Volume Iii Part 16 (1/2)
America, thou youngest born of all G.o.d's family of States! thou art a giant in thy youth, laying thine either hand upon thine either sea; the lakes behind thee, and the Mexique bay before. Hast thou too forgot thy mission here, proud only of thy wide-spread soil, thy cattle, corn, thy cotton, and thy cloth? Wilt thou welcome the Hungarian hero, and yet hold slaves, and hunt poor negroes through thy land? Thou art the ally of the despot, thyself out-heathening the heathen Turk. Yea, every Christian king may taunt thee with thy slaves. Dost thou forget thine own great men,--thy Was.h.i.+ngton, thy Jefferson? forget thine own proud words prayed forth to G.o.d in thy great act of prayer? Is it to protect thy wealth alone that thou hast formed a State? and shall thy wealth be slaves? No, thou art mad. It shall not be. One day thou wilt heed the lessons of the past, practise thy prayer, wilt turn to G.o.d, and rend out of thy book the hated page where Slavery is writ. Thy sons who led thee astray in thy madness, where shall they appear?
And thou our G.o.d, the Father of us all, Father and Mother too, Parent of freemen, Parent also of the slave, look down upon us in our sad estate.
Look down upon thy saints, and bless them; yea, bless thy sinners too; save from the wicked heart. Bless this town by thy chastis.e.m.e.nt; this State by thine afflictions; this nation by thy rod. Teach us to resist evil and with good, till we break the fetters from every foot, the chains from every hand, and let the oppressed go free. So let thy kingdom come; so may thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
FOOTNOTES:
[26] The above paragraph refers to cases which had then recently occurred, and were known to everybody.
[27] Mr. Peleg Sprague.
[28] The above paragraph was written in April, 1851, and was only historical, not also prophetic.
[29] It was well known that the laws of Ma.s.sachusetts were violated, but no prosecution of the offenders was ever begun. The committee to whom the matter was referred, thought that the Supreme Court of Ma.s.sachusetts was not to be trusted to vindicate the laws of the State, against kidnappers in Boston.
[30] In November, 1851, the City Marshal reports to the Board of Aldermen, the following facts:--There are fifteen hundred places in Boston, where intoxicating drinks are sold, in violation of the laws of Ma.s.sachusetts.
Kept by Americans, 490 Kept by foreigners, 1010 Open on Sunday, 979 Groceries that keep intoxicating drink, 469 Other places, 1031
All the ”First cla.s.s hotels,” except four, have open bars, for the sale of intoxicating drink. The government of Boston, which violated the laws of Ma.s.sachusetts, to kidnap a man, and deliver him to his tormentors, asks the city marshal to give such information as is calculated to check the progress of crime and intemperance. He reports--”Execute the laws!”
In 1851, Boston has the honor of kidnapping one of her inhabitants, and sending him to slavery, and of supporting fifteen hundred rum-shops, in continual violation of the laws of Ma.s.sachusetts.
[31] While these volumes are getting printed, one of the sectarian newspapers of Boston publishes the following paragraph:--
”The English railways are all in use on the Sabbath, and all evidently under a curse. Their stock is ruinously low. Three hundred and fifty millions of dollars have been embarked in these enterprises, and the average dividends which they pay is but three per cent. And more than this, a large number of fatal accidents have occurred of late. While we regret that the business men of England, who control these lines, have not wisdom enough to see the folly of making haste to be rich, in defiance of the ordinances of G.o.d, we rejoice that so many of the railroad operators in this country, rest on the Sabbath day, according to the commandment.” See note [B]** on p. 267.
[32] The tattered garment is still kept as a melancholy monument of the civilization of Boston in the middle of the nineteenth century.
[33] Mr. Sims was sent off to bondage in the barque Acorn by the city authorities of Boston. I believe he is the first man ever returned as a fugitive slave from Ma.s.sachusetts by the form of law since the adoption of the Const.i.tution. Arrived at Savannah, he was immediately conducted to prison. His mother and other relatives were not allowed to see him.
He was cruelly and repeatedly scourged. Meantime the citizens of Boston, who had aided in kidnapping him, and had accompanied him to Savannah, were publicly feasted by the inhabitants of Georgia. The present fate of Mr. Sims is unknown to me.
Nov. 27th, 1851.
VII.
THE THREE CHIEF SAFEGUARDS OF SOCIETY.--CONSIDERED IN A SERMON AT THE MELODEON, ON SUNDAY, JULY 6, 1851.
PROVERBS XIV. 34.
Righteousness exalteth a Nation.
This is the first Sunday after the anniversary of the national birth-day. It seems proper, on this occasion, to go beyond matters merely personal, and affecting us only as individuals. I will speak of the duties of man in a wider sphere; of political affairs. So I ask your attention to a Sermon of the Safeguards of Society. I choose this subject, because some men profess a fear that American society is in danger, and because some persons are busily teaching doctrines which seem hostile to the very design of society itself. I shall not speak of politics as economy, but as morality, and look at the affairs of State from a religious point of view.
We are often told, that human society is of divine appointment,--society meaning the ma.s.s of men living together in a certain fellows.h.i.+p. If this means that man is by nature a social being, and in their progressive development men must unite and form societies, then, it is true, society is of divine appointment. But so is a farm; for man is by nature and position an agricultural being, and in their progressive development men make farms and practise agriculture.
Agriculture is as necessary as society.--But it does not follow from this, that the Egyptian, the Flemish, or the American mode of agriculture is of divine appointment, and men bound by G.o.d to practise that, or to limit themselves thereto; and it no more follows that the Egyptian, the Flemish, or the American mode of society is of divine appointment, and men bound by G.o.d to limit themselves to it. It would be thought ridiculous to claim divinity for Dutch farming, or any other special mode of farming; but it is just as ridiculous to claim divinity for Dutch society, or any other society. The farm and the society are alike and equally the work of men.
Then we are often told, that human government is of divine appointment, and men morally bound to submit to it,--government being used as a collective term to include the political, ecclesiastical, and social establishments of a people, and the officers who administer them. If this means, that, at a certain stage of man's progressive political development, it is necessary to have certain political, ecclesiastical, and social establishments, such as a monarchy or an aristocracy, with persons to administer them, then it is true, and government is of divine appointment.--But the fence of a farm is just as necessary to agriculture, at a certain stage of agricultural development, as government to society. However, it does not follow from this, that a stone-wall or a rail-fence is of divine appointment; and it no more follows that a monarchy or an aristocracy is of divine appointment. It would be thought ridiculous for a farmer to claim divinity for his fence; it is just as absurd for a politician to claim it for his government. Both are alike and equally the work of men.
Again it is said that human statutes are of divine appointment, and therefore binding on the conscience of men. If this means, that, at a certain stage of social and political development, men must form certain rules for social and political conduct, then it is true, and human statutes are of divine appointment. But rules for agricultural conduct are just as necessary for the farm and the garden as political rules for society and the State, and so equally divine.--But it does not follow from this, that the agricultural rules for the farm and the garden laid down by Columella the Roman, or Cobbett the Briton, are of divine appointment; and it no more follows that the political rules for society and the State laid down by the men of New England or the men of New Holland,--by men ”fore-ordained” at birth to be lawgivers, or by men ”elected” in manhood to make laws,--are of divine appointment. It would be thought ridiculous for a British farmer to claim divinity for Tusser's ”Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry;” but it is just as absurd for a British politician to claim divinity for the British Const.i.tution, or the statutes of the realm. Rules for farming the land and rules for farming the people are alike and equally the work of men.