Volume I Part 4 (2/2)
”And whilst Thou preservest our distant possessions from the horrors of war, give us peace and plenty at home, that the earth may yield her increase, and that we, Thy servants, receiving Thy blessings with thankfulness and gladness of heart, may dwell together in unity, and faithfully serve Thee, to Thy honor and glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with Thee and the Holy Ghost, belong all dominion and power, both in heaven and earth, now and for ever. Amen.”--See a defence of this prayer, in the London ”Christian Observer” for May, p. 319, _et seq._, and for June, p. 346, _et seq._
Would you know what he gave thanks for on Easter Sunday? Here is the history of the battle:
”This battle had begun at six, and was over at eleven o'clock; the hand-to-hand combat commenced at nine, and lasted scarcely two hours.
The river was full of sinking men. For two hours, volley after volley was poured in upon the human ma.s.s--the stream being literally red with blood, and covered with the bodies of the slain. At last, the musket ammunition becoming exhausted, the infantry fell to the rear, the horse artillery plying grape till not a man was visible within range. No compa.s.sion was felt or mercy shown.” But ”'twas a famous victory!”
[8] Mr. Charles Sumner.
IV.
SPEECH DELIVERED AT THE ANTI-WAR MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL, FEBRUARY 4, 1847.
Mr. Chairman,--We have come here to consult for the honor of our country. The honor and dignity of the United States are in danger. I love my country; I love her honor. It is dear to me almost as my own. I have seen stormy meetings in Faneuil Hall before now, and am not easily disturbed by a popular tumult. But never before did I see a body of armed soldiers attempting to overawe the majesty of the people, when met to deliberate on the people's affairs. Yet the meetings of the people of Boston have been disturbed by soldiers before now, by British bayonets; but never since the Boston ma.s.sacre on the 5th of March, 1770! Our fathers hated a standing army. This is a new one, but behold the effect!
Here are soldiers with bayonets to overawe the majesty of the people!
They went to our meeting last Monday night, the hireling soldiers of President Polk, to overawe and disturb the meetings of honest men. Here they are now, and in arms!
We are in a war; the signs of war are seen here in Boston. Men, needed to hew wood and honestly serve society, are marching about your streets; they are learning to kill men, men who never harmed us, nor them; learning to kill their brothers. It is a mean and infamous war we are fighting. It is a great boy fighting a little one, and that little one feeble and sick. What makes it worse is, the little boy is in the right, and the big boy is in the wrong, and tells solemn lies to make his side seem right. He wants, besides, to make the small boy pay the expenses of the quarrel.
The friends of the war say ”Mexico has invaded our territory!” When it is shown that it is we who have invaded hers, then it is said, ”Ay, but she owes us money.” Better say outright, ”Mexico has land, and we want to steal it!”
This war is waged for a mean and infamous purpose, for the extension of slavery. It is not enough that there are fifteen Slave States, and 3,000,000 men here who have no legal rights--not so much as the horse and the ox have in Boston: it is not enough that the slaveholders annexed Texas, and made slavery perpetual therein, extending even north of Mason and Dixon's line, covering a territory forty-five times as large as the State of Ma.s.sachusetts. Oh, no; we must have yet more land to whip negroes in!
The war had a mean and infamous beginning. It began illegally, unconst.i.tutionally. The Whigs say, ”the President made the war.” Mr.
Webster says so! It went on meanly and infamously. Your Congress lied about it. Do not lay the blame on the democrats; the whigs lied just as badly. Your Congress has seldom been so single-mouthed before. Why, only sixteen voted against the war, or the lie. I say this war is mean and infamous all the more, because waged by a people calling itself democratic and Christian. I know but one war so bad in modern times, between civilized nations, and that was the war for the part.i.tion of Poland. Even for that there was more excuse.
We have come to Faneuil Hall to talk about the war; to work against the war. It is rather late, but ”better late than never.” We have let two opportunities for work pa.s.s unemployed. One came while the annexation of Texas was pending. Then was the time to push and be active. Then was the time for Ma.s.sachusetts and all the North, to protest as one man against the extension of slavery. Everybody knew all about the matter, the democrats and the whigs. But how few worked against that gross mischief!
One n.o.ble man lifted up his warning voice;[9] a man n.o.ble in his father,--and there he stands in marble; n.o.ble in himself--and there he stands yet higher up--and I hope time will show him yet n.o.bler in his son, and there he stands, not in marble, but in man! He talked against it, worked against it, fought against it. But Ma.s.sachusetts did little.
