Volume I Part 4 (1/2)
This present trouble with Mexico may be very brief; surely it might be even now brought to an end with no unusual manhood in your rulers. Can we say we have not deserved it? Let it end, but let us remember that war, horrid as it is, is not the worst calamity which ever befalls a people. It is far worse for a people to lose all reverence for right, for truth, all respect for man and G.o.d; to care more for the freedom of trade than the freedom of men; more for a tariff than millions of souls.
This calamity came upon us gradually, long before the present war, and will last long after that has died away. Like people like ruler, is a true word. Look at your rulers, representatives, and see our own likeness! We reverence force, and have forgot there is any right beyond the vote of a Congress or a people; any good beside dollars; any G.o.d but majorities and force, I think the present war, though it should cost 50,000 men and $50,000,000, the smallest part of our misfortune. Abroad we are looked on as a nation of swindlers and men-stealers! What can we say in our defence? Alas, the nation is a traitor to its great idea,--that all men are born equal, each with the same unalienable rights. We are infidels to Christianity. We have paid the price of our shame.
There have been dark days in this nation before now. It was gloomy when Was.h.i.+ngton with his little army fled through the Jerseys. It was a long dark day from '83 to '89. It was not so dark as now; the nation never so false. There was never a time when resistance to tyrants was so rare a virtue; when the people so tamely submitted to a wrong. Now you can feel the darkness. The sack of this city and the butchery of its people were a far less evil than the moral deadness of the nation. Men spring up again like the mown gra.s.s; but to raise up saints and heroes in a dead nation corrupting beside its golden tomb, what shall do that for us? We must look not to the many for that, but to the few who are faithful unto G.o.d and man.
I know the hardy vigor of our men, the stalwart intellect of this people. Would to G.o.d they could learn to love the right and true. Then what a people should we be, spreading from the Madawaska to the Sacramento, diffusing our great idea, and living our religion, the Christianity of Christ! Oh, Lord! make the vision true; waken thy prophets and stir thy people till righteousness exalt us! No wonders will be wrought for that. But the voice of conscience speaks to you and me, and all of us: The right shall prosper; the wicked States shall die, and History responds her long amen.
What lessons come to us from the past! The Genius of the old civilization, solemn and sad, sits there on the Alps, his cla.s.sic beard descending o'er his breast. Behind him arise the new nations, bustling with romantic life. He bends down over the midland sea, and counts up his children--a.s.syria, Egypt, Tyre, Carthage, Troy, Etruria, Corinth, Athens, Rome--once so renowned, now gathered with the dead, their giant ghosts still lingering pensive o'er the spot. He turns westward his face, too sad to weep, and raising from his palsied knee his trembling hand, looks on his brother genius of the new civilization. That young giant, strong and mocking, sits there on the Alleghanies. Before him lie the waters, covered with s.h.i.+ps; behind him he hears the roar of the Mississippi and the far distant Oregon--rolling their riches to the sea.
He bends down, and that far ocean murmurs pacific in his ear. On his left, are the harbors, shops and mills of the East, and a five-fold gleam of light goes up from Northern lakes. On his right, spread out the broad savannahs of the South, waiting to be blessed; and far off that Mexique bay bends round her tropic sh.o.r.es. A crown of stars is on that giant's head, some glorious with flas.h.i.+ng, many-colored light; some b.l.o.o.d.y red; some pale and faint, of most uncertain hue. His right hand lies folded in his robe; the left rests on the Bible's opened page, and holds these sacred words--All men are equal, born with equal rights from G.o.d. The old says to the young: ”Brother, beware!” and Alps and Rocky Mountains say ”Beware!” That stripling giant, ill-bred and scoffing, shouts amain: ”My feet are red with the Indians' blood; my hand has forged the negro's chain. I am strong; who dares a.s.sail me? I will drink his blood, for I have made my covenant of lies, and leagued with h.e.l.l for my support. There is no right, no truth; Christianity is false, and G.o.d a name.” His left hand rends those sacred scrolls, casting his Bibles underneath his feet, and in his right he brandishes the negro-driver's whip, crying again--”Say, who is G.o.d, and what is Right.”
And all his mountains echo--Right. But the old genius sadly says again: ”Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not prosper.” The hollow tomb of Egypt, Athens, Rome, of every ancient State, with all their wandering ghosts, replies, ”AMEN.”
FOOTNOTES:
[3] Isaiah lxiii. 1-6. _Noyes's_ Version.
_The People._
1. Who is this that cometh from Edom?
In scarlet garments from Bozrah?
This, that is glorious in his apparel, Proud in the greatness of his strength?
_Jehovah._
I, that proclaim deliverance, And am mighty to save.
_The People._
2. Wherefore is thine apparel red, And thy garments like those of one that treadeth the wine-vat?
_Jehovah._
3. I have trodden the wine-vat alone, And of the nations there was none with me.
And I trod them in mine anger, And I trampled them in my fury, So that their life-blood was sprinkled upon my garments, And I have stained all my apparel.
4. For the day of vengeance was in my heart, And the year of my deliverance was come.
5. And I looked, and there was none to help, And I wondered, that there was none to uphold, Therefore my own arm wrought salvation for me, And my fury, it sustained me.
6. I trod down the nations in my anger; I crushed them in my fury, And spilled their blood upon the ground.
[4] To show the differences between the Old and New Testament, and to serve as introduction to this discourse, the following pa.s.sages were read as the morning lesson: Exodus, xv. 1-6; 2 Sam. xxii. 32, 35-43, 48; xlv. 3-5; Isa. lxvi. 15, 16; Joel, iii. 9-17, and Matt. v. 3-11, 38-39, 43-45.
[5] Such was the price offered, and such the number of soldiers then called for.
[6] See the appropriate forms of prayer for that service by the present Bishop of Oxford, in Jay's Address before the American Peace Society, in 1845.
[7] _Form of Prayer and Thanksgiving to Almighty G.o.d._
”O Lord G.o.d of Hosts, in whose hand is power and might irresistible, we, thine unworthy servants, most humbly acknowledge thy goodness in the victories lately vouchsafed to the armies of our Sovereign over a host of barbarous invaders, who sought to spread desolation over fruitful and populous provinces, enjoying the blessings of peace, under the protection of the British Crown. We bless Thee, O merciful Lord, for having brought to a speedy and prosperous issue a war to which no occasion had been given by injustice on our part, or apprehension of injury at our hands! To Thee, O Lord, we ascribe the glory! It was Thy wisdom which guided the counsel! Thy power which strengthened the hands of those whom it pleased Thee to use as Thy instruments in the discomfiture of the lawless aggressor, and the frustration of his ambitious designs! From Thee, alone, cometh the victory, and the spirit of moderation and mercy in the day of success. Continue, we beseech Thee, to go forth with our armies, whensoever they are called into battle in a righteous cause; and dispose the hearts of their leaders to exact nothing more from the vanquished than is necessary for the maintenance of peace and security against violence and rapine.
”Above all, give Thy grace to those who preside in the councils of our Sovereign, and administer the concerns of her widely extended dominions, that they may apply all their endeavors to the purposes designed by Thy good Providence, in committing such power to their hands, the temporal and spiritual benefit of the nations intrusted to their care.