Part 260 (2/2)
OBJECTION V.
I shall resign whenever a case occurs that requires me to aid in returning a fugitive slave.
ANSWER. ”The office-holder has promised active obedience to the Const.i.tution in every exigency which it has contemplated and sought to provide for. If he promised, not meaning to perform in certain cases, is he not doubly dishonest? Dishonest to his own conscience in promising to do wrong, and to his fellow-citizens in purposing from the first to break his oath, as he knew they understood it? If he had sworn, not regarding anything as immoral which he bound himself to do, and afterwards found in the oath something against his conscience of which he was not at first aware, or if by change of views he had come to deem sinful what before he thought right, then doubtless, by promptly resigning, he might escape guilt. But is not the case different, when among the acts promised are some known at the time to be morally wrong? 'It is a sin to swear unto sin,'
says the poet, although it be, as he truly adds, 'a greater sin to keep the sinful oath.'”
The captain has no right to put to sea, and resign when the storm comes. Besides what supports a wicked government more than good men taking office under it, even though they secretly determine not to carry out all its provisions? The slave balancing in his lonely hovel the chance of escape, knows nothing of your secret reservations, your future intentions. He sees only the swarming millions at the North ostensibly sworn to restore him to his master, if he escape a little way. Perchance it is your false oath, which you don't mean to keep, that makes him turn from the attempt in despair. He knows you only--the world knows only by your _actions_, not your _intentions_, and those side with his master. The prayer which he lifts to Heaven, in his despair, numbers you rightly among his oppressors.
OBJECTION VI.
I shall only take such an office as brings me into no connection with slavery.
ANSWER. Government is a whole; unless each in his circle aids his next neighbor, the machine will stand still. The Senator does not himself return the fugitive slave, but he appoints the Marshal, whose duty it is to do so. The State representative does not himself appoint the Judge who signs the warrant for the slave's recapture, but he chooses the United States Senator who does appoint that Judge.
The elector does not himself order out the militia to resist ”domestic violence,” but he elects the President, whose duty requires, that a case occurring, he should do so.
To suppose that each of these may do that part of his duty that suits him, and leave the rest undone, is _practical anarchy_. It is bringing ourselves precisely to that state which the Hebrew describes.
”In those days there was no king in Israel, but each man did what was right in his own eyes.” This is all consistent in us, who hold that man is to do right, even if anarchy follows. How absurd to set up such a scheme, and miscall it a _government_,--where n.o.body governs, but everybody does as he pleases.
OBJECTION VII.
As men and all their works are imperfect, we may innocently ”support a Government which, along with many blessings, a.s.sists in the perpetration of some wrong.”
ANSWER. As n.o.body disputes that we may rightly a.s.sist the worst Government in doing good, provided we can do so without at the same time aiding it in the wrong it perpetrates, this must mean, of course, that it is right to aid and obey a Government _in doing wrong_, if we think that, on the whole, the Government effects more good than harm. Otherwise the whole argument is irrelevant, for this is the point in dispute; since every office of any consequence under the United States Const.i.tution has some immediate connection with Slavery.
Let us see to what lengths this principle will carry one. Herod's servants, then, were right in slaying every child in Bethlehem, from two years old and under, provided they thought Herod's Government, on the whole, more a blessing than a curse to Judea! The soldiers of Charles II. were justified in shooting the Covenanters on the muirs of Scotland, if they thought his rule was better, on the whole, for England, than anarchy! According to this theory, the moment the magic wand of Government touches our vices, they start up into virtues! But has Government any peculiar character or privilege in this respect? Oh, no--Government is only an a.s.sociation of individuals, and the same rules of morality which govern my conduct in relation to a thousand men, ought to regulate my conduct to any one. Therefore, I may innocently aid a man in doing wrong, if I think that, on the whole, he has more virtues than vices. If he gives bread to the hungry six days in the week, I may rightly help him, on the seventh, in forging bank notes, or murdering his father!
The principle goes this length, and every length, or it cannot be proved to exist at all. It ends at last, practically, in the old maxim, that the subject and the soldier have no right to keep any conscience, but have only to obey the rulers they serve: for there are few, if any, Governments this side of Satan's, which could not, in some sense, be said to do more good than harm. Now I candidly confess, that I had rather be covered all over with inconsistencies, in the struggle to keep my hands clean, than settle quietly down on such a principle as this. It is supposing that we may--
”To do a great right, do a little wrong;”
a rule, which the master poet of human nature has rebuked. It is doing evil that good may come--a doctrine, of which an Apostle has p.r.o.nounced the condemnation.
And let it be remembered that in dealing with the question of slavery, we are not dealing with extreme cases. Slavery is no minute evil which lynx-eyed suspicion has ferreted out. Every sixth man is a slave. The ermine of justice is stained. The national banner clings to the flag-staff heavy with blood. ”The preservation of slavery,”
says our oldest and ablest statesman, ”is the vital and animating _spirit_ of the National Government.”
Surely IF it be true that a man may justifiably stand connected with a government in which he sees some slight evils--still it is also true, even then, that governments _may_ sin so atrociously, so enormously, may make evil so much the _purpose_ of their being, as to render it the duty of honest men to wash their hands of them.
I may give money to a friend whose life has some things in it which I do not fully approve--but when his nights are pa.s.sed in the brothel, and his days in drunkenness, when he uses his talents to seduce others, and his gold to pave their road to ruin, surely the case is changed.
I may perhaps sacrifice health by staying awhile in a room rather overheated, but I shall certainly see it to be my duty to rush out, when the whole house is in full blaze.
OBJECTION VIII.
G.o.d intended that society and governments should exist. We therefore are bound to support them. He has conferred upon us the rights of citizens.h.i.+p in this country, and we cannot escape from the responsibility of exercising them. G.o.d made us _citizens_.
ANSWER. This reminds me of an old story I have heard. When the Legislature were asked to set off a portion of the town of Dorchester and call it South Boston, the old minister of the town is said to have objected, saying, ”G.o.d made it Dorchester, and Dorchester it ought to be.”
G.o.d made us social beings, it is true, but _society_ is not necessarily the Const.i.tution of the United States! Because G.o.d meant some form of government should exist, does not at all prove that we are justified in supporting a wicked one. Man confers the rights and regulates the duties of citizens.h.i.+p. G.o.d never made a _citizen_, and no one will escape, as a man, from the sins he commits as a citizen.
This is the first time that it has ever been held an excuse for sin that we ”went with the mult.i.tude to do evil!”
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