Her tonguey men said little; her handymen did little. Too little could not be done or said. True, we came here to Faneuil Hall and pa.s.sed resolutions; good resolutions they were, too. Daniel Webster wrote them, it is said. They did the same in the State House; but nothing came of them. They say ”h.e.l.l is paved with resolutions;” these were of that sort of resolutions; which resolve nothing because they are of words, not works!
Well, we pa.s.sed the resolutions; you know who opposed them; who hung back and did nothing, nothing good I mean; quite enough not good. Then we thought all the danger was over; that the resolutions settled the matter. But then was the time to confound at once the enemies of your country; to show an even front hostile to slavery.
But the chosen time pa.s.sed over, and nothing was done. Do not lay the blame on the democrats; a whig Senate annexed Texas, and so annexed a war. We ought to have told our delegation in Congress, if Texas were annexed, to come home, and we would breathe upon it and sleep upon it, and then see what to do next. Had our resolutions, taken so warmly here in Faneuil Hall in 1845, been but as warmly worked out, we had now been as terrible to the slave power as the slave power, since extended, now is to us!
Why was it that we did nothing? That is a public secret. Perhaps I ought not to tell it to the people. (Cries of ”Tell it.”)
The annexation of Texas, a slave territory big as the kingdom of France, would not furl a sail on the ocean; would not stop a mill-wheel at Lowell! Men thought so.
That time pa.s.sed by, and there came another. The Government had made war; the Congress voted the dollars, voted the men, voted a lie. Your representative, men of Boston, voted for all three; the lie, the dollars, and the men; all three, in obedience to the slave power! Let him excuse that to the conscience of his party; it is an easy matter. I do not believe he can excuse it to his own conscience. To the conscience of the world it admits of no excuse. Your President called for volunteers, 50,000 of them. Then came an opportunity such as offers not once in one hundred years, an opportunity to speak for freedom and the rights of mankind! Then was the time for Ma.s.sachusetts to stand up in the spirit of '76, and say, ”We won't send a man, from Cape Ann to Williamstown--not one Yankee man, for this wicked war.” Then was the time for your Governor to say, ”Not a volunteer for this wicked war.”
Then was the time for your merchants to say, ”Not a s.h.i.+p, not a dollar for this wicked war;” for your manufacturers to say, ”We will not make you a cannon, nor a sword, nor a kernel of powder, nor a soldier's s.h.i.+rt, for this wicked war.” Then was the time for all good men to say, ”This is a war for slavery, a mean and infamous war; an aristocratic war, a war against the best interests of mankind. If G.o.d please, we will die a thousand times, but never draw blade in this wicked war.” (Cries of ”Throw him over,” etc.) Throw him over, what good would that do? What would you do next, after you have thrown him over? (”Drag you out of the hall!”) What good would that do? It would not wipe off the infamy of this war! would not make it less wicked!
That is what a democratic nation, a Christian people ought to have said, ought to have done. But we did not say so; the Bay State did not say so, nor your Governor, nor your merchants, nor your manufacturers, nor your good men; the Governor accepted the President's decree, issued his proclamation calling for soldiers, recommended men to enlist, appealing to their ”patriotism” and ”humanity.”
Governor Briggs is a good man, and so far I honor him. He is a temperance man, strong and consistent; I honor him for that. He is a friend of education; a friend of the people. I wish there were more such. Like many other New England men, he started from humble beginnings; but unlike many such successful men of New England, he is not ashamed of the lowest round he ever trod on. I honor him for all this. But that was a time which tried men's souls, and his soul could not stand the rack. I am sorry for him. He did as the President told him.
What was the reason for all this? Ma.s.sachusetts did not like the war, even then; yet she gave her consent to it. Why so? There are two words which can drive the blood out of the cheeks of cowardly men in Ma.s.sachusetts any time. They are ”Federalism” and ”Hartford Convention!”
The fear of those words palsied the conscience of Ma.s.sachusetts, and so her Governor did as he was told. I feel no fear of either. The Federalists did not see all things; who ever did? They had not the ideas which were destined to rule this nation; they looked back when the age looked forward. But to their own ideas they were true; and if ever a n.o.bler body of men held state in any nation, I have yet to learn when or where. If we had had the shadow of Caleb Strong in the Governor's chair, not a volunteer for this war had gone out of Ma.s.sachusetts.
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