonies, had for some time
been working on the degraded minds of the bondmen,
and not wholly in vain. The slaves, whilst denied the
rank of men by their race, had caught the idea of their
relation to the Infinite Father. That great doctrine of
the Universal, Impartial Love of God, embracing the
most obscure, dishonored, oppressed, had dawned on
them. Their new freedom thus became associated with
religion, the mightiest principle on earth, and by this it
was not merely saved from excess, but made the spring
of immediate elevation.

EMANCIPATION IN THE BRITISH WEST-INDIES. 395

Little did I imagine that the emancipation of the
slaves was to be invested with holiness and moral sub-
limity. Little did I expect that my heart was to be
touched by it as by few events in history. But the
emotions with which I first read the narrative of the great
gift of liberty in Antigua are still fresh in my mind. Let
me read to you the story ; none, I think, can hear it
unmoved. It is the testimony of trustworthy men, who
visited the West Indies to observe the effects of eman-
cipation.

"To convey to the reader some account of the way ia
which the great crisis passed, we here give the substance
of several accounts which were related to us in different
parts of the island by those who witnessed them.

" The Wesleyans kept ' watch-night ' in all their chap-
els on the night of the 31st July. One of the Wesleyan
missionaries gave us an account of the watch-meeting at
the chapel in St. John's. The spacious house was filled
with the candidates for liberty. All was animation and
eagerness. A mighty chorus of voices swelled the song
of expectation and joy ; and as they united in prayer, the
voice of the leader was drowned in the universal acclama-
tion of thanksgiving, and praise, and blessing, and honor,
and glory to God, who had come down for their deliver-
ance. In such exercises the evening was spent until the
hour of twelve approached. The missionary then pro-
posed, that, when the clock on the cathedral should begin
to strike, the whole congregation should fall upon their
knees, and receive the boon of freedom in silence. Ac-
cordingly, as the loud bell tolled its first note, the im-
mense assembly fell prostrate on their knees. All was
silence, save the quivering, half-stifled breath of the strug-
gling spirit. The slow notes of the clock fell upon the
multitude ; peal on peal, peal on peal, rolled over the pros-
trate throng, in tones of angels' voices, thrilling among
the desolate chords and weary heart-strings. Scarce had
the clock sounded its last note, when the lightning flashed
vividly around, and a loud peal of thunder roared along
the sky, — God's pillar of fire, and trump of jubilee ! A
moment of profoundest silence passed, — then came the

396 ADDRESS ON THE ANNIVERSABY OF

burst, — they broke forth in prayer; they shouted, they
sung, 'Glory!' 'Alleluia!' they clapped their hands,
leaped up, fell down, clasped each other in their free
arms, cried, laughed, and went to and ft-o, tossing upward
their unfettered hands ; but high above the whole there
was a mighty sound which ever and anon swelled up ; it
was the utterings, in broken Negro dialect, of gratitude to
God.

" After this gush of excitement had spent itself, and the
congregation became calm, the religious exercises were
resumed, and the remainder of the night was occupied in
singing and prayer, in reading the Bible, and in addresses
from the missionaries, explaining the nature of the free-
doln just received, and exhorting the free people to be in-
dustrious, steady, obedient to the laws, and to show them-
selves in all things worthy of the high boon which God had
conferred upon them.

"The first of August came on Friday, and a release
was proclaimed from all work until the next Monday.
The day was chiefly spent, by the great mass of negroes,
in the churches and chapels. Thither they flocked in
clouds, and as doves to their windows. The clergy and
missionaries throughout the island were actively engaged,
seizing the opportunity in order to enlighten the people
on all the duties and responsibilities of their new situa-
tion, and, above all, urging them to the attainment of that
higher liberty with which Christ maketh his children free.
In every quarter we were assured that the day was like a
Sabbath. Work had ceased ; the hum of business was
still ; and noise and tumult were unheard in the streets.
Tranquillity pervaded the towns and country. A Sabbath
indeed ! when the wicked ceased from troubling, and the
weary were at rest, and the slave was freed from the mas-
ter ! The planters informed us that they went to the
chapels where their own people were assembled, greeted
them, shook hands with them, and exchanged most hearty
good wishes."*

Such is the power of true religion on the rudest minds.
Such the deep fountain of feeling in the African soul.

* Sec " Emancipation in the West Indies," by Thome and Kimball.

EMANCIPATION IN THE BRITISH WEST-INDIES. 397

Such the race of men whom we are trampHng in the
dust. How few of our assembhes, with all our intelli-
gence and refinement, offer to God this overflowing
gratitude, this profound, tender, rapturous homage !
True, the slaves poured out their joy with a child-like
violence ; but we see a childhood full of promise. And
why do we place this race beneath us ? Because nature
has burnt on them a darker hue. But does the essence
of humanity live in color ? Is the black man less a
man than the white ? Has he not human powers, hu-
man rights ? Does his color reach to his soul ? Is
reason in him a whit blacker than in us .'* Have his
conscience and affections been dipped in an inky flood ?
To the eye of God are his pure thoughts and kind feel-
ings less fair than our own .'* We are apt to think this
prejudice of color founded in nature. But in the most
enlightened countries in Europe the man of African de-
scent is received into the society of the great and good
as an equal and friend. It is here only that this preju-
dice reigns ; and to this prejudice, strengthened by our
subjection to Southern influence, must be ascribed our
indifference to the progress of liberty in the West In-
dies. Ought not the emancipation of nearly a million
of human beings, so capable of progress as the African
race, to have sent a thrill of joy through a nation of
freemen ? But this great event was received in our
country with indifference. Humanity, justice, Christian
sympathy, the love of liberty, found but few voices here.
Nearly a million of men, at no great distance from our
land, passed from the most degrading bondage into the
ranks of freedom with hardly a welcome from these
shores.

Perhaps you will say, that we are bound to wait for

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398 ADDRESS ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF

the fruits of emancipation, before we celebrate it as a
great event in history. I think not so. We ought to
rejoice immediately, without delay, whenever an act of
justice is done, especially a grand public act, subverting
the oppression of ages. We ought to triumph, when
tlie right prospers, without waiting for consequences.
We ought not to doubt about consequences, when men,
in obedience to conscience, and in the exercise of their
best wisdom, redress a mighty wrong. If God reigns,
then the subversion of a vast crime, then the breaking
of an unrighteous yoke, must in its final results be good.
Undoubtedly an old abuse which has sent its roots
through society cannot be removed without inconven-
ience or suffering. Indeed, no great social change,
however beneficial, can occur without partial, temporary
pain. But must abuses be sheltered without end, and
human progress given up in despair, because some who
have fattened on wrongs will cease to prosper at the
expense of their brethren ? Undoubtedly slavery can-
not be broken up without deranging in a measure the old
social order. Must, therefore, slavery be perpetual .''
Has the Creator laid on any portion of his children the
necessity of everlasting bondage .'' Must wrong know
no end ? Has oppression a charter from God, which
is never to grow old ? What a libel on God, as well
as on man, is the supposition, that society cannot sub-
sist without perpetuatmg the degradation of a large por-
tion of the race ! Is this indeed the law of the creation,
that multitudes must be oppressed ? that states can sub-
sist and prosper only through crime .'' Then there is no
God. Then an Evil Spirit reigns over the universe.
It is an impious error, to believe that injustice is a ne-
cessity under the government of the Most High. It is

EMANCIPATION IN THE BRITISH WEST-INDIES. 399

disloyalty to principle, treachery to virtue, to suppose that
a righteous, generous work, conceived in a sense of duty,
and carried on with deliberate forethought, can issue in
misery, in ruin. To this want of faith in rectitude society
owes its woes, owes the licensed frauds and crimes of
statesmen, the licensed frauds of trade, the continuance
of slavery. Once let men put faith in rectitude, let
them feel that justice is strength, that disinterestedness
is a sun and a shield, that selfishness and crime are
weak and miserable, and the face of the earth would be
changed, the groans of ages would cease. We ought
to shout for joy, not shrink like cowards, when justice
and humanity triumph over established wrongs.

The emancipation of the British Islands ought, then,
to have called forth acclamation at its birth. Much
more should we rejoice in it now, when time has taught
us the folly of the fears and the suspicions which it
awakened, and taught us the safety of doing right.
Emancipation has worked well. By this I do not mean
that it has worked miracles. I have no glowing pictures
to exhibit to you of the West-Indian Islands. An Act
of the British parliament declaring them free has not
changed them into a paradise. A few strokes of the
pen cannot reverse the laws of nature, or conquer the
almost omnipotent power of early and long continued
habit. Even in this country, where we breathe the air
of freedom from our birth, and where we have grown
up amidst churches and school-houses and under wise
and equal laws, even here we find no paradise. Here
are crime and poverty and woe ; and can you expect a
poor ignorant race, born to bondage, scarred with the
lash, uneducated, and unused to all the motives which
stimulate industry, can you expect these to unlearn in a

400 ADDRESS ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF

day the lessons of years, and to furnish all at once
themes for eloquent description ? Were you to visit
those islands, you would find a slovenly agriculture,
much ignorance, and more sloth than you see at home ;
and yet emancipation works well, far better than could
have been anticipated. To me it could hardly have
worked otherwise than well. It banished slavery, that
wrong and curse not to be borne. It gave freedom,
the dear birthright of humanity ; and had it done noth-
ing more, I should have found in it cause for joy.
Freedom, simple freedom, is " in my estimation just,
far prized above all price." I do not stop to ask if the
emancipated are better fed and clothed than formerly.
They are Free ; and that one word contains a world of
good, unknown to the most pampered slave.

But emancipation has brought more than naked lib-
erty. The emancipated are making progress in intelli-
gence, comforts, purity ; and progress is the great good
of life. No matter where men are at any given moment;
the great question about them is. Are they going for-
ward ? do they improve ? Slavery was immovable,
hopeless degradation. It is the glory of liberty to favor
progress, and this great blessing emancipation has be-
stowed. We were told, indeed, that emancipation was
to turn the green islands of the West Indies into deserts ;
but they still rise from the tropical sea as blooming and
verdant as before. We were told that the slaves, if
set free, would break out in universal massacre ; but
since that event not a report has reached us of murder
perpetrated by a colored man on the white population.
We were told that crimes would multiply ; but they
are diminished in every emancipated island, and very
greatly in most. We were told that the freed slave

EMANCIPATION IN THE BRITISH WESI-INDIES. 401

would abandon himself to idleness ; and this I did an-
ticipate, to a considerable degree, as the first result.
Men on whom industry had been forced by the lash, and
who had been taught to regard sloth as their master's
chief good, were strongly tempted to surrender the first
days of freedom to indolent indulgence. But in this
respect the evil has been so small as to fill a reflecting
man with admiration. In truth, no race but the African
could have made the great transition with so little harm
to themselves and others. In general, they resumed
their work after a short burst of joy. The desire of
property, of bettering their lot, at once sprang up within
them in sufficient strength to counterbalance the love of
ease. Some of them have become proprietors of the
soil. New villages have grown up under their hands ;
their huts are more comfortable ; their dress more de-
cent, sometimes too expensive. When I tell you that
the price of real estate in these islands has risen, and
that the imports from the mother country, especially
those for the laborer's use, have increased, you will
judge whether the liberated slaves are living as drones.
Undoubtedly the planter has sometimes wanted work-
men, and the staple product of the islands, sugar, has
decreased. But this can be explained without much
reproach to the emancipated. The laborer, who in
slavery was over-tasked in the cane-field and sugar-mill,
is anxious to buy or hire land sufficient for his support,
and to work for himself, instead of hiring himself to
another. A planter from British Guiana informed me,
a few weeks ago, that a company of colored men had
paid down seventy thousand dollars for a tract of land
in the most valuable part of that colony. It is not
sloth, so much as a spirit of manly independence, which
34*

402 ADDRESS ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF

has withdrawn the laborer from the plantation ; and this
evil, if so it must be called, has been increased by his
unwillingness to subject his wife and daughter to the
toils of the field which ihey used to bear in the days
of Slavery. Undoubtedly the colored population might
do more, but they do enough to earn a better lot than
they ever enjoyed, and the work of improvement goes
on among them.

I pass to a still brighter view. The spirit of educa-
tion has sprung up among the people to an extent
worthy of admiration. We despise them ; and yet
there is reason to believe that a more general desire
to educate their children is to be found among them
than exists among large portions of the white population
in the Slave States of the South. They have learned
that their ignorance is the great barrier between them
and the white men, and this they are in earnest to pros-
trate. It has been stated, that, in one island, not a
child above ten years of age was unable to read. Hu-
man history probably furnishes no parallel of an equal
progress in a half-civilized community.

To this must be added their interest in religious in-
stitutions. Their expenditures for the support of these
are such as should put to shame the backwardness
of multitudes in countries calling themselves civilized.
They do more than we, in proportion to their means.
Some of them have even subscribed funds for the dif-
fusion of the gospel in Africa, an instance of their zeal,
rather than their wisdom ; for they undoubtedly need all
they can spare for their own instruction. Their con-
ceptions of religion are, of course, narrow and rude, but
their hearts have been touched by its simpler truths ;
and love is the key to higher knowledge. To this let

EMANCIPATION IN THE BRITISH WEST-INDIES. 403

me add, that marriage is acquiring sanctity in their eyes,
that domestic life is putting on a new refinement, and
you will see that this people have all the elements of
social progress. Property, marriage, and religion have
been called the pillars of society, and of these the lib-
erated slave has learned the value.

The result of all these various improvements is what
every wise friend of humanity must rejoice in. Their
social position is changed. They have taken rank
among men. They are no longer degraded by being
looked on as degraded. They no longer live under that
withering curse, the contempt of their fellow-beings.
The tone in which they are spoken to no longer ex-
presses their infinite and hopeless depression. They
are treated as men ; some of them engage in lucrative
pursuits ; all the paths of honor as well as of gain are
open to them ; they are found in the legislatures ; they
fill civil offices ; they have military appointments ; and
in all these conditions acquit themselves honorably.
Their humanity is recognized ; and without this recogni-
tion men pine and had better be left to perish.

I have no thought of painting these islands as Edens.
That great ignorance prevails among the emancipated
people, that they want our energy, that the degradation
of slavery has not vanished all at once with the name,
this T need not tell you. No miracle has been wrought
on them. But their present lot, compared with slavery,
is an immense good ; and when we consider that as yet
we have seen comparatively nothing of the blessed in-
fluences of freedom, we ought to thank God with some-
thing of their own fervor for the vast deliverance which
he hath vouchsafed them.

We commemorate with transport the redemption of a

404 ADDRESS ON THE ANNIVEKSARY OF

nation from political bondage ; but this is a light burden
compared with personal slavery. The oppression which
these United States threw off by our revolutionary
struggle was the perfection of freedom, when placed by
the side of the galling, crushing, intolerable yoke which
bowed the African to the dust. Thank God, it is brok-
en ! Thank God, our most injured brethren have risen
to the rank of men ! Thank God, eight hundred thou-
sand human beings have been made free !

These are the natural topics suggested by this day ;
but there are still higher views, to which I invite your
attention. There are other grounds on which this first
of August should be hailed with gratitude by the Chris-
tian. If I saw in the Emancipation which we celebrate
only the redemption of eight hundred thousand fellow-
creatures from the greatest wrong on earth, I should, in-
deed, rejoice ; but I know not that I should commemo-
rate it by public solemnities. This particular result
moves me less than other views, which, though less ob-
vious, are far more significant and full of promise.

When I look at West-Indian emancipation, what
strikes me most forcibly and most joyfully is, the spirit
in which it had its origin. What broke the slaves'
chain ? Did a foreign invader summon them to his
standard, and reward them with freedom for their help
in conquering their masters ? Or did they owe liberty
to their own exasperated valor ; to courage maddened
by despair ; to massacre and unsparing revenge ? Or
did calculations of the superior profit of free labor per-
suade the owner to emancipation, as a means of supe-
rior gain .'' No ! West-Indian emancipation was the
fruit of Christian principle acting on the mind and heart

EMANCIPATION IN THE BRITISH WEST-INDIES. 405

of a great people. The liberator of those slaves was
Jesus Christ. That voice which rebuked disease and
death, and set their victims free, broke the heavier chain
of slavery. The conflict against slavery began in Eng-
land about fifty years ago. It began with Christians.
It was at its birth a Christian enterprise. Its power was
in the consciences and generous sympathy of men who
had been trained in the school of Christ. It was re-
sisted by prejudice, custom, interest, opulence, pride,
and the civil power. Almost the whole weight of the
commercial class was at first thrown into the opposite
scale. The politician dreaded the effects of abolition
on the wealth and revenue of the nation. The king did
not disguise his hostility ; and I need not tell you that it
found httle favor with the aristocracy. The titled and
proud are not the first to sympathize with the abject.
The cause had nothing to rely on but the spirit of the
EngHsh people ; and that people did respond to the
reasonings, pleadings, rebukes of Christian philanthropy
as nation never did before. The history of this warfare
cannot be read without seeing, that, once at least, a
great nation was swayed by high and disinterested prin-
ciples. Men of the world deride the notion of influenc-
ing human affairs by any but selfish motives ; and it is a
melancholy truth, that the movements of nations have
done much to confirm the darkest views of human na-
ture. What a track of crime, desolation, war, we are
called by history to travel over ! Still, history is light-
ed up by great names, by noble deeds, by patriots and
martyrs ; and especially in Emancipation we see a great
nation putting forth its power and making great sacrifices
for a distant, degraded race of men, who had no claims
but those of wronged and suffering humanity. Some,

406 ADDRESS ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF

and not a few, have blamed, as superfluous, the com-^
pensation given by England to the planter for the slaves.
On one account I rejoice at it. It is a testimony to the
disinterested motives of the nation. A people groaning
under a debt which would crush any other people bor-
rowed twenty million pounds sterling, a hundred million
of dollars, and paid it as the price of the slaves' free-
dom. This act stands alone in the page of history ; and
Emancipation having such an origin deserves to be sin-
gled out for public commemoration.

What gave peculiar interest to this act was the fallen,
abject state of the people on whom freedom was con-
ferred at such a cost. They were not Englishmen.
They had no claim founded on common descent, on
common history, or any national bond. . There was
nothing in their lot to excite the imagination. They
had done nothing to draw regard. They weighed noth-
ing in human affairs. They belonged to no nation.
They were hardly recognized as men. Humanity could
hardly wear a more abject form. But under all this
abjectness, under that black skiti, under those scars of
the lash, under those half naked bodies put up to auc-
tion and sold as cattle, the people of England saw the
lineaments of humanity, saw^ fellow-creatures, saw the
capacities and rights and immortal destinies of men, and
in the spirit of brotherhood, and from reverence for hu-
manity, broke their chains.

When I look at this act, I do not stop at its immedi-
ate results, at the emancipation of eight hundred thou-
sand human beings, nor do I look at the act as standing
alone. 1 look at the spirit from which it sprung, and
see here a grand and most cheering foundation of hu-
man hope. I see that Christianity has not come into

EMANCIPATION IN THE BRITISH WEST-INDIES. 407

the world in vain. I see that the blood of the cross
was not shed in vain. I see that the prophecies in the
Scriptures of a mighty change in human affairs were not
idle words. It is true that Christianity has done little,
compared with these predictions. The corruptions of
our age who is so blind as not to see .'' But that a new
principle, derived from Christianity and destined to ren-
ovate the earth, is at work among these various ele-
ments ; that, silently, a new spirit of humanity, a new
respect for human nature, a new comprehension of hu-
man rights, a new feeling of brotherhood, and new ideas
of a higher social state, have been and are unfolding
themselves under the influences of Christian truth and
Christian civilization, who can deny .'' Society is not
what it once was. Amidst all the stir of selfish pas-
sion, the still voice of Christianity is heard ; a diviner
spirit mixes, however imperfectly, with the workings of
worldliness ; and we are beginning to learn the mighty
revolution which a heavenly faith is to accomplish here
on earth.

Christianity is the hope of the world, and we ought
to regard every conspicuous manifestation of its spirit
and power as an era in human history. We are daz-
zled by revolutions of empires ; we hope much from
the rise or fall of governments. But nothing but Chris-
tianity can regenerate the earth ; and accordingly we
should hail with joy every sign of a clearer comprehen-
si9n and a deeper feeling of its truths. Christianity,
truly understood, has a direct tendency to that renova-
tion of the world which it foretells. It is not an ab-
stract system, secluding the disciple from his kind ; but
it makes him one with his race, breaks down all barriers
between him and his brethren, arms him with a martyr's

4ld6 ADDRESS ON THE ANNIVERSAKY OF

spirit in the cause of humanity, sends him forth to be a
saviour of the lost; and just as far as Christianity is
thus viewed and felt by its followers the redemption of
the world draws nigh. These views of religion are
making their way. They dawn upon us, not only in
Emancipation, but in many other movements of our
age ; not that they have ever been wholly obscured ;
but the rank which they hold in the Christian system,
and the vast social changes which they involve, have
not, until the present day, been dreamed of.

All the doctrines of Christianity are more and more
seen to be bonds of close, spiritual, reverential union
between man and man ; and this is the most cheering
view of our time. Christianity is a revelation of the
infinite, universal, parental love of God towards his hu-
mati family, comprehending the most sinful, descending
to the most fallen, and its aim is, to breathe the same
love into its disciples. It shows us Christ tasting death
for every man, and it summons us to take his cross, or
to participate of his sufferings, in the same cause. Its
doctrine of Immortality gives infinite worth to every hu-
man being ; for every one is destined to this endless
life. The doctrine of the " Word made flesh " shows
us God uniting himself most intimately with our nature,
manifesting himself in a human form, for the very end
of making us partakers of his own perfection. The
doctrine of Grace, as it is termed, reveals the Infinite
Father imparting his Holy Spirit, the best gift he can
impart, to the humblest human being who implores it.
Thus love and reverence for human nature, a love for
man stronger than death, is the very spirit of Christian-
ity. Undoubtedly this spirit is faintly comprehended by
the best of us. Some of its most striking expressions

EMANCIPATION IN THE BRITISH WEST-INDIES. 409

are still derided in society. Society still rests on self-
ish principles. Men sympathize still with the prosper-
ous and great, not the abject and down-trodden. But
amidst this degradation brighter glimpses of Christianity
are caught than before. There are deeper, wider sym-
pathies with mankind. The idea of raising up the mass
of human beings to intellectual, moral, and spiritual dig-
nity is penetrating many minds. Among the signs of a
brighter day perhaps the West-Indian emancipation is
the most conspicuous ; for in this the rights of the most
despised men have been revered.

There are some among us at the present moment who
are waiting for the speedy coming of Christ. They ex-
pect, before another year closes, to see him in the
clouds, to hear his voice, to stand before his judgment-
seat. These illusions spring from misinterpretation of
Scripture language. Christ in the New Testament is
said to come, whenever his rehgion breaks out in new
glory, or gains new triumphs. He came in the Holy
Spirit on the day of Pentecost. He came in the de-
struction of Jerusalem, which, by subverting the old
ritual law, and breaking the power of the worst ene-
mies of his religion, insured to it new victories. He
came in the Reformation of the church. He came on
this day four years ago, when, through his religion, eight
hundred thousand men were raised from the lowest deg-
radation, to the rights, and dignity, and fellowship of
men. Christ's outward appearance is of little mom.ent,
compared with the brighter manifestation of his spirit.
The Christian, whose inward eyes and ears are touched
by God, discerns the coming of Christ, hears the sound
of his chariot-wheels and the voice of his trumpet, when
no other perceives them. He discerns the Saviour's

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410 ADDRESS ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF

advent in the dawning of higher truth on the world, in
new aspirations of the church after perfection, in the
prostration of prejudice and error, in brighter expres-
sions of Christian love, in more enlightened and intense
consecration of the Christian to the cause of humanity,
freedom, and religion. Christ comes in the conversion,
the regeneration, the emancipation of the world.

You here see why it is that I rejoice in the great
event which this day commemorates. To me this event
does not stand alone. It is a sign of the triumph of
Christianity, and a presage and herald of grander victo-
ries of truth and humanity. Christianity did not do its
last work when it broke the slave's chain. No ; this
was but a type of what it is to achieve. Since the Af-
rican was emancipated the drunkard has been set free.
We may count the disenthralled from intemperance by
hundreds of thousands, almost by millions, and this
work has been achieved by Christian truth and Chris-
tian love. In this we have a new proof of the coming
of Christ in his kingdom ; and the grand result of these
and other kindred movements of our times should be to
give us a new faith in what Christianity is to accom-
plish. We need this faith. We are miserably wanting
in it. We scarcely believe what we see of the triumphs
of the cross. This is the most disastrous unbelief of
our times. I am pointed now and then to an infidel, as
he is called, a man who denies Christianity. But there
is a sadder sight. It is that of thousands and millions
who profess Christianity, but have no faith in its power
to accomplish the work to which it is ordained, no faith
in the power of Christ over the passions, prejudices,
and corrupt institutions of men, no faith in the end of
his mission, in the regenerating energy of his spirit and

EMANCIPATION IN THE BRITISH WEST-INDIES. 411

truth. Let this day, my friends, breathe into all our
souls a new trust in the destinies of our race. Let us
look on the future with new hope. I see, indeed, num-
berless obstructions to the regeneration of the world.
But is not a deep feeling of the corruptions of the world
fermenting in many breasts .'' Is there not a new thirst
for an individual and social life more in harmony with
Jesus Christ than has yet existed .•' Can great truths,
after having been once developed, die .'* Is not the hu-
man soul opening itself more and more to the divine
perfection and beauty of Christ's character ? And who
can foretell what this mighty agency is to accomj)lish in
the world .'' The present day is, indeed, a day of dis-
trust,, complaint, and anxious forebodings. On every
side voices of fear and despondency reach us. Let us
respond to them with a voice of faith and hope. Let us
not shut our eyes ungratefully on the good already
wrought in our times ; and, seeing in this the pledge of
higher blessings, let us arm ourselves with manly resolu-
tion to do or suffer, each in his own sphere, whatever
may serve to prepare the way for a holler and happier
age. It may be, as some believe, that this age is to be
jDreceded by fearful judgments, by "days of vengeance,"
by purifying fire ; but the triumphs of Christianity, how-
ever deferred, are not the less surely announced by what
it has already achieved.

I have now given the more general views which be-
long to this occasion ; but I cannot close this Address
without coming nearer home, and touching, however
slightly, some topics of a more personal character, and
in which we have a more particular interest.

I am a stranger among you ; but, when I look round,

412 ADDRESS ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF

I feel as if the subject of this Address peculiarly befitted
this spot. Where am I now pleading the cause and
speaking the praises of liberty ? Not in crowded cities,
where, amidst men's works, and luxuries, and wild spec-
ulations, and eager competitions for gain, the spirit of
liberty often languishes ; but amidst towering mountains,
embosoming peaceful vales. Amidst these vast works
of God the soul naturally goes forth, and cannot endure
the thought of a chain. Your free air, which we come
to inhale for health, breathes into us something better
than health, even a freer spirit. Mountains have always
been famed for nourishing brave souls and the love of
liberty. At Thermopylae, in many a fastness of Switz-
erland, in the gorges of mountains, the grand battles of
liberty have been fought. Even in this country slavery
hardly sets foot on the mountains. She curses the
plain ; but as soon as you begin to ascend the highlands
of the South slavery begins to disappear. West Vir-
ginia and East Tennessee are cultivated chiefly by the
muscles of freemen ; and could these districts be erected
into States, they would soon clear themselves of the
guilt and shame of enslaving their brethren. Men of
Berkshire ! whose nerves and souls the mountain air has
braced, you surely will respond to him who speaks of
the blessings of freedom and the misery of bondage. I
feel as if the feeble voice which now addresses you must
find an echo amidst these forest-crowned heights. Do
they not impart something of their own power and lofti-
ness to men's souls .'' Should our Commonwealth ever
be invaded by victorious armies, freedom's last asylum
would be here. Here may a free spirit, may reverence
for all human rights, may sympathy for all the oppressed
may a stern, solemn purpose to give no sanction to op

EMANCIPATION IN THE BRITISH WEST-INDIES. 413

pression, take stronger and stronger possession of men's
minds, and from these mountains may generous impulses
spread far and wide !

The joy of this occasion is damped by one thought.
Our own country is, in part, the land of slavery ; and
slavery becomes more hideous here than anywhere else
by its contrast with our free institutions. It is deformity
married to beauty. It is as if a flame from hell were to
burst forth in the regions of the blessed. No other evil
in our country but this should alarm us. Our other dif-
ficulties are the mists, dimming our prospects for a mo-
ment. This is a dark cloud, scowling over our whole
land ; and within it the prophetic ear hears the low mut-
tering of the angry thunder. We in the Free States try-
to escape the reproach which falls on America by saying
that this institution is not ours, that the foot of the slave
never pressed our soil ; but we cannot fly from the
shame or guilt of the institution as long as we give it any
support. Most unhappily, there are provisions of the
Constitution binding us to give it support. Let us re-
solve to free ourselves from these. Let us say to the
South, " We shall use no force to subvert your slavery ;
neither wiU we use it to uphold the evil." Let no
temptations, no love of gain, seduce us to abet or sanc-
tion this wrong. There is something worse than to be
a slave. It is, to make other men slaves. Better be
trampled in the dust than trample on a fellow-creature.
Much as I shrink from the evils inflicted by bondage on
the millions who bear it, I would sooner endure them
than inflict them on a brother. Freemen of the moun-
tains ! as far as you have power, remove from your-
selves, from our dear and venerable mother, the Com-
monwealth of Massachusetts, and from all the Free
35*

414 ADDRESS ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF

States, the baseness and guilt of ministering to slavery,
of acting as the slave-holder's police, of lending him arms
and strength to secure his victim. I deprecate all po-
litical action on slavery except for one end, and this end
is, to release the Free States from all connexion with
this oppressive institution, to sever slavery wholly from
the national government, to make it exclusively the
concern of the States in which it exists. For this end
memorials should be poured in upon Congress to obtain
from that body such modifications of the laws, and such
propositions to amend the Constitution, as will set us
free from obligation to sanction slavery. This done,
political action on the subject ought to cease. We shall
then have no warrant to name slavery in Congress, or
any duty to perform with direct reference to it, except
by that moral influence which every man is bound to
exert against every form of evil.

There are some people here, more kind than wise,
who are unwilling that any action or sensibility on the
subject of slavery should spring up at the North, from
their apprehensions of the danger of emancipation. The
danger of emancipation ! this parrot-phrase, caught from
the South, is thought by many a sufficient answer to all
the pleas that can be urged in favor of the slave. But
the lesson of this day is, the safety of emancipation.
The West-Indian Islands teach us this lesson with a
thousand tongues. Emancipation can hardly take place
under more unfavorable circumstances than it encoun-
tered in those islands. The master abhorred it, repelled
it as long as possible, submitted to it only from force,
and consequently did litde to mitigate its evils, or to
conciliate the freed bondman. In those islands the
slaves were eight or ten times more numerous than the

EMANCIPATION IN THE BRITISH WEST-INDIES. 415

whites. Yet perfect order has followed emancipation.
Since this event the military force has been reduced,
and the colored men, instead of breaking into riot, are
among the soldiers by whom it is to be suppressed. In
this country, the white population of the South exceeds
in number the colored ; and who that knows the two
classes can apprehend danger from the former in case of
emancipation .'* Holding all the property, all the intel-
lectual, the civil, the military power, and distinguished
by courage, it seems incredible that the white race should
tremble before the colored, should be withheld by fear
from setting them free. If the alarm be real, it can be
explained only by the old observation, that the injurious
are prone to fear, that men naturally suspect and dread
those whom they wrong. All tyrants are jealous, and
persuade themselves, that, were they to loosen the reins,
lawlessness, pillage, murder, would disorganize society.
But emancipation conferred deliberately and conscien-
tiously is safe. So say facts, and reason says the same.
Chains are not the necessary bonds of society. Oppres-
sion is not the rock on which states rest. To keep the
peace you need not make the earth a province of Satan ;
in other words, you need not estabhsh wrong and out-
rage by law. The way to keep men from cutting your
throats is, not to put them under the lash, to extort their
labor by force, to spoil them of their earnings, to pamper
yourselves out of their compelled toil, and to keep them
in brutal ignorance. Do not, do not believe this. Be-
lieve, if you will, that seeds of thistles will yield lux-
uriant crops of wheat ; believe that drought will fer-
tilize your fields ; but do not believe that you must rob
and crush your fellow-creatures, to make them harmless,
to keep the state in order and peace. O, do not im-

416 ADDRESS ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF

agine that God has laid on any one the necessity of doing
wrong ; that He, who secures the blessed harmony of
the universe by wise and beneficent laws, has created a
world in which all pure and righteous laws must be
broken to preserve the show of peace ! I honor free
inquiry, and willingly hear my cherished opinions ques-
tioned ; but there are certain truths which I can no more
doubt than my own existence. That God is just and
good, and that justice and goodness are his laws, and
are at once the safety and glory of his creatures, I can
as little question as that the whole is greater than the
part. When I am told that society can only subsist by
robbing men of their dearest rights, my reason is as
much insulted as if I were gravely taught that effects re-
quire no cause, or that it is the nature of yonder beauti-
ful stream to ascend these mountains, or to return to its
source. The doctrine, that violence, oppression, inhu-
manity, is an essential element of society, is so revolting,
that, did I believe it, I would say, let society perish, let
man and his works be swept away, and the earth be
abandoned to the brutes. Better that the globe should
be tenanted by brutes than brutalized men. No I it is
safe to be just, to respect men's rights, to treat our
neighbours as ourselves ; and any doctrine hostile to this
is born of the Evil One. Men do not need to be
crushed. A wise kindness avails with them more than
force. Even the insane are disarmed by kindness. Once
the madhouse, with its dens, fetters, straight-waistcoats,
whips, horrible punishments, at which humanity now
shudders and the blood boils with indignation, was
thought just as necessary as slavery is now deemed at
the South. But we have learned, at last, that human
nature, even when robbed of reason, can be ruled,

EMANCIPATION IN THE BRITISH WEST-INDIES. 417

calmed, restored, by wise kindness ; that it was only
maddened and made more desperate by the chains im-
posed to keep it from outrage and murder. Treat men
as men, and they will not prove wild beasts. We first
rob them of their humanity, and then chain them because
they are not human. What a picture of slavery is
given by the common argument for its continuance !
The slaves, we are told, must be kept under the lash,
or they will turn murderers. Two millions and a half
of our fellow-creatures at the South, we are assured,
have the seeds of murder in their hearts, and must be
stripped of all human rights for the safety of their neigh-
bours. If such be a slave-country, the sooner it is de-
populated the better. But it is not true. A more in-
nocent race than the African does not exist on the earth.
They are less given to violence and murder than we
Anglo-Saxons. But when did wrong ever want excuse .''
When did oppression ever fail to make out a good cause
in its own eyes .''

The truth is, that slavery is perpetuated at the South,
not from the fear of massacre, but from a stronger prin-
ciple. A respected slave-holder said to me not long
ago, " The question of slavery is a question of Proper-
ty, and property is dearer to a man than hfe." The
master holds fast his slave because he sees in him, not
a wild beast, but a profitable chattel. Mr. Clay has
told us that the slaves are worth in the market, I think,
twelve hundred milhons of dollars, and smiles at the
thought of calling men to surrender such a mass of
property. It is not because they are so fierce, but so
profitable, that they are kept in chains. Were they
meek angels from God's throne, imprisoned for a while
in human frames, and were they at the same time worth

418 ADDRESS ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF

twelve hundred millions of dollars in the market, com-
paratively few, I fear, would be suffered to return to
their native skies, as long as the chain could fetter them
to the plantation. I know that there are generous ex-
ceptions to the spirit of slavery as now portrayed ; but
this spirit in the main is mercenary. I know that other
considerations than this of property, that considera-
tions of prudence and benevolence, help to confirm the
slave-holder in his aversion to emancipation. There
are mixed motives for perpetuating slavery, as for al-
most all human actions. But the grand motive is Gain,
the love of Money, the unwilliness to part with Proper-
ty ; and were this to yield to justice and humanity, the
dread of massacre would not long retard emancipation.
My friends, your compassion is often called forth by
predictions of massacre, of butchered children, of vio-
lated women, in case of emancipation. But do not
waste your sympathies on possible evils, which wisdom
and kindness may avert. Keep some of your tears and
tenderness for what exists ; for the poor girl whose in-
nocence has no protection ; for the wife and mother
who may be widowed and made childless before night
by a stroke of the auctioneer's hammer ; for the man
subjected to the whip of a brutal overseer, and hunted,
if he flies, by blood-hounds, and shot down, if he out-
strips his pursuers. For the universe, I would not let
loose massacre on the Southern States, or on any popu-
lation. Sooner would I have all the slaves perish than
achieve their freedom by promiscuous carnage. But I
see no necessity of carnage. I am sure that to treat
men with justice and humanity is not the way to turn
them into robbers or assassins. Undoubtedly wisdom
is to be used in conferring this great good. We ask no

EMANCIPATION IN THE BRITISH WEST-INDIE& 419

precipitate action at the South ; we dictate no mode of
conferring freedom. We ask only a settled purpose to
bring slavery to an end ; and we are sure that this will
devise a safe and happy way of exercising justice and
love.

Am I asked, what is the duty of the North in regard
to slavery .'' On this subject I have lately written ; I
will only say, I recommend no crusade against slavery,
no use of physical or legislative power for its destruc-
tion, no irruption into the South to tamper with the
slave, or to repeal or resist the laws. Our duties on
this subject are plain. First, we must free ourselves,
as I have said, from all constitutional or legal obligations
to uphold slavery. In the next place, we must give
free and strong expression to our reprobation of slavery.
The North has but one weapon, moral force, the utter-
ance of moral judgment, moral feeling, and religious
conviction. I do not say that this alone is to subvert
slavery. Providence never accomplishes its ends by a
single instrument. All social changes come from mixed
motives, from various impulses, and slavery is to fall
through various causes. But among these a high
place will belong to the general conviction of its evils
and wrongs. Opinion is stronger than kings, mobs,
lynch laws, or any other laws for repressing thought and
speech. Whoever spreads through his circle, be it
wide or narrow, just opinions and feelings in regard to
slavery, hastens its fall. There is one point on which
your moral influence may be exerted with immediate
effect. Should a slave-hunter ever profane these moun-
tainous retreats by seeking here a flying bondman, re-
gard him as a legalized robber. Oppose no force to
him ; you need not do it. Your contempt and indigna-

420 ADDRESS ON EMANCIPATION IN THE WEST-INDIES.

tion will be enough to disarm the " man-stealer " of
the unholy power conferred on him by unrighteous laws.
I began this subject in hope, and in hope I end. I
have turned aside to speak of the great stain on our
country which makes us the by-word and scorn of the
nations ; but I do not despair. Mighty powers are at
work in the world. Who can stay them ? God's word
has gone forth, and " it cannot return to him void."
A new comprehension of the Christian spirit, — a new
reverence for humanity, a new feeling of brotherhood,
and of all men's relation to the common Father, —
this is among the signs of our times. We see it ; do
we not feel it ? Before this all oppressions are to fall.
Society, silently pervaded by this, is to change its as-
pect of universal warfare for peace. The power of
selfishness, all-grasping and seemingly invincible, is to
yield to this diviner energy. The song of angels, "On
Earth Peace," will not always sound as fiction. O
come, thou kingdom of Heaven, for which we daily
pray ! Come, Friend and Saviour of the race, who
didst shed thy blood on the cross to reconcile man to
man, and earth to Heaven ! Come, ye predicted ages
of righteousness and love, for which the faithful have so
long yearned ! Come, Father Almighty, and crown
with thine omnipotence the humble strivings of thy chil-
dren to subvert oppression and wrong, to spread light
and freedom, peace and joy, the truth and spirit of thy
Son, tlirough the whole earth !

END OF VOL. VI